Tag: covenant

A lament in times of drought

5th July 2025

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. Proverbs 3:5

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 lament:-

Dried up grass, withered leaves, parched earth:

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

Wilting stems, shrivelled fruit, sun-bleached petals:

 My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

Desiccated trees, with premature leaf fall:

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

Harden mud in the ditch, ponds reduced to a smudge:

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

The smell of ash and dust – no scent of roses now:

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

What future for frogs and toads? Will newts survive?

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

What future for caterpillars? 

If no caterpillars, what future for birds and butterflies?

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

What future for worm-eating birds?  

What future for grass-grazing rabbits?

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

What future for arable farms when the rain doesn’t fall? 

What future for livestock farms when fields are bare?

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

What future for humanity when reservoirs and taps run dry? 

What future for humanity when food is unaffordable?

My heart aches, my soul cries with pain.

A reading from Isaiah 55:1-5 (The Message)

 “Hey there! All who are thirsty come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway—buy and eat Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money—everything’s free! Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest.  Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.

To you O Lord, we turn for help! Make your ways known to us: 

Embed them in our hearts.

Give and do not count the cost, be generous in every way.

Exercise leadership with diligence, show care with cheerfulness. 

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

Share one another’s burdens, remove the burden of debt.

Care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger.

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

Do  good; seek justice, correct oppression; 

bring justice to the abandoned, plead the widow’s cause.

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

Love your neighbour.

Establish governance with righteousness. 

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

Do not be greedy, foreswear dishonest gain.

Do not bear false witness.

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

Tend and care for the soil, give the land due rest.

Tend and prune the plants; give them due respite.

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

Care for the animals of the fields, and the wild creatures.

Have respect for every living thing. 

Gracious God, help us to hear your words.

The Grace

Second Sunday in Lent

16th March 2025

Reflection with readings below

Abram is worried about his future – or perhaps not so much his future as the future of his lifeline. It seems as if there will be no blood relatives, no direct offspring who will carry on his line, to be the continuation of the house of Abram – no ongoing heritage. But God reassures him. Not only will he have a direct descendant, but of the generations that will come after and call Abram their forebear, they will be more numerous than the stars in the sky. It is perhaps not a big leap to suggest that this allusion indicates that all the peoples of the earth may be seen as Abram’s children. Jesus himself suggests that even stones and rocks can become children of Abraham if God so wills (Matthew 3:9) and later Jesus will say that even if the people are silenced the stones themselves will shout out. (Luke 19:40)  Anyone and everyone can be God’s. 

The curious event where the burning torch passes between the cut halves of the animals that Abram has sacrificed, is the physical sign of the covenant that is being established by God with Abram and his descendants. Maybe just as after the flood, where God reassures Noah that the world will not be destroyed again in such a manner, so here God is reassuring Abram – and us too – that all generations can and will be God’s people.

Paul in his letter explains our relationship with God as being citizens of heaven, which contrasts with the Gospel which presents Jerusalem as being the identifying locus of God’s people. Paul’s is a post Easter understanding whereas the Gospel reflects a pre Easter view.  Then Jerusalem and its temple was the focus of the people’s faith and their identity, the place to which they went physically  – if able and if not then spiritually – for the great feasts. This was where God’s presence was ultimately located, where God was worshipped, and from where salvation would come. The messiah – when he came – would declare his identity here. When the resurrection happened (for those who believed – ie not the Sadducees) it was from Jerusalem that the first of the dead would rise. 

Is Jesus the messiah? The Pharisees in this passage see Jesus perhaps as a rabbi, someone of sufficient importance that they don’t want to see him killed by Herod. But Jesus tells them something different. He describes what he is doing as in terms of vanquishing and on the third completing – consummating – his work mission. He is declaring that at the very least he is a prophet, someone doing the will of God.  The psalm he quotes from, Psalm 118, is one of the messianic psalms that looks forward to the coming of the messiah. Yet it is also a psalm that acknowledges that God’s chosen one even will have to overcome – by God’s help – rejection and opposition. 

Jesus is going to to Jerusalem to complete his work to establish the new – and as we now understand – universal covenant between God and all people. 

Genesis 15:1-12,17-18

The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear? *
the Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh, *
it was they, my foes and my adversaries, who
stumbled and fell.

3 Though an army should encamp against me, *
yet my heart shall not be afraid;

4 And though war should rise up against me, *
yet will I put my trust in him.

5 One thing have I asked of the Lord;
one thing I seek; *
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;

6 To behold the fair beauty of the Lord *
and to seek him in his temple.

7 For in the day of trouble he shall keep me safe
in his shelter; *
he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling
and set me high upon a rock.

8 Even now he lifts up my head *
above my enemies round about me.

9 Therefore I will offer in his dwelling an oblation
with sounds of great gladness; *
I will sing and make music to the Lord.

10 Hearken to my voice, O Lord, when I call; *
have mercy on me and answer me.

11 You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.” *
Your face, Lord, will I seek.

12 Hide not your face from me, *
nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

13 You have been my helper;
cast me not away; *
do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

14 Though my father and my mother forsake me, *
the Lord will sustain me.

15 Show me your way, O Lord; *
lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.

16 Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries, *
for false witnesses have risen up against me,
and also those who speak malice.

17 What if I had not believed
that I should see the goodness of the Lord *
in the land of the living!

18 O tarry and await the Lord’s pleasure;
be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; *
wait patiently for the Lord.

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

Luke 13:31-35

Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

Second Sunday After Epiphany

19th January 2025

Reflection with readings below

In the Hebrew Testament there are many references and passages that describe the covenant relationship between God and the people as being like a marriage. Sometimes, as in the writings of the prophet Hosea, God’s people are liken to an adulterous woman who has strayed after other lovers – for which read alien gods and idols (or maybe profit and power). And yet that is not the end but just a phase in the story, for God, the spurned husband, goes out of his way to win back the love of his life. Hosea’s prophetic writing is of restoration and salvation. 

In today’s passage from Isaiah the message is of restoration and marriage and delight. And in chapter 61, Isaiah talks of God clothing us like a marriage partner with robes, garlands and jewels.

The idea of God and God’s people being marriage partners is repeated in the Book of Revelation with the marriage of the Lamb and the Bride, celebrated by a great wedding feast. Feasts in both testaments can also point to the heavenly banquet that awaits us all. Again from Isaiah (this time chapter 25) ‘On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear’. 

Weddings and covenants and feasts are times of celebration and new beginnings. And this is surely why John’s Gospel includes this story of the wedding at Cana so early on. The old ways – the past – is represented by the six stone water jars, but for all their ritual they have not enliven this wedding. Jesus’s presence and action transforms the wedding into one of unimaginable delight. This relationship – the covenant – between bride and groom is to be of a different calibre to what has gone before. This is an Epiphany moment – as the Gospel of John makes clear, this was the first sign that revealed Jesus’s Glory. 

In the next chapter, John the Baptist describes Jesus as the Bridegroom. Who is the Bride? Who is the marriage partner? Amazingly, surprisingly, it is us! We are the Beloved. The wedding feast is our communion feast and Jesus does not hold back in offering us the best wine! It is a timeless feast – or rather it is a feast that exists outside time and extends throughout all time. In John’s Gospel the Eucharist is not described at the last supper but features in vignettes throughout the gospel. Here at the wedding feast we are invited to share the new wine of the kingdom, to join in union with Jesus, to celebrate our new covenant relationship of love. 

Isaiah 62:1-5

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, 

until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning torch. 

The nations shall see your vindication,
and all the kings your glory; 

and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will give. 

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 

You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; 

but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married; 

for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married. 

For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your builder marry you, 

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you. 

Psalm 36:5-10

5  Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, *
and your faithfulness to the clouds.

6 Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
your justice like the great deep; *
you save both man and beast, O Lord.

7 How priceless is your love, O God! *
your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings.

8 They feast upon the abundance of your house; *
you give them drink from the river of your delights.

9 For with you is the well of life, *
and in your light we see light.

10 Continue your loving-kindness to those who know you, *
and your favour to those who are true of heart.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Prayers for the outpouring of God’s Spirit

18th January 2025

I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. Genesis 17:17 

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 Deuteronomy 8:6-9

Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.

As at the beginning, Lord God, 

you made us in your image 

and wrought with us a special bond, 

an everlasting covenant of faith and love.

Continue to breathe your Spirit 

into our hearts 

that we may truly return that love.

As at the beginning, Lord God, 

you have provided us good rich land, 

overflowing with the good things of creation – 

plants for food, water to drink.

Continue to breathe your Spirit 

into our hearts 

that we may be truly grateful. 

As at the beginning, Lord God, 

you created all manner of creatures

 – our kith and kin – 

for companionship and teamwork.

Continue to breathe your Spirit 

into our hearts 

that we may be faithful friends.

As from the beginning, Lord God, 

you have filled the world with signs 

and words of wisdom 

so that we may learn and live well. 

Continue to breathe your Spirit 

into our hearts 

that we may be attentive to your instruction.

As from the beginning, Lord God, 

you have created a world of harmony 

and flourishing 

that all may live lives of fulfilment. 

Continue to breathe your Spirit 

into our hearts 

that we may be at one with all creation.

As from the beginning, Lord God, 

you have a created your world 

as a place for joy and love to thrive 

and where happiness will abound.

Continue to breathe your Spirit 

into our hearts 

that we may ever rejoice and praise your glory. 

Amen. 

Second Sunday in Lent

25th February 2024

Reflection – readings follow on below

Stories of covenants feature large in the lectionary during these first weeks of Lent. Last week we heard of the covenant between God and people that was illuminated by the presence of a rainbow. This week we have a story from Genesis about a covenant between God and Abram. It is a covenant that relates not just to Abram but to his descendants too. This covenant is made visible in the promise of a son for Abraham and  Sarah.

Last week we also had the story of Jesus’s baptism, when the heavens were torn open and God’s Spirit engulfs Jesus (imaged by a dove) and God’s voice declares ‘This is my Son!’ This is the Son that completes the covenant made with Abraham. God is God to his people in the most unique way possible!

Covenants establish relationships. The superabundance of covenants in the Bible witnesses to God’s overwhelming desire to build relationships with his people, and with all that he has created. These are relationships about flourishing and fruitfulness. From the beginning when God sees the bare earth and desires that it be green and filled with trees and plants, we can see God’s vision for the world. When God creates all manner of creatures to inhabit and till and nurture the earth, we see God’s vision for the world as a place in which all living things – plants and creatures – live and work in harmony with, and dependent on, each other. These are the relationships that God wishes to reinforce through the various covenants.

In today’s Psalm we hear of God’s love for the poor, of God’s alertness in hearing their cry. The Psalmist goes on to laud the fact that God is worshipped, and the poor are fed. The grammar is ambiguous: is God feeding the poor directly or is it that, because God is worshipped, those who worship are inspired to feed the poor? The Psalmist notes both that we worship God as King, and take on the role of God’s servants. 

To follow on with the teaching that Paul is presenting, our worship of God and service to God as King, comes not through obeying laws but through faith – and I would want to add – through love.

And that faith and worship is expressed not just in feeding the poor but also in healing the sick, comforting the sad, freeing the imprisoned, caring for creation, restoring justice etc. 

However as we know from the experiences of  the saints and  prophets, expressing our faith and worship in that way may not be easy, nor painless nor free of suffering. We sadly live in an a world where many of us are imperfect, and where such activities may be thwarted or penalised or countered because they impinge on someone else’s profits, or someone else’s wealth or on positions of power. As Jesus explains in the gospel reading, we may have to ‘deny ourselves and take up the cross if we are to follow him’. 

For those who want to play it safe, and conform to the way of this world, may find their have lost their lives – or at least lost their life’s integrity. Whilst those who are willing to sacrifice their lives – or to sacrifice the lifestyle that the world says is desirable and even essential – and follow the ways of Jesus, will find their life has immeasurable value. 

Lent is the time when we focus on realigning our lives so that we can and do worship and serve the living, loving, God, following the ways of Jesus.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Psalm 22:22-30

22 Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.

23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them; *
but when they cry to him he hears them.

24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
“May your heart live for ever!”

26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
he rules over the nations.

28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.

29 My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever.

30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Mark 8:31-38

Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”