Collect and Readings for the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus – Numbers 6.22-end, Psalm 8, Galatians 4.4-7, Luke 2.15-21
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was circumcised in obedience to the law for our sake and given the Name that is above every name: give us grace faithfully to bear his Name, to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit, and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The new year has dawned. Last night, and over the coming days, we will wish each other a Happy New Year. But what will we mean when we offer that greeting to one another?
In classical Greek, the word for ‘happiness’ is makários. But this word, which we also encounter in The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), can be translated in other ways. Makários does mean ‘happiness’, but it can also mean ‘blessed’, ‘fortunate’ and ‘happier’. When we wish each other a Happy New Year, we need to reflect upon what we really mean. Are we simply exchanging a traditional pleasantry, or are we praying for something more?
In today’s reading, on this feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, we read of happiness. We read of the happiness of the safe delivery of Mary’s son; the happiness of the shepherds as they found all as it had been told them by the angels; the happiness which bubbled over into glorifying and praising God; the happiness of bringing Jesus to his circumcision and naming. There is a great deal of makários in today’s reading, and not just in the sense of ‘happiness’.
Mary and Joseph’s happiness, like that of the shepherds, can also be counted as blessedness and good fortune. Despite the challenging and humble circumstances of his miraculous birth, Jesus’ coming into the world has brought a level of happiness, blessedness and good fortune that far exceeds our feeble attempts at defining such words. It also shows what we should be wishing upon each other at this turning point of another year. Let us pray that all whom we wish a Happy New Year might know the happiness of a real relationship with the Christ who came to bring redemption for us all.
Let us pray that the whole world might be blessed with the peace, love and light of Christ as we embark upon a new year. Let us pray that our faith might be shown in the happiness and blessedness that shines through our words and actions in the year that lies ahead.
Some things to reflect on:
• What are we really saying when we wish people a Happy New Year?
• How can our faith in Christ make a real difference to us and those we meet in 2023?
God bless and I wish you a blessed and Happy New Year and one in which you will find the hope an joy that Jesus Christ can bring.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for The Third Sunday before Advent – Job 19.23-27a, 15-18, Psalm 17.1-9,
2 Thessalonians 2.1-5,13-end, Luke 20.27-38
The Prayer for today
Almighty Father, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of all: govern the hearts
and minds of those in authority, and bring the families of the nations, divided and torn apart by the
ravages of sin, to be subject to his just and gentle rule; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of
the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
When you have a favourite author, it is disappointing to get to the end of the last available novel that they have written; a friend of mine, with considerable enforced reading time, felt quite lost after the Cadfael books ran out. I have been known to read books several times in quite quick succession because I couldn’t bear to come to the end of the story.
When we set off on the journey of discovery into friendship with God, there is no problem of getting to the end of him or having to break our relationship with him simply because our physical body has stopped working. We can carry on enjoying his friendship, and an ever-deepening understanding of his nature throughout the whole of eternity. There is no end to God, and, through the redeeming work of Christ, there need be no end to us either, so we can look forward to life beyond death and enjoy the prospect of living in God’s company for ever.
The Sadducees had decided that the idea of resurrection wasn’t workable and therefore couldn’t be true. As so often happens, they were judging God’s ways by human limitations. They worked out this complicated problem to make Jesus realise how silly it is to think there can be life after death. Faced with this conundrum he will surely have to admit that they are sensible and right in their belief.
What Jesus does is to show them that they are asking the wrong question. Resurrection life is not a tangled continuation of the earthly order of things, but a new and different experience, just as real but with whole new dimensions of possibility.
It is rather like arguing that caterpillars couldn’t possibly fly. In their present state and with their present limitations it is indeed impossible, but the freshly emerging butterfly proves that flying is a perfectly natural progression from leaf munching. Few of us w would ever guess that a caterpillar could turn into a butterfly, and similarly we have little exact idea of what our resurrection life will be like. What we do know is that it will be fulfilling and rewarding, full of joy, peace and love.
In the meantime, we are to stand firm and stick to the teachings we have been handed down faithfully through the generations in an unbroken line which can be traced back to Christ himself. That will enable us to discern the false rumours from the truth, and we will be ready to enter the glorious heritage of resurrection life in heaven.
Some things to reflect on:
· Why do you think many who would call themselves Christians find it difficult to accept the reality of life after death?
· Think of any remembered references in the Bible that point to life after death being a reality and look up some others using a concordance. Using these, how would you help someone to understand more about heaven?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for the Last Sunday after Trinity – Joel 2.23-end, Ecclesiasticus 35.12-17, Jeremiah 14.7-10,19-22, Isaiah 45.22-end, Psalm 65, Psalm 84.1-7, Psalm 119.129-136, 2 Timothy 4.6-8, 16-18, Romans 15.1-6, Luke 18.9-14, Luke 4.16-24
The Prayer for today
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy
word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in
our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever. Amen.
We all want to be independent, and any parent can remember the battles which mark the route! One of the hardest things for the ageing is gradually having to relinquish their independence, and many struggle on with great difficulty rather than asking for help. This kind of pride in our independence as humans is good and healthy. The danger comes when we lose touch with where we have come from and forget as created beings, we are fundamentally dependent on our creator and sustainer, God himself.
The readings this week express the praise and thanksgiving which result from recognising God’s lavish showering of gifts on his people. There is so much to be thankful for, and the whole pattern of seasonal rain and growth work as a visible sign of God’s Spirit drenching and soaking us as it is poured out over us in life-giving abundance. Even those of us who have long been city- dwellers can appreciate the image of rain and growth.
To receive such a drenching, we need to be like the earth, open and vulnerable, and ready to accept a soaking. It isn’t any coincidence that the word ‘humility’ means ‘earthiness’. And we simply can’t be earthy if we are working on the principle that we have no need of God, or of anyone’s help, and can manage perfectly well on our own, thank you.
While the Pharisee in this week’s Gospel is going through the motions of communicating with God, he is really affirming his own independent worth and has no concept of his deepened of God at all. It’s like insisting on protecting our earth from rain; and if we do that, nothing can grow. In contrast the tax collector, complete with questionable morals and principles, at least recognises his basic dependence on God, and his need of God’s mercy. It is this honesty before God that Jesus recommends.
Some things to reflect on:
· What kind of things in life remind us of our need of God, and what kind of things give us a false sense of superiority and independence of him?
· What is your hope in God based on?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for All Saints Day – Daniel 7.1-3, 15-18, Psalm 149, Ephesians 1.11-end, Luke 6.20-31
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body
of your Son Christ our Lord: grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly
living that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love
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.
I am told that there are occasions when people go caving that they suddenly find themselves in huge, lofty underground caverns with the most beautiful rock formations and colours that take your breath away. And they realise that there would be no easy way of seeing these wonders; the tight and terrifying passages that they have just squeezed through are an essential part of the experience.
Perhaps this is a little like the pattern of our spiritual experience, too. We are all chosen in Christ to be saints, and part of the glorious life awaiting God’s chosen ones in heaven is the challenging and often uncomfortable journey towards it. You cannot have one without the other, and the expectation of that promised, but unimaginable destination can actually make us happy to be spiritually crawling through mud or holding our breath through sumps.
Nearly all of us share the forgotten but impressive experience of birth through a narrow and uncomfortable tunnel out into the breadth and light of this world, and many mothers find that the pain of the birthing process is different from other pain because of being positive and full of hope. They are in no way denying the pain but seeing it (at least with hindsight!) in a wider context.
It is in the wider context of eternity that the Beatitudes make sense, and that our attitude to earthly pressures and persecution lightens. Even these times catch the light of God’s love and glory, and so become not just possible to bear but reasons for rejoicing, as they mark out and confirm our route.
As we celebrate this week the many who have persevered on this route and now cheer us on, we catch the excitement again of our calling, both individually by name, and as the entire Church of God.
Some things to reflect on:
· Would you be willing to suffer persecution for your faith?
· Reading the Bible passages for this week, how does the Church of your experience live up to its calling?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity – Jeremiah 31.27-34, Genesis 32.22-31, Psalm 119.97-104, Psalm 121, 2 Timothy 3.14-4.5, Luke 18.1-8
The Prayer for today
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us your gift of faith that, forsaking what lies behind and
reaching out to that which is before, we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of
everlasting joy; 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.
I have a half-finished embroidery somewhere in the back of a cupboard, which has been in that state for years. Whenever I rediscover it, I make the decision to keep it as one day I may have time to finish it. Even as I put it back in the cupboard, I know this is unlikely; the commitment simply isn’t there, as my embroidery doesn’t rank high enough in my order of priorities.
For many people, faith in God is similarly packed away, and brought out and looked at from time to time. Their prayer-life is haphazard and irregular, with long gaps of inattentiveness punctuated with occasional attempts to open up the communication channels. For whatever reasons, building a deep relationship with God is simply not a high priority at present. If it were, the commitment would show in a regular and more persistent prayer pattern.
Whereas my embroidery remains much the same sitting in the cupboard, relationships are dynamic and do not store well without attention. It is always rather sad when a close friendship subsides into the printed Christmas letter category. Although this can be a valiant effort to avoid losing touch completely, it is a poor substitute for the daily contact and shared lives. And so often our prayer-life and Bible reading, if similarly rare and impersonal, result in a very stilted relationship with God, which is such a poor substitute for the rich, vibrant companionship he has in mind for us.
We live in a rather fragmented and disjointed culture, which doesn’t help. Many young children are now entering school with a marked increase in poor listening and concentration skills. Persistence in anything, whatever it is, does not come easily. But prayer, like our heartbeat, needs to be regular and constant, a quiet rhythm pulsing faithfully under all our other activities. We also have a responsibility to keep up our study of the Bible so that we, like Timothy, are thoroughly equipped for every work.
Some things to reflect on:
· Do we have God’s word in our minds and written on our hearts? What can we put in place to improve our present situation?
· If God knows our needs before we ask, why does Jesus advise us to be persistent in prayer?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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