Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and the week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII). Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Bridget of Sweden (1373), Abbess of Vadstena.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 12: 46-50 (NRSVA):
46 While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’ 48 But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ 49 And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’
This morning’s reflection:
These past few days were among the hottest I have ever experienced in England for many years, with temperatures in Milton Keynes hitting 30 on Friday. Yet, this heat in times such as, and this morning’s unseasonably heavy rain, are also sharp reminders that Climate Change threatens the lives of all of us.
Three years ago, the USPG conference in 2021 took as its theme ‘For Such a Time as This’. The title came from the Biblical story of Esther in which Mordecai asks Esther to consider whether she has found herself in her privileged position at ‘such a time as this,’ a time of great crisis, so that she can do God’s will and stop a looming catastrophe (Esther 4: 14).
‘Such a Time as This’ … Mordecai uses the phrase twice in one verse.
In ‘such a time as this’, we are challenged to think whether the Church has a voice that must speak out: this is a time when we are aware of potential catastrophes created by war and violence in Ukraine and Russia and in Gaza, Israel and Palestine, by pandemics, by racism, by political extremism, by gender violence, by climate change, by the rise of the far-right across Europe, by the threats posed by the resurgence of Trump in the US … and so on.
In the Biblical story, Mordecai warns Esther that if she stays silent at such a time as this, she and her family may perish, but God will raise up ‘relief and deliverance … from another quarter.’
At that conference three years ago, we were challenged, day after day, in such a time as this, whether the Church is going to speak out today, or whether we are going to wait silently for God to provide ‘relief and deliverance … from another quarter.’
The Cry of Creation could be heard throughout presentations that invited us to listen to ‘The Cry of Creation.’
Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, drew on the opening word of the Rule of Saint Benedict – ‘Listen’ – as he urged us to listen to the groan and cry of creation, to listen to the cry of the dispossessed, and to listen to God’s voice on how we can live more simply so that others might simply live.
Sadly, he quoted a survey that finds eight out of ten young people say they have never heard a sermon on climate change. Yet the Fifth Mark of Mission in the Anglican Communion calls on us ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’
If the Church engages with climate change, he suggested, then we may find we are evangelising the young.
He quoted from Thomas Merton: ‘From the moment you put a piece of bread in your mouth you are part of the world. Who grew the wheat? Who made the bread? Where did it come from? You are in relationship with all who brought it to the table. We are least separate and most in common when we eat and drink.’
In one of the Bible studies that year, Suchitra Behera, an Indian theologian working with the Diocese of Barishal in the Church of Bangladesh, told a moving story of hearing that ‘Cry of Creation’ in a group of elephants, grieving the death of one elephant killed by a car or a truck on a road. The elephants staged their own protest on the road against the destruction of their habitat, blocking traffic in an organised protest. And she quoted the Prophet Jeremiah on the groaning of creation:
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, ‘He is blind to our ways.’
They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
but no one lays it to heart (Jeremiah 12: 4, 11, NRSVA).
Drawing on the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, she linked the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
The cry of creation and the cry of humanity are not separate cries.
And this is closely linked with the Post-Communion Prayer introduced on Sunday and being prayed throughout this week:
Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.
We can be transfixed by fear or paralysed into inaction in ‘such a time as this.’ But if the Church remains silent at such a time as this then, perhaps, as Mordecai tells Esther, God raise up ‘relief and deliverance … from another quarter.’
As that conference in 2021 closed, the Revd Duncan Dormor, general secretary of USPG, reminded us that in the breaking of bread we are one body. Poverty and the assault on the earth challenge us to hear the groaning of creation, he said, and he repeated that there can be no salvation for humanity that does not include creation.
The breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup takes us to the heart of creation.
Let us break bread together. Amen.
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 23 July 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Someone called my name – Mary Magdalene Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Cathrine Ngangira, Priest-in-Charge, Benefice of Boughton-under-Blean with Durnkirk, Graveney with Goodnestone and Hernhill.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 23 July 2024) invites us to pray:
Heavenly Father, we pray for you to draw us closer so that we may know the risen Jesus Christ and to make him known.
The Collect:
Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
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.
Post Communion Prayer:
Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.
Additional Collect:
Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
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
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