St Luke 7:36-50  Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.  When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied. Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, cancelling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” 

“That’s right,” Jesus said.  Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet.  You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”  Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
 
Reflection
 
You could compare this with Mark’s version at the start of chapter 14.
 
Who is this woman?  Who have you been taught she is, as you have journeyed with faith and journeyed with the Church?  Was she sinful? What then, were her sins?
 
Who do you say she is?
 
The reality is we simply don’t know.
 
Does it matter?
 
Jesus receives a moment of costly and challenging devotion.

Jesus challenges judgements and assumptions of what is right and proper,  what might count as good spiritual practice. This woman defies convention, to do what counts in the moment and demonstrate love. Jesus affirms her.
 
It’s ironic then, that Church tradition has linked this story, this woman, with Mary Magdalene and Mary Magdalene to sin and prostitution, and discredited her.
 
Early Church writings describe Mary Magdalene as a disciple and Church leader, the ‘apostle to the Apostles’ , who ‘always walked with the Lord’ who ‘loved her more than the other disciples’. (Gospel of Philip 3), of whom Jesus said ‘your heart is directed to the kingdom of heaven more than all your brothers’ (Pistis Sophia 26:17-20).
 
‘Every variety of ancient Christianity that advocated the legitimacy of women’s leadership was eventually declared heretical and evidence of women’s early leadership roles was erased or suppressed.’ (Karen King,  Professor of New Testament Studies & the History of Ancient Christianity, Harvard University – Frontline 1998)
 
There is no evidence this woman was a prostitute or that it was Mary Magdalene. I’m still a Christian despite the link made by male leaders and writers which served to diminish and discredit both the woman in this story and Mary Magdalene in her role as a key disciple and spiritual leader within the early Church.
 
It does matter.
 
The Church continues to struggle with the place of women and sex, and a widening LGBTQ+ community.
 
Is our lesson her devoted action? Or his wrong assumptions?
 
What is God saying to you today?

Prayer 
 
Living, Holy, Mother Father God,
unbound by our conventions,
not claiming power in authority and judgement,
revealing it instead in costly love –
forgive our need to draw the line,
to silence your disquieting challenge,
our assumption-blindness to your unexpected presence in our midst.
Where love is offered despite the cost,
where care is given despite the stare,
where welcome is given despite the threat,
You are present, in Spirit and in truth,  Alleluia!

I’m Still A Christian Despite…

Dear Friends,

I hope you found David Coleman’s reflections over the last week stimulating.

Over the next few weeks a range of people will reflect on why they are still Christian.  There is much in our contemporary world which can challenge our faith and our commitment to remain in the Church – racism, sexism, changing ideologies, our own attitudes, as well as those of others.  In what I think is a stimulating set of devotions we hear from a range of people – some writing for the first time for us – about why they are still a Christian despite….well despite a range of things.  I hope it will help you reflect on why you still believe.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Prayers in a Time of Conflict

Dear Friends,

I imagine that, like me, you’ve been appalled by news today from Palestine/Israel.  War and violence, terror and propaganda now fill our airways; some countries calling for restraint from all parties, others seeming rather more one sided.  It’s hard to know what to say or pray.  To help with personal, and public, worship the URC has prepared some Prayers in a Time of Conflict which can be freely used – no further permission is needed.  They are written in three different styles and we hope they will appeal to a variety of churches and church folk.

Please feel free to share them.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Luke 13: 6-9

Then [Jesus ] told this parable: ‘Someone  had a fig tree planted in their vineyard; and they came looking for fruit on it and found none. So they said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” They replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’

Reflection

Photo credit David Coleman

The Brothers Grimm’s ‘Tales for children and household’ were an attempt to present to a wider public the folk heritage which inculcated practical wisdom.  A level of vulgarity and edginess survives in current German editions. But even then, some of the tales were tidied up and gentrified, as indeed are many English translations of the Bible – the Gospels in particular. It seemed less embarrassing for the wedding guests at Cana to have ‘drunk deeply’ than be ‘drunk.’ [John 2:10]. I’m still waiting to hear (-and hoping not to be asked to write-) a sermon on Ezekiel 23:20. 

And yet, ‘fairy tales’ when they are so diluted lose their effectiveness.  So too with what we do on Sundays.  The baby with the bathwater is too often the lively personality of the Earth or fellow creatures. In this case – the tree.  Of course, now it’s finally become almost respectable to talk of the language, behaviour, and communication of trees, we have no excuse.

It’s a bit sad when preachers skilfully avoid the possibility of the final uprooting of the fig tree, planted – if you notice the detail, in a vineyard – which is a pretty bad place for a fig-tree.  Add to that the greedy premature demands of the owner, who pays but doesn’t work.  

The gardener, with practical understanding of the needs of plants suggests intervention: manure carefully dug in. Tender-hearted preachers stop there and miss the point and inculcating complacency.  It seems OK.  God will always save us. No need to be fruitful. The danger – in this case, from the unjust exploiter of tree and gardener – is real, even if measures are taken. 

We uproot Jesus’ parable by reducing the tree to a mere object or mechanism, rather than a suffering creature under commercial pressure, invited to a partnership in solidarity with the one who doesn’t wield the power. 

The pressure’s on. But there’s hope.  That’s  sometimes as much as we can offer.

Prayer

Christ the Gardener –
was that mistaken identity when Mary met you,
or just one of the hats you wear?
nurturing what’s green and growing;
grasping weakness,  
mindful when we’re out of place and order?

Christ the Gardener –
Digging round and trowelling in
the ‘dirt’ we need as Earth’s own children:
close connection, roots and water.

Christ the Gardener –
Give us one more chance,  and clearer:
Then, by grace, the fruit is up to us!
Amen

Exodus 3:1-2

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

Matthew 4:24 27

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise person who built their house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a fool who built their house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!’

Reflection

Photo credit David Coleman

In amongst all the many loving warnings of Scripture, there are also equally loving ultimatums, which, though I’ve grown up to see them as harsh, can be taken to heart. Unless I’m mindful of limits, be it of the danger to Church workers of burnout, or of the changes to sea-level and continued global warming, there’s disaster – which I will have chosen – just around the corner. 

Writing this very short reflection, Scriptural examples crowd in on me: not least, the completely contemporary story of the builders on sand and on rock, neither of whom could ‘fix the climate’.  That’s more realistic than even some aid agencies have dared to be in recent years.

The one who wisely took notice, both of the ‘signs of the climate’ and their own limits,  engaging in mitigation and adaptation, was the one who, happy ending or not,  at least survived. 

The warnings are God’s protection, and this story is presented as the seal on the collection of teachings in Matthew we know as the Sermon on The Mount.  Several times, I’ve presented the whole ‘Sermon’ in the Sunday slot with congregations, and it’s a roller-coaster experience which adds power to this parable.  After all you’ve been through, says Jesus, are you going to take any notice.

I like to put the “blazing bush’ story together with that of the builders, because both show salvation by the skin of our teeth.

The bush was not fireproof nor the rock-house waterproof.  The bush was blazing – suffering the extremity where help was urgently needed. And of the builders, both suffered extreme flooding. But like investors in, and users of, sustainable energy farming, building, and transport, the rock-builder saw the cost of denial.

Alertness, awareness, and the willingness to act urgently – and sacrificially – are the path to the happiest of endings we’re likely to get.  Thanks be to God.

Prayer

God of Cross and Empty Tomb
Sometimes we might pray 
‘Please fix the world!’
And turn despairing, finding 
nothing healed, only changed for worse!

But you give us richer hope than that:
with eyes wide open, reading signs:
responding as we’re called and able,
to the floods, the fire, the heat, and rising water.

Save us from the tyranny of what can’t be.
Walk with us through the waters of what will be.
And all the while speak playfully of what might yet be,
Christ who came again, but different:
our Repurposed friend!

Wednesday, 4 October 2023  
Job – a happy ending BUT no restoration of what is lost.   
The Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi

Jeremiah 12:4 

How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither?
For the wickedness of those who live in it the animals and the birds are swept away,
and because people said, ‘[God] is blind to our ways.’

1 John 4:20

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

Galatians 3: 28

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.

Reflection

Some time ago the URC decided that no one should be trained for ministry who is unable to accept the ordination of both men and women to all the offices of the Church.   This means that whilst an opinion may freely be held, the discipline of the Church prevents the considerable harm that can be done to faith and health when such discrimination is propagated.

Of course, someone holding clearly racist or homophobic views would – and should – also be vetted out – depriving them of the opportunity to harm others.  There is no right to ordination.  So it is too with climate denial.  Now it is truly beyond reasonable doubt that the injustice perpetrated by humanity has damaged the balance of the Earth, to the extent that 80% or more of the human population have experienced unprecedented extremes of one sort or another.  The toll of wildlife on whom we’re only just beginning to understand how much we depend, has been far higher. 

photo credit David Coleman

I’m proud to be part of a church which has so formally recognised both the profound truth of diversity as a blessing rather than difference as a curse as expressed in today’s readings.  We need a more wholesome and inclusive appreciation of the family of Creation leading on from 1 John. This family, sharing so much down to a cellular level,  whom we certainly “do see”, and who likewise enjoys the God-given habitat which churches have called our “Common Home.”  

Whatever we do to the Earth, we do to Christ who is incarnate therein.  Is it mere foolishness, or is it even a religious offence to deceive yourself, a church, or a nation, that ‘God looks away’ when actions are wantonly promoted or passed without hesitation, which are known to harm neighbours human and non-human alike?

These things are not ‘opinion’. What to do about them is opinion. “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” [Philip K Dick]

Prayer

Holy Wisdom, speak once more in ways
which penetrate our blinkers, goggles, armour.

Break down those prison walls that claim protection
in the privilege of race and species.

Let the last – despised, evicted,
be the first to speak the truth  we need.

Humble that ‘wisdom of the world’
which for profit violates and trashes
the home God gives as much to fellow creatures
as to us.  Amen

Genesis 3: 17 – 19

To Adam [God] said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’  “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Reflection

Grave Stone in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Photo Credit Nic Barfield / Flicker

This is far more than a loving damage-limitation exercise.  Warnings are Good News – Gospel even –  rather than punishment.  Now, in the mid twenty-first century, it can be said as a matter of fact beyond poetry and speculation, as ‘truth to the power’  that “cursed is the ground because of you’. 

Friends in the Pacific, drawing on their indigenous spirituality are not blinkered as to the deeper implications this.  One reminded me: “we sometimes forget we are a part of not apart from Creation…we are the biodiversity we destroy…we are the biodiversity we protect.”
 
Scottish gravestones have been boring for a century or so, but there are plenty still above ground festooned with lovely grinning skulls, dancing skeletons, hourglasses, coffins, and even the odd gravedigger’s shovel for good measure.  These stones humbly carry a message for the benefit of passers-by, rather than pandering to the cult of the ego of the deceased: ‘Memento mori’ – ‘Remember, you must die!’ 

In Creation as a whole death is not a failure, but part of life. Indeed, taking creatures as a whole, life requires the acceptance of death.  Decay is the miraculous relationship of recycling (fermenting) and repurposing of the stuff of life, which we celebrate both in Bread and in Wine 

For centuries, Christians looked to a ‘good death’: free from pain, at peace with God, and surrounded by the love and prayers of friends on Earth and beyond.  The return to the Earth of what we have been carries blessing and wholeness. To live a good life, be mindful of a good death.

The spirit of Consumer Culture succeeds in turning even death into an opportunity for plastic and profit; ‘no fuss-funerals’ presents the ending of life as an embarrassing inconvenience which can seemingly be ignored.  People who know they will die lead different lives from those who pretend they won’t.  Both die anyway.  At the death of St Francis, larks flew into his room to sing both their laments and praises.  What’s the difference between a ‘Happy Ending’ and a ‘Good Death’?

Prayer

Sustaining God,
honouring today what has been,
that what is past in every form of life
may fertilise and feed the  life made new.

Heal that broken kinship
of Earth and their children
Make of what seems cursed 
a family, blessed by knowledge 
both of limits and possibilities.

Show us an ‘eternity’ 
of  your holy cycles
water, air, carbon… life:

-a unified Creation,  
of Earth and Heaven-Sky
which births and at our end gives welcome.
Amen
 

 
Today’s service is led by the Revd Nicola Furley-Smith

 
Call to Worship
 

The Psalmist says:  teach me your ways and make them known to me. Teach me to live according to your truth – teach it to me – because you are my God who saves me.  I put my hope in you all day long. Remember, your kindness and constant love – they are forever!  Forgive the errors of my foolish and childish ways.  Remember me only according to your faithful love  for the sake of your goodness, Lord.
 
 
Hymn:   At the Name of Jesus
Caroline M. Noel (1870)  BBC Songs of Praise
 

At the name of Jesus
ev’ry knee shall bow,
ev’ry tongue confess him
King of glory now;
’tis the Father’s pleasure
we should call him Lord,
who from the beginning
was the mighty Word.
 
Humbled for a season
to receive a name
from the lips of sinners
unto whom he came,
faithfully he bore it
spotless to the last,
brought it back victorious
when from death he passed;

 May I run the race before me,
strong and brave to face the foe,
looking only unto Jesus
as I onward go.
 
Reading        St Matthew 21: 23-32
 
When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 
 
“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
 
Sermon
 
I like a good grumble!  Who doesn’t? The exiles in Babylon were no different. Why has this happened to us? Whose fault is it? Who’s to blame? And they remember the popular proverb: The parents ate green apples but it was the children who got stomach ache. 
 
So it’s our parents’ and grandparents’ and great-grand-parents’ fault that we’re now in this terrible situation,  they say.   Whatever they did, it must have been pretty bad because now look what’s happened to us.  It’s not our fault, it’s not fair, God’s not fair.
 
But it wasn’t just a popular saying in Ezekiel’s time. It was also a dangerous saying.
It was a proverb that would lead a people from sickness to death. These simple words had seduced them to surrender, to resignation, because in the face of horrible pain they could see no way out. Instead of asking what they could change, they told each other that they had no choice: suffering was the only option available. 
 
We may never have eaten a deadly sour grape or know exactly what it means to have our teeth set on edge, but we get the gist of the proverb in Ezekiel:  The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.  In other words, children suffer the consequences of their parents’ actions. They use the proverb to exonerate themselves of any responsibility for their situation: they are not in exile through any fault of their own but rather are suffering for the sins of their ancestors.
 
We need to remember the people of Israel lived as a community rather than a collection of individuals. They believed that their good or bad luck was a consequence of the good or bad behaviour of the majority.  And because there was no belief in life after death, the reward or punishment for the behaviour of that majority had to be experienced in this life; So because things were going badly, that was taken as punishment for what their ancestors’ had done.  
 
This communal experience of guilt and punishment explains their belief that God’s justice demands the iniquity of the parents is visited upon the children and the children’s children,  to the third and the fourth generation to quote Exodus. It’s hard to find fault with that.
 
Children sometimes do suffer from their parent’s mistakes. We only have to look at the mess of our world: What on earth were my parents and grand-parents and great grandparents thinking?
 
The exiles are digging themselves deeper and deeper onto a black hole of despair, 
blaming others for the state they are in.  And it is against this backdrop that God proposes an alternative understanding of the nature of justice .For God, the issue is not how the proverb is used, but that it’s used at all. 
God cuts them short:
 
As sure as I’m the living God, you’re not going to repeat this saying in Israel any longer. Every soul—man, woman, child—belongs to me, parent and child alike. You die for your own sin, not another’s.
 
God’s speech grounds their responsibility. God is a living God, dynamic, engaged in the present life of the people just as much as God had been in their past.
 
The verses that are omitted from our reading break the basic premise of the proverb. 
 
A wicked son does not benefit from his father’s righteousness,  nor does he jeopardise his son’s chance at life.  And because all life belongs to God, even the lives of the wicked, the future remains open, not only for children of the bad, but also for the bad themselves.
 
Somewhat surprisingly, the exiles protest: God’s way doesn’t add up they bleat.
 
It was the wrong thing to say. God throws it back at them: Isn’t it that your ways don’t measure up? My measures are certainly in order. It’s you who are using faulty measures. 
 
You are willing to throw away your own life, which is worth everything. 
By what measures would you prefer a life of suffering to the freedom of being able to repent, to change course, and to gain life? 
 
So perhaps the real riddle of this reading is why the people prefer their proverb and not God’s offer of life. To choose a fatalistic proverb over a God who delights in life makes no sense at all.
Although the exiles don’t get to answer that question, we can guess that the argument in chapter 18 forces them to acknowledge their own responsibility. They want to see themselves as innocents, children suffering for parents’ sins. If that perception gives them the freedom to remain victims of others’ actions, it also renders them helpless to move into new patterns of life.
 
Ezekiel challenges them “Yes, we’re having a bad time but we’re alive! There’s nothing to gain from blaming our parents; if we want to free ourselves we must take responsibility ourselves.  God doesn’t take any pleasure in anyone’s death  – so turn to him, and live!”. God’s offer of life stands. 
 
And that was Jesus’ message too. Repent, turn to God, for God’s reign is at hand! It’s close enough to see, if you have eyes for looking; it’s close enough to hear, if you have ears for listening.  The decision to accept or reject Jesus’ message, is ours and no-one else’s.  The responsibility is ours and no one else’s just as it was for the chief priests and the elders in the Jerusalem Temple.   
 
The question of authority is a theme in Matthew’s Gospel from the beginning. The acknowledgement that Jesus’ authority comes from God will be crucial for an effective discipleship follow-up programme at the end of his gospel All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… Who gave you the authority do you do these things? they ask Jesus. It wasn’t in their own self-interest to find out but that didn’t stop them asking.  Of course, as they should have known, Jesus tended to prompt people to answer their own question by asking one of his own and this time was no exception.  But before the question, he told them that story of the two sons.  
 
Both sons knew their responsibilities to their father but when he asked them to do something for him, the elder one said  ‘no’ but later changed his mind, the other said ‘yes’ but didn’t follow through. 
 
In our understanding of the story, we tend to focus on the behaviour of the two sons and what this parable what it says about them.  We agree that the better son is the one who, even belatedly, did what his father asked.  Jesus, on the other hand lived in a culture that still exists in many parts of the world where honour and reputation were more important than what was morally right.  The chief priests and elders, would more likely be thinking about  the way in which the honour of the father was defended or defamed.  So to them the one who said “yes, I’ll go”, even though he didn’t, at least showed respect to his father’s position.  In that sense, according to their culture, he was the better son.  But Jesus rarely offers a neat ending to his parables. He leaves that to his hearers.  
 
So instead of asking which son had done the right thing by the custom of society,  Jesus asks “Who did his father’s will?” and to that, there was only one answer.  Perhaps to Jesus’ surprise,  the chief priests and the elders answered correctly, then realise they had implicated themselves in Jesus’ challenge. 
 
In the parable, each son made his own choice. Each son was responsible for his own response to his father’s request. That was also the choice open to the chief priests and elders.  But their love for their own reputations, their love of controlling other people, got in the way of living their faith and of doing God’s will.  They turned away from Jesus with his words ringing in their ears: Tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of God ahead of you.  
 
Where Ezekiel was talking to people whose bad situation had come about due to another’s power and control, Jesus was talking to the powerful who made situations bad for others.  
 
And yet to each group – the answer was similar:  take responsibility for your own lives with a love for others and ourselves which is both tough in the face of those who are proud, and compassionate in the face of those who are lost and the vulnerable.  God doesn’t take any pleasure in anyone’s pain– so turn to him, and live! God’s offer of life still stands.
 
We are at a pivotal moment in our church’s history. 51 years of Christian witness yet we, like most denominations, have a shrinking membership, tired buildings with less people to do all that we did in 1972 and more. We cannot leave it up simply to the good folk of the Church Life Review! Have we abdicated responsibility for our collective choices, adopting a pretense of powerlessness?  Is it easier to imagine that we can’t do anything to change what appears to be broken? 
 
Both Ezekiel and Matthew would say: What a lack of faith! What a lack of imagination! God calls this church, this generation, this people to stop making excuses, and stop hiding behind other people’s mistakes. We are to turn our honest gaze on ourselves and repent now, making life our ultimate value. We maybe a small church but we surely still have a big heart and even bigger ears to listen to God’s call?
 
God leaves it up to us to choose the way of life over the way of death. Perhaps we can understand the final words in that passage from Ezekiel Turn, then, and live ! God’s offer of life stands. Why don’t we turn, and live?     
 
Hymn    Christ’s is the World in Which we Move
             John L. Bell & Graham Maule © 1989 WGRG, Iona Community  BBC Songs of Praise
 

The love of God comes close
where stands an open door,
to let the stranger in,
to mingle rich and poor.
The love of God is here to stay,
embracing those who walk His Way.
 
The peace of God comes close
to those caught in the storm,
forgoing lives of ease
to ease the lives forlorn.
The peace of God is here to stay,
embracing those who walk His Way.
 
The joy of God comes close
where faith encounters fear,
where heights and depths of life
are found through smiles and tears.
The joy of God is here to stay,
embracing those who walk His Way.
 
The grace of God comes close
to those whose grace is spent,
when hearts are tired or sore
and hope is bruised and bent.
The grace of God is here to stay,
embracing those who walk His Way.

The Son of God comes close
where people praise His name,
where bread and wine are blest
and shared as when he came.
The Son of God is here to stay,
embracing those who walk His Way.
 
Blessing
 
Help us to follow your way; to obey your teaching; to trust in you.
Bless us now and always.
 
And the blessing of God Almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit
be amongst us and remain with us this day and for evermore. Amen.

This material is only for use in local churches not for posting to websites or any other use.  Local churches must have copyright licences to allow the printing and projection of words for hymns.

No Happy Endings

Dear Friends,

I know from my inbox how Gethin’s reflections over the last week have stimulated you!  One of the interesting thing about the Daily Devotions is the ability they have to provoke some deep thinking, delight and horror – often in the same email!

Over the next week I’ve some more devotions to delight and stimulate you all.  The Rev’d David Coleman has written a week’s worth of relfections under the umbrella title “no happy endings.”  David, a URC minister, is chaplain to Eco-congregations Scotland and his reflections are designed to help us think deeply about the adaptations we will need to make as we adjust to climate change.  David strongly believes that our faith gives us the resources we need for an era where there will be few, if any, happy endings.

Happy reading!

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship