Tag: God

The Glory of Creation and our Failings

15th September 2024

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. Psalm 24:1

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 Ephesians 2:8-10 (The Living Bible)

Because of God’s  kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago God prepared that we should spend these lives in helping others.

Glory to God,

Creator of rivers and streams, lakes and mountains. 

We praise you for the majesty of the Alps, their glittering snowy peaks 

and the frozen waters stored in their glaciers. 

Glory to God, 

Creator of forests and plains:

We thank you for the vast lands where we can grow crops, for hillsides where we grow vines, and for meadows where sheep and cattle may graze.

Glory to God

Creator of rocks and minerals:

We thank you for the wealth of raw materials with which we can make so much; 

we thank you for fast flowing waters that provide us with energy.

Glory to God, 

Creator of  curiosity and ingenuity:

We thank you for the wisdom we have learnt from the study of your world; 

thank you for the skills we have learnt in harnessing the resources you have given us.

Forgive us when we have misused that wisdom; 

forgive us when we have used those skills for ill. 

Merciful God,

Creator of human kind, 

Forgive our greed that has mined land and sea for fossil fuels, jeopardising our future.

Forgive our greed that industrialises farming, destroying soils and draining lakes. 

Forgive our greed that turns animals into commodities and disregards their sentient nature. 

Forgive our greed for consumer goods that strips the earth’s reserves.

Merciful God,

Creator of our brothers and sisters:

Forgive the casualness with which we let the rich grow richer 

and the poor poorer.

Forgive the casualness with which we let the rich break the laws 

and yet still penalise the poor.

Forgive the carelessness with which we discard what we buy 

ignoring the meagre pay of those who labour. 

Guiding God,

Source  of all wisdom, 

Transform our hearts and minds, turn the direction of our hands and feet 

so that with alacrity and commitment we will reform our lives 

and live only in harmony with your creation. 

Amen.

The Grace

Counting on … day 165

6th September 2024

Biodiversity is also an important component of our relationship with God. The following comes from the Centre for Action and Contemplation, and invites us to look again at nature.

“It might’ve been being at the beach and seeing a flock of seagulls in flight that suddenly made you aware of beauty in a way you’d never felt it before, or it may have been the first dog that you really knew, loved, and connected with. It helped you think of intelligence that was different than your own, and beautiful in its own unique way. It might’ve been some other scene where you felt sacredness, and holiness, and depth in the natural world. It’s easy for us … to forget that childlike wonder at this beautiful world. We don’t need to put God and nature in competition. Nature is God’s original self-expression”.

There Is No Competition 

Counting on day … 156

26th August 2024

This week is probably the peak of the holiday season. Before reflecting on the potential environmental impact of holidays, it’s good to remember that holidays are ‘holy days’. Like Sundays, holy days are days we are given for rest and for acknowledging that, along with all of creation, we are God’s handiwork. 

Holidays should give us time to rest and to be refreshed, time to spend enjoying relationships with family and friends, with God and with creation. Time to be re inspired by all that is holy.

Preparing for a holiday might therefore include: what parts of me needs to rest, what needs refreshment, how can I make this holiday a time of joy.

Fifth Sunday of Lent

17th March 2024

Reflection- readings are below

Throughout Lent the psalms seem to have been chosen for their focus on sin and the grief that causes us. In today’s the psalmist acknowledges his sinfulness – a sinfulness which has been a burden from birth. What the psalmist realises is that the effect of sin is to break down the relationship between him (or her) and God, and that it is only God who cleanse the psalmist of sin and restore in her the gifts of truth and wisdom, to renew his heart and reinvigorate him with God’s Holy Spirit, so bring her back again into that right relationship with God that he desires. 

Sin separates us from God. It separates us from those gifts that enable us to live in harmony with one another and with all creation. As not-God’s-people we are greedy, hurtful, hateful, mean and jealous. We destroy the natural environment. We persecute others. We perpetuate wars and inflict suffering on the innocent. And this is not what God wants. Jeremiah describes God desire to remake the relationship between God and  by writing the law on their hearts, by internalising the law within them –   So that “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah writes in the plural, for sin doesn’t just affect the individual, but the community. Sometimes my sin has a worse affect on my neighbour either as an unintended consequence or as a deliberate act on my part. And that happens repeatedly through communities from the family units to international groups.  We know on one hand what God wants, and we see on the other hand fighting and cruelty, suffering and aggression. And we feel helpless. 

Do we ignore what’s going on and find peace in ignorance? Do we work really hard so that we have no time to worry about anything else? Do we dissolve into a pool of tears? Do we recognise the sin and suffering for what they are, and seek to find a positive way forwards – healing – through God’s faithfulness?

Whilst the psalms during Lent focus on sin, many of the readings have focused more on suffering and how to cope with it. Last week we had the story of Moses’s childhood – a time fraught with risk but which the protagonists reacted to positively – from the persecuted Hebrew mother to the royal princess. Their efforts were rewarded in the short term but I doubt any of them foresaw the long term salvation that will come from their actions. Likewise last week we were reminded that the process of salvation can also be the way cause great pain. We take the best action, accepting pain if necessary, and be confident that in God’s time there will be  salvation – knowing that we are being restored or healed in our relationship with God.

The week before we heard Jesus’s words “Take up your cross and  follow me”.  A reminder that we should not expect life to be easy but be ready to face challenges and undertake hard graft. Where would Moses have been if the princess had said, “I can’t be bothered”? Where would the food banks be if people said, What’s the point? And gave neither food or time.    Where  would the UN aid organisations be if rich nations said, We’re not that rich. And gave neither  money and support? 

Clinging on to your own life, your own desires, sustaining your own selfishness, Jesus told his disciples, is self-destructive. We think we are protecting ourselves but we are cutting ourselves off from real growth, from true fullness of life. Letting go so that we are part of a bigger story, allows us to experience life to the full.

In today’s  gospel Jesus gives us the image of a seed. The seed is the residue of a living plant. It falls to the ground – as if unwanted – but then in the darkness of the soil is transformed. Its inner heart has the potential for life and, breaking out into new growth, becomes more than it ever was! Jesus sees in all of us that same potential. The potential to change the world around us. This vision is there in so many of his parables – the yeast that swells the bread dough, the salt that flavours the whole meal, the candle flame that lights a room, the seed that grows in the good soil etc. 

Sowing and growing. Being willing to let go of self, of self interest, of self importance. Being willing to undergo transformation. The seed grows best in the good soil. Jeremiah tells us  that transformation is about not just the individual but the community. Jesus very directly addresses his words in the plural – “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” – as he talks to both his disciples and those – here some Greeks – who are drawn to meet Jesus. It is the community and the support of others that enables our seeds to flourish as they grow.

It is we as part of  a community who must relinquish self interest in the interests of the common good. Indeed it is we as a whole community who must relinquish self interest in the interests of the global good. We cannot go on burning fossil fuels and consuming raw materials without pause. We must be ready to forego some consumer goods in order not to deplete the world to the detriment of the whole world. We must let go our desire to be the most important nation, the strongest nation, in order that all nations be treated with equal value. That will be the resurrection light for the whole world.

So let us be brave. Let us be active. Let us let go of wealth and standing and self importance to allow our lives to enrich the whole world. 

How? By standing up and being vocal about the rights of others. In standing up against greed and excess consumption. In standing up and showing love to our neighbour. By drawing strength from Jesus, seeing in him the example to follow, and finding in him the source of the Holy Spirit that will fill us with strength and joy. By being a community of believers that is fed by and empowered by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Psalm 51:1-13

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; *
in your great compassion blot out my offences.

2 Wash me through and through from my wickedness *
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions, *
and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you only have I sinned *
and done what is evil in your sight.

5 And so you are justified when you speak *
and upright in your judgment.

6 Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, *
a sinner from my mother’s womb.

7 For behold, you look for truth deep within me, *
and will make me understand wisdom secretly.

8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; *
wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.

9 Make me hear of joy and gladness, *
that the body you have broken may rejoice.

10 Hide your face from my sins *
and blot out all my iniquities.

11 Create in me a clean heart, O God, *
and renew a right spirit within me.

12 Cast me not away from your presence *
and take not your holy Spirit from me.

13 Give me the joy of your saving help again *
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

Hebrews 5:5-10

Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,

“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”;

as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.”

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Gospel

John 12:20-33

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

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.”

Proper 7, 3rd Sunday after Trinity

25th June 2023

Reflection (readings are below) 

 Things do not always go to plan. What we expect to happen, may not happen – or what we hoped wouldn’t happen, does happen. In that sense the Bible is honest: it relates stories where things do not go to plan, when the hoped for outcome doesn’t materialise. The Bible is upfront in relating how sometimes people are disappointed. They are faced with loss. They discover that life is going to turn out radically different to what they expected. They may have to go along with plan B. 

The background to today’s reading from Genesis is the earlier promise made by God to Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation – with descendants more in number than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand in the desert. He had already left home and family and travels with Sarah his wife to make a new home in Canaan – yet they had no children. Time passed and still they were no children. So Sarah suggests that to remedy this, Abraham should sleep with her maid Hagar. Abraham does, Hagar conceives and Abraham has the longed for son. More time passes, and we have the story related last week, when three strangers predict that Abraham and Sarah together will have a child, a son through whom Abraham will become the father of a great nation. Which plan has gone wrong? Has the path of destiny been changed? Or was this just one of those unpredictable events?

Some things in the world are predictable – water will always flow down hill because of the force of gravity. The sun will always rise in the morning and set in the evening. One day we will die. But many more things are unpredictable – will it rain today? When will Mount Etna next erupt? Will this cat catch that small bird?

Perhaps most unpredictable are the actions of human beings? Will they be kind to one another or will they be callous and unkind? Will they be generous or jealous? Will they be patient or angry? Will they hit out or will they go the extra mile to be helpful?

In Sarah we see someone who has become jealous, who is fearful that their plans may backfire, who perhaps feels that even her own position in the community is under threat? For these and many other reasons, Hagar and her son are made to suffer. It is not God who cause suffering, but flawed, imperfect humankind. 

The story is not all doom and gloom. Hagar hears God talking to her – is this the first time in the text of the Bible that we hear of God speaking directly to a woman? God speaks and Hagar is comforted; she sees that God is showing her a way out. When we are adrift, when we feel abandoned, it would b food to recall this story, to realise that God is always there even when things are not going well.

Paul describes baptism as a process of dying – of dying by drowning – which is not an image as readily embrace when we are being children to baptism. But is there not an honesty in remembering that life is not guaranteed to be free of pain and suffering, that there will be times when we are pushed to our limits? Paul sees baptism as part of a bigger picture, one in which we are united into both death and life with Jesus. Whilst Paul knows life is not free of suffering, he also knows it is never free of God! He knows, from his own experience, that there is a flip side to ‘dying to sin’ – that of experiencing a newness of life in which we are united in God. To quote the words from John’s gospel: ‘you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you’. (John 14:20)

Do I believe at face value all that is written in the Bible? No. Just as the world is a place of uncertainty and unpredictability, so I believe some passages do not reveal the complete truth. I do not believe that Jesus came to set son against father, daughter against mother. Why I do believe is that there are no situations where God is not present – although our ability to perceive God’s presence maybe flawed. 

Genesis 21:8-21

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

1 Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me, *
for I am poor and in misery.

2 Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful; *
save your servant who puts his trust in you.

3 Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God; *
I call upon you all the day long.

4 Gladden the soul of your servant, *
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, *
and great is your love toward all who call upon you.

6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, *
and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the time of my trouble I will call upon you, *
for you will answer me.

8 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, *
nor anything like your works.

9 All nations you have made will come and worship you, O Lord, *
and glorify your Name.

10 For you are great;
you do wondrous things; *
and you alone are God.

16 Turn to me and have mercy upon me; *
give your strength to your servant;
and save the child of your handmaid.

17 Show me a sign of your favour,
so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed; *
because you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Romans 6:1b-11

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10:24-39

Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Proper 7: 

19 June 2022

Reflection 

We may not believe in demonic forces nowadays but we are certainly aware that there are many  things that have an unhealthy level of control over our lives. Social media, diets, cars, pollution, throw away convenience, anxiety, fashion, alcohol, gambling, climate change, elitism, poverty, oil, tax evasion, futures markets, housing costs, racism, low wages, depression – the list goes on. For all our progress, life is still tough for many people. 

It was to such people, those who were finding life tough, those on the edge of society, the sick and the vulnerable, that Jesus brought his message of good news, of salvation. Here in today’s gospel we have just such an encounter. Jesus is able to break through the barriers that have prevented Legion from communicating with his fellow countrymen. He has been able to get to heart of Legion’s problem and together they removed the burden, the barrier of his illness. Jesus stays with him until others come who will continue the healing process, reintegrating Legion back into the community. Jesus leaves Legion with a task, a reason to carry on. 

The reading from Isaiah describes the frustrations of a prophet trying to speak to a ‘rebellious people’ – by which I think is meant people who rebel against God’s ways. The passage tells how these people are living their lives, with the traditions and routines of their daily life that keep or distract them from God, things that entrap them, snaring them in unholiness.  (The effects of these entrapments are probably not much different from those things blight our daily lives). Yet the prophet’s persistence – a persistence that comes as a gift or a power from God – reflects God’s ongoing concern and desire that the all humans should be encouraged and enabled to live according to God’s values, and that creation should be healed and humanity restored to its right mind. The last few lines add a measure of hope, that there will be found sufficient goodness in humankind to achieve God’s vision for the world. 

Who are our prophets today? Are they people like David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg, George Monbiot and Jack Munro? Are they groups like Extinction Rebellion? Groups like Amnesty, 38 Degrees, and  The Trussel Trust? Do we take time to listen to their messages, to measure and explore what is being said, to discern where God’s will may lie? Equally are we ready to hear God’s message, are we able set aside some of the barriers that trap us and weigh us down? Like Legion can we break free from our past and find renewal and healing?

Paul, writing to Galatians, remind us that for all of us our baptism represents a new beginning, a fresh start. In baptism we are all one – baptism is the ultimate In levelling up! What ever our past, where ever we have come from and however we have come – raised and bred as part of the establishment, or refugee fleeing a hostile environment, someone who has pulled themselves up by their boot straps or someone who has never managed to hold down a job – we are all equal as ‘children of God’. Like Legion, our restoration is shown in that we have all been clothed with Christ. And, like Legion, we are all commissioned to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to our own communities.

As we look around the world – like the prophet Isaiah – we see the threats and obstacles that block the freedom of life: heat waves that are keeping one third of US citizens confined to their homes; 7.1 million people displaced by fighting in Ukraine; a third of people in Sudan facing starvation; 3.9 million children living in poverty in the UK; half the population of Chile living with water shortages. Are we sufficiently enraged as Christians, sufficiently enraged as were the prophets, sufficiently enraged as humans, to stand up and say this is not how God wants the world to be? How are we to bring Good News to our communities and to the world?

Isaiah 65:1-9

I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.

I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;

a people who provoke me
to my face continually,

sacrificing in gardens
and offering incense on bricks;

who sit inside tombs,
and spend the night in secret places;

who eat swine’s flesh,
with broth of abominable things in their vessels;

who say, “Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”

These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all day long.

See, it is written before me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;

I will indeed repay into their laps
their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;

because they offered incense on the mountains
and reviled me on the hills,

I will measure into their laps
full payment for their actions.

Thus says the Lord:

As the wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, “Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,”

so I will do for my servants’ sake,
and not destroy them all.

I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;

my chosen shall inherit it,
and my servants shall settle there.

Psalm 22:18-27

18 Be not far away, O Lord; *
you are my strength; hasten to help me.

19 Save me from the sword, *
my life from the power of the dog.

20 Save me from the lion’s mouth, *
my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.

21 I will declare your Name to my brethren; *
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

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.

Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me” — for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.