Sunday Services

Sunday School - 9:30 am

Holy Communion - 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays, 10:30 am

Morning Prayer - 2nd and 4th Sundays, 10:30 am

Thursday Services

Evening Prayer/Bible Study, 7 pm

Thanksgiving Eve Service 5 pm

No Services Thanksgiving Day

Reaching out to the least, the lonely, and the lost

Holy Communion Service at Friendship South

2nd and 4th Sundays, 2:30 pm

Thoughts from the Lectionary: The Twenty Second Sunday after Trinity

From the Gospel Lesson: St. Matthew 18:21 - 35

In this passage Peter has asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who has wronged him and Jesus gives an answer that pretty much means an infinite number of times. To illustrate further His point, Christ then goes on to describe the Kingdom of God like a king who begins counting up the debts that are owed to him. He notes a particular man who’s debt is very great and orders that the man, his family, and his goods be sold off to repay the debt. The man pleads for time and insists that he will repay the debt. The king, moved with compassion, clears the man of his debt. Afterward the forgiven man goes and puts pressure on someone who owes him and doesn’t show any mercy. He has the debtor thrown into prison until the debt can be repaid. The king hearing of this, rescinds his earlier forgiveness of the man’s debt and punishes the man severely for his lack of compassion.

Let us think on this briefly. The king is like God is he not? We are like the man in great debt. A debt so great in fact that we can never repay it. All our effort to do so would be fruitless. God in Christ forgives us of the sin debt we owe taking it upon Himself on the Cross at Calvary. Having been forgiven of what we cannot repay, who are we to withhold forgiveness from others who have trespassed against us in far less egregious fashion then we have God?

Oh merciful and forgiving Lord, give to us hearts full of compassion, that we, being forgiven of our debts, will forgive our debtors. Amen.

Blessings,

Fr. Duane+