Pastoral Priest: Rev’d Canon Denise Hyde – 01285 713285
Readings for Sunday: Hosea 5.15-6.6; Romans 4.13-end; Matthew 9.9-13, 18-26
To hear Denise read the Gospel and deliver her sermon click on the arrow below (for technical reasons the sung responses have been omitted)
From Rev’d Caroline – 01285 712467 – carolinesymcox@googlemail.com
Readings for Sunday: Hosea 5.15-6.6; Romans 4.13-end; Matthew 9.9-13, 18-26
The following is taken from the Parish Newsletter for Sunday 7th June 2026.
Our readings for this Sunday find us reflecting on a profound link between our Old Testament reading from the prophet Hosea, and Jesus’ stern reminder and object lesson in Matthew’s gospel. Sometimes, looking at the Old Testament at a superficial level, we might be forgiven for thinking that it is all about the Law. The first five books of the Old Testament, after all, are the Books of the Law, the Torah, in the Hebrew language, and contain incredibly detailed rules for God’s people. Of course, at a deeper level, unthinking adherence to the instructions given in the Law – the purity laws, food laws, punishments, correct animal sacrifices to be made – is not what obeying God fully and truly looks like. Hosea relays God’s instruction: ‘For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.’ Mercy is at the heart of God’s relationship with us, and must be the heart of ours with Him, and with the people around us in turn.
This is Jesus’ lesson to Pharisees, as they are bold enough to criticise his willingness to spend time with the ‘wrong’ people. ‘Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.’ This is a verbal lesson which he immediately lives out as he encounters the woman with a 12-year haemorrhage. Under the letter of the Law, he should have shunned that woman. She was bleeding, which made her ritually unclean. She was breaking the Law just by being out around other people. But through his actions Jesus showed God’s heart once again. The ‘wrong’ people are exactly the people he has come to help and heal. The woman is welcomed and healed, brought back into a community and a belonging that has been denied her for so long.
God’s will is for his people to be people of mercy and forgiveness, willing to reach out to, and to welcome, those who might be otherwise judged by the world. That continues to be his call and his challenge for us who follow Jesus today. Judgement can come so easily to the human spirit, our yearning for there to be clear, universal rules that can show us exactly who is Right, and who is Wrong. But that isn’t something allowed to us. How can we show Jesus’ radical welcome and message of hope to people on the outside of ‘polite society’ today? What does that look like for us?
Rev’d Caroline
Updated 8th June 2026