People were bringing even infants to Jesus that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it.  But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”
 
Reflection

In the USA, on the last day of high school, we were given our yearbooks, which contained pictures of all our classmates, and we would sign each other’s yearbooks.  One person would always turn the yearbook upside down and write, “I’m the clown who came to town to sign your yearbook upside down.”  It was just playing with words, and obviously meant to make you turn the yearbook upside down to read it.

Today’s reading plays with words.  “People were bringing infants” – the Greek word brephos, meaning unborn children, newborns, and infants.  Nothing odd about bringing a newborn or infant to receive a prayer of blessing.  What’s odd is the disciples turning people away. 

What’s even odder is Jesus’ response. “Let the little children come to me” – the Greek word paidion, from the word pais, meaning infant, child, attendant, servant or slave.
Both brephos and paidion are powerless.  They have fragile existences.  They are at the bottom of the social hierarchy of the Roman Empire.    Whilst brephos mostly refers to the age, paidion brings a sense of innocence, dependency, and social status.  A paidion needs nurturing and support to survive.

But not only does Jesus change the word and therefore the meaning of who they are talking about, he also starts talking about the kingdom of God and tells the disciples and the parents gathered that the kingdom of God must be received like paidion – a child or servant that knows their reliance on others for survival.  Presumably the “other” in this instance would be God.  The unspoken question Jesus leaves hanging in the air is:  Do you believe yourself to be self-reliant or do you know you need God?

By mentioning the kingdom, Jesus isn’t just welcoming children.  He is saying something about God and demonstrating something about himself.  He’s turning the disciples’ yearbooks upside down to write: “I’m the Son who came to town to turn your thinking upside down.”

Prayer

God, thank you for welcoming the weak and powerless.  When we forget how weak and powerless we are, remind us of the strength in Your weakness and how powerful powerlessness can be.  Amen. 
 

St Luke 18: 9 – 14
 
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and regarded others with contempt:  ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”  But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’
 
Reflection
 
At first sight, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector might come as a surprise to those of us in the western world, but it is important to place the story in the true context of its day since it underlines Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of praying with the right attitude, and is rich in spiritual truth. In reality, tax collectors were hated in biblical times since they were Jews employed by the Romans and who often resorted to extortion in the collection of taxes from their peers.

To some extent I can relate to the position of the Pharisee in my own life; having been ordained in 2008, and having just relinquished pastoral charge of a church after nine years, I continue to carry out NHS musculoskeletal scanning throughout Kent and am resident timpanist in Canterbury Symphony Orchestra. I’ve been faithful to my late wife of 45 years, and never knowingly upset or abused people’s trust in me. I am proud of what I have achieved in life, but it’s not the message that God wants to hear.

I believe that the nature of God’s universe is “relational”; created by a loving transcendent mind, external to the material universe and outside time and space, and who created that first divine spark of life from nothing – a single cell containing the digital storage and information processing systems we observe today.

The tax collector exhibits precisely what Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Pharisee’s prayer is all about him.  Going to the temple to pray with the condition of his heart as it was, he might as well have stayed home. Such a “prayer” is not heard by God.

I believe that we are created with free will, and the choice to love God and to relate to him – and for that I give thanks.  

Prayer
 
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, not powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8.38 -39)
 

St Luke 18: 1 – 8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.  He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.  In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.”  For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’  And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

Reflection

Sometimes it really bothers me that we never get to find out what the complaint, the injustice was all about? It is like listening in to snatches of conversation in  café, and never finding out just WHAT it was that Aunty Sheila said about Susan.  Maybe I’m just nosey, or I’ve watched one too many true crime dramas. Maybe I just want to judge if the widow really is worthy, in my opinion. Maybe I need to know what the newspapers would say? The right newspaper obviously, the one I read, not the ones with an agenda.

This story perhaps resonates even more in these strange times, where competing media narratives seem more skewed and biased, where institutions seem more self-serving, and where cries for justice seem to be muted and denied air time. Where do we see the unjust judge in these days of culture wars? Which institutions neither fear God nor care what people think?

Jesus stood against the religious and political systems that protected the powerful and neglected the vulnerable and voiceless. Jesus listened to those whose voices were not heard, and spoke truth to power. So, as disciples, of course we are called to do the same.  That listening doesn’t necessarily mean knowing everything or making our own judgements as to someone’s worthiness. It means amplifying those who voices are not heard, speaking the truth we know boldly, persisting in prayer and doing what we can to challenge the broken systems of the world. We are invited to place our hope in God.

The passage ends with the challenge ‘when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on  earth’ – or will we have allowed political polarization, media bias and institutional failure to make us cynical, angry, divided and despairing? Or will he find us accepting that invitation to hope?

Prayer 

Loving God,
When we weary of division and falsehood,
When the truth seems buried and unheard,
Help us to hear the cries for justice.
 
When the culture wars rage around us,
We give thanks that we can cling to you,
A firm and persistent foundation. Amen

St Luke 17: 20 – 37

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’

Then he said to the disciples, ‘The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.  They will say to you, “Look there!” or “Look here!” Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation.  Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them.  Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,  but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them  —it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.  On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back.  Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.  I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.  There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.’Then they asked him, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.’

Reflection

The apocalyptic imagery Jesus uses of one person being taken and another left behind feels uncomfortable; as I write this, much of Los Angeles is in flames. Celebrities and people we have never seen have lost their homes, and entire communities have burned down. When we witness events like this, along with those in Palestine, Yemen, and Ukraine, it highlights how fragile life can be, illuminating Jesus’ warnings about the unexpectedness of the Kingdom of God.

What does it mean to see the Kingdom of God ‘among you’? I am guilty of feeling the Kingdom in my life only when things are going well and convincing myself it can only be seen in positive events. Yet Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom is woven into the fabric of our everyday existence, often unnoticed amid life’s chaos. We are called to find meaning and the presence of God in turmoil, reminding ourselves that even in destruction, there can be glimpses of restoration. The warnings about the days of Noah and Lot serve as stark reminders to remain vigilant in our faith. 

We can easily become preoccupied with securing worldly possessions, yet Jesus uses the events of the flood and Lot’s wife, who looked back and became a pillar of salt, to jolt our minds and hearts into seeking our own way within ourselves, our local, and global communities. I spent a long time thinking about how to tie this reflection up neatly before realizing maybe that is the point. Sometimes events mean we cannot wrap things neatly. We all dwell in discomfort at times, but as Leonard Cohen wrote, “There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” The kingdom is always around you and within you.

Prayer

Creator God
Help us to continue to seek you in chaos.
Help us to see you in it.
May your Kingdom unite in this messy world to search for peace.
Help us to be courageous enough to lose some of our comfort in order to balance the scales of justice.
In you we pray.
Amen

St Luke 17: 11 – 19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’  When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.  Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’  Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

Reflection

Some key words in this reading can be significant at different stages of personal or faith development.

Thank:  Young children trained to say ‘Thank you’ whenever receiving help or a gift can be encouraged by this story.  As people’s understanding of relationships develops, they can see frequent expressions of thanks build confidence in mutual appreciation.  Some cultures have different expectations.  In Papua New Guinea a recipient may say in their language ‘I feel good’, rather than ‘Thank you’, or may recognise that a friendship obligation has been established which can be called upon later.  Jesus in this story didn’t say he expected the other nine to come back to thank him, but to give praise to God.  We are told that the foreigner came back with a loud voice glorifying God and fell on his face thanking Jesus.  The word Luke uses for ‘thanking’ comes to us as Eucharist in the title and main prayer of Holy Communion, the Prayer of Thanksgiving for God’s great work of salvation through Jesus.  The healing from dreaded skin disease and social exclusion exemplifies Christ’s saving grace mercifully and lovingly available, personally and globally.

Get up:  Arise, Jesus said, with a word the early church used for resurrection.  No longer was the man to be banished to the fringes of Samaritan or Galilean society.  No longer was he to stay in humility, face down at Jesus’s feet, but to stand up, and take his place in the worshipping community and daily life.

Go:  Three times Luke uses this word in the story – firstly, going up to Jerusalem; secondly, go and show yourselves to the priests; then (after a different word for going away slowly, they were healed) thirdly, ‘Go on your way; your faith has saved you.’  That’s going with confidence and purpose. 

Prayer

Thank you, Jesus, for drawing us to faith, step by step,
experiencing your appreciation, your help,
your healing and your saving grace
among the people around us. 
 
Glory to God lovingly at work in you in the world
in every age in your risen power
in people of faith empowered to go on our way
to share your life
in our communities and different cultures
with confidence and purpose in your love. 
 

St Luke 17: 1 – 9

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.  Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.  And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.’

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”?  Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”?  Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?  So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

Reflection

In this passage we get an example of Jesus’ typical teaching style where he moves from one thing to another quite rapidly. Jesus is warning about stumbling, but being more aware of causing others to stumble. You will all be able to recall an occasion when you were younger, or when your children or grandchildren were younger when there was an incident and someone will say “but they made me!” This is where someone has caused someone else to stumble. But as Jesus continues, if forgiveness is sought, then it should be given. This can be easier said than done as we all know, but we are all aware that when we do not forgive, this affects us more than the other because we hold the hurt within ourselves, and when we do finally forgive, we release the pain that we have been holding for so long and feel lighter and freer.

The disciples then ask Jesus to increase their faith having heard this, which moves us into the main point that he has been making which is that to be true followers we must obey. We know that obeying is not always easy, but Jesus isn’t expecting us to be perfect and get it all right, but to strive to always obey Him without questioning. Now I am not going to sit here and pretend I have this sorted, because I don’t, but the ideal is that we obey God unquestioningly so that our relationship and discipleship with God becomes deeper, stronger and obeying becomes easier, but we should not expect praise or plaudits for simply for doing what God has called us to do in the first place. Let us strive together to try and obey God, by respecting and honouring ourselves, our neighbours and our world, always working to create the now and not yet of God’s Kin-dom.

Prayer

Loving and Merciful God
we often do not obey but try to do things our own way, 
causing us and others to stumble and fall.
Help us to listen more closely to you and obey your Word
So that we can become who you have called us to truly be.
Amen.

O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgment.

May the mountains bring forth peace for the people
and the hills, justice.
May he defend the poor of the people
and save the children of the needy
(and crush the oppressor).

He shall endure like the sun and the moon
from age to age.
He shall descend like rain on the meadow,
like raindrops on the earth.

In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth’s bounds.

Before him his enemies shall fall,
his foes lick the dust.
The kings of Tarshish and the seacoasts
shall pay him tribute.

The kings of Sheba and Seba
shall bring him gifts.
Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,
all nations shall serve him.

For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor.

From oppression he will rescue their lives,
to him their blood is dear.
(Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.)
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.

May corn be abundant in the land
to the peaks of the mountains.
May its fruit rustle like Lebanon;
may people flourish in the cities
like grass on the earth.

May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.

Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,
who alone works wonders,
ever blessed his glorious name.
Let his glory fill the earth.

Amen! Amen!

Reflection

This Psalm appears to veer alarmingly at times from the sycophantic to the pious and back again. “May he rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” combines to some modern ears both the nauseating ambitions of Rule Britannia! and the pro-Palestinian chant that is wrongly associated with anti-semitism. “May gold from Sheba be given him” sounds like a battle cry of expropriation and echoes the misalliance between Empires and the Jesus movement over many centuries. This appears to be a nationalist manifesto: one that wishes for power to be concentrated and not fairly distributed.

Except it isn’t quite.

The bedrock of the Psalm is actually to be found in verses 18 and 19. One wonders why these aren’t the first two. It seems almost the wrong way round. It is God, the creator of all who is underpinning everything. The calls for policy platforms emanate from an understanding of God’s goodness that is not confined to one person, time or nationality. As Western Christians we have acquiesced too easily with our ‘kings’ – monarchs, big business, the prevailing economic system and even billionaire ‘tech bros’. Sure, we apply the necessary pastoral care to the vulnerable in our communities, running our food banks for those utterly up against it financially,  and striving to support communities to access life’s basics in poorer countries.  But do we coherently challenge the rich and powerful who have created unfair societies?

In the past our non-conformist forebears had no such qualms, especially in the seventeenth century. Gerard Winstanley, a leader of one of these radical groups, the Diggers, said: “Freedom is the man that would turn the world upside down therefore no wonder he hath enemies” Another group, the Fifth Monarchists rallied to the slogan “No king but Jesus”

It’s time to invert this Psalm to get to its key truth, turn the world upside down and crown Jesus as Lord of all in our prayers, thoughts and actions.
 
Prayer

Lord of everything,
through the pressure to conform 
and offer total fidelity to earthly leaders,
to false gods, questionable regimes, 
and perverted value systems,
give us the strength to dwell on your deeds and glory
to be found in sacrifice and servanthood
in the guise of your Son, our Saviour, 
Jesus Christ the only true King.  Amen.

St Luke 16: 19-31

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,  who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.  The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.  In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.  He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.”  But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.  Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.”  He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house —  for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.”  Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.”  He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”  He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”’

Reflection

In the world’s terms, the rich man – Elon Musk, Bill Gates, name your preferred billionaire – are the successes. The poor man – beggar, refugee, illegal immigrant, or whoever the media tell us to hate and despise this week – is the failure, worthless.

And then God does his upside-down thing that seems to always take us by surprise. The rich man is suffering in the after-life, the poor unconsidered man is established in the best of Jewish company, with Abraham himself.

And too late, the man who was such a success wakes up to this new reality. Now he is the beggar, desperate and needy. Just a drop of water is all he wants. Surely that’s not too much to ask? We don’t hear what Lazarus thinks – the beggar who sat at the rich man’s gate and received nothing but what fell, unwanted from the rich man’s table.

Is this tough justice something we are happy to hear? Do we want the profiteering multinationals and utility companies and their million-pound Christmas bonus CEOs given their just deserts? 

But there’s more to this story: the rich man realises his five brothers who are following in his footsteps will, in their time, arrive exactly where he is and he wants them to be warned. In extremis, Mr Rich Man begs first for himself, then his family. They say charity begins at home. His perspective is a very small one.

And again the answer is no. Quite simply, this isn’t how it works. But this story is being told by Jesus who will rise from the dead. Is he revealing his awareness of the reality of how few people will believe in him, turn again, repent, change their ways?

And yet still kept going to the Cross. 

Prayer

Forgive us the smallness of our vision, our hearts cramped by our self-centredness.
Wake us now to your truth and give us enough time to do better – in your terms, not the world’s.
Amen

 

Friday 7th March 2025  

St Luke 16: 1 – 13

Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.  So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” 

Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.  I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” 

So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” 

He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.”

He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” 

Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?”

He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.”

He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” 

And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.  And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 

‘‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.  If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?

No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’

Reflection

It would be easy to miss that this parable comes right after another one that we often call the parable of the prodigal son. This is a consequence of the absurd way we tend to read the Bible, cut up into disconnected fragments. When we read them together maybe something other than complete perplexity is possible.

The much beloved parable that precedes this one tells of a son who squanders his inheritance and of a father who squanders his own property by letting it fall into the hands of his dissolute youngest. This parable is also about squandering. A manager is accused of squandering his boss’s property, and when he is accused (falsely or truly, we aren’t told), he decides to squander it anyway by cancelling much of the debt owed by various creditors to his accusing boss. ‘How much do you owe?… a hundred? Make it fifty… a hundred? Make it eighty and quits.’ The boss can’t help admiring his (former) manager for his style, even though he might have lost some revenue. (There follow some potential ‘morals of the story’ that don’t quite seem to fit the story, but maybe some wiser readers will work it out one day). 

Is this story continuing to unfold Luke’s favourite theme – forgiveness? We still talk today of forgiving debts, and debts still serve in church circles as metaphors for failures that need forgiving. So just maybe, as the father in the previous parable was, with hardly a thought of doing different, generous and lavish with forgiveness, this parable too is about the way that forgiveness comes to us, like a debt wiped out, a surprising release from a burden we carry. The accounts of our lives don’t balance and never could, because God’s style is to squander forbearance and grace. And, like those surprised creditors, we are made friends. 

Prayer

God of grace,
your scandalous mercy
matches the scoundrel’s style
as you strike out the debts we owe. 
Thank you for outrageous mercy,
incomparable forbearance
and immeasurable love.
Give us the grace,
not to squander what you have given,
but to make friends with mercy,
be generous in our judgements of others
and have the nerve
to write the book differently,
when the chance comes.
Amen.