Daily prayer in Advent 2024: 11, Wednesday 11 December 2024

‘Come to me … for my … burden is light’ … evenings lights at the harbour in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are more than a week into the Season of Advent, the real countdown to Christmas has gathered pace. This week began with the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 8 December 2024). Later today, I hope to take part in a meeting of local clergy at Saint Mary’s Church, Bletchley, which promises to be a festive gathering, with crackers and sparkle. While I am without permission to officiate in the Diocese of Oxford, these meetings have provided spiritual support and sustenance, as well as being times of prayer.

In the evening, I hope to be involved in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11: 28) … Station 3 in the Stations of the Cross in the Church of the Annunciation, Clonard, Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 28-30 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

Jesus falls for the first time … Station 3 in the Stations of the Cross in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

I lost my mobile phone on the train one day during summer. I tripped in the carriage trying to get off at Tamworth and found myself on my hands and feet between Tamworth and Lichfield, searching for it on the floor. Eventually, I decided I had to get off at Lichfield Trent Valley rather than risk travelling on not merely to Rugeley but ending up at the end of the line in Crewe.

For days after that, I spent hours on end trying to recover contacts and apps, and reload them onto a new phone. I had lost contacts and passwords, and it seemed that every time I try to upload a new or old apps, I come across barriers that became overwhelming burdens.

Who is so perfect that they have a different password for each app – and can remember each one in times of calm, never mind when we are stressed and under pressure?

Of course, I was worried that someone else would find my phone, guess my passwords and security codes, and gain access to all my contacts, my details and my savings.

As I bought a new phone and began to reload everything I still feared for what was lost, and I wondered all thast week why it all had to be so difficult.

Of course, as I was reminded time and again, it was all for my own good, for my security and for my protection.

Indeed, as I was reminded day after day in the week that followed, these are the terms and conditions.

The short Gospel reading in the lectionary this morning (Matthew 11: 28-30) is particularly short. But it is a very appropriate reading for many people as they try to balance their work and their lives, seeking a work/life balance.

But the offer and the promise in this morning’s Gospel reading hold out hope.

In the law of contract, there are two important elements … offer and acceptance.

This morning, Christ invites all of us who are tired, frazzled and bothered, weary and heavy-laden, to come to him – and, if we do, he offers us rest. That’s the offer.

What about acceptance?

He simply asks that we take his yoke and learn from him.

Ah, but many may ask, ‘What about the terms and conditions?’

As you know – as the banks and our mobile phone services constantly remind us – all contracts are subject to terms and conditions.

Well, the terms and conditions are quite simple: for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

I still remember how the former Dean of Lismore, the late Bill Beare, once challenged a clergy meeting in the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory in words like: Who said you couldn’t dump everything at the foot of the cross?

In all of my befuzzlement and the frustrations that came with the burdens of losing phones and the yoke of setting up a new phone with all the apps and finding their passwords in recent days, I was reminded how I ought to dump everything at the foot of the cross and get back into the joys of the present moment.

‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart’ … Station 9 in the Chapel at Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 11 December 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Peace – Advent’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Nitano Muller, Canon for Worship and Welcome, Coventry Cathedral.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 11 December 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for an amplification of prophetic voices, calling out injustice.

The Collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
purify our hearts and minds,
that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again
as judge and saviour
we may be ready to receive him,
who is our Lord and our God.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Come to me … for my … burden is light’ … evenings lights at Stowe Pool and Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in Advent 2024: 3, Tuesday 3 December 2024

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Plaza de Judería in Malaga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Advent – and the real countdown to Christmas – began on Sunday with the First Sunday of Advent (1 December 2024). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (3 December) remembers Saint Francis Xavier (1552), Missionary, Apostle of the Indies.

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … what do we see in our own eyes?

Luke 10: 21-24 (NRSVA):

21 At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

23 Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!’ (Luke 10: 23) … street art in Brick Lane in the East End, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

In the Gospel reading provided in the lectionary at the Eucharist today (Luke 10: 21-24), Jesus tells his disciples: ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it’ (verse 23-24).

At 72, my sight and my hearing may not quite be what they once were. But my distant ‘cousin’ the late Kevin Martin, who died last year (14 June 2023), would greet me on my birthdays with the traditional Jewish greeting of ‘ad meah v’esrim’, ‘may you live until 120!’ (עד מאה ועשרים שנה‎).

Deuteronomy recalls that Moses lived to be 120, at which age ‘his eye had not dimmed, and his vigour had not diminished’ (Deuteronomy 34: 7). Great rabbis of the Talmud, including Hillel, Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, all lived to 120 as well.

The traditional Jewish birthday blessing carries the implication that the receiver should retain full mental and physical faculties to the end of life, still able to see with ears and to hear with ears.

This month marks half century after moving in December 1974 from Wexford, where I lived on High Street and worked on the Wexford People, to Dublin to work on The Irish Times.

But Advent is a time of looking forward rather than back. With those implications, of my eyes not being dimmed, and my vigour not being diminished, living for many moreyears does not sound so dim or distant a prospect at all. Indeed, it might even be a real blessing not only with what I have seen and hear in life but with the love, care and attention I receive too.

Saint Francis Xavier and the Jesuit saints … a window by Evie Hone in the Jesuit Retreat House at Manresa, Clontarf Road, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 3 December 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hope – Advent’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Esmeralda Pato, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa Representative and Chair of USPG’s Communion-Wide Advisory Group.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 3 December 2024) invites us to pray:

God of justice, we pray for an end to gender-based violence. Protect vulnerable people and give strength to survivors. Help us all to stand against violence, working for equality, dignity, and safety for all.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

I lived on High Street, Wexford, until I moved to Dublin and ‘The Irish Times’ 50 years ago in December 1974 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 28, Thursday 28 November 2024

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and distress … among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’ (Luke 21: 25) … sunset on the sea at Rethymnon in Crete (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (24 November 2024).

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars’ (Luke 21: 25) … Sun and Moon House on the north side of Market Square, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 20-28 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; 22 for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfilment of all that is written. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; 24 they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

A refugee child climbs ashore to seek safety

Today’s reflection:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 20-28) has been set in the verses that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting in the Temple precincts, where he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

Today’s Gospel reading includes frightening, terrifying words from Jesus, who says: ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken’ (Luke 21: 25-26).

These are not the sort of comforting words that we might want to hear as we prepare for Advent Sunday and to begin the countdown to Christmas.

My generation is a generation that grew up with muffled sounds of apocalyptic fear, developed through listening to the whispered anxieties of parents and teachers. I was still only 10 when the Cuban Missile Crisis reached its height in October 1962, and I still remember asking, ‘Is this going to be the end of the world?’

The Cold War was at its height, and we were still less than two decades from the end of World War II. Of course, many people feared another world war was about to break out, with catastrophic consequences for the world.

The threat seemed to have abated for some time after the end of the Cold War. But it has come to the fore again in recent weeks with the re-election of Trump in the US. Meanwhile, despite the end of the Cold War, the stockpiles of nuclear weapons continue to grow and accumulate, both the US and Russia are walking away from key arms limitation agreements, and war is continuing in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Syria without any apparent respect for the international legal conventions and rules on the conduct of war.

A new generation also wonders whether the world is facing apocalyptic catastrophe because of climate change and the destruction of the planet. And all of us must fret for the future when we hear about the emergence of new variants of Covid-19, even though we have let down our guards and think vaccinations have made our lives safer.

These fears accumulate and multiply and they become:

• short-term fears: are we going to have a normal Christmas this year?

• medium-term fears: what uncertainty and destruction can Trump unleash over the next four years?

• long-term fears: what faces us all for the future?

In our fears and anxieties, we try to read the ‘signs of the times’ and wonder how to respond to ‘signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

And yet, I realise how so self-obsessed I can be as I realise the immediate terror that continues to face people – families, fathers, mothers and children – who get caught in the precarious Channel crossing between France and England. How they must continue to be ‘confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.’

All their hopes of a better life for themselves and their children, as they fled wars and persecutions in Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and North Africa, yet risk being drowned in one horrific, apocalyptic moment on the seas.

But even then, had they arrived on the shores of the land they hoped to reach, would they have been met with the compassion and care refugees ought to expect, not only in terms of Christian love, but under the terms of international law?

Have the riots we saw in recent months in both Britain and Ireland gone away? Or is there worse yet to come?

The Christmas Gospel is a reminder that Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus were refugees too: Mary and Joseph were forced to move from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the cold of winter, yet found no welcome at the inn; and then, when the Child Jesus was born, they were forced to flee Herod, and seek exile in Egypt.

Where do we find hope as we wait in Advent for Christ at Christmas?

Our Gospel reading ends not in doom and disaster, but with the promise that Christ is coming. Our Advent faith is that Christ is coming in glory, and that with him he is bringing the Kingdom of God, with its promises of justice and mercy, peace and love.

‘They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives …’ (Luke 21: 24) … the Sword of State from the Brooke era in the museum in Fort Margherita, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 28 November 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 28 November 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for all women, who despite suffering from abuse and violence, continue to care for family and children, manage their households, earn a living and offer support to others.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’ (Luke 21: 25) … a November setting sun at Burano in the Venetian Lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 27, Wednesday 27 November 2024

The ‘Travelling Family’ by Kurt Laurenz in the Departure Transit area at Terminal 4 in Changi Airport in Singapore … we cannot chose our families (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (24 November 2024).

Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford … my first since returning from Kuching and Singapore more than a week ago. But, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Family’ by Jon Buck at the entrance to Milton Keynes University Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Luke 21: 12-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 12 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.’

The Crucifixion on the rood beam in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching … relationships and family are formed and shaped at the foot of the Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s reflection:

The scene for the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 12-19) has been set in the verses that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting by the Temple Treasury, as he speaks about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future.

The hope to which Christ testifies in this passage is no trivial denial of the struggles, the pain and agony of human life, or the catastrophic forces of nature. These are real, and the prophets of old have interpreted such devastations as the context of God’s saving work. Christ joins this chorus, bringing it close to the concrete realities of early Christians, and warns of the possibilities of being betrayed by family, friends and neighbours.

There are some relationships we cannot create, there are others we cannot control, and others still that we have no choice about.

We cannot create our family. Our families are already given, even before we are born or adopted. And those relationships survive though all adversities. They are fixed. They are given. They continue after separation, divorce, and death. They continue even when families are dysfunctional and brought to breaking point.

Even though my father and mother are dead 20 and 10 years respectively, they remain my parents.

Even though a couple may divorce, each former parnter in the old relationship remains a sister-in-law or a daughter-in-law, a brother-in-law or a son-in-law – albeit qualified by the word ‘former.’

In time, they may find they have new relationships: when their children have children, they share grandchildren they never expected. They may want to forget their past relationship, but it remains on the family tree for some future genealogist to tell everyone about.

I like to imagine that one of the untold stories in the aftermath of the Wedding at Cana is the new network or web of family relationships that have been created. After the wedding feast, the first of the Seven Signs in Saint John’s Gospel, Christ ‘went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there for a few days’ (John 2: 12).

On the way, or back in Capernaum, one finds he is now a brother-in-law, another that she is a sister-in-law, some, perhaps, realise they have a new aunt or uncle, or perhaps a new niece or nephew by marriage.

We cannot create family, yet family often creates us, shapes us, gives us identity and allows others to decide where we fit socially.

There are relationships we cannot control.

Most of us cannot control who we work with. That is the choice of our employers, and even for employers there is legislation to make sure they are not discriminating.

Clergy cannot, and should not try to, control who are their parishioners. If we try to control who is and who is not a member of the Church, depending on the relationships we like to have and the relationships we do not like to have, we will find we have a Church that has an ever-decreasing number of members, so that eventually we become a dwindling sect, wanting to make God in our own image and likeness, rather than accepting that we are all made in God’s image and likeness. And that eventually becomes a sect of one, where there is no place for the One who matters.

Nor can I choose my friends or my neighbours.

Have you ever noticed that when a house is on the market, both the vendors and the estate agents tell you the neighbours are wonderful? It is only after you move in that you are likely to find out if you have, as a ITV television documentary series some years ago described them, ‘the neighbours from hell.’

I cannot choose my friends. No matter how much I want to be friends with someone, if they do not want to be my friend, that’s it. I cannot force friendship. When I have a friendship, I can work on it, nurture it, help it to grow and blossom. But I cannot force a friendship. If you don’t want to be my friend, that is your choice. And if you do, and I don’t nurture that friendship, then you are going to change your mind.

Christ knows all about relationships, and he shows this on the Cross when he entrusts his mother the Virgin Mary and the Beloved Disciple, Saint John, to one another as though they are mother and son.

Relationship is at the heart of the cross. And there, on the cross, even as he is hanging in agony, the dying Jesus is compassionately thinking of others and of relationships

Relationships are vulnerable, fragile, and always risk the potential for betrayal, as today’s Gospel reading reminds us. But relationships also define us as human. Without relating to others, how can I possibly know what it is to be human?

From the very beginning, God, who creates us in God’s own image and likeness, knows that it is not good for us to be alone. And in the Trinity, we find that God is relationship.

The Holy Family by Giovanni Battista Pittoni … the Altar Piece in the Chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 27 November 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 27 November 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for the transformation of our societies which often find it easier to judge the victims of violence than to solve the problems of injustice.

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A scene from life of the Holy Family in Nazareth in a window designed by Father Vincent Chin in Saint Peter’s Church, Kuching (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 26, Tuesday 26 November 2024

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified’ (Luke 21: 9) … ‘War’ by Richard Klingbeil (2009)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Sunday next before Advent and the Feast of Christ the King (24 November 2024).

Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified’ (Luke 21: 9) … the 1798 Rising recalled in street art in a laneway behind Anne Street and North Main Street in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 21: 5-11 (NRSVA):

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’
7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.

9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.’

‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom’ (Luke 21: 10) … ‘Fuascailt’, Eamonn O’Doherty’s sculpture of the 1798 Wexford pikemen on the N25 near Barntown and Taghmon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 21: 5-11) is Saint Luke’s telling of the events recalled in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist on the Sunday before last (see Mark 13: 1-8, Sunday 17 November 2024, Second Sunday before Advent).

On his arrival in Jerusalem, Christ weeps, invokes sayings from the Prophet Jeremiah against a city that ‘did not recognise the time of your visitation from God’ (Luke 19: 41-44), and then faces up to three attempts by the authorities to entrap him, each concluding with Christ silencing his opponents (Luke 20: 1-19; 20: 20-26; and 20: 27-38).

The scene has been set in the verses in this chapter that immediately precede today’s reading. Christ is sitting by the Temple Treasury, where he watches the poor widow offer the smallest of coins (verses 1-4), as we read yesterday.

The scene does not change as he goes on to speak about the Temple, the Nation, and the looming future. But, instead of questioning him about what he has just said about this widow, which might have offered a focus for how the politics of God work, those around him, probably a wider group than just his own disciples, cannot get past the physical presence and appearance of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem, then revered as a sign of God’s presence, even as the dwelling place of God’s sheltering protection for Israel (see Luke 13:34-35).

Christ is no longer facing attacks from others. Instead, he alerts his followers to the hardships they face ahead, beyond the time of his journey. But as he approached Jerusalem, Christ had declared that God’s ‘visitation’ had come with his reign, that the very stones of the Temple would testify against those who rejected him (19: 41-44).

Now he again predicts that all the stones will be thrown down (21: 6), as one scene in the divine drama.

A web of prophetic citations is woven through these verses. These include words and phrases from Jeremiah 4, 7, 14, and 21; Isaiah 19; and Ezekiel 14 and 38. Maybe we could say that Christ, like the prophets before him, was not very original in what he said. But there is still the question: how faithfully did these prophetic words and warnings of destruction speak to the people of the time, to the people who heard Christ speak?

But Christ also differentiates his teaching from the teaching of the false prophets, who also quoted the ancient words of God. While announcing the coming judgment, Christ cautions against following prophets who claim to know God’s timetable, even invoking Christ’s own name.

The account in this chapter of Christ’s words could be compared with Mark 13, and its intensity of the coming ‘tribulation.’ Or we might go back to Luke 17: 22-37, which also reminds us that Christ’s death is an integral part of God’s timetable: ‘But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation’ (17: 25). Saint Luke’s longer account of Christ’s discourse (21: 5-36) assures his readers they are experiencing not ‘the end’ … but the period of ‘tribulations’ or ‘persecutions’ through which believers will enter the kingdom (see Acts 14: 22).

And so, Saint Luke’s account of Christ’s speech does not provide yet another programme or timetable to predict the working out of God’s plan, down to the last second. The prophets and Christ teach us that the struggles in history and in disturbances in nature are more than accidental. They remind us that God triumphed over chaos in creating the natural world, and yet both human and supra-historical forces are still contending for the earth. Christ’s followers are aware, therefore, that his death and resurrection is God’s ultimate act in a struggle of cosmic proportions. Only the final outcome is sure.

As the Apostle Paul writes: ‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, be we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies’ (Romans 8: 22-23).

The hope to which Christ testifies in this passage, therefore, is no trivial denial of the struggles, the pain and agony of human life, or the catastrophic forces of nature. These are real, and the prophets of old have interpreted such devastations as the context of God’s saving work. Christ joins this chorus, bringing it close to the concrete realities of early Christians. But he says: ‘This will give you an opportunity to testify’ (verse 13) and ‘By your endurance you will gain your souls’ (verse 19).

The ‘opportunity to testify’ does not require Christ’s followers to know every answer to the question: ‘Why do bad things happen to good people.’

Christ is promising that he will give us ‘words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.’ His earlier promise of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom in times of testimony (see Luke 12: 11-12) now becomes his own promise. When he commissions them as ‘my witnesses’ (Acts 1: 8), he assures them of the power and the presence of his Holy Spirit, and the stories in Acts will display the fulfilment of this promise of God’s ‘mouth and wisdom’ (see Acts 4: 13-14; 16: 6-7). And so, even these harsh prophecies in Luke 21 are filled with the confidence of Christ’s enduring presence.

And the ‘endurance’ that ‘will gain your soul’ (verse 19) is also not mere heroic persistence.

The early Christians knew all about endurance, and that endurance was often tested. Paul echoes that theme in Romans 5: 3-5, then transformed this endurance from reliance on human strength to trusting in God’s love: ‘… we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’

Saving endurance is a gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A problem that continues to dominate parish priorities is the emphasis on buildings rather than people. Are there ‘building blocks’ we need to knock down so we can start again and care for little people like the poor widow who was at the centre of yesterday’s reading?

Is it time to rebuild, to become the kind of temples God really wants?

Should we change church politics and priorities for God’s politics and priorities?

In pursuing God’s vision for the future of the church and the Kingdom, are we relying on our own knowledge and strengths?

What risks are we willing to take for our core values?

How would you be prophetic and offer hope in the face of the rise of the far-right across Europe or Trump’s return to office in the US?

How do you read the signs of the times when it comes to global events, such as the conflicts in Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon?

Have we a vision for a new heaven and a new earth (see Isaiah 65: 17-25)?

How do we balance concerns for the wider world with those for the widow and her small coin in our parishes?

‘Many will come in my name and say … “The time is near!” Do not go after them’ (Luke 21: 8) … the clock at Donegal House and the Guildhall in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 26 November 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray:

God of justice and righteousness, use us to speak against gender-based violence with a clear and challenging voice in a world where the vulnerable strive to be heard. (Mothers’ Union).

The Collect:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified’ (Luke 21: 9) … a plaque recalling the executions and deaths on Wexford Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 21, Thursday 21 November 2024

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 19: 42) … the city of Jerusalem depicted on a tile in a restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, and this week began with the Second Sunday before Advent.

The long odyssey back from Kuching was completed yesterday when we arrived back in in Stony Stratford, having travelled through Singapore, Paris and Birmingham.

Before the day begins, before we begin to sort out matters at home that have been left unattended since mid-October, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 1941: 11) … ‘The Holy City,’ a batik by Thetis Blacker in the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 19: 41-44 (NRSVA):

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it’ (Luke 1941: 11) … Jerusalem in bright lights in Jerusalem Restaurant in Camden Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 19: 41-44) continues the apocalyptic themes found in our readings as we prepare for the coming of Christ as Christ the King and as the Word made Flesh.

In the Gospel reading on Sunday (Mark 13: 1-8), as Jesus was coming out of the Temple in Jerusalem, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

From there, Jesus and the disciples moved on to the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, where, in another apocalyptic saying, Jesus told the disciples, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.’

Now, in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning (Luke 19: 41-44), as Jesus looks over Jerusalem, he weeps over the city, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’

Like Sunday’s readings, we seem to be living in days when, in the wake of Trump’s election, we ‘hear of wars and rumours of wars’. It is so very easy to alarmed, worrying about the days are to come, and the potential for nation to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Doubtless, in the months to come, there will be the equivalent of earthquakes in many places, and the equivalent of famines: a dearth or famine of public compassion, political decency, honesty and morality and diplomatic sense and wisdom.

It is even more disheartening that whole segments of American society that call themselves evangelical Christians have voted for the apocalyptic gloom that is facing the world in the four years to come.

The former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Very Revd Dr Trevor Morrow, recently reposted on Facebook a response to thinking of Evangelical Christians, particularly in the US, by his Palestinian friend, the Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour, the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College:

‘The irony for us Palestinian Christians is that evangelicals, with their emphasis on prophecy, have lost the capacity being prophetic. You want to prove that the Bible is right? You don’t do this by pointing to self-fulfilling or by pointing to world events as prophecy fulfilment. That is not how you prove that the Bible is right.

‘We prove that the Bible is right by radical obedience to the teachings of Jesus – by proving that Jesus’ teachings actually work and that they can make the world a better place. Let us love our enemies. Forgive those who sin against us. Let us feed the poor. Care for the oppressed. Walk the extra mile. Be inclusive, not exclusive. Turn the other cheek. And maybe, and only maybe then, the world will start to take us seriously and believing in the Bible.’

Reflective words from the Palestinian theologian, the Revd Dr Munther Isaac of Bethlehem

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 21 November 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Coming Together for Climate Justice’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by Linet Musasa, HIV Stigma and Discrimination Officer, Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 21 November 2024) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for the seven provinces in the region of Africa as they carry out the (PCC Provincial Climate Change Campaign) campaign in 47 dioceses Provincial Climate Change Campaign.

The Collect:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament
you give substance to our hope:
bring us at the last
to that fullness of life for which we long;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect:

Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour is also the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 16, Saturday 16 November 2024

‘Grant me justice against my opponent’ (Luke 18: 3) … a painting by Una Heaton in a pub in Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent, and tomorrow is the Second Sunday before Advent. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Margaret (1093), Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, and Reformer of the Church; and Saint Edmund Rich of Abingdon (1240), Archbishop of Canterbury.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

There is an emphasis on justice in today’s Gospel reading … the scales of justice depicted on the Precentor’s Stall in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 18: 1-8 (NRSVA):

1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming”.’ 6 And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

‘Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice’ (Luke 18: 5) … the sign at the Wig and Pen near the courthouse in Truro, Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning offers an opportunity to reflect on what we mean by law and justice. We read the well-known parable of the ‘Unjust Judge,’ a judge ‘who neither fears God nor has respect for people,’ and how he is forced to grant justice to a widow who keeps coming to him, saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’

Does the judge abandon his sense of impartiality when it comes to the administration of justice?

Or is he forced to realise the difference between what is legal and what is just, and the difference between justice and mercy?

We often know this parable as the ‘Parable of the Unjust Judge.’ But we might also call it the ‘Parable of the Persistent Widow,’ for we are told to take this woman and not the judge as our example: an example of how to pray to God, as opposed to an example of how to prey on people.

And yet, let us take some time first to look at the judge.

Are we asked to think that God behaves like an unjust or capricious judge?

Is this a judge who exercises his office without fear or favour?

Is justice about that?

Is justice about seeing that the law is enforced?

Or is it about seeing that justice is done, and is seen to be done?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing justice?

How many judges implement the law without dispensing mercy?

Is this not what happened in Nazi Germany, in apartheid South Africa, or in racist states in the American ‘Deep South’?

How many judges in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa merely applied the law?

Could a Jewish widow expect justice from a judge in Nazi Germany?

Could a black widow expect mercy from a judge in apartheid South Africa?

The woman in this parable is not asking for what is her legal right. She is not asking for her neighbour to be punished. But she may be asking for something she is not entitled to: justice.

When we find ourselves saying we cannot accept a judgmental God, is that because our image of a judge is of a distant figure who applies the full rigour of the law, rather than an accessible figure who dispenses justice and mercy?

Who chosen ones who cry to God day and night?

Certainly, a widow would fall into that category at the time of Christ. She would have no man to argue her case for her, and so would go unheard. All other cases – commercial, civil and criminal – would take priority in the courts before her request to be heard.

Who is the widow in this story?

We might consider parallels between a people who have turned their back on God or whose covenantal relationship with God has died, and a woman whose covenantal relationship, her marriage, has come to an end with death.

Without love, there is no covenant. Without love there is no true religion, and no true marriage.

A true relationship with God is marked by love – God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for others. If that love is the foundation of our Christianity, then justice becomes more important than law, and mercy more important than rules, and God the Judge becomes a loving rather than a tyrannical image.

Inside Saint Margaret’s Church, the Anglican church in Budapest … Saint Margaret of Scotland is commemorated on 16 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 16 November 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘A Look at Education in the Church of the Province of Myanmar’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Nadia Sanchez, Regional Programme Coordinator, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 16 November 2024) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (I Corinthians 1: 30).

The Collect:

God, the ruler of all,
who called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne
and gave her zeal for your Church and love for your people
that she might advance your heavenly kingdom:
mercifully grant that we who commemorate her example
may be fruitful in good works
and attain to the glorious crown of your saints;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
who inspired Margaret to witness to your love
and to work for the coming of your kingdom:
may we, who in this sacrament share the bread of heaven,
be fired by your Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily living
and never to rest content until your kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of the Second Sunday before Advent:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A sculpture by Rodney Munday at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, of Saint Edmund Rich … he is remembered in ‘Common Worship’ on 16 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 167, Friday 25 October 2024

‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens’ (Luke 12: 54) … clouds above the beach in Ballybunion, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI). The Church Calendar today commemorates Saint Crispin and Saint Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome ca 287.

The Jewish festival of Simchat Torah began at sunset yesterday (24 October 2024), and ends after nightfall this evening (25 October 2024).

The Sarawak International Dragon Boat Regatta is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and the 10th Sarawak International Dragon Boat Regatta begins on the Waterfront in Kuching today (25 October) and continues until Sunday (27 October).

But, before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘End of the beach’ at Platanias in Rethymnon … but do we know how to read the signs of the end of the times? (see Luke 12: 54-56) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 54-59 (NRSVA):

54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.’

‘I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny’ (Luke 12: 59) … old pennies on a table in a bar in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading continues on from the difficult images we had yesterday of division and strife, shattering all our expectations of Gospel values that emphasise domestic bliss and harmony.

We heard warnings of fire on earth (verse 49), and of families and households divided and fighting each other to the death (verses 52-53). The verses that follow today include images of people being blown about by the storms and tempests of the day (verses 54-56).

Christ chides those who are listening for not recognising the signs he bears. They know how to forecast the weather, but they cannot forecast, watch for the signs of, the coming Kingdom of God.

There is a fashion in the Church today for ‘fresh expressions of the Church’ that blow where the wind blows. They seek to be fashionable and claim that they are relevant.

Sometimes, you may not know whether you are in a coffee shop or in a church, whether you are in the guiding hands of a barista or of a priest. The old forms of church have been abandoned, and with it we may ask whether they have thrown out the core content too.

I visited one of these churches recently. Yes, there was a rambling sermon of 35 or more minutes. Yes, there was a time of ‘fellowship’ where people turned around their chairs and were chummy with one another, in a clumsy sort of way.

There was one reading, but no Gospel reading. There was no confession and absolution, no Credal statement, no Trinitarian formula in the prayers. The prayers prayed for those present and those like them, but there were no prayers for those outside, no prayers for a world that is divided and suffering, no challenge or judgment for those who have created the plight and sufferings of wars, refugees, racism, homelessness, economic injustice and climate change.

In this smug self-assurance, without any reference to the world outside, there was no challenge to discipleship, to live up to the promises and challenges of Baptism.

And, needless to say, there was no Sacrament, and no hint of there ever being a sacramental ministry.

Content had been abandoned for the sake of form. But the form had become a charade. For the sake of relevance, the church had become irrelevant.

The challenge of our Baptism is a challenge for the Church to be a sign of, a sacrament of, the Kingdom of God.

We can be distracted by the demands and fashions of what pass as ‘fresh expressions of Church’ and never meet the needs of a divided and suffering world.

Or we can be nourished by Word and Sacrament and respond to the demands of our Baptism in a discipleship that seeks to challenge and confront a suffering and divided world with the values and promises of the Kingdom of God.

But it is costly. And in that struggle, like Simeon warns Mary when she brings the Christ Child to the Temple, we may find ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

Fresh expressions or fresh espresso … some experiences of church today seem to be in the guiding hands of a barista rather than a priest … a double espresso in Singapore last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 25 October 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Persistence in Prayer’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager Europe & Oceania, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 25 October 2024) invites us to pray:

God of justice, help us to hear those who cry out for justice, particularly those living under oppression in Syria, South Sudan and North Korea. Do not let us refuse them.

The Collect:

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord,
to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Father of light,
in whom is no change or shadow of turning,
you give us every good and perfect gift
and have brought us to birth by your word of truth:
may we be a living sign of that kingdom
where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
in whose service lies perfect freedom:
teach us to obey you
with loving hearts and steadfast wills;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘When you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case’ (Luke 12: 58) … a pub sign in Truro (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org