Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent are little more than two weeks away (5 March 2025), and Saint Patrick’s Day is just four weeks ago (17 March 2025).
The calendar of the Church of England today remembers the life and witness of Janani Luwum (1977), Archbishop of Uganda and Martyr. Later this morning, I hope to attend the Founder’s Day celebrations with the Anglican mission agency USPG and the publishers SPCK in Saint James’s Church, Picadilly. But before the day begins, and before catching the train to London, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, 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.
Mark 8: 11-13 (NRSVA):
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ 13 And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.
Today’s Reflection:
In the Gospel reading this morning, the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign (Mark 8: 11-13; see Matthew 12: 38-39; Matthew 16: 1-4; Luke 11: 16, 29). The request for a sign (Mark 8: 11-13) is also found in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?’ (see John 6: 30).
The Greek word used here is σημεῖον (sēmeion) meaning aa sign, a mark, token, by which anything is known or distinguished; it can be a token, pledge, assurance, a proof, evidence, a sign, wonder; a remarkable event, wonderful appearance, or extraordinary phenomenon; a portent, prodigy, or a wonderful work; a miraculous operation, miracle.
Signs are a common motif in the Hebrew Bible. In its Biblical usage, the word σημεῖον (sēmeion) often means a prophet’s actions that verify that the prophet has been sent from God. So the Pharisees in today’s reading are making what would seem to all around them as a reasonable request.
There are seven miracles in Saint John’s Gospel that are referred to as ‘signs’:
• water into wine (John 2: 1-11)
• healing with a word (John 4: 46-51)
• healing a crippled man at Bethesda (John 5: 1-9)
• the feeding of 5,000 (John 6: 1-14)
• walking on water (John 6: 16-21)
• the man born blind (John 9: 1-7)
• the Raising of Lazarus (John 11: 1-46)
These seven signs are generally seen as given to confirm the deity of Christ. But they also show compassion and empathy for others and affirm or underline the core values at the heart of the Beatitudes – and we were reading Saint Luke’s version of the Beatitudes yesterday (Luke 6: 17-26).
These seven signs show:
• water into wine: saving people from public embarrassment, and affirm love and relationships (John 2: 1-11), blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled;
• healing a royal official’s son in Capernaum: care for the sake and infirm, no matter who their families or parents are (John 4: 46-51), blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy;
• healing a crippled man at Bethesda: acting on behalf of those who have no-one to act on their behalf (John 5: 1-9), blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth;
• the feeding of 5,000: feeding the hungry (John 6: 1-14), once again, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled;
• walking on water: being in control of our environment and caring for the climate, and calming all the storms and tempests in the world (John 6: 16-21), blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God;
• the man born blind: bringing sight to the blind (John 9: 1-7), blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God;
• the Raising of Lazarus: blessed are those who mourn (John 11: 1-46), blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
And to continue:
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely] on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’
In this world, that is becoming more oppressive, fragile, tense and dangerous with each new set of daily decisions in the Oval Office, what other signs do we need for Christian hope, discipleship and action?
Today’s Prayers (Monday 17 February 2025):
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 ‘The Struggle for Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil.’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Coordinator of the Department of Advocacy, Human, Environmental and Territorial Rights of the Anglican Diocese of Brasília. Pastor of Espírito Santo Parish, Novo Gama, Goiás.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 17 February 2025) invites us to pray:
May God look with mercy on the Indigenous peoples and traditional communities of Brazil and grant them a place to rest and work the land.
The Collect:
God of truth,
whose servant Janani Luwum walked in the light,
and in his death defied the powers of darkness:
free us from fear of those who kill the body,
that we too may walk as children of light,
through him who overcame darkness by the power of the cross,
Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr Janani Luwum:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
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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