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 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 Seventh Sunday after Trinity – Hosea 11.1-11, Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12-14; 2.18-23, Psalm 107.1-9, Psalm 49.1-12, Colossians 3.1-11, Luke 12.13-21
The Prayer for today
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: graft in our hearts the love of your
name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy keep us in the
same; 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.
Our culture runs on consumerism, and one of the side-effects of that is an encouragement of greed and increase in the daily temptation through the media to us that security, happiness and peace of mind come from possessions and self-indulgence. It is a myth which has enough truth in it to be dangerous. It undoubtedly helps to have enough to live on, but the wisdom of Mr Micawber holds true, all the same living within our means is happiness where finances are concerned, and sixpence over that is misery! Many know the misery of accumulated debts resulting from the pressure to live beyond our means and spend what we actually haven’t got.
It is a short step from being told that we haven’t got something to believing we need (rather than want) it, especially if we can see others who already have it. The ‘if only’s’ set in, with their accompanying sense of discontent and resentment. Equally dangerous is the possession of financial ’security’ which can kid us that we have no need of God, so that we shut down our spiritual antennae and grow increasingly oblivious to the needs of others and the glaring inequalities. The preoccupation with protecting what we own is good news for the insurance and home security firms, but bad news for the soul.
This week’s readings point out the foolishness of living in this way, and the wisdom of living with our security in the eternal things. Now that Christ has given us a new life, our insurance – or perhaps I should say ‘assurance’ – is kept with Christ in heaven. The whole yardstick of life is changed, and our time here recognised as only the first part of our full and lasting life. When we really grasp the implications of what Jesus has done for us, it is bound to alter our outlook on what is important to possess and what is of only minimal value.
It is not so much a question of giving away our possessions as changing our attitude to them and recognising them for what they are – pleasant comforts to thank God for, but lent to us to use, as good stewards, and in no way altering our real wealth and security.
Some things to reflect on:
· Is it possible to live in our culture without becoming materialistic?
· How can we help people see the value of this long-lasting spiritual wealth? And do we still need convincing ourselves?
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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Collect and Readings for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Hosea 1.2-10, Genesis 18.20-32, Psalm 85, Psalm 138, Colossians 2.6-19, Luke 11.1-13
The Prayer for today
Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may
obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; 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.
It is not God’s will that anyone should be lost; God longs for us all to be saved. Each one of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah was part of God’s loving creation and made in his image. Each person in Israel was known and loved. Those in every generation, who deliberately turn away and feed their selfish nature until they can no longer hear God’s prompting, are all cherished and of God’s making.
Today’s readings remind us of that immense parental tenderness that God has for us. He creates us full of potential and watches over our spiritual growth, ready to bathe us in his light, and drench us in his Spirit. The tragedy is that we so often refuse to let him give us the gifts necessary for our growth.
In the Genesis reading we are given this lovely example of a close relationship shared by Abraham with his God. He is full of respect, and perfectly understands the justice of the threatened destruction, but he feels with his God’s love the terrible sadness of waste and pleads for mercy on behalf of those cities. How his pleading must have made God’s heart sing, for here was a man loving in the broad and generous way he longed to see in all his creation.
The passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians urges his readers to let their growth in faith continue to flourish in Christ so that their lives overflow with thankfulness. It is not a question of everything happening at the beginning of our journey when we first commit ourselves. To grow, and to remain in close fellowship with God, we need constant filling up, feeding and guiding on a daily basis. The Bible, prayer and communion are gifts provided for us to use, and without taking God up on these gifts, our spiritual growth will weaken and become stunted.
In the Gospel for this week, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and the guidelines they are given have been valued by Christians of all denominations and traditions through the centuries. Luke links this teaching on prayer with a whole passage encouraging us to ask for what we need and ask persistently. God will never force himself on anyone; he waits for us to invite him into our lives, and that is why it is so vital that we do ask and seek and knock at the door.
If we look at many of his acts of healing, we find Jesus often gets people to state what they want; that is part of the healing because God likes to work in partnership with us, not as a take-over bid. So, he wants us to wake up each morning and ask that the kingdom may come, that we may have our daily needs provided – both physical and spiritual – and that we may have our sins forgiven and be guided safely through temptation. That way we shall be actively seeking the God who made us and loves us and has already all the gifts we need to bear fruit.
Some things to reflect on:
· Do we assume God to be more tolerant of wrong than he really is, or doubt that he can really be as forgiving as he is?
· How would you help someone to understand God’s character when they’ve prayed for something faithfully and it hasn’t materialised?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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