Collect and Readings for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – Jeremiah 18.1-11, Deuteronomy 30.15- end, Psalm 139.1-7,12-18, Psalm 1, Philemon 1-21, Luke 14.25-33
The Prayer for today
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits and mediation of 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. Amen.
No sooner have you missed paying a credit card bill than invitations to get further into borrowing start crashing through your letter box. We live in an age of plastic or electronic money where the planning of our finances is pressurised to include living beyond our means, and many discover too late that they have over-reached themselves and are heavily, and dangerously, in debt. Jesus’ words from today’s Gospel hit home to us very powerfully. It is so easy to start enthusiastically committing yourself financially to a new bathroom, car or double-glazing, and regret your decision once the ‘pay later’ date has arrived.
Although Jesus’ words sound very strict and demanding, they badly need to be taken on board. It is essential that no one is given the impression that following Jesus is all easy and happy, with no real cost involved. Part of spreading the good news is ensuring that people are properly informed of the small print. In fact, Jesus would not have it in small print, but large letters, so that there is no doubt about what is required in the way of commitment. God wants us to make a well-informed, well-considered decision; becoming a Christian, like undertaking marriage, should never be done lightly or carelessly.
Placing God at the very centre of our lives means deliberately placing him at the centre of our thinking and working, our emotions and feelings, our energy and ambitions and in the centre of every relationship, and every decision. Just as when you look at the world through a coloured filter, everything is coloured, so when we take the decision to follow Jesus, everything is coloured by that commitment.
So far, so demanding! Of course, the wonderful, good news is that when we take this step we can trust God to lead us into the very best, most fulfilling life possible. The lovely Psalm 139 celebrates the intimate knowledge God has of us, and every stage of our growing. Never will he demand less of us than we can be. In his strength, give. Never will he push us too fast or overload us too quickly. In partnership with Jesus we can look forward to a lifetime of growing, blossoming and bearing good fruit, in an environment of total security, warm affection and the knowledge of being precious and valuable.
Some things to reflect on:
• Thinking of the image of the potter, squashing a pot which has gone wrong and making a new one with the clay, do you think that Christians are too complacent about being saved by grace and ought to take their responsibilities for their good ‘works’ more seriously?
• How would you justify the costliness of following Jesus?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – Jeremiah 2.4-13, Ecclesiasticus 10.12- 18, Proverbs 25.6-7, Psalm 81.1-end, Psalm 112, Hebrews 13.1-8, 15-16, Luke 14.1, 7-14
The Prayer for today
O God, you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace, that we, running the way of your commandments, may receive your gracious promises, and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; 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. Amen.
In the reading from Jeremiah there is a powerful image of a broken, leaking well. God grieves because his people have chosen to reject the life-giving springs of his pure water which never dry up and decided instead to do their own thing and build these wells which are cracked, so any water they collect quickly runs away. The wells of their own making are vastly inferior and they don’t work; yet still the people choose to trust these rather than God’s blatantly superior offer.
Often when people are first converted, they are bursting to tell people about the God they have just discovered and can’t understand how anyone could not want what they have found, even though for years they themselves have also been struggling with leaking wells without realising the reality of God’s alternative. The more Christians there are gossiping the good news among their own contacts in a regular, informed and friendly way, the more chance there is of people hearing about God’s offer at the point when their hearts are ready to listen.
It was as one of the guests at a ‘Sunday dinner’ equivalent, that Jesus brought the conversation round to what people needed to hear, spoken anecdotally and through the after-dinner stories. They described a way of thinking that was quite radical, turning accepted values upside-down and suggesting a way of living which could liberate people and transform them.
The reading from Hebrews provides us with some good, practical guidelines for living God’s way, both as individuals and as a community. All the behaviour described is a natural result of loving one another as brothers and sisters – as ‘family’. We are advised to pray imaginatively for prisoners and all those who suffer – ‘as if you are there with them’. There is a great sense of the importance of community again, and recognition that in God’s way of living, individuals have a calling and a responsibility to be members of a corporate unit of loving: the Church of God.
Some things to reflect on:
• What attitudes and behaviour of our church, our society and our families could be described as constructing wells that leak?
• How do the practical hints for Godly living in Hebrews help our spiritual development and prayer life?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity – Isaiah 5.1-7, Jeremiah 23.23-29, Psalm 80.1-2,9-end, Psalm 82, Hebrews 11.29-12.2, Luke 12.49-56
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, who sent your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your Church: open our hearts to the riches of your grace, that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love and joy and peace; 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. Amen.
Many parents have high hopes for their children. Musical toys are given encouragingly to offspring who start singing in tune before they can talk. Balls to kick around are bought partly for fun and partly to foster any latent talent. Financial sacrifices are made for children showing potential in particular sports or arts. It would be cynical to think that all this is ‘pushy parent syndrome’; mostly it shows the natural pride and delight of parents in the children they love.
God, too, has high hopes for the children he loves. He delights in our progress and looks out for the seeds of the gifts he has given us to blossom; he loves to watch us using these gifts for the good of the world. Today we sense God’s sadness as he looks for the good and wholesome lives which we are capable of living as his creation, and finds instead destructive selfishness, bloodshed and cries of distress. We all know the aching disappointment of an attempt which has failed in spite of the lavish care we have invested in it. Sadly, we have to recognise that sometimes our behaviour, both collectively and individually, disappoints our parent God.
Such behaviour and attitudes are a waste of our life. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews urges us to get rid of everything that hinders and entangles us, so that we can run the race more easily and comfortably. And the best way of doing that is by keeping our sights fixed on Jesus. It is noticeable throughout history that whenever people have done this, they have been enabled to bring about great good, both within the Church and in society. It is when their eyes swivel round to fix on other things that corruption, distortion of the truth, and injustice start taking over. Rather like bindweed, they can look attractive, but throttle the life out of whatever they climb over. And the roots need to be eradicated to prevent strong regrowth. Jesus warns his followers that the path of righting deep-rooted wrong will not be straightforward or without radical disturbance and upheaval, not only in individuals, but also in families and nations and church communities.
Some things to reflect on:
• Why do we prefer to run cluttered lives when it would obviously be easier to be free?
• If God is a God of peace, why is Jesus promising conflict?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity – Jeremiah 1.4-10, Isaiah 58.9b-end, Psalm 71.1-6, Psalm 103.1-8, Hebrews 12.18-end, Luke 13.10-17
The Prayer for today
Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please you; 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. Amen.
The crippled woman, who made her way into the synagogue on that Sabbath day would have had her eyes, as always, fixed on the floor in front of her. Her bent back meant that she had to put up with a very narrow field of vision. When Jesus released her spine to move from its locked position, she could at last look ahead, up and around with a wonderful new freedom, which thrilled her and set her praising God. Her life would have changed completely now that her ’outlook’ had been so freed.
Others in that congregation were equally locked, with a cripplingly narrow field of spiritual vision. They had reduced the keeping of the Law to a complicated set of detailed rules and had spent so much energy focusing on these that t hey could no longer see the spirit and essence of the Law, guiding people to love God and love one another. When they were faced with the possibility of being released from their narrow field of vision, they could see it only in terms of broken rules.
Not only, Jesus, but also all the prophets of the Old Testament and all those commissioned from the New Testament down to today, are called by God to speak out and challenge people’s assumptions and prejudices – to straighten the spiritual backs of the narrowly visioned. God longs for his people to be free, and wherever people have become spiritually jammed, God raises up someone to offer them release and a fresh start.
Today we are urged to take God up on his offer of release and new vision, and not to miss out on the possibility of our whole life and outlook being transformed just because we have become used to living and behaving in a particular way. As the crippled woman found, it’s worth straightening up.
Some things to reflect on:
• Why were the religious leaders finding it so hard to accept Jesus when they already proclaimed their faith in his Father?
• Why do many people prefer to steer clear of too deep an involvement with God in their lives?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity – Isaiah 1.1,10-20, Genesis15.1-6, Psalm 50.1-8,23-end, Psalm 33.12-end, Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16, Luke 12.32-40
The Prayer for today
Almighty Lord and everlasting God, we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and Bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments; that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Gospel reading for this week begins with such an affectionate reassurance. It is God’s good pleasure and delight to give us the kingdom; everything is in hand, and nothing can ever tear us apart from the God who loves us. The only way separation can happen is by us choosing to walk away ourselves. So our God has us safe and expectant, knowing that there are great things in store for us both in this world and the next, even though we cannot see them.
And that is the faith God looks for in his people: believing the hope as a fact and trusting that what God has promised will indeed happen. The reading from Hebrews recalls the extraordinary faith of Abraham, God’s close friend, in the way he was prepared to launch out into the unknown on many occasions, simply because God told him to. Not only did he believe that God had authority which asked for obedience; he also knew that God’s responsible, caring nature would ensure that placing himself in the hands of the Lord was a sensible and safe thing to do.
So, Abraham’s faith determined how he lived. That always happens; you cannot trust the one true God and go on behaving with corruption, deceit, injustice, or self-glory which you know to be totally alien to his nature. But it is, of course, perfectly possible to pretend you have faith, and go through the ritual of words and worship, while your eyes stoically avoid God’s gaze, and your life proclaims that you actually despise the one you claim to worship.
It was exactly this which so wounded the heart of God about the people of Israel, to whom Isaiah was sent. How could God accept their offerings when they were living a lie? Hypocrisy and corruption creep up on us insidiously, minor detail by minor detail, so that we end up fooling ourselves that wrong is right. Sometimes we can fool others, too. But God we do not fool, and his reaction is to try to shake us out of the lie we are in, because he hates us being there and knows it causes all kinds of stress, whether we recognise that or not.
Having faith means looking seriously at the God we claim to believe in, and checking that our lives, in every aspect, in secret and in the open, are lined up with those qualities of truth, love, integrity and right action which are hallmarks of God and his friends.
Some things to reflect on:
• Why are we often more ready to check our standards against other people we know than against the nature of God, as shown to us in the person of Jesus?
• Has your faith in God ever forced you to take decisions which you found very difficult? Was it worth it?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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