25th October 2026
Reflection with readings below
The theme of today’s readings is God’s command that we love our neighbour. In the passage from Leviticus this is further elucidated. To love one’s neighbour is to show them justice, not to bad-mouth or scape-goat them – and certainly not to kill them. To love one’s neighbour is not hate them, nor bear a grudge nor exact vengeance on them. But to love one’s neighbour is to point out when they are doing the wrong thing, lest you and they suffer. I would suggest this requires tact, empathy and honesty – are you sure that you understand what the wrong is and what is the cause? And finally that we should love our neighbour as ourself.
Indeed the words of the Psalmist reminds us that God’s wisdom is designed for our wellbeing and happiness, and that by follow the commands of God, we will grow and flourish like a tree by a stream.
Today’s gospel is a familiar one. Jesus is being interrogated by the religious authorities: what is the true meaning of the Law? What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus boils it down to two – to love God wholeheartedly, and to love your neighbour as yourself. This answer points to the interconnectedness of the relationships between God, the individual and the community. Our faith is not a purely individualistic relationship between God and me. It is a three way relationship that has to involve not just God and me but the rest of creation. This can feel challenging if not impossible. There is so much in the world that is not good, that is not caring and loving. Sometimes it is hard to know where or how to be loving.
This week, the government approved the license for the Jackdaw gas field on the basis that it would ensure the security at least 6% of our gas needs because it would be coming direct from the North Sea to our homes, because it would ensure jobs in Aberdeen, and because we would benefit from the taxes on the gas company’s profits. But on the other hand, the gas burned will release those very carbon emissions that are fuelling the climate crisis, that are causing the extreme weather events such as the glacial landslide in Nepal, this summer’s European wide drought and heat waves, and this weekend’s storms battering the UK. These extreme weather events have diminished harvests and increased food prices. The rising cost of oil and gas are equally impacting the cost of living for so many people – especially those who cannot afford home insulation, double glazing, electric vehicles and heat pumps. These extreme weather events are also contributing to the decline in biodiversity as birds, fish, plants and animals struggle to cope.
Who then is the neighbour we are commanded to love? It can be both our next door neighbour and the wild birds visiting our garden. It can be both the oil rig worker in the North Sea and the Pacific Islander. It can be both the farmer in East Anglia and the cocoa farmer in Ghanaian.
On the other hand my neighbour is also the bee that pollinates the fruit tree so that I can enjoy a juicy apple. It is the plane tree that cleans the air I breathe. It is the train driver who ensures I have a train to get me home, and the farmer who grows the potatoes I eat for supper.
I think I come back to networks and community. To love my neighbour is to make those choices that contribute to a world in which everyone thrives, a world in which the common good overrides profit, a world in which we can are all be grateful for what we receive. Envisaging what that world looks like, how it would function and what would be prioritised, will help us work out how best we can act in loving God and in loving our neighbour. This envisaging is not something we can do alone: it needs to be done as communities and with wisdom that comes from paying attention to God. We need to talk with and listen to each other, with family and friends, in churches, in communities, within companies and industries, local authorities, nations and internationally. One such forum would be citizens assemblies; another would be AGMs.
Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18
Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbour: I am the Lord.
You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.
Psalm 1
1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *
nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
everything they do shall prosper.
4 It is not so with the wicked; *
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, *
but the way of the wicked is doomed.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
