10th August 2025
Reflection with readings below
The Book of Isaiah begins with the prophet addressing the people of Judah – for the northern kingdom of Israel has already been destroyed by the Assyrian empire – pointing out God’s disfavour with them for their sinful behaviour. Their religious practices are just that: practices. The people are failing to love as God desires. In God’s eyes their behaviour is no better than that of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
What does God want? Not sacrifices, not solemn assemblies, but a way of life that is righteous – vis ‘learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow’.
Sometimes we are discouraged from doing such things when it seems there are so many people who are hungry, so many people who are homeless, or who have been widowed or orphaned, or who are oppressed. Any actions we may take seem pointless – a useless drop in the ocean. Yet the writer of Hebrews would tell us that it is important to act in faith, ie to act as if that things we hoped for were happening. That is that we should do all these – ‘learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow’ – believing that they will make a difference, that they will bring about the salvation God intends.
In the gospels Jesus’s constant message is of the nearness, of the growing presence, of the kingdom of God. By our actions, our disposition, our allegiance, we become part of that kingdom. We become citizens whose lives are shaped by the ways and rules of that reign.
In today’s gospel we are challenges to relinquish are allegiance to our own private property, to our own personal priorities. Rather what we have and use, what our aims and priorities are, are determined by our allegiance to God. All that we have – possessions, skills, opinions – are shaped by our desire ‘to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow’.
So for example, how might what we have and what we can do, alleviate hunger for those dependant on food banks and those suffering starvation in Gaza?
We can contribute to the food banks but also learn more about why we need them, and about what alternative policies the government could pursue to avoid such need – eg a basic national income, a more generous minimum wage etc.
We can pray for the crisis in Gaza, we can find out facts about the whole situation, and we can access prayer resources from groups such as Sabeel Kairos. We can support justice with financial donations to groups such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and Embrace. We can write to our MP, our prime minister and foreign minister and ask them to take action on our behalf. We can join marches and demonstrations. We can write to the press.
Seek justice for those who cannot afford legal aid and for those forced off their land in the West Bank.
We can pursue justice in numerous ways. By rescuing endangered species – such as curlews – facing extinction (our action might include donations, membership of the RSPB, learning about the habitats they need and humans can destroy or protect those habitatsWe can pray and campaign for Afghan women stranded without food or housing for lack of a male guardian; for children in care lacking the love of a family and for migrants lacking the security of a safe country. We, with our richness, can make a difference. By being generous we can find joy and a sense of of purpose. For all, this is the way of God’s salvation.
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation–
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.
Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
1 The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken; *
he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, *
God reveals himself in glory.
3 Our God will come and will not keep silence; *
before him there is a consuming flame,
and round about him a raging storm.
4 He calls the heavens and the earth from above *
to witness the judgment of his people.
5 “Gather before me my loyal followers, *
those who have made a covenant with me
and sealed it with sacrifice.”
6 Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause; *
for God himself is judge.
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak:
“O Israel, I will bear witness against you; *
for I am God, your God.
8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices; *
your offerings are always before me.
23 Consider this well, you who forget God, *
lest I rend you and there be none to deliver you.
24 Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me; *
but to those who keep in my way will I show the salvation of God.”
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old– and Sarah herself was barren– because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
Luke 12:32-40
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
The Green Tau 