Judith Russenberger

Proper 12 sixth Sunday after Trinity

27th July 2025

Reflection with readings below

Names are important in the first reading because names can have meanings.Hosea means salvation. Gomer means completion. And as we hear, each of Gomer’s children have names with meanings.

Hosea is a prophet who, rather than passing on God’s message through words spoken to the people, is called to enact God’s message – to demonstrate it in a very physical way. And it would have been a message that took several years to deliver.

God’s message delivered to the people is a stark reminder that they have been unfaithful. They have not stuck to the promises – to the covenants – made between God and people. They have not been monogamous in their relationship with God. They have not followed the ways of God. Rather they have pursued other gods and other ways of living. And likewise with Gomer. It would seem as if Gomer’s first child is Hosea’s son but the other two children may not. Even though Hosea has rescued Gomer once by marrying her, still she sins.

The consequence of the people’s unfaithfulness is ruin and destruction. Yet the text suggests that it is not just the people who are caught up in this sinfulness – “for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” The word used does mean land or earth. Is the land, like Gomer’s offspring, an innocent victim? Has the land suffered because of the waywardness of the people who should – in accordance with God’s will – have been tending and protecting it?

Or would kingdom be a better – if not accurate – translation? The kingdoms of both Jehu and Judah both suffer and will ultimately be taken over by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

This last week the world past Earth Overshoot Day – 24th July – being the day when globally we have used up a full year’s supply of resources and services that the Earth provides. Some countries – the poorest, least developed – will not have used even a half of their share whilst other richer highly developed countries will have used their share many times over. And the latter is even more criminal in that those countries have been able to do this because they have unfairly used resources that belonged to someone else, and because their over consumption is also at the expense of generations to come.

Have we been unfaithful to God? Has the world failed to follow God’s will? Have we pursued other gods – profit, wealth, capitalism, egotism and self importance?

Are we any different from the recipients of Hosea’s message? Are we failing to hear or to pay attention to the warning of the prophets? Are we not polluting the land by ignoring God’s will?

Today’s gospel tells how Jesus gave his follower the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer which we use frequently. But do we pray it with intent?

Do we see all of humanity as our brothers and sisters, for whom God is Father and Mother? Or do we see some as being less important, not worth treating as God’s children?

Do we honour God’s name? Or do we forget or belittle God as a less than worthy partner?

Do we strive to do what God wills? Often we take ‘your will be done’ as a get out clause. What ever happens for good or ill (and usually this is reserved for the latter) we meekly say that whatever has happened has happened because it was God’s will. The flood that washed away the village; the person who died prematurely; the lightening strike that destroyed a tree – all God’s will. I don’t believe that God wants floods to destroy villages, people to die prematurely or lightening to destroy trees – for God’s nature is love. That these things happen must grieve God. That sometimes they happened because we humans have not done what God would want, must grieve God even more.

‘Your will be done’ is about us undertaking to do that which God desires, to do those things express God’s love, to undertake to live as citizens of God’s kingdom, as subjects of God’s reign – to do God’s will. Thus will the world be healed. Thus will we find salvation.

I wonder how the listeners of Hosea’s message responded?

Puzzlement, derision, anger, disbelief? Did they listened or did they simply ignored the protest and carry on as before?

I wonder how we may and our communities, responded to the prophetic warning of Earth Overshoot Day? I wonder how we may and our communities, respond to the daily reports of the effects of climate change, of the impacts of capitalism and globalisation on the poor, the suffering of those treated as being less than human, less than God’s children?

Rebalancing our global consumption of the Earth’s resources and services will take more than just making major adjustments to what we consume. To overcome inequality we will need a major overhaul of systems of trade and taxation. To overcome poverty will need a major focus in redistribution and better distribution of resources. To over overcome war and oppression, apartheid and genocide will need humility and empathy, discernment and good communication, cooperation and a willingness to seek justice. And we all need to engage with this for we are called to be citizens of God’s kingdom as we pray, with the help of God, ‘your will be done!’

Hosea 1:2-10

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”

She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.”

When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”

Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

Psalm 85

1 You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *
you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.

2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *
and blotted out all their sins.

3 You have withdrawn all your fury *
and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.

4 Restore us then, O God our Saviour; *
let your anger depart from us.

5 Will you be displeased with us for ever? *
will you prolong your anger from age to age?

6 Will you not give us life again, *
that your people may rejoice in you?

7 Show us your mercy, O Lord, *
and grant us your salvation.

8 I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.

9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth have met together; *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
and our land will yield its increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him, *
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

Colossians 2:6-15

As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

“Thy will be done”

26th July 2025

Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their sibling are liars; for those who do not love a sibling whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:20

You Lord, are the source of all good things:

May your name be hallowed.

You call us to love every neighbour as ourself:

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:

May we live together in peace.

A reading from Matthew 25: 35-40

for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[a] you did it to me.”

Love the Lord your God with heart and soul and mind and strength.

The migrant is a figure of hate,

the asylum seeker despised;

the Jew is stereotyped,

the Muslim is vilified.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Love your neighbour as yourself.

The homeless lie destitute on the pavement,

the lonely sit isolated in their homes,

the poor queue in food banks,

the rich are spoilt for choice.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Do not opposes the orphan, the widowed, nor the foreigner.

The children are reduced to bones by malnutrition,

the widowed go hungry;

the stateless have no rights

and the alien is deported.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty.

Food aid sits in compounds as Palestinians die on their feet;

whilst those collecting water become targets for snipers.

In the West, food banks and food waste co-exist,

whilst health service tackle obesity and malnutrition.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Seek justice, love mercy.

Warfare grinds on in Ukraine and the Congo,

in Myanmar and Thailand, in Gaza and Yemen.

Justice falters where drug wars and gang violence,

land grabs and forced migration take precedence.

The rich and powerful have no mercy.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Speak out for the voiceless and rescue the oppressed.

Refugees languish unreported in North Sudan and Yemen;

Afghan women wait at borders with no hope of rescue,

and trafficked workers remain hidden out of sight.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Release the prisoner, heal the sick.

Activists are imprisoned,

political opponents jailed,

the disabled are trapped by lack of support,

the mentally ill are left in limbo for lack of care.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Tend and protect the Earth; declare the year of the Lord’s favour.

Soils are degraded through overuse,

waters are polluted with sewage and chemical spills;

temperatures rise and glaciers melt;

industrial farming displaces forests;

wildlife diminishes.

“Thy will be done”?

Have mercy on us good Lord,

that we learn to do your will.

Lord whenever we pray as Jesus taught us,

inspire us with the vision of how things could be on Earth just as jn Heaven.

Challenge us to live according to your will.

Embolden us with strength to make the changes that are needed.

Empower us with wisdom to speak the truth to power where your will is ignored.

And enfold us in your loving compassion.

Amen.

remind us that how things are is not ‘Thy will’ help us understand that we are called to

Counting on … day 117

25th July 2025

Today I’d like to share the Joy in Enough confession as a good starting point for thinking about how we live sustainably within the Earth’s limits.

“Your earth is exploited, and we are complicit in its exploitation. Species are lost, soil erodes, fish stocks decline, resources dwindle. We confess that many of us have taken too much, and not considered the needs of future generations.”

For the full confession see https://joyinenough.org/2019/01/29/the-joy-in-enough-confession/

Counting on … day 116

24th July 2025

Today is Earth overshoot day – the day in the calendar when the world’s population has consumed one whole year’s worth of the Earth’s renewable resources and services (eg soil fertility for crops, clean water, fish stocks, the delicate balance of gases in the atmosphere, etc).

Our current patterns of consumption are unsustainable – they are also inequitable for whilst countries like the UK have vastly consumed more than is sustainable, part of our consumption has been at the expense of poorer nations who do not even get the chance to consume their fair share of the Earth’s resources and services,

From here on we are eating into wellbeing of future generations.

https://www.overshootday.org

Greentau: issue 111

Earth Overshoot Day

24th July 2025

Leviticus 25 explains that the land should have a sabbath rest every seventh year. In that year no crops would be sown and the people would live off the surplus of previous years. Farmers over the millennia have learnt that you cannot constantly expect the land to keep on producing crops year on year without fail. The land either needs to lay fallow (rest), or it needs to be sown with a restorative crop such as nitrogen fixing beans or clover, or it needs the input of artificial fertilisers (although we are now becoming aware that relying on artificial fertilisers may be a quick fix and not a long term solution), so that it may recuperate its productivity. It is a lesson we are sometimes reluctant to heed. The Dust Bowl disaster of 1930s in the USA destroyed vast acres of farm land because farming practices did not maintain the fertility of the soil.

It is not just soil that has to be maintained. Water systems too. If we drain more water out than is replenished by precipitation or the melting of glaciers (themselves replenished by winter snow) water supplies will diminish. The Aral Sea – an inland lake – was once the fourth largest area of fresh water in the world, but has now been reduced to nothing because more water has been extracted year on year – to irrigate local cotton crops – than the rate at which water flows were refilling the lake.

It’s hard to imagine, but we also need to maintain the atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere is a delicate mix of various gases, which in the right proportions maintain our climate at one with which we are comfortable. If we put too much of certain gases into the atmosphere it can upset that balance. Too much carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases, and the atmosphere traps more of heat within the Earth’s atmospheric envelope; global temperatures rise and the climate becomes more extreme and uncomfortable. We are experiencing this every year with floods, heat waves, wildfires and intense storms.

Ideally what we consume from the natural world – crops, timber, drinking water, clean air, energy – is balanced by the earth’s ability to regenerate. Prior to 1970 that was the case. Since then we have been using up the earth’s renewable resources at a rate faster than they are replenished. Scientists each year calculate that point when we pass from credit to deficit. This is called Earth Overshoot Day. This year the predicted date is 24th July. Seven months into the year and we have already – globally – consumed as much as the earth can replenish in one year!

Surely this state of affairs can not continue? What can we do about it and why aren’t we doing it?

Since 1970, Earth Overshoot Day has been falling earlier and earlier each year. Only in 2020 did it reverse: the reduction in world wide consumption came about because Covid gave the earth a three week reprieve. Consuming less has to be the answer which means consuming more carefully and more sustainably.

If we could do that in 2020 whilst coping with a pandemic, surely we could do it every year? What we must do is make sure that it is not the poor – who already lack a sufficiency – who are the ones who get to consume less; rather it must be the richer over consumers who need to change their lifestyles. And here is another caveat, to live more sustainably and fairly, will need a fundamental change in economic and political systems.

The Earth Overshoot website has details of various ways in which the global community could do this. https://www.overshootday.org/ Meantime we as individuals can make changes to our own lives and patterns of consumption. And we can ask or push for our churches, places of work, sports clubs, local authorities, museums, retailers, and government, to make similar reductions in consumption. We need change to happen at all levels.

24th July is 2025’s Earth Overshoot Day at the global level. That date is the average of each nation’s own Overshoot Day. The overshoot dates for individual nations in the diagram below range from 17th December for Uruguay (ie Uruguay pretty much balances its books, consuming only slightly more than it can regenerate in a year) to 6th February for Qatar. What this diagram does not show are the many poorer nations who do not even use up their equivalent of one year’s resources each year – The UK’s Overshoot Day was 20th May. We would need three United Kingdom’s to satisfy our current consumption levels; in reality we consume resources of other countries to make up the shortfall. Reducing the Earth Overshoot problem requires cooperation and understanding at a global as a well as at local levels. The Earth is a shared life-support system.

Counting on … day 115

23rd July 2025

Joy in Enough is the name of one of the Green Christian groups, and it strikes me as a beautiful description of how it would be to live well. And so how to live in a world where waste is valued.

Their aim is to seek out, develop and pursue a new form of economics that would ensure joy in enough for all.

‘…the purpose is clear. We want to build a society where there is delight in enough, taking from the earth only enough to meet our needs rather than satisfying our greed. We want to allow time for earth’s resources to be replenished, safeguarding them for future generations. We joyfully seek a just and ecologically sustaining economy where there is enough for everyone, locally and globally.’ (1)

https://joyinenough.org/resources/awakening-to-a-new-economics/

Counting on … day 114

22nd July 2025

During a vigil holding up the plight of the Palestinian people in the absence of any concern during the debates at this month’s Church of England synod, someone spoke of ‘wasting love’. This I take to mean being so generous with love that it is poured out liberally, abundantly, with careless abandon, with no regard as to whether it is either earned by the recipient or likely to repaid. In other words to be as generous as God who daily wastes love on us.

In the parable of the sower and the seed, the behaviour of the sower might be seen as wasteful but maybe it is actually generous, casting the seed everywhere because the sower doesn’t prejudge where it will take root.

Counting on … day 113

21st July 2025

Prayer was once described to me as ‘wasting time with God’. It is an activity that doesn’t have to achieve a particular outcome, or be marked according to words spoken or topics covered. It can simply be time spent in one another’s company.

Perversely while there may be not clear purpose or outcome, such prayer calms our anxiety and strengthens our relationship with God.

This thought relates well to yesterday’s Gospel, when Jesus honours the value of what Mary does by sitting at his feet, whilst Martha allows herself to be overwhelmed by domestic tasks – Martha doesn’t appreciate the value of wasting time with God. (Luke 10: 38-42)

Proper 11, 5th Sunday after Trinity

20th July 2025

Reflection with readings below

In today’s reading from the prophet Amos, we hear of God’s warning to the people of the consequences of pursuing profit whilst ignoring God’s ways: vis suffering and calamity

Do not the same threats hang over our world, over our economic and social systems today?

Here in the UK, we do “trample on the poor” – think of the two child benefit cap, the reduction of benefits for the disabled, the practices that favour landlords over tenants such that rents become unaffordable, those tax breaks that benefit the rich but not the poor, the low wages that benefit the employer not the employee, those subsides that benefit fossil fuels companies not energy consumers etc. And more widely we bring ruin to the poor with international policies that place heavy debt burdens on poor nations from which we benefit, with policies that do not meet the needs of those countries suffering the impact of climate change which we have caused at their expense, with trade policies that are stacked against the smaller nations and smaller companies. Truly the rich and powerful in our world use “false balances” – ie weighing scales – that favour us and not the poor.

(NB an Ephah is a measure of weight, shekel a unit of currency).

It is not just people but the environment that we wilfully damage and we are already seeing the initial consequences of this with heatwaves and droughts, flash floods and wild fires. The Earth is a delicate ecosystem – a life support system – which is being damaged by our greed and misuse. July 24th will be 2025’s Earth Overshoot Day (last year it was 1st August). That is the day when globally we will have used up a year’s supply of the Earth’s resources. Our extraction of water will exceed the rate of renewal. Our use of the atmosphere to absorb carbon dioxide will exceed capacity (without causing further global temperature rises). Our use of the soil’s capacity to produce food will exceed the rate at which its fertility can be maintained – leading to reduced crops yields in the future. Etc etc. Do check out the Earth Overshoot website to understand more about this situation. Here in the UK, we had used up our share of the Earth’s resources by 20th May, so already our lifestyle choices are being made at the expense of poorer people across the world and future generations.

The Earth Overshoot website has one section entitled solutions. Here it says “While our planet is finite, human possibilities are not. The transformation to a sustainable, carbon-neutral world will succeed if we apply humanity’s greatest strengths: foresight, innovation, and care for each other.” (1) Here is the invitation to live differently – and for those of us who are Christians, that surely means living according to God’s commands, living according to the values of God’s kingdom. The phrase ‘care for each other’ sharply echoes last week’s gospel story of the Good Samaritan.

Today’s Gospel reminds us of the importance of spending time and attention on Jesus’s teachings. We can rush around being busy, thinking that being busy will solve the world’s problems, but unless we are following Jesus – doing God’s will – our efforts may prove fruitless. We also run the risk of burnout. Burnout diminishes our ability to love our neighbours. Jesus set us the example in his own daily life of taking time out to be be in nature, to spend time with God, to be refocus and re-energised. In today’s gospel that is Jesus’s advice for Martha – and it is good advise for us too.

Maybe the extract from the Letter to the Colossians should be a reminder to us that we are not solely responsible for saving the world (a deceit I can be guilty of). Rather it is in and through Christ that salvation is being effected. Our contribution will only ever be but a small part within the the greater whole which is the body of Christ – a fellowship that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It will be together in Christ that we will see the salvation of life in Earth being as it is in Heaven.

https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/solutions/

Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me– a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
says the Lord God;

“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,

buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,

and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,
and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.

Psalm 52

1 You tyrant, why do you boast of wickedness *
against the godly all day long?

2 You plot ruin;
your tongue is like a sharpened razor, *
O worker of deception.

3 You love evil more than good *
and lying more than speaking the truth.

4 You love all words that hurt, *
O you deceitful tongue.

5 Oh, that God would demolish you utterly, *
topple you, and snatch you from your dwelling,
and root you out of the land of the living!

6 The righteous shall see and tremble, *
and they shall laugh at him, saying,

7 “This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, *
but trusted in great wealth
and relied upon wickedness.”

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; *
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

9 I will give you thanks for what you have done *
and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly.

Colossians 1:15-28

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers– all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him– provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Magnificat reimagined

19th July 2025

Trust in the Lord and be doing good; dwell in the land and be nourished with truth.
Let your delight be in the Lord and he will give you your heart’s desire.
Psalm 37:3-4

You Lord are the bread of life;

feed us with your wisdom.

Our nourishment is to do God’s will;

guide us in all we do

Whenever we eat or drink

Let it be to the glory of the kingdom of God.

A reading from Matthew 25: 34-36 (The Message)

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’”

A canticle reimagining the Magnificat:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.

Praise to you O God, for the rich creation of this world

for which you have created humans to be under-gardeners.

From this day all generations will call me blessed;
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.

You have blessed Earth with fruit bearing trees and plants,

ensuring food throughout the seasons.

God has mercy on those who fear him,
from generation to generation.

Your wisdom guides those who, in each generation,

have the honesty and humility to seek it.

God has shown strength with her arm
and has scattered the proud in their conceit,

May each generation see the damage

they cause when they disdain your will.

Casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.

Raise the spirits of those who work at the grassroots,

give them strength to overcome the deceits of big business.

God has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.

Bless the work of food banks and charities that feed the hunger,

and teach those with wealth to be sacrificial in their giving.

God came to the aid of his servant Jacob
to remember his promise of mercy,

Help nations and communities to work together

for justice and for peace.

God’s promise is made to our ancestors,
from Abraham and his children and for all generations to come.

May every generation to come, reap the harvest,

not of our greed, but of God’s grace .

Amen.

Trust in the Lord and be doing good; dwell in the land and be nourished with truth.
Let your delight be in the Lord and he will give you your heart’s desire.
Psalm 37:3-4