Sunday 23 October, 2022
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings are laid out as for the continuous form of the lectionary. Alternative related readings (OT and psalm only) are below. Hymns marked with an asterisk (*) are suggested for more than one reading
Joel 2: 23-32
Beyond impossibility (website only)
Breathe on me breath of God (StF 370)
Come, you thankful people, come (StF 123)
Day of judgment! Day of wonder! (StF 732)
Glorious things of thee are spoken (StF 748)
God moves in a mysterious way (StF 104)
See how great a flame aspires (StF 412)
Spirit of God, unseen as the wind (StF 394)
When all your mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys (StF 97)
Psalm 65
Hymns reflecting the psalmist’s theme
I sing the almighty power of God (StF 107)
Lord of creation, to you be all praise! (StF 449)
Praise and thanksgiving, Father, we offer (StF 125)
Sing praise to God who reigns above (StF 117)
You shall go out with joy (StF 487)
2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18
Alleluia, alleluia! The word of the Lord lasts for ever (StF 757)
Captain of Israel’s host, and Guide (StF 459)
For all the saints who showed your love (StF 746)
May the mind of Christ my Saviour (StF 504)
When our confidence is shaken (StF 644)
Who would true valour see (StF 486)
Luke 18: 9-14
As we gather, Father, seal us (StF 570)
Before I take the body of my Lord (StF 575) communion hymns
Christ, our King before creation (StF 318)
Give to me, Lord, a thankful heart (StF 520)
It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer (StF 523)
Just as I am, without one plea (StF 556)
Just as we are (website only)
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (StF 34)
We do not presume to come to this table (StF 601) a communion hymn
When I was lost, you came and rescued me (StF 367)
Alternative related readings
Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 35: 12-17 or Jeremiah 14: 7-10, 19-22
All my hope on God is founded (StF 455)
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open (StF 749)
Listening God, you hear us when we cannot speak (StF 524)
The love of God comes close where stands an open door (StF 654)
Ubi caritas et amor (Where there is charity and love) (StF 783)
We lay our broken world in sorrow at your feet (StF 718)
Psalm 84: 1-7
Hymns reflecting the psalmist’s theme
Be still and know that I am God (StF 18)
Christ is made the sure foundation (StF 677)
May the glory of the Lord fill his temple (StF 31)
The thirsty deer longs for the streams (StF 514)
The Revd Phillip Poyner writes:
Confidence is so important to our individual wellbeing. In the gospel, the Pharisee’s confidence is boosted by his religious observance, going beyond what the law required. Yet that confidence has become personal pride and a blindness to his own sin and his need to recognise his dependence on God. It is of no worth.
Paul, in his words to Timothy, displays a steady confidence in extreme circumstances because he recognises that in his dependence on God he is strengthened. He will receive the crown of righteousness. In contrast, the tax collector is bereft of any self confidence because of the burden of his wrong-doing. In humility and sorrow, his prayer is: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Forgiven, justified - reckoned as righteous, God's action will rebuild his confidence. The Ecclesiasticus reading reflects Jesus’ parable.
The Pharisee demonstrates that to be rightly confident is not something self-generated but given to us by others. Psalm 84 suggests that in the Lord’s house we sense the living God who strengthens us but, also, our confidence is a shared experience: "Happy are they…". Similarly in the Jeremiah reading, sin undermines the national confidence and he leads them in corporate prayer.