This week’s Readings and Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Collect for This Week
Collect for the Feast of Creation
Holy and eternal God, you are the Maker of heaven and earth, you are the Word through whom all things were made, and you are the Spirit, the giver of life: draw us into the mystery of your love, that with all creation we may proclaim your praise, through Jesus Christ our Lord.. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 149
1 Alleluia. O sing to the Lord a new song sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful. 2 Let Israel rejoice in their maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. 3 Let them praise his name in the dance; let them sing praise to him with timbrel and lyre. 4 For the Lord has pleasure in his people and adorns the poor with salvation. 5 Let the faithful be joyful in glory; let them rejoice in their ranks, 6 With the praises of God in their mouths and a two-edged sword in their hands; 7 To execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples; 8 To bind their kings in chains and their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute on them the judgement decreed: such honour have all his faithful servants. Alleluia.
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 Exodus Chapter 12, verses 1 to 14
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
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 13, verses 8 to 14
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; 13 let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
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 18, verses 15 to 20
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Matthew Glory to You, o Lord
15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’
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
The sermon this week is delivered by Lorraine Ashworth
Three very different readings have been set for today, but they do link. We haven't read the psalm or the old testament lesson, but they are on the notice sheet.
The Psalm declares that we should praise God and sing for joy. It tells us that we should – maybe controversially in today's political climate, judge the nations that do not follow God.
The Old Testament Reading from Exodus (which means going out or going away) shows the way that God saved his people who were in Egypt and how by killing a lamb and smearing its blood around the door frame, the first-born child of every Jewish family would be spared the death which came to the first born children of the Egyptians. This terrible act finally persuaded Pharaoh to let the people leave Egypt. It ends with a commandment to remember that day every year in the festival that is called the Passover.
The Gospel reading is all about how to settle arguments in the church if someone does something wrong to you. No fist-fights, no calling each other names, but simply put, to talk to each other and point out what was wrong. And that if there is still a problem, then there should be more than one person pointing out what was wrong. It even says that if the person continues to do wrong, even after being spoken to on more than one occasion, they should be excluded from the church and the faithful people should have nothing more to do with them. If you remember back to school days, if a pupil was doing wrong on purpose, they might be given a warning, then a detention; they might be suspended from school for a week or two, but if the behaviour continued, that person would be expelled and have to go to a different school.
The reading also reminds us of the words Jesus spoke to Peter that we heard only a couple of weeks ago. “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” and applies it to all the disciples who followed Jesus, and that includes us.
The final part of the reading from Matthew's gospel reminds us that when we agree on a matter and it is God's will, he will answer our prayers, and of course it reminds us that God is with us, Jesus is with us, here, in this church, in small groups that meet to pray or talk about the Bible, wherever we gather in the name of Jesus. On Thursday, we are holding a prayer day from 9.00am Thursday right through to 9.00am Friday. The theme is 'At the Name of Jesus' and we will be praying for God's creation, his people and any troubles and concerns we have and asking that At the Name of Jesus and In the name of Jesus our prayers will be answered. Even if there are only two or three people in church at each point of the day and night, God will be here with us as we pray.
However, I want us to concentrate on the Reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans, particularly the first half.
I'm going to read part of the passage again – but in another version. It isn't a word for word translation, but it is probably easier to get to grips with. I'm reading verses 8-10
"Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love."
Let me ask you, who do you love? You've each got a heart shape. Look at it and think about all the people who you love. Family members, friends, people in this church family, people in the wider team, deanery and diocese. If you were to write each person's name on the heart, you'd soon run out of room. So what name should we write on that heart? In another passage from Matthew Chapter 22, that we will hear in a couple of week's time, when someone asks Jesus what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replies “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
If the Lord our God is the person we should love with all of our being, I think we should choose one of the stickers put it right in the centre of our wooden heart, and write the word God on it, even if we can't physically write it on the hearts in our bodies.
And what about the donts in the passage? How many of those might we have done? I can answer a few of those with a Yes. I don't think I've taken someone's life... yet but I've definitely run up debts and wanted something I can't have and I've even taken something that wasn't mine...
Those are the opposite of love.
Turn your heart over and put the other sticker on it and draw a cross, an X to show that we don't always love either God or the people around us.
We do wrong things and they separate us from God, they are the opposite of loving God. But Jesus has the power to forgive our wrongdoings. By the power of the cross, not an X, more like a plus sign, he turns us back to loving and being loved by God.
Yet we are told in this passage, that if we truly love each other we will be obeying the laws that God set out for his people, laws that we still use today.
I'm going to bring you a different cross – the cross of Jesus. Place it over the X to show that Jesus forgives our wrongdoings.
So turn your hearts back to the side that shows us that we love God. And think for another moment about whether God loves you.
Last week, I read in my daily devotions, a written piece by Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa that says:
“The whole Bible does nothing but tell of God's love. This is the message that supports and explains all the other messages. The love of God is the answer to all the 'whys' in the Bible.: The why of creation, the why of the incarnation, the why of redemption. If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a spoken word and became one single voice, this voice, more powerful than the roaring of the sea would cry out:'the Father loves you!'. Everything that God does and says in the Bible is love, even God's anger is nothing but love. God IS love!”
And now I'm going to bring you a glittery heart, which you can put over the sticker on which you have written 'God'.
And lets keep our little wooden hearts to show that we are loving God, being loved by God, and actively turning away from anything that might come between us and God. Let us use them to always remember that as long as we turn back to God, turn back to Jesus, return to listening to the Holy Spirit's prompting, just like the saving power of the blood of lambs saved the Jewish people at the passover, so the blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross, will save us.
Using the words of Pete Greig Let us pray and I'd like you to look at your hearts as you repeat each line after me.
Father I yield to your love by speaking this truth over myself.
My Heavenly Father loves me and I love him too
My Lord Jesus loves me and I love him too.
The Holy Spirit loves me and I love him too.
Amen
Daily Prayer from 6th to 13th September 2026 – The Global Week of Prayer
Father,
We come before you with hearts deeply moved—moved by the sheer magnitude of all the trouble, suffering and lostness we see in our world. But we know even this sense of overwhelm – when we feel smallest and the task feels largest—is actually a sacred moment that leads us directly to you.
Because, in the end, you are the only person who can truly transform our nations and our cultures.
Lord Jesus, you are exalted to the highest place. Your name is above every other name —every ruler and principality and power in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
So today we pray in the name of Jesus—that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Not because we have the strength to make it happen, but because you do. Not because our plans are sufficient, but because your power is limitless. The places that overwhelm us are the very places you came to save.
Come, Lord Jesus. Transform our nations. Transform our cities. Transform our neighbourhoods. Let your name be proclaimed throughout the globe.
In Jesus’ mighty name we pray,
Amen
.