Sunday 30 October, 2022
- General:
- Lectionary
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
For use when this Sunday is not observed as the Sunday of All Saints. See alternative readings for All Saints.
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
A safe stronghold our God is still (StF 623)
Day of judgment! Day of wonder! (StF 732)
God of my faith, I offer you my doubt (StF 629)
How long, O Lord, will you forget (StF 630)
My troubled soul, why so weighed down? (StF 635)
Sing we the King who is coming to reign (StF 185)
Thou hidden source of calm repose (StF 366)
Hymns reflecting the psalmist’s theme
Come let us praise the Lord (StF 43)
Faithful God, faithful God (StF 47)
Have faith in God, my heart (StF 466)
Jesus, lover of my soul (StF 355)
My soul finds rest in God alone (StF 633)
Brother, sister, let me serve you (StF 611)
Christ, from whom all blessings flow (StF 676)
Fight the good fight with all your might (StF 634)
God in my living, there in my breathing (StF 497)
God of all power, and truth, and grace (StF 498)
Jesus, Lord, we look to thee (StF 686)
Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers (StF 474)
Sing of the Lord's goodness (StF 65)
As we gather, Father, seal us (StF 570)
Everyone needs compassion (StF 627)
He became poor that we may be rich (StF 344)
I heard the voice of Jesus say (StF 248)
I will offer up my life (StF 446)
Jesus – the name high over all (StF 357)
Jesus, we thus obey (StF 590)
Lord, we have come at your own invitation (StF 595)
Man of sorrows! What a name (StF 361)
Seek ye first the kingdom of God (StF 254)
The kingdom of God is justice and joy (StF 255)
The Spirit lives to set us free (StF 397)
Alternative related readings
Community of Christ (StF 681)
Day by day dear Lord (StF 444)
Dear Lord and Father of mankind forgive our foolish ways (StF 495)
Help us, O Lord, to learn (StF 501)
Lord, in the strength of grace (StF 448)
Show me how to stand for justice (StF 713)
The God who sings (StF 714)
We will walk with God, my brothers (StF 484)
Hymns reflecting the psalmist’s theme
'Forgive our sins as we forgive' (StF 423)
My lips shall praise you (StF 430)
Rock of Ages, cleft for me (StF 434)
Your ceaseless, unexhausted love (StF 438)
The Revd Phillip Poyner writes:
The connection between the gospel and Psalm 32 is obvious but what about 2 Thessalonians? Perhaps the link is in verse 3: “the love for every one of you for one another is increasing”. Zacchaeus, after Herod, would have been one of the most hated people in Jericho. Onlookers grumbled, astonished that Jesus sought to stay at his house and that, through the encounter, Zacchaeus is saved. How do we relate to the released prisoner who begins to worship in our church? It must have been doubly hard for a persecuted congregation like the church at Thessalonica to welcome someone like Zacchaeus, a government agent. Could he be trusted?
Some would say you should not try to relate the continuous readings but Psalm 119 v.141 reads: “I am small and despised”, which is exactly how Zacchaeus would have been regarded. After the meeting with Jesus, he would have tried to follow God’s precepts whilst still suffering the anguish of not being accepted by all Jesus’ followers. Yet “the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost” and the Church continuing to do so must be part of what Paul means when speaking of “call”, “good resolve”, “work of faith” (v.11).
The Revised Common Lectionary has the verses 1-4, 11-12 from 2 Thessalonians but the Anglican lectionary include the missing verses (4th before Advent). Verses 5-10 do seem to lack the love of Jesus demonstrated in the gospel, but do reflect how much Zacchaeus had been distancing himself from God and that his life would become ruinous. Would the inclusion of those middle verses in worship today act as a spur to us to love the sinner?
Zacchaeus’ intention to make restitution is reflected in verses 16-18 of Isaiah Chapter 1. The care of the oppressed, orphan, and widow was present in the early Church and remains an outworking of our salvation today.