14th September 2025
Reflection with readings below
Jeremiah’s message was clear: God’s people needed to know how to do good not evil. For when their behaviour was evil, their fruitful land would become a barren desolation. Prophets don’t so much predict the future, as spell out the consequences of different course of behaviour, highlighting what may happen when the wrong course of action is taken – and this is seldom a message people want to hear. The calling of a prophet was – and is – not easy. No one likes being told they’ve got it wrong. Jeremiah was always outspoken in his role as a prophet – regardless of the consequence for his own safety. He ended up being put down an empty well as well as being taken against his will to Egypt.
Jeremiah’s words and actions however came from his deep closeness to God and his knowledge of God’s wisdom. This wisdom revealed to Jeremiah that when people lived in opposition to God’s will, in opposition to the ways in which the Earth – God’s creation – worked, the results would be suffering and disaster.
When we read the words of other prophets such as Isaiah (whose words are expounded in this year theme for the Season of Creation – Peace with Creation – Isaiah 32:14-18) we find the same message: when we humans do not engage with God’s wisdom, when we do not pursue justice, when we do not live in harmony with the world God has created, then suffering and disaster ensues.
For decades now, we humans have been ignoring the consequences of burning ever greater quantities of fossil fuels. We have turned a blind eye to the unjust systems that mean the poorest suffer the most. We have failed understand that the Earth can not provide a limitless supply of resources to meet our growing appetite for more and more luxuries. If Jeremiah or Isaiah were here today they would be shouting out from the rooftops, calling us to repent and transform the way we live. They would be disrupting our lives with prophetic actions. They would be challenging the systems of rule and money that perpetuate the disregard for God and planet.
This week Christian Climate Action launched a document entitled ‘Stop Crucifying Creation’ which calls on the Church to take up that same prophetic role exercised by Jeremiah and Isaiah. In response to the accelerating climate crisis and the growing inequalities between rich and poor – both within and between nations – the Church is being called upon to use its corporate position to speak about the truth of these crises, to challenge those in positions of power who are aiding the unfolding suffering and disaster – governments and corporations. The Church is also being called to renew the vision of the early church which sought to nurture loving, caring and sharing communities.
Loving, caring and sharing communities have to be places where everyone is included and valued. In today’s gospel story, the Pharisees want to draw a distinction between themselves and those others who were tax collectors and sinners. So Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep – and then of the lost coin. In each case, the one that is lost is not indistinguishable from the others: the one hundred are all sheep and all to be cared for; the ten coins are all coins to be equally valued. Jesus’s message is a reminder not to ‘other’ the person – or community – that we perceive as not being ‘PLU’s. For those of who are climate activists, we need to remember that fossil fuel directors, insurance brokers and investment bankers are just as important in God’s eyes – not because of what they do but because of who they are: children of God. Indeed as the epistle writer tells us, it is the grace of Jesus that should overflow through us with faith and love.
And it is the message of the prophets and the psalmists that God does seek out and care for those who have gone astray so that all may flourish.
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28a
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse– a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.
“For my people are foolish,
they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
but do not know how to do good.”
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.
Psalm 14
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” *
All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there is none who does any good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon us all, *
to see if there is any who is wise,
if there is one who seeks after God.
3 Every one has proved faithless;
all alike have turned bad; *
there is none who does good; no, not one.
4 Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who eat up my people like bread
and do not call upon the Lord?
5 See how they tremble with fear, *
because God is in the company of the righteous.
6 Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but the Lord is their refuge.
7 Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come out of Zion! *
when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.
1 Timothy 1:12-17
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners– of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luke 15:1-10
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The Green Tau 