EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

19 JULY 2026

COLLECT OF THE DAY

Lord of heaven and earth,
you sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and power of your Church:
sow in our hearts the seeds of grace
that we may bring forth the fruit of the
Spirit
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament

This is the well-known story of Jacob’s dream at Bethel where he sees a ‘stairway to heaven’ with angels descending and ascending, and receives God’s promise of land, descendants and blessing. Many people see faith as about a ‘stairway to heaven’, a means of getting away from earthly problems and troubles and ascending to a more spiritual realm of union with God. Yet, what happens here is the opposite! Rather than Jacob going up to heaven, God roots him more deeply on the earth.
Like many of the promises to the patriarchs, land is at the heart of it. Thirty-nine out of forty-six promises God makes to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are largely or partly about land. The promise is about a place to put down roots and experience God’s blessing. It wasn’t a promise about land-ownership in an exclusive sense, but about being placed and at home in order to be able to bless others (14b). Significantly, the very earthy place where Jacob has this dream is renamed ‘Bethel’, or house of God, because the Bible’s promise is not that our home is in heaven but that God’s home will be with mankind (Revelation 21:3).

Psalm

A beautiful and familiar Psalm, perhaps one that some will know by heart, and others might want to learn. It tells of God’s intimate loving knowledge of each of us from before our birth and wherever we wander to. God is not a cosmic policeman watching for our mistakes but a loving parent seeking to protect and guide. Alongside the very personal application each of us can find here, it also tells us that God is Omnipresent, everywhere all-at-once (as the film title puts it). As Creator, God is not an absentee owner but is closely, attentively and lovingly involved in every part of creation.

Epistle (by The Revd. Canon Dr Rachel Mash)

v 22 “Creation is groaning” We need to recognize the destruction that has already been caused by the actions, greed and apathy of humanity. Creation is indeed groaning in deep pain, and some parts of God’s wonderful creation will be lost forever. Even if we were to stop producing carbon emissions tomorrow, the accumulated CO2 would continue to heat the Earth. Many species have already gone extinct. Enormous suffering is being caused to many millions of people around the world.

“Creation is groaning as in childbirth”(v 22) But this image is also an image of hope—as any mother knows, during childbirth the pain is inconceivable and unending, but there is hope at the end that a new life will be born. And so it is with us—we must cry, we must lament, we must confess our complicity as Christians in allowing such destruction. But we do not cry as those who have no hope, because we believe in what Jesus achieved on the cross (1 Thess 4.13).

Believing in the resurrection does not just mean assenting to a dogma and noting a historical fact. It means participating in this creative act of God’s…

“Resurrection is not a consoling opium, soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth of this life. The hope doesn’t point to another world. It is focused on the redemption of this one,” (Jürgen Moltmann)28.

Creation is waiting for you and me: ‘Standing on tiptoe waiting for the children of God to be revealed!’ (v 19)What a wonderful image; it is a tragedy that we have kept creation waiting so long, but it is time now for us to rise up and become fully disciples of Jesus Christ, and work to renew the face of the Earth.

We have first fruits of the glorious renewal of creation(v 23)—as the seed of the kingdom grows in us, some will be lost and some will bear fruit until the glorious consummation of all things in Christ.

Gospel

The Parable of the Weeds (13:24-30) and its interpretation by Jesus (36-43) form part of Jesus’ teaching on God’s Kingdom (the Kingdom of Heaven). The word used for weeds or ‘tares’ (KJV) may refer to Darnel (Lolium temulentum), a ryegrass which resembles wheat in the early stages of growth. When the disciples ask Jesus to interpret the parable, we see that the focus is eschatological, on the final judgement when the Son of Man (Jesus) returns.

Jesus gives a detailed explanation. The world is the field, and Jesus is the one who sows good seed. The Devil, or enemy, sows the weeds. The plants that grow refer to believers, the people of the Kingdom, whereas the weeds belong to the evil one. The harvesters are angels, and there is a vivid picture of judgement as a blazing furnace into which the weeds are thrown. What are we to make of this today, and is there any ecological application? Clearly, it is a dualistic picture in terms of good vs. evil. Evil is real, active and destructive, and those who give themselves over to evil face God’s judgement. However, judgement is God’s business, not ours. We are to leave the weeds to grow amongst the wheat. Most interpreters see this as a picture of the Church as well as the world. There will be divisive and destructive influences at work, but we should resist the temptation to have a ‘pure’ or ‘perfect’ Church. Weeds should be tolerated, as judgement belongs only to God.

Perhaps we can apply this too in terms of eco-activism. Both in society and in the Church, we’ll find the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ in terms of taking seriously the damage being done to God’s creation and the urgency of tackling it. Whilst we can campaign and demonstrate against structures (economic and political) and organisations (eg. businesses) that are damaging the planet, we must be careful not to judge and condemn individuals too harshly. As Jesus put it, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1).