Tag: beatitudes

Proper 5, 3rd Sunday before Lent

16th February 2025

Reflection with readings below

“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals” In whom then or where should we place our trust?

As Christians, the answer is obvious: in God! In that wisdom of God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus, that we should love and care for other. And as part of the living planet, the answer is equally obvious, in nature. 

Nature – the world and all its flora and fauna, its natural resources and self-sustaining cyclical systems – is what God has (and is) creating. It is God’s art work, God’s gift. It is good! And it is to be trusted! The world, all its natural resources, can feed and sustain all living beings – if we humans do not misuse or abuse it.

Those who trust in God, says Jeremiah, are like a tree planted by a stream. Trees are amazing things – with roots that embrace the earth, that interconnect with the soil and communicate via mycorrhizal fungi. Through their roots they feed and sustain each other and also the soil on which they depend. 

Trees grow branches from a secure base that provide strength and support, lifting up their leaves to reach the sunlight from which they produce life-giving energy and release oxygen. Trees create and sustain that hospitable atmosphere that allows all of us creatures to live. Trees provide homes and living spaces for a multitude of other beings – flora and fauna. They create essential microclimates. They create rainfall in the right places and limit flooding. They nurture the soil and ensure the stability of the ground. 

Just imagine what the world would be like if we humans could achieve even half of that! A world where people communicate with one another – the good news and the bad which really means telling the truth. A world where people help each other, they support the ones who provide food and shelter, those who sustain life. A world where people protect each other from harm. A world where people focus on the common good, on the wellbeing of the community.

And isn’t that what Jeremiah is saying we can be like if we trust enough in God’s wisdom? Jesus is giving us the same message. When he says, “Blessed are the hungry for they shall be filled”, Jesus is not saying just wait a while and God will wave a magic wand and food will appear. No Jesus is saying when you are true to God’s way, when you live the way God desires, then by virtue of your ability to live  righteous lives you will perforce never let anyone go hungry. You will never let anyone go uncared for. You will never let anyone go uncomforted. You will share your riches: then no one will be rich and all  being poor will be blessed! 

But instead humans seem dead set on looking only after themselves. We seek only what profits us, and any riches we gain, we keep only for ourselves – stashed away so that no one else can benefit from what we have ‘earnt’. We humans eschew cooperation, and decline to go out of our way to help others unless the reward to us is even greater. We are not driven by love but by profit, and we seem unable to envisage any different sort of economy.

Last Friday I took part in two actions. One inviting the Church of England to take the lead in rewilding to address the UK’s position as one of the most nature-depleted nations. The other calling on the government to stop subsidising the burning of trees at the Drax power station.

If it is in God we trust, and if it is the natural world that God has given us that provides us with a safe, provident and beautiful, habitable home, then why are we not doing more to protect trees in particular and biodiversity more generally?

If all we do is seek riches, then maybe we will deserve the woes that Jesus foretells?

What can we do this week to align ourselves with God’s wisdom, to love and cherish all our neighbours, to love and restore biodiversity – to value the common home we share – and to pursue justice not profits, to place our trust in God?

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord. 

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes. 

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land. 

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse–
who can understand it? 

I the Lord test the mind
and search the heart, 

to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings. 

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 Corinthians 15:12-20

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ–whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Luke 6:17-26

Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled. 

“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh. 

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.” 

“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation. 

“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry. 

“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep. 

“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

The Feast of All Saints

5th November 2023

Reflection (readings are below)

Heaven, as described in the passage from the the Book of Revelation, is a place – or maybe more generally an environment or habitat – filled with the praise of God. A place of praise because it is a place where all the goodness, the greatness of God is realised and recognised. It is a place of blessing, of joy, and of satisfaction. 

Heaven is our goal whether that is after death or just as importantly in this life. When we pray ‘your kingdom come on earth as in heaven’ we express the desire that life on earth would be as it is in heaven – a life of blessing, of joy and of satisfaction. Thus when Jesus says blessed are the meek, the pure in heart, the peacemaker … it is saying that to be like that, to live in that way, is to experience the kingdom of heaven. It is to live in that heavenly habitat.

I have included a translation of the  Beatitudes from The Message as sometimes we are so used to the conventional translation, that we are not brought up short by Jesus’s words. The passage uses the word apprentice to describe Jesus’s disciples. It is a good choice. The Greek word used for disciple ‘mathetes’ comes from the verb meaning the mental effort needed to think something through. The word apprentice comes from the Latin ‘apprehendre’ meaning to grasp hold of mental or physically – to learn. An apprentice is one who learns the skills of the trade, working alongside and learning from an expert. 

In this passage that we know as The Beatitudes, is Jesus reading out a report card – these are the rewards that A and B have achieved? Or is it a list of targets – this is what you could aspire to? Or is it an observation of holy truths – this is how it is when people live in the ways of the kingdom of God?

Eugene Peterson slips in another word for disciple, a climbing companion. This then gives a particular resonance to the first Beatitude, which he describes as being at the end of your rope. Not in the  sense of having nothing else left, but what it is to be on the end of the rope when you are with your climbing companions. Then you are totally reliant on those above you who have secured the rope. Earlier this year I abseiled down from the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower. There was a point where I had to release by foothold on the building and trust entirely in the ropes that held me 80m up in the air. It was an act of faith – there was nothing else I could do. There was no other alternative, I simply had to trust and let go. The challenge is to have that same simple faith in God everyday unhindered by what ifs – what if I was more intelligent, what if I was thinner, what if I was richer, what if I had better friends, what if I lived elsewhere…

Each of the Beatitudes in some way challenges us to reshape our relationship with God. To have a relationship which is always God-centred, which never needs more than what we have, that seeks to live and breath God, to be absolutely reliant on God, that loves others only for and through our relationship with God. It is a pure and simple relationship centred on God and from which our actions  and interactions with the world then flow.

To be an apprentice is to be committed, to be ready and willing to learn and to practice, to practice and to learn. As such, an apprenticeship is a vocation. You put in the hours of work, the dedication of practice, not because someone’s is going to praise your efforts, but because you want to perfect the skill. You enjoy the effort not because it will bring you rewards but because it is the only activity that makes you truly happy. 

As Jesus’s apprentices we need to practice and practice the way he did things. To love without counting the cost, to be truthful without counting the cost, to stand up for what is right without counting the cost, to be faithful without counting the cost. 

Revelation 7:9-17

After this I, John, looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom 

and thanksgiving and honour  

and power and might 

be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“For this reason they are before the throne of God,

and worship him day and night within his temple,

and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;

the sun will not strike them,

nor any scorching heat;

for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Psalm 34:1-10,22

1 I will bless the Lord at all times; *
his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

2 I will glory in the Lord; *
let the humble hear and rejoice.

3 Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; *
let us exalt his Name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me *
and delivered me out of all my terror.

5 Look upon him and be radiant, *
and let not your faces be ashamed.

6 I called in my affliction and the Lord heard me *
and saved me from all my troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord encompasses those who fear him, *
and he will deliver them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; *
happy are they who trust in him!

9 Fear the Lord, you that are his saints, *
for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger, *
but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good.

22 The Lord ransoms the life of his servants, *
and none will be punished who trust in him.

1 John 3:1-3

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Matthew 5:1-12 (the first version comes from The Message)

When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

—————————-

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Proper 22, 18th Sunday after Trinity 

8th October 2023

Reflection (readings are below)

The Ten Commandments in Godly Play are named as the Ten Good Ways as this comes across as being less dictatorial and more about wise guidance or wisdom. I too renamed my Rule of Life – I am a Franciscan tertiary – My Way of Life. The former felt too rigid, too black and white, and given human frailty, guilt inducing. 

Perhaps in all these things, it is not the prescription that is so important as the outcome, the fruits, they deliver. If the Ten Commandments lead us to live in a good way, then they fulfil their purpose what ever their name.

The Ten Commandments – God’s commandments – did introduce the people to a new and better way of living. Their former life had been lived in slavery. They had been not people but property owned by the Egyptian rulers. But God has rescued – released – them from slavery. Now they were God’s people. Where as before they had been subject to the rules of human masters, now they were invited to commit themselves to living according to God’s rules, God’s ways – ways that would ensure their wellbeing and fulfilment. And so far in the story of Exodus, we have heard how God had protected them from the Egyptian army, had provided them with bread and meat – as much as they needed- and with fresh water. 

Nevertheless, the people’s experience of encountering God was filled with fear and awe – and within that spectrum, respect. God wasn’t saying that living a good life was easy or effortless, rather that to live life well required focus, dedication, discipline and effort, but that equally it brought its own rewards. This is picked up in Psalm 19. The psalmist reminds us that all of the natural world recognises and in its own way praises God – and we should do likewise. And furthermore that the law of God is something to delight in and stick too because it is good for us. It rewards us with lives of sweet delight!

Paul writing to the Philippians knows and proclaims that there is nothing better in life than knowing Jesus as Lord. Paul is determined to know and follow Jesus as completely and as closely as possible. Nothing is of more value, can bring him greater benefit or joy, than the way of Jesus. 

Today’s gospel has a parable that must have made for very uncomfortable listening for the religious authorities of the day. And perhaps therefore we should not be too glib in thinking that the days when the religious leaders – and not just the leaders but those who worked within the system – got God’s message so wrong, have past. I am sure in our hearts we know we in the church have got things wrong,     and when in the future we look back, we may be surprised how blinkered we were. 

What the owner of the vineyard is asking for, is the harvest that the vines have produced. The harvest God seeks are the fruits of the kingdom – the positives outcomes from living a way of life built upon the corner stone of Jesus’s teachings.

Looking back over the previous chapters of Matthew’s gospel, we have that way shown to us in the  Beatitudes. We have the exhortation to be salty, to be a light shining forth from the lamp stand. We are reminded of the enduring value the law and the prophets which can be summed up  as “in everything do to others as you would have them do to you”. We are told to love not just our neighbours but our enemies too. We are told not to seek retaliation, not to serve two masters, not to store up wealth. We are told to be not just hearers but doers too! And the fruits we will see can be amazing – the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the poor receive good news. The kingdom will be like a tree where every bird has a place to roost. It will  be exemplified by flourishing and bounty – five loaves will feed 5000!

Are we as Christians, following in the way of Jesus? Are we seeking to live according to God’s Good Ways? Are we shaping our lives according to the value of the kingdom of God? Are we being generous in returning to God and God’s creation the fruitfulness of the kingdom? Are we seeing lives being changed in ways that amaze us, or are we still seeing lives subject to the unjust rules of human making?

Earlier this week it was reported that in Gaza, soldiers shoot at the legs of protestors, often aiming to shatter their ankle bones. Many inhabitants are to be seen with crutches, having lost the use of their feet. Now we have seen this lack of peace escalate explosively – Lord forgive us.

Of the 2 billion instances of blindness in the world, half are preventable or treatable, and disproportionately more of these cases are in the poorer nations of Africa. 

Yet in 2022 it was reported that ‘the ranks of the global ‘ultra high net worth’ (UHNW) individuals swelled by 46,000 last year to a record 218,200 as the world’s richest people benefited from “almost an explosion of wealth” during the recovery from the pandemic.” 

In the UK 100,000 households live in temporary accommodation including 130,000 children. The distribution of food parcels by food banks has doubled over the last five years, and some 6.7 million households are affected by fuel poverty.  

This year Oxfam reported on their analysis  that the richest 1% of Britons hold more wealth than 70 per cent of Britons, while the four richest Britons have more wealth than 20 million Britons”.

It seems as if the workers in the vineyard are still reluctant to hand over the riches of the harvest. 

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work.

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”

Psalm 19

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows his handiwork.

2 One day tells its tale to another, *
and one night imparts knowledge to another.

3 Although they have no words or language, *
and their voices are not heard,

4 Their sound has gone out into all lands, *
and their message to the ends of the world.

5 In the deep has he set a pavilion for the sun; *
it comes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber;
it rejoices like a champion to run its course.

6 It goes forth from the uttermost edge of the heavens
and runs about to the end of it again; *
nothing is hidden from its burning heat.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect
and revives the soul; *
the testimony of the Lord is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.

8 The statutes of the Lord are just
and rejoice the heart; *
the commandment of the Lord is clear
and gives light to the eyes.

9 The fear of the Lord is clean
and endures for ever; *
the judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,
more than much fine gold, *
sweeter far than honey,
than honey in the comb.

11 By them also is your servant enlightened, *
and in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can tell how often he offends? *
cleanse me from my secret faults.

13 Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins;
let them not get dominion over me; *
then shall I be whole and sound,
and innocent of a great offence.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in your sight, *
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:33-46

Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realised that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.