4 November 2025
 

St Matthew 5: 43 – 48

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.”  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Reflection

We follow the rules 100%, right?  Jesus has been challenging a simple ‘rules-based’ view of God’s commandments and reimagining them as a way of living that gives life, encourages deep relationships, and feeds our souls. For people who like easy to follow rules, it’s challenging stuff – culminating with the ever-so problematic “love your enemies and pray” for them.  I can’t just throw charity at them and call it love; something in me needs to want to seek God’s blessing for them through prayer.  

Specifically, Jesus is reimagining Leviticus 19:18 – the “love your neighbour as yourself” bit.  Before we are tempted to think this only applies to people who are ‘like us,’ Jesus reminds us that God’s kindness of sun and rain is given to all people.  He also says that those people who society perceived to be unlovable by God (i.e. tax collectors and Gentiles) understand how to love those who are ‘like them’.  However, God’s people are called to be “perfect” like God – to share kindness without distinction.  We are encouraged to remember our place in God’s creation and that our perceived enemies are loved by the same God who loves us.  This teaching touches every sphere – politics, sports, community, education, commerce, family, church, identity, etc.  It’s a difficult teaching, but it’s a teaching we need to hear if we humans are ever going to “be perfect” like God.

I used to see the word “perfect” here like getting 100% on a test, which implies that to be imperfect was to get things wrong, to be less than 100%.  However, the “perfect” Jesus talks about is growing up or maturing as disciples.  Part of growing up or maturing as God’s people is realising that just as God’s kindness through Creation is universal, so is God’s love.  Mature disciples are called to love as God loves, without categorising people into “us vs them.”

Prayer

God, help me to grow up.
Help me to reflect Your character 
and to be a positive difference.
Help me to love those 
I find annoying or challenging.
Help me to pray 
and to seek Your best for them.

Spend time praying for at least one person.  

God, I ask that You pour 
Your blessings upon this person.  
Let them know of Your love. 
Amen

 

 Psalm 105

Alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord, tell his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.

O sing to him, sing his praise;
tell all his wonderful works!
Be proud of his holy name,
let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice.

Consider the Lord and his strength;
constantly seek his face.
Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, the judgments he spoke.

O children of Abraham, his servant,
O children of the Jacob he chose,
he, the Lord, is our God;
his judgments prevail in all the earth.

He remembers his covenant for ever,
his promise for a thousand generations,
the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.

He confirmed it for Jacob as a law,
for Israel as a covenant for ever.
He said: “I am giving you a land,
Canaan, your appointed heritage.”

When they were few in number,
a handful of strangers in the land,
when they wandered from country to country,

from one kingdom and nation to another,

he allowed no one to oppress them;
he admonished kings on their account:
 ‘Do not touch those I have anointed;
do no harm to any of my prophets.”

But he called down a famine on the land;
he broke the staff that supported them.
He had sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.

His feet were put in chains,
his neck was bound with iron,
until what he said came to pass
and the word of the Lord proved him true.

Then the king sent and released him
the ruler of the people set him free,
making him master of his house
and ruler of all he possessed,

to instruct his princes as he pleased
and to teach his elders wisdom.
So Israel came into Egypt;
Jacob lived in the country of Ham.

He gave his people increase;
he made them stronger than their foes,
whose hearts he turned to hate his people
and to deal deceitfully with his servants.

Then he sent Moses his servant
and Aaron the man he had chosen.
Through them he showed his marvels
and his wonders in the country of Ham.

He sent darkness, and dark was made
but Egypt resisted his words.
He turned the waters into blood
and caused their fish to die.

Their land was alive with frogs,
even to the halls of their kings.
He spoke; the dog-fly came
and gnats covered the land.

He sent hailstones in place of the rain
and flashing fire in their land.

He struck their vines and fig trees;
he shattered the trees through their land.

He spoke; the locusts came,
young locusts, too many to be counted.
They ate up every land in the land;
they ate up all the fruit of their fields.

He struck all the first-born in their land,
the finest flower of their sons.
He led out Israel with silver and gold.
In his tribes were none who fell behind.

Egypt rejoiced when they left
for dread had fallen upon them.
He spread a cloud as a screen
and fire to give light in the darkness.

When they asked for food he sent quails;
he filled them with bread from heaven.
He pierced the rock to give them water;
it gushed forth in the desert like a river.

For he remembered his holy word,
which he gave to Abraham his servant.
So he brought out his people with joy,
his chosen ones with shouts of rejoicing.

And he gave them the land of the nations.
They took the fruit of other’s toil,
that thus they might keep his precepts,
that thus they might observe his laws.

 Alleluia

Reflection

Reading Psalm 105 we get a potted history, a perhaps selective history, but still a retelling of Israel’s story.  From the time Abraham was called, and God made a covenant with him, through the lives of Isaac and Jacob.  A time in Egypt, a period of famine, where Joseph saved the day but then slavery when Pharoah tried to bring an end to the Jewish people.  But then came Moses and Aaron, plagues and finally the exodus of the Jews through the Red Sea.

All this happened because God remembered his promise to Abraham and so the people rejoiced at all God had done for them.

I say this is a selective history because there is no mention of what the people did, nothing about them questioning Moses and wishing they were back in Egypt because at least they had food there!

I wonder if we too are selective when we look back at our lives and what we have done.  Oh yes, we offer our prayers of confession, but how often are these generic – we are sorry for the things we have said and done or indeed not said and done.  But do we actually name them? 

Do we think of the time we ignored the Big Issue seller because we didn’t have two minutes to stop and chat and buy a copy?  Can we name a time when we know someone would have appreciated a phone call, a listening ear, but again it just felt too much like hard work?

We can all be selective in our lives; we remember the good things we’ve done and try not to focus on the things we could have done better or wish we’d never done at all.  I guess that is a human trait.

But still like the psalmist we can rejoice in what God has done for us and try to be more honest in future. 
 
Prayer

Loving God, we offer you our thanks and praise for all you have done for us.
Help us always to ‘keep your statutes and observe your laws’ as we continue to praise you.  Amen

 

St Matthew  5: 38 – 42

‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;  and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;  and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Reflection

Walter Wink (1935-2012) was an American theologian and activist who wrote the book ‘Jesus and Nonviolence (A Third Way)’. In this reading Jesus says: ‘do not resist an evildoer’. Wink explains that there are usually two ways to respond to evil – passivity or violent opposition. He then cites that there is a third way, a way of nonviolence, articulated by Jesus: instead of giving back like for like, Jesus encourages loving enemies, with a resistance that disarms the powerful.

When I first heard this I was fascinated and read up on it and demonstrated it in worship. ‘If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also’…at which point the young lad who I had asked to come and help me show what I meant, moved forward slightly and instead of pretending to hit him, I whacked him and momentarily he was unable to turn his head! When he did, I was able to show that, by turning his head back to where it had been, I could not give him a second, backhanded slap, which was the way those in power often humiliated others and asserted their authority. By that small action, the power balance shifted. In relation to going the second mile carrying someone’s pack, a soldier could be punished for letting someone carry their pack more than a mile; and the giving of a cloak as well meant the person demanding the coat would leave the other person with no clothes and so would be the one humiliated (not the naked one). Again, subversion of power.

I really appreciated this interpretation of the text as it shows Jesus advocating a way that isn’t submission (this text has been used – incorrectly in my view – to justify abuse, especially against women) but strength to the oppressed, justice, and a radical standing up to power, systems and structures that oppress. 

Prayer

Justice seeking God,
You call us to live well together in peace and harmony 
and yet we fall short so often. 
We perpetuate systems and structures that oppress
and we fail to look out for the weak, the poor and the marginalised. 
Jesus showed us that there is another way to live that is countercultural and radical. 
Be with us as we seek to follow him. 
Amen.

 

‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.”  But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,  or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.  Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Reflection

Let your yes be YES and your no be NO – it’s in the Bible, yet somehow saying NO, particularly in church life, can feel impossible.  It feels rude, disrespectful, ungrateful, obstructive.  It feels wrong.                                           

Being able to say NO is very important – if we can’t say NO then our YES doesn’t really have value. If YES doesn’t come from a place of free choice then it is not a gift.  So why do we feel bad when we say NO?    Often this is because what sounds like an ASK is actually a TELL – someone is telling us to do something but dressing it up as a request.  And we have to say YES.  We are so used to this way of interacting that we come to believe all ASKs are in fact TELLs.  So the first thing to reflect on, when your heart say NO but somehow your mouth say YES, is does the person posing the request have the authority to tell you to do something?  If so, is that because of their role (eg your boss) or because you have given them this authority?  In either case should that authority extend to the thing they are requesting, is this reasonable?

If it is not a TELL, then it is an ASK which means that NO is as acceptable a response as YES.  It might not help the person asking, but it doesn’t make anything any worse.  It really is OK to say NO.   Which also means it is OK for others ot say no to us, something we should accept with grace.  When we empower ourselves and others to say NO then our YES becomes really powerful.  We will no longer find ourselves muttering oaths under our breath when we say YES but want to say NO.  And we will no longer need to back up an honest YES with an oath, because everyone knows we mean YES, or we would have said NO.

Prayer

Jesus – your yes meant yes, and your no meant no.
Help us as followers of your way to honour others with a simple yes or no.
God, in love you gifted us free choice,
help us learn how to exercise this wisely and enable others to do so too.
Most of all, help us to say a wholehearted YES to you, and your offer of fulness of life.
Amen.

St Matthew 5: 31 – 32

Jesus said: ‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.”  But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Reflection
 
These verses, perhaps unsurprisingly, were among the last to be picked by a writer for these devotions. They are challenging, especially if like me, you have been divorced. I am (happily) remarried now, which compounds the challenge these verses present. 

I can counter the force of these verses as they land today. Jesus was speaking into a culture where a divorced woman could be left unsupported and in poverty, especially if (in contrast with a widow) she was not allowed the honourable possibility of being remarried. The force of Jesus’ teaching is to protest against the way that people could, rather casually, cast off an unwanted spouse and leave them destitute. We could argue that, our culture and society having changed, divorced people can make a new life and often do. Post divorce, single parents and their children are not left to suffer either extreme poverty or societal rejection. Most of us believe that it is better to leave a painful relationship than to put up with it. We might even rejoice in the high expectations of marriage (or generally of relationships) today that mean we don’t expect people to stay together in misery. 

But, there is something about the challenge of these verses that I can’t quite escape. There are things about being divorced I still regret; the effect on my daughter, my own failure to live up to what I had promised, my own failure… I cannot simply justify it. There will always be something left of guilt and regret, for which I need forgiveness. 
What do we do with the parts of our life story that remain as marks upon us? They leave scar tissue and we need to be honest about that, as about the scars we leave on others. But Jesus who probably did say words like these, also taught us to forgive others, and, I trust, forgives us. 
 
Prayer
 
Lord Jesus, 
who spoke bravely 
in defence of those cast aside, 
may we open up to you,
about our deepest regrets,
and most pervasive guilts,
so that scars may heal 
and new life grow.
Please welcome us 
into your new community,
where no-one is rejected,
when all may find love,
and each of us, 
forgiveness. 

St Matthew 5: 21 – 26

‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.”  But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire.  So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,  leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.  Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.  Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Reflection

Goodness, this is hard hitting. It’s easy to skim over it without thinking, but listen to those words of Jesus again. He is talking about judgement:  not just the judgement of murderers and thieves, but the judgement of each one of us in our relationships with one another. He seems to be saying that unresolved anger, irritation, disdain of others actually separates us from God. It is vitally important to sort these things out before you come to God. Sounds like the fires of hell are going to be well stoked!

I mean, who doesn’t have some sort of ill-feeling towards another? I know I do. I try to be forgiving, but it’s a hard task sometimes. And I try to apologise when I have done or said something hurtful to another. But my, it’s not easy and I don’t know that I always succeed. Only the other day I called my son a fool for not wearing suncream while gardening on a very sunny day – only to be caught out myself a few days later playing crazy golf in the sun (and yes, I did call myself a fool too – it burnt like hell’s fire!).

The two greatest commandments – to love God and love your neighbour – are, in fact, one. You can’t love God without loving your neighbour – they are two sides of the same coin. Jesus’ story about the good Samaritan is one illustration about loving your neighbour, but your neighbour can be much closer to home too – someone who’s involved in your everyday life just as much as the stranger in need you meet on your journey. No point bringing your gifts or your worship to God, says Jesus, if there’s an outstanding issue between you and your neighbour. Like the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, perhaps we need to admit our weakness, make amends and repair relationships. Oh dear, where do I start?

Prayer

Loving, forgiving God,
how do you do it? 
How do you forgive us our wrongs so readily?
I prefer to hold a grudge.
And as for admitting I’ve failed and making amends,
well, that’s a challenge!
But to love you, I must love your children – all of them.
Help me recognise where hurt separates us
and take steps to put things right.
Then I can also put things right with you.
Amen. 

Almighty and eternal God,
long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and Sarah and their posterity.
Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own
may arrive at the fullness of redemption,
and that we, grafted onto the vine of Your people,
may balance tradition and innovation,
that we may arrive, with them and all the redeemed,
into your coming Kingdom,
Amen.

 

Sunday 26 October 2025

 

Psalm 104

Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God, how great you are,
clothed in majesty and glory,
wrapped in light as in a robe!

You stretch out the heavens like a tent.
Above the rains you build your dwelling.
You make the clouds your chariot,
you walk on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers
and flashing fire your servants.

You founded the earth on its base,
to stand firm from age to age.
You wrapped it with the ocean like a cloak:
the waters stood higher than the mountains.

At your threat they took to flight;
at the voice of your thunder they fled.
They rose over the mountains and flowed down
to the place which you had appointed.
You set limits they might not pass
lest they return to cover the earth.

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow in between the hills.
They give drink to all the beasts of the field;
the wild asses quench their thirst.
On their banks dwell the birds of heaven;
from the branches they sing their song.

From your dwelling you water the hills;
earth drinks its fill of your gift.
You make the grass grow for the cattle
and the plants to serve our needs,

that we may bring forth bread from the earth
and wine to cheer our heart;
oil, to make our faces shine
and bread to strengthen our hearts.

The trees of the Lord drink their fill,
the cedars he planted on Lebanon;
there the birds build their nests;
on the treetop the stork has her home.
The goats find a home on the mountains
and rabbits hide in the rocks.

You made the moon to mark the months;
the sun knows the time for its setting.
When you spread the darkness it is night
and all the beasts of the forest creep forth.
The young lions roar for their prey
and ask their food from God.

At the rising of the sun they steal away
and go to rest in their dens.
Men and women go out to their work,
to labour till evening falls.

How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your riches.

There is the sea, vast and wide,
with its moving swarms past counting,
living things great and small.
The ships are moving there
and the monsters you made to play with.

All of these look to you
to give them their food in due season.
You give it, they gather it up:
you open your hand, they have their fill.

You hide your face, they are dismayed;
you take back your spirit, they die,
returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the Lord last for ever!
May the Lord rejoice in his works!
He looks on the earth and it trembles;
the mountains send forth smoke at his touch.

I will sing to the Lord all my life,
make music to my God while I live.
May my thoughts be pleasing to him.

I find my joy in the Lord.
Let sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked exist no more.

Bless the Lord, my soul.

Reflection

This is a psalm of praise.  It is also another creation story (the third in scripture) and includes sea monsters unlike the first two! I love this creation story though because of the poetic way it tells us the story. Instead of simply “God saw it was good, it was evening, it was morning, the x day” here we have the poetry of God “wrapped in light as in a robe:”  It is an easy to grasp image – even with the blinding brightness and the elegance of some great fantastic royal robe. 

The psalm writer delights in telling this story to create such images that, even today, spark joy and delight in the reader.  Even the trickier verses towards the end have a positive resolution to them because we cannot end on sadness – the wicked simply should not exist and the sinners should vanish from the earth – which is reminiscent of the Israelites in the wilderness when they sinned, the earth opened up and swallowed them – they literally vanished from the earth.  Maybe this is the simple solution!  Maybe I have focused too heavily, maybe I too should have skimmed past and ignored it.  In a poem as beautiful as this the harsher words need to be taken note of –  even though few in number and towards the end – because they were still put there to remind us that God’s creation is perfect but we are not.  We can go astray.  It is important that we come back to, and keep finding our joy in, God rather than becoming those who vanish or exist no more. 

Let us be part of God’s creation song! 

Prayer

Creator God
thank you for scattering stars in the heavens 
like sequins on a gown.
Thank you for the incredible 
marine, avian, reptilian and mammalian life 
that we have barely begun to comprehend 
yet are already destroying through our selfish behaviour. 
Help us to stop seeing it all 
as shoes, bags, clothes, medicine and food. 
Teach us to  live in harmony with your creation,
 so we stop burning the world to the ground. Amen.