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ANGLICAN PARISH OF ATWELL/SUCCESS THE CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION Sunday Bulletin Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost – 9th November 2008 |
Being prepared
At this time of the year many school students are preparing for exams. Shortly the Tertiary Entrance Exams, or TEE, will be starting and students will be asked to show what they have learnt specifically in the last year; but more generally give an account of what they have learnt, and the skills they have acquired, in their twelve or more years in the formal school system. This time is one of the most stressful and families and friends should recognize the pressure and be positive, encouraging and understanding in their interactions with those taking examinations. The TEE is a time of reckoning and a time when the future is being carved out through the opportunities that the results of the exams provide. Some do well and others not so well, but in the end the students leave school and have to face the challenges of the wider world either at university, TAFE or in the work force, and a new phase in their life commences.
When the exam pressure is really on there are two realities that emerge. Firstly, it is too late to make up for all the ground if there has not been a consistent and sustained effort throughout the year. The preparatory work needs to have been done. If it has not been done then the student suffers the consequences. Secondly, there is no easy way out. There are strict rules about cheating in an exam and no-one else can sit the exam for you. It is certainly illegal if this is the case. The bottom line is the student faces up to the examination alone with only their own skills and abilities, which are the result of their own preparation.
While the gospel today speaks of ten bridesmaids who are waiting for the bridegroom, and this may seem culturally far away from our own experience, we can see a parallel with the examination setting. The wise ones had made preparation and had oil for their lamps but those not properly prepared were found to be without oil. When these ones asked to borrow some oil it became clear that this was not going to happen. It is important for us to be prepared and to take time in preparation because we do not want to be caught short or without what we need spiritually to face up to the time when we have to take the test.
Fr Clive
Sentence
Watch and be ready, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
Matthew 24.42, 44
Prayer of the Day
Eternal God, you have taught us that the night is far spent and the day is at hand:
keep us awake and alert, watching for your kingdom, so that when Christ, the bridegroom, comes we may go out joyfully to meet him, and with him enter into the marriage feast that you have prepared for all who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
First Reading: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors–Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor–lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;
“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!” Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.
Psalm 78:1-7
1 Give heed to my teaching, O my people:
incline your ears to the words of my mouth;
2 For I will open my mouth in a parable:
and expound the mysteries of former times.
3 What we have heard and known:
what our forebears have told us,
4 We will not hide from their children, but declare to a generation yet
to come:
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works.
5 He established a law in Jacob and made a decree in Israel:
which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,
6 That future generations might know, and those yet unborn:
that they in turn might teach it to their children;
7 So that they might put their confidence in God:
and not forget his works, but keep his commandments.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Intercessions
This Parish: Fr Clive, Diane and new growth.
Diocese: Archbishop Roger Herft, Bp Tom Wilmot.
Parish of East-Avon.
Province: Bunbury Diocesan Anglicare Council and Parish of Wickham.
Australian Church: Primate, Phillip Aspinall, Diocese of Bunbury, Bp David McCall, clergy & people.
Anglican Communion: The Church in Bermuda.
Those in need: Murray Blore and his family, Riley, Debbie, Andy and Jade Calmeyer, Derek, Yvette, Sue, John and family.
NOTICES
Today: We welcome The Rt Revd Kay Goldsworthy to preside and preach. We pray for Joy who is to be baptized and confirmed and Neville who is to be confirmed today.
Please stay for a light meal after the service.
Church Council: Tuesday 2 December, 7.30pm.
Sunday 14th December: Christmas carol service with bible readings. Our gift to the community at the time of celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Priest’s day away from Parish Duties is Monday.
Readings Next Sunday, Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost (G), 16 November 08
Judges 4:1-10; Psalm 123; 1 Thess 5:1-11; Matt 25:14-30
Anglican Parish of Atwell/Success,
Harvest Lakes Community Centre Aurora Drive, Atwell,
(next to Harmony Primary School).
Parish Web site: http://transfig.wordpress.com/
Services: Eucharist Each Sunday 5pm
(Frank Prendergast House, once each 4 weeks, 11am)
Priest in Charge: Fr. Clive McCallum Ph: 040 911 2079
Email: cdlc44@bigpond.com
Churchwardens: Gill King Ph: 0421 188 793
Neville Matheson Ph: 0419 046 811
Church Office: (answering machine) Ph: 9417 2480
Filed under: pew sheet
