This week’s Readings and Sermon for the Second Sunday After Trinity
The Collect for This Week
God our saviour, look on this wounded world in pity and in power; hold us fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining and whose power we cannot comprehend: show us your glory as far as we can grasp it, and shield us from knowing more than we can bear until we may look upon you without fear; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 86: 1-10, 16-17
1 Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; 3 have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. 4 Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. 5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. 6 Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. 7 When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me. 8 Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvellous deeds; you alone are God. 16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength on behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you just as my mother did. 17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The Old Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the Genesis, Chapter 21: 8-21
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’ 11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.’ 14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bow-shot away, for she thought, ‘I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there, she began to sob. 17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.’ 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The second reading for this Sunday is taken from the Letter of St Paul to the Romans, Chapter 6, verses 1 to 11
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 10, verses 24-39
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Matthew Glory to You, o Lord
24 ‘The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
26 ‘So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 ‘Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
34 ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn ‘“a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” 37 ‘Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
SERMON FOR FATHER’S DAY 2026 delivered by Rev. Denise Smith:
MATTHEW 10 :24 -39. ROMANS 6: 1 -11
Matthew was a Jewish Christian. He saw Jesus as the fulfilment of the Jewish hopes and Scriptures. It is likely he wrote the Gospel after AD 70, after the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Because of the rebellion of the Jews, the Roman General, Titus, reduced the city and the Temple to ashes and rubble. People’s faith was deeply challenged. Christians were being persecuted and needed words of encouragement. By the time the Gospel was written Jesus had not only been scorned and rejected, crucified, was dead and buried, THEN HE HAD RISEN AGAIN. This is the context of this Gospel passage today. He said to his disciples in v24.
“A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master”
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and WE are the disciples today. We are to try to be like Jesus. If Jesus was maligned and called Beelzebub, his disciples cannot hope to escape opposition. Jesus does not promise an easy life. He was preparing them and us today to have our faith challenged. BUT in this same passage we are told ‘have no fear, do not fear.’ I counted that phrase 4 times just in today’s Gospel. My word though, in today’s world it is easy to fear and to lose hope, with all that is going on in our country and in our world. Thankfully we are not left alone, because our Lord is with us all the time. Jesus tells us nothing goes unnoticed, nothing is hidden or secret. We are told to speak out without fear. He is there; especially he draws nearer in our darkest moments.
Our Father values each one of us. – I love the verse about the hairs on my head being numbered! We are wonderfully cared for by our God and Father. There is some hard teaching in our readings today. It should have been Mike but for his holiday! Thanks Mike!! I admit I have struggled with it.
In the reading from Romans we heard we are to think of ourselves as ‘dead to sin’ and alive to God. through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? How to explain it? It is hard to think of analogies, but our Messy church Lion gave me an idea. Did you ever play sleeping lions / bunnies at Toddlers or a children’s party? The children all have to get on the floor and pretend to be asleep. The first one to speak or move is out. It is hard for young children to ignore all kinds of other things going on around them, but the leader encourages them to resist all temptations to move or speak. So it us with us, we have to resist the temptations of this earthly world – sin should not have any hold over us.
When Claire was a baby and I was working, her father and I used to take turns to get up and see to her in the night. If it wasn’t my night I could sleep like a log and I was ‘dead’ to the sound of her crying- I knew it wasn’t my concern that evening, so I slept on even through a tree coming through the bedroom roof in a storm.
BUT it isn’t just being dead to sin, we have to be ‘alive to God’ our Father in heaven. we need to be so tuned in that we notice his still small voice, recognise him in all we see and in those we meet and live with our hearts and ears and wills turned in his direction all through every day, whatever is going on around us.
So we know that being a disciple of Jesus will not be easy. True followers of Jesus are so full of love for other people that they are willing to give up their own selfishness. We are not to put ourselves first, but we are to think of other’s needs. If Jesus is worth following he is worth following closely. HE was willing to go through a tortured death for us, so we do really need to put him first in our lives.
V37 of the Gospel. “ Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”
These last verses of the passage I find so difficult, but I experienced it when I decided to go forwards for Ordination. I had to put the Father first and my family members were often resentful. It took a long time for them to understand and to adjust.
Those of you who come to Tuesday prayers know I like the altar to be lit up.it is not so much the altar but the cross. I love this little church because we have so many crosses, they are all over. When the school children visit I get them to move about and count them. I am the same at home, I wear them, I prop them up, stick them to the fridge and front door and have cross bookmarks. They help me tune in to the Father, even the big wooden one, especially the big wooden one actually and they remind me not to put myself first. The shape of the cross is an I (Capital I) which is then crossed out! Not easy to do because we all tend to want our own way. It took me a long time to learn to cross out my selfishness, not I, I, I all the time. The more we do it, the more we become like Jesus and the happier we become.
In the last verses of the Gospel he pushes the stakes to the absolute maximum, requiring our deepest allegiance. He famously command “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
In the time this was written, the cross was an instrument of execution, not jewellery or an ornament. He is trying to teach us to let our self-centred agendas go. Those who surrender their lives to his mission of love and redemption will find true, abundant life and the promise of eternal life.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! All you men. How do we reconcile what appear to be shocking words in 37, 38? He is not telling us to stop loving our families or to neglect them. He is defining the proper order of our love.
Most Fathers have a natural instinct to protect, love and provide for their children. Christ demands that he must hold the supreme place in our hearts, because loving him first enables us to love our children better. When Jesus is the anchor of your life, you are not rattled by the shifting sands of culture, career stress or family conflict. Just as Jesus obeyed his heavenly Father above all else, earthly fathers are called to set an example to their children. For Fathers, taking up your cross might mean laying down your pride, denying some personal ambitions or sacrificing your free time to disciple those in your own home. CROSS OUT I. When it becomes a struggle remember the unfailing love of your heavenly Father. You are valued, even the hairs on your head! Do not be afraid. Trust in God. He sees you, he knows your struggles and he provides for you. The strength you need to lead your family does not come from your own power, it comes from the Holy Spirit.
Fathers, your ultimate legacy will not be defined by the financial wealth you provide but by your devotion to Christ. When you love Jesus above all else, you hand down a legacy of faith, courage and grace.
As I was writing this, I realised how true it was in my own case. I was truly blessed with a wonderful father and grandfather, who were both devoted to our heavenly Father.
Light the candle.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our earthly fathers and grandfathers. Help us all to take up our crosses and commit to putting you first. Help us to do loving things for each other. Make us courageous disciples showing children what it looks like to follow Christ without fear. Amen.