Category: Uncategorized

Counting on … 158

6th October 2025

A phrase much used at the moment is  ‘freedom of speech’. But what does it mean? And does it guarantee that what we here is the truth?

“Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and international human rights law.…” However this is not an absolute right and a clause includes that these rights carries “”special duties and responsibilities” and may “therefore be subject to certain restrictions” when necessary “[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others” or “[f]or the protection of national security or public order  or of public health or morals“….Common limitations or boundaries to freedom of speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, hate speech, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, …” (1)

Freedom of speech certainly,y ensures we do hear what other people are thinking and what they believe to be true. However of itself, freedom of speech doesn’t guarantee that what is said is truthful (even if it is a genuinely held belief). I don’t think you can have truth without freedom of speech, but truth requires more – researching the facts and in particular researching the facts you don’t know. And that itself will depend upon knowing which questions to ask. It could be that listening to a variety of views will help clarify what questions should be asked – and hearing that diversity of views does bring us back to freedom of speech.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech

Proper 22 16th Sunday after Trinity 

5th October 2025

Reflection with readings below

Habakkuk faces a world in which everything seems to be going awry. All he sees is violence and wrong doing, destruction and the failure of justice. He cries out to God and it seems as if God is not listening. How true does that feel today? Do we not feel like giving up? Giving up on the world where everything seems to be set against doing what is right? Giving up in a world where God seems absent? Can we nevertheless be like Habakkuk and stay in post, keeping up the watch, and wait on God’s word?

How did Habakkuk manage to stay strong? Because he had faith. He had a faith that came out of the close relationship he had with God – “the righteous live by their faith”.

Habakkuk and the Psalmist must have had great patience. They seem to be able accept that they must wait for justice to prevail without any idea of the timescale involved; that they must maintain this patient waiting without not get angry or frustrated! I don’t think we even know if Habakkuk saw the return of peace to the land. He wrote in the period between the  conquest of Nineveh which presaged the end of the Assyrian Empire and before the final conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Certainly he couldn’t have lived to see the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

So how the do we respond to the words of Jesus in the Gospel: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”?

What is faith and where does it come from? Synonyms for faith include trust, confidence, credence, conviction, hope, belief, expectation, hopefulness, optimism and assurance. The word faith has a strong connection with religious or spiritual belief although it is also used to describe the relationship a servant and their master, between a knight and their Lord, between a partisan and their political leader – or political creed. Faith it would seem is about relationships. For Habakkuk it was the relationship between the righteous and God. For  Christians, faith is, I think, our relationship with God that has developed through our relationship with Jesus. 

Where does it come from? It’s certainly not something you can buy! Nor is it something you just stumble across.  Rather I think it is something that we all have as a gift from God. We understand God to be the creator – the source point – of all that lives. And we understand that God blessed all that she created, and I would suggest that in both creating and blessing us, God has placed in each of us a seed of faith – one that can never die. On the other hand we each have in our own ways the capacity to enable that seed to flourish enabling our relationship with God to depend and expand – or we can suppress and hide it and try and ignore any relationship with God. (Last week I spoke about the close relationship that prophets have with God).

I’m not sure about faith that can uproot a tree and plant it in the sea but that maybe a hyperbole challenging us to be amazed at what faith can achieve. 

Yesterday was the feast of St Francis. During one of the crusades, Francis through his deep faith and his belief that war was contri to God’s will, set out for Damietta where the Crusaders and the Muslims forces were battling with one another in an attempt to secure control of the Holy Land.  With only one companion Francis set off on foot for the Sultan’a camp, crossing no-man’s land, with the hope of speaking with the Sultan and  finding a basis for peace. His faith – a faith that says continue against the odds because God is with you – took him right to the Sultan’s tent. Whether because of his humility, or his determination or maybe because of his poor and bedraggle appearance,  Sultan spoke with Francis. Whilst the outcome wasn’t peace, the Sultan acquired a new respect for this small Christian figure and granted him safe passage back home. 

This week a flotilla of little sailing boats reached the waters off Gaza. These boats were crewed by volunteers from around the world who had faith that what ever one does, doing what is right is more important than doing what is safe or tactful, and who had determined to address the painfully acute shortages being faced by the people on Gaza by taking medicines and baby milk and other essentials supplies across the Mediterranean and into Gaza, regardless of the Israeli blockade and the attacks they received on the way (also likely from Israeli forces). They arrived off the coast of Gaza on Thursday morning to be blasted by water canon and surrounded by Israeli vessels who then boarded the boats and arrested all the crew.

As yet we don’t know what the long term impact of the flotilla will be but it has sparked many voices of protest and outrage across the world at what the Israeli government is continuing to do in terrorising the people of Gaza. 

Over the last ten days 6 people have been on trial for climbing on motorway gantries in 2023 which they did to highlight the climate crisis and the lack of an adequate response by those in authority. They too have a faith that, what ever one does, doing what is right is more important than doing what is safe or what is popular. In the knowledge that the current trajectory of the world is for at least 2, and possibly more, degrees of warming – which will cause even more suffering with increased risks of floods, droughts, wild fires, crop failures and heat waves – they were not willing to sit back and do nothing while more and more people risk loss of homes and livelihoods and death. At the outset the judge ruled that there were no legal defences that they could use – not even the defence of necessity in the face of a greater threat. All six spoken eloquently and from the heart, remaining faithful to the cause of what is right. All six were found guilty. 

As Mother Theresa said, we “aren’t called to be successful; we’re called to be faithful”.

Like Habakkuk we cannot not remain faithful even when things are going awry, when the future looks impossible, nor even when our chances of ‘success’ are pitiful. We can’t always see the bigger picture. We can’t always see what lies ahead of us. But we do know we can always faithfully do that which is  asked of us: to love mercy, to seek justice and to walk humbly with God.

The Book of Habakkuk ends with these verses: 

Though the fig tree does not blossom,

    and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails

    and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold

    and there is no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

    I will exult in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

    and makes me tread upon the heights. Habakkuk 3:17-19

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen? 

Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save? 

Why do you make me see wrong-doing
and look at trouble? 

Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.

So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.

The wicked surround the righteous–
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

I will stand at my watchpost,
and station myself on the rampart; 

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what he will answer concerning my complaint. 

Then the Lord answered me and said:

Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.

For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie. 

If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.

Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith.

Psalm 37:1-10

1 Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; *
do not be jealous of those who do wrong.

2 For they shall soon wither like the grass, *
and like the green grass fade away.

3 Put your trust in the Lord and do good; *
dwell in the land and feed on its riches.

4 Take delight in the Lord, *
and he shall give you your heart’s desire.

5 Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him, *
and he will bring it to pass.

6 He will make your righteousness as clear as the light *
and your just dealing as the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord *
and wait patiently for him.

8 Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers, *
the one who succeeds in evil schemes.

9 Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; *
do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.

10 For evildoers shall be cut off, *
but those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the land.

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

To Timothy, my beloved child:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to God– whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did– when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'”

For peace makers

4th October 2025 – feast of St Francis 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

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 Exodus 26: 19- 22, 26-31

Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek (quarrel) because they quarrelled with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarrelled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah (enmity).  And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth (spaciousness), because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” 

Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ” 

So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

Response:

To be a peacemaker is to strive, and strive and strive again.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is build and rebuild and build yet again.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to hope and persevere and hope again.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to master the stumbling blocks.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to de-escalate tension.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to overcome pride and jealousy, greed and enmity.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to build on common ground.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to listen. 

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to build upon friendship and generosity, empathy and humility.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to nourish what has been built.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker it to tend what has been built lest it crumble.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to create the  seed bed for new growth.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to share what is learnt.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to stand back so that others may step forwards.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

To be a peacemaker is to be a child of God.

Merciful God, grant us peace.

The Grace.

Counting on … 157

3rd October 2025

“Growing wealth inequality in the UK could be a “major driver of societal collapse” within the next decade, according to a new report by the Fairness Foundation and the Policy Institute and Department of War Studies at King’s College London…

“The participants identified a negative feedback loop, whereby the government’s failure to tax wealth effectively means it lacks sufficient revenue to uphold the social contract by which strong public services, an effective social safety net and a healthy economy provide people with decent living standards.

“Trust in politics then declines further, politicians avoid honest discussions of the underlying problems and what to do about them, and the system’s legitimacy is increasingly questioned as the social contract collapses.” (1) 

Looking at public attitudes, the report  that “two-thirds (63%) of Britons now think the very rich have too much influence on politics in the UK – far higher than the share who say the same about businesses (40%), religious organisation (40%) or international organisations like the EU and UN (38%).

Improving incomes levels for the poorest, and taxing the richest clearly has multiple benefits.

  1. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/wealth-inequality-risks-triggering-societal-collapse-within-next-decade-report-finds

Counting on … 156

2nd October 2025

How do we ensure that work is used to do good things and not bad things? 

As individuals and as households, we can make within the limits of our own domain – although we nevertheless be impacted by the decisions of others. The moral choices we make will be affected by our culture, our upbringing and our faith. 

Outside our domain, what work happens and how it is encouraged or not, will depend more on the aims of businesses and corporate organisations, governments and legislation.  Traditional economic theory tells us that businesses make their decisions solely on the basis of profit. Governments on the other hand may be seen as ‘systems responsible for governing an organised community, established to serve the collective needs and interests of their populations’ (1) or ‘to serve the interests of its rulers, be they monarchs, dictators, aristocracies, or ruling classes.’ (2) 

Taking the former definition, there is also an onus on governments to control  or organise businesses so that their pursuit of profit is not at the expense of others. Nevertheless pursuit of profit does seem to be the biggest determinant of what work is undertaken because it is the pursuit of profit that determines how much people are paid for each job, and the ‘profit’ value may differ from what is of value for the welling being of the society. Looking at pay levels, CEOs and senior officials are earning an average of £104,000 (and up to several million for the CEOs of banks, fossil fuel and water companies) but are there jobs really more valuable to society than the work of farm workers, cleaners and and nursery nurses who earn between £17,000 and £27,000? (3) 

Could the CEOs do their work if it wasn’t for the large number of low paid workers who ensure  that food is grown – and transported to the shops and stacked on shelves and dispatched to homes via delivery vans?  Could the CEOs do their work if no one cleaned their offices, mended the electrics, or maintained their IT? Could the CEOs do their jobs if there weren’t nurseries and schools for their children, if there weren’t taxi drivers  and traffic wardens and car mechanics getting them safely to work?

Having a UBI would at the very least give more equal value to the the work people. If it was financed through higher taxes for those with higher pay packets, then that too would redress the balance of the social value of work.

  1. https://legalclarity.org/what-is-the-main-purpose-of-the-government/
  2. https://upjourney.com/what-is-the-purpose-of-government

(3) https://www.unionlearn.org.uk/compare-average-pay-job


  3. https://www.unionlearn.org.uk/compare-average-pay-job

Counting on … 155

1st October 2025

What is the purpose of work? 

Yesterday’s Counting On highlighted some of the diversity around work – and principally that no all work is paid, and indeed nor is all paid work remunerated at the same rate.

According to Ecosia, work, as a noun, is activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result, and as a verb, is to be engaged in physical or mental activity in order to achieve a result. Work might be contrasted with play if play js seen as an activity that has no purpose or result. But play does have a purpose: it enables people (especially children) to learn; it helps people relax; it enables people to explore alternative worlds. Work might be contrasted with being lazy if lazy is seen as not being bothered, or not caring, or being selfish. This brings in a moral dimension and asks the question is not working always bad? Is all work inherently good? Which comes to the question, what is the purpose of work?

We work to stay alive – eg gathering, growing, and preparing food to eat; building, maintaining, cleaning a safe place of shelter – ie a home; looking after our mental and physical health which might include making medicines, or listening to people’s troubles, taking exercise – and making that exercise fun;  through education to ensure that what we learn that makes life better is shared and passed on; through exploring and researching and just being curious so as to understand better the intricate ways by which this world exists and flourishes; making clothes and tools, making things that keep our homes warm (or cool) and making things that make our homes homely; making shoes and bicycles and other means of transport (including roads and bridges etc) so that we can meet other people and exchange ideas and goods; protecting the ecosystems in which we live – keeping them safe and in good health, ensuring the safety and well being of each other and all other living beings with whom we share this planet; and finally praying for as St Benedict said, to,work is to pray and pray is to work.

All this is about ensuring a flourishing life for all and is morally good. But what if work is used to harm people, to harm other living beings? What is work is used to exploit the planet, to denude it of resources and to pollute it? What is work is used to benefit and small minority at the expense of everyone – and everything – else? 

How do we ensure that work is used to do good things and not bad things?

Counting on … 154

30th September 2025

What is a ‘universal basic income’? What are its benefits?

A universal basic income is a social welfare payment paid to all citizens with either a means test or a requirement to complete any sort of work. As a full basic income, it should be sufficient to cover basic needs. (That said, some people with specific needs might need a higher rate to cover their living costs – eg if they were disabled and needed additional support or equipment). 

The idea behind the UBI is that everyone in that society will have enough to live on – is that lower limited of the economic doughnut will have been secured. It allows some people to pursue voluntary work – caring for the young or the elderly, working on conservation projects etc. It allows people to take jobs with low pay – such as artists and cleaners – but might there be an argument here to say such jobs should be better paid even if that means higher prices or higher rates. It allows people with stressful jobs to work shorter hours and spend more time relaxing. It ensures security of income for people whose work is seasonal – fruit picking, local tourism etc.

There are clear benefits to society as a whole – the population will be healthier both physically and mentally. This is good in itself. It means people can work better. It reduces costs for health care. It can increase sales of non luxury goods as more people have the money to spend on essentials. Evidence from small scale trials suggests that with the UBI safety net people spend time finding a job they like and are suited to and then become more reliable committed workers.

Perhaps more importantly it allows people to feel valued and be happy and fulfilled.

“Humans need to do work that feels valuable, psychologically,” says Cleo Goodman, a UBI expert at the thinktank Autonomy. “It’s baked into us. It is complete nonsense to suggest that there’s a faction of society that just wants to sit around on the sofa all day, drinking beer and watching TV. We want to spend a fair amount of our time doing something that makes us proud.” (1)

Some people do argue that UBI would lead to people avoiding work, or not working as hard, big I wonder if that would be so? When we are children, everyone asks what do you want to be when you grow up? Getting a job or a role that you want, a job that you will enjoy, is seen as a sensible and worthwhile objective and one which motivates us. For many of us, the jobs we choose are vocational: we choose them not because of the financial reward but because we would not be happy doing anything else.

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/14/money-for-nothing-is-universal-basic-income-about-to-transform-society

Counting on … 153

29th September 2025

Another way – or rather a parallel way – of reducing the inequality between rich and poor (so enabling us to live within the inner and outer limits of the doughnut) is to ensure minimum pay rates that are sufficiently generous to enable a good level of wellbeing. In this regard the ‘real living wage’(1) should be a minimum. The current real living wage is £12.60 per hour (outside London) which for a 35 hour week equates to £22,050 per annum.

But how generous is that – is it just a necessary minimum?

According to the calculations of Raisin (2) a comfortable salary for a single person would be £28,018. But add in a young child, and that income would need to increase to £51,363 – or for a couple and one young child, a joint income of £65,810.

And equally what if you earn the real living wage but are only able to get 20 hours a week?

An alternative would be to pay everyone a basic income, paid for from taxation, to ensure that no one falls through the safety net of not having enough income to sustain a reasonable standard of living. 

  1. https://www.livingwage.org.uk/what-real-living-wage
  2. https://www.raisin.co.uk/budgeting/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-live-comfortably-uk/

Proper 21, 15th Sunday after Trinity 

28th September 2025

Reflection with readings below

Jeremiah’s action was made as a visible sign of hope – hope that even though it now looked as if Jerusalem and the land of Judah would be conquered by the Babylonian empire, that this occupation would not be forever. There would be a time in the future when the people would once again know freedom. By buying the field at this most inopportune time – whose land would it be when the Babylonian had invaded – and by burying the title deeds in a jar for their long time safekeeping, that land could be rightly reclaimed by Jeremiah – or more likely his descendants – Jeremiah was saying don’t give up hope there. Even if oir land is taken away from us now, even if we are dispersed to foreign lands, there will at some future date be a restoration and we will return!

Many Palestinians families – both Muslim and Christian – have in their possession keys belonging to the homes from which they were ejected by the Israeli forces in the 1948 Nakba. They hold onto these keys as a sign of hope that one day they will return to their homes. Often images of keys appear on banners and signs to symbolise this hope of returning.  The Right of Return is in fact a binding principle under international law, enshrined in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, adopted on December 11, 1948. It affirms that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. It applies to all who have been made refugees. Surely they are right to hope that their futures will include restoration and restitution.

In today’s Psalm we are told that God is our shelter and stronghold. That God protects us because we are bound to God by love. If we call out, God will hear us. Whatever happens God is our safe place – even when a physical safe place seems an impossibility. It must be that belief that enables so many Palestinians to continue to pray and not give up on the hope of a better future.

The Letter to Timothy reminds us that we didn’t bring anything into this world and will take nothing out, and that we should seek contentment with what we have rather than being sucked into an endless desire to accumulate evermore  riches and possessions. The writer is focused here on material goods and wealth, for in fact we come onto this world with the gift of God’s love and we take with us all the love that has grown with us through our lives. Not only that, as we come into in this life so we benefit from God’s gift of a bountiful Earth within lean air to breath, water to drink, all manner of fruits and plants to supply our needs – and with their beauty to bring us joy. And it is our responsibility to ensure that we don’t despoil this through greed or stupidity, but rather ensure that all this magnificent wonder of nature is passed on to our children and our children’s children for their wellbeing too. When we leave the Earth we should not leave it in a worse state than when we entered.

Yet when we look at the destruction of land and property, trees, plants and water supplies that is being carried in what was the Holy Land, we are seeing actions that go against God’s will, that destroy the wellbeing of both current and future generations. 

We can see the same thing happening when indigenous people have their land taken away or their forests destroyed.

We can see the same thing happening when people are forced out of their homes because they cannot afford the mortgage payments or rents. And we see this happening to whole communities when their local shops and businesses, their community centres and libraries, are closed because rents are too high, funding to low, and market forces distorted by the monopolistic power of big corporations.

Where today do we see or hear the successors to Jeremiah, Moses and the prophets, calling out what is wrong in our world, drawing our attention to what matters and telling us how we can redeem what is being lost? Surely we as Christians and as church communities that are seeking to following Christ, should be the prophets of this age, calling for righteousness and justice and peace to prevail?

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.

Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.” Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 He shall say to the Lord,
“You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
my God in whom I put my trust.”

3 He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter *
and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He shall cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find refuge under his wings; *
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.

5 You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, *
nor of the arrow that flies by day;

6 Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, *
nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.

14 Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.

15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honour.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time– he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house– for I have five brothers– that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'”

Holy is God’s name

27th September 2025

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of her hands. Psalm 19:1

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

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 Genesis: 1:29-31

 : God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 

Prayers of praise –

Holy is your name and 

Holy is the sky above, 

shades of blue – 

azure, periwinkle, powder – 

with clouds billowing and piled high, 

little puffs and wispy streaks; 

glowing white or deepest dark greys, 

fair weather or storm bearers:

Holy is the sky!

Holy is your name and 

Holy is the earth below, 

shades of brown – 

umber, ochre, taupe – 

stones and grit, dust and hummus, 

teeming with life – 

worms and beetles, 

microfauna and fungi:

Holy is the earth!

Holy is your name and 

Holy are the waters far and wide, 

more shades of blue – 

aquamarine, cobalt, sea green – 

sparkling spring and dancing stream, 

majestic river and languid lake,

and voluminous ocean – 

each overflowing with the gift of life:

Holy are the waters! 

Holy is your name and

Holy are the weeds that toil and spin, 

shades of green – 

lime, moss, emerald – 

rooted in the earth, clinging onto rocks, 

colonising the desert, reaching for the sky, 

brimming with fruits in season,

breathing life into the air

Holy are the weeds!

Amen.

Prayers of sorrow- 

Heavenly Parent,

We have erred against you and your world.

We have polluted the air and the water, 

the seas and the soil. 

We ask for forgiveness and healing.

We have squandered the earth’s resources, 

and consumed more than our fair share.

We ask for forgiveness and healing.

We have decimated plants and animals, 

we have destroyed habitats and poisoned food chains.

We ask for forgiveness and healing.

We have abused our kin and ignored their humanity,

grinding them down into lives of misery.

We ask for forgiveness and healing.

From a place of sorrow, revive us.

From a place of penitence, quicken us. 

From a place of humility, rebuild us.

Amen.

The Grace