Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity V, 5 July 2025). I hope to take part in a meeting of local clergy in the Milton Keynes area later today at the Urban Farm in Wolverton. Later, this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 10: 1-7 (NRSVA):
1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near”.’
Today’s Reflections:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 10: 1-7) reminds us of the commission and mission of the Twelve. We read yesterday of Christ in ordinary, everyday situations, going ‘about all the cities and villages’ (Matthew 9: 35), mixing with ordinary people. These are people who need hope, people who are sick, sore and sorry, people who are distressed, marginalised and suffering, and Christ has compassion for them, because they are harassed and helpless, ‘like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 36).
They are ordinary people, indeed, in ordinary places, in ordinary time, but suffering and often isolated and marginalised in their everyday lives.
We read this morning how, in answer to their plight, to carry out his mission, Christ chooses 12 disciples, 12 ordinary people, with ordinary backgrounds and careers: Peter, who denies him three times; Andrew his brother, a fisherman; James and John, ‘Mammy’s boys’ who jockey for position, unsure of what the Kingdom of God is about; Philip, who could easily turn away Greek-speaking Gentiles; Matthew, despised as a tax collector; Thomas who doubts him; Judas who betrays him … (see Matthew 10: 2-4).
In our ordinary everyday lives, Christ calls us to follow him, not for our own self-satisfying feeling of being good, but to proclaim the Good News; not for our own advantage and enrichment, but because that is what the suffering world needs.
We are called as ordinary people to do that; our Baptism is our commission to do that; our Confirmation is our ‘Amen’ to that.
Christ sends the 12 out in mission to the marginalised and the outcast. They are to gather to the lost sheep proclaim the ‘good news,’ as Saint John the Baptist announced, that ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near’, is at hand.
We might also ask whether our churches are open enough to gather in the lost sheep, whether we delight in meeting strangers in our midst and bringing them in, sharing God’s welcome and hospitality found, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
As we prepare to welcome a new rector, the Revd Dr David Jarratt, to Stony Stratford next week (13 June 2026), I find myself thinking once again about the well-known prayer of welcome by Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711):
O God, make the door of this house
wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship,
and a heavenly Father’s care;
and narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and hate.
Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children,
nor to straying feet,
but rugged enough to turn back the tempter’s power:
make it a gateway to thine eternal kingdom.
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 8 July 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 5 to 11 July 2026 (pp 16-17), is ‘Faith in the Midst of Fractures’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Godfrey Owino Adera, Anglican priest, theologian, and lecturer at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.
The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 8 July 2026) invites us to pray:
Loving God, renew the Church as a welcoming home where women, young people, and other minorities find dignity and belonging. Break down exclusion and form communities of love and grace.
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
