September 14th. 2025
 Trinity 13
8am Holy Communion (Rev. Michael)
10am Parish Eucharist (Rev. Michael)
6pm Evening Prayer (Rev. Michael)
 

   Weekly readings and the prayer for this week which brings us all together
 

 Collect Prayer that gathers us

Almighty God, who called your Church to bear witness that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself: help us to proclaim the good news of your love, that all who hear it may be drawn to you; through him who was lifted up on the cross, and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Readings
Jeremiah 4.11-12, 22-28
 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert towards my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse— a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgement against them.
 ‘For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil,  but do not know how to do good.’
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.  I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro.  I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled.
 I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
 For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.  Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.
This is the word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
 
1 Timothy 1.12-17
Gratitude for Mercy
 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
This is the word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
 
Gospel Reading
Luke 15.1-10
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
 So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
 ‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to you, O Christ.
 
Post Communion
God our creator, you feed your children with the true manna, the living bread from heaven: let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage until we come to that place where hunger and thirst are no more; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
  Thoughts from the Vicarage

God is deeply in love with each of us. Not just humanity in general, but each and every person. To make this truth about God plain, Jesus tells two parables, about a lost sheep and a lost coin, and about how their owners searched and searched until they found even just one that was missing.
A true story: A little girl was looking at the things in her mother's jewellery box. One item particularly fascinated her – an opal that had once been set in a ring, but had come loose from its finding. The little girl liked the opal a lot. She liked how it sparkled, how its iridescence gave it different colours depending on how she held it and in what kind of light. She liked looking at this opal so much that she took it out of the box and carried it around, until she became more interested in something else and she lost the small stone.

When she told her mother, her mother began the most thorough search of their house the girl had ever seen. Her mother looked under rugs and between the sofa cushions. She swept. She looked everywhere. She was so energetic in her search that the little girl knew that what was lost must truly be precious. The little girl had no idea her mother owned such a treasure. Did her mother own precious gems? Was she really the daughter of royalty?
She asked her mother, "Is this the most precious jewel?"

Her mother said, "No, there are jewels worth far more, that cost more. But this one was given to me by my great aunt, and since she gave it to me, it's precious to me and I want to find it."
Jesus says God is like a woman who, when she loses one of her ten silver coins, does not say, “Well, I still have nine others, that will just have to do.” No, the woman turns her house upside down until she finds the one lost coin.

A  parish has an endowment for outreach (and we could rub with this too) that was started from found coins. Two parishioners started it and others joined in. When they find change on the ground, it goes into the endowment for outreach. They collect their found coins during the year in a jar, and then put them in the Easter offering so this found money can be used to serve people who need it. People who participate get really excited about finding money. Sometimes the money is easily accessible: you see a penny and pick it up. Sometimes one has to be a bit more adventurous. One parishioner reported riding a bicycle down a busy street and seeing a bright shiny coin. A whole 50p for the jar! Should she stop in the middle of the road? In traffic? What risks should she take?

Thankfully, God has no such limitations. God is like a woman who will turn her house upside down to find even one coin. God is like a shepherd who will search high and low for even one sheep. There are no bramble bushes, no deep ravines, no alley ways, or hidden corners, or cupboards into which God will not go to find those who are lost. Even just one.
In the parable, the woman is so excited at finding her one lost coin that she calls all her friends. “We have to celebrate! I found my coin that was lost!”
And just like that, says Jesus, the angels of God rejoice when even one person who is lost is found, when even one person repents, comes home, allows God to embrace them and say, “You are mine. I love you. I would search and search the whole world if I had to.” Even for just one.
Jesus told these parables because at the time, a group of people were grumbling about what kind of people Jesus was busy finding, what kind of people Jesus was inviting to the table and eating with. These grumbling people were religious people, sure that they themselves were safely in God's fold, safely deposited into God's change purse.
Maybe they didn't realize that they too were lost ones that God was trying hard to gather up. Did they know that God was turning the world upside down to find tax collectors and sinners as well as good religious people, to claim us all as God's own sheep, God's own precious coins?
That's what God did. From the beginning, God's Spirit has been sweeping through the world seeking people to rejoice in belonging to God, whether they deserved it or not. And in Jesus, God really did do something to turn the whole world upside down. The God of the universe came among us as a human baby named Jesus, who lived and died as one of us, stretched his arms out to us from the cross to welcome the lost, the least, the losers. Even just one.
God still yearns to gather us all up, so that not even one more person ever feels lost, as if they have to do it on their own, as if they're not worth a cent, because even just one is precious to God.
Maybe it's significant that when the woman finds the coin that had been lost, she throws a party for all her friends. Hear the irony: the woman may be thorough, but she's not miserly. She may be meticulous, but she is not a wizard of home economics. She found one coin, and then spent who knows how many to throw a party! Is it irony – or is it grace?
If we are the coins in the story, so precious to God that even just one is worth everything, and the occasion of finding just one is cause for great celebration, then we are God's coins, and our lives are to be spent in the cause of seeking and finding and celebrating. God doesn't just tuck us away in some safe-deposit box, a heavenly coin collection waiting for our value to increase. God says, “Let's have a party now.”

Even just one means everything to God. Even just one is cause for great celebration. Even just one who offers himself of herself to be spent for God's purposes is a great blessing for the whole neighbourhood.

In our worship this morning we practice God's economics. We gather, acknowledging that all we are and all we have comes from God, belongs to God, is loved by God, can be given and offered and spent for God. We offer our time, our talents, our money, and the produce of our hands and our minds in God's service here in this place, out in the neighbourhood, and in the world. Our ministries are varied, but each one is valuable, each one is important to God, because even just one enables us to continue God's work of seeking and finding and celebrating.
Even just one. Even just you. Even just me. Precious to God. And precious here, in God's house, in God's family.
Amen.