Patrick Comerford
Lent began a week ago on Ash Wednesday, and this week began with the First Sunday in Lent (Lent I).
Later today, I hope to take part in a lunchtime meeting of local clergy in the Servant King Church and Community Centre, Furzton, a partnership of the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church and the United Reformed Church, and a choir rehearsal in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
But, before this day begins, 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.
Luke 11: 29-32 (NRSVA):
29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!’
Today’s Reflection:
Signs are part of the humour throughout Monty Python’s Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, a controversial 1979 film by the Monty Python team, including Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
Scene 18, ‘The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem’, includes this dialogue:
FOLLOWERS: … Look! Ah! Oh! Oh!
ARTHUR: He has given us a sign!
FOLLOWER: Oh!
SHOE FOLLOWER: He has given us … His shoe!
ARTHUR: The shoe is the sign. Let us follow His example.
SPIKE: What?
ARTHUR: Let us, like Him, hold up one shoe and let the other be upon our foot, for this is His sign, that all who follow Him shall do likewise.
EDDIE: Yes.
SHOE FOLLOWER: No, no, no. The shoe is …
YOUTH: No.
SHOE FOLLOWER: … a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance.
GIRL: Cast off …
SPIKE: Aye. What?
GIRL: … the shoes! Follow the Gourd!
SHOE FOLLOWER: No! Let us gather shoes together!
FRANK: Yes.
SHOE FOLLOWER: Let me!
ELSIE: Oh, get off!
YOUTH: No, no! It is a sign that, like Him, we must think not of the things of the body, but of the face and head!
SHOE FOLLOWER: Give me your shoe!
YOUTH: Get off!
GIRL: Follow the Gourd! The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem!
FOLLOWER: The Gourd!
HARRY: Hold up the sandal, as He has commanded us!
ARTHUR: It is a shoe! It is a shoe!
HARRY: It's a sandal!
ARTHUR: No, it isn't!
GIRL: Cast it away!
ARTHUR: Put it on!
YOUTH: And clear off!
How often do we pray unusual signs as indications of God’s blessing, favour, approval or intervention, or even God’s judgment?
In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 11: 29-32), Jesus faces this sort of request too. with that in his own day. People wanted some spectacular sign from him to establish beyond doubt that he was who he said he was.
In this reading, Jesus addresses the crowds who gather around him as a wicked generation because they are asking for a sign. Today people can be very impressed by visionaries who claim to have visions that are denied to the rest of believers.
The church has traditionally been very wary of all such claims. In the Gospel reading Jesus accuses his contemporaries of failing to see what is there before them. They want signs and yet all they need already stands in front of them in the person of Jesus, someone greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, greater than all the prophets and kings.
If the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah and if the Queen of the South responded to Solomon, how much more should Jesus’ contemporaries respond to him?
Jonah serves 40 days’ notice on the city. These are the years of wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus, the days and nights Moses spends on Mount Sinai, the days the spies spend in the land of Canaan, the days Ezekiel spends repenting for the sins of Judah, the days Elijah spends without food or water on his way to Mount Horeb, the days Jesus spends fasting in the wilderness, the days between the Resurrection and the Ascension …
To Jonah’s dismay, the people of Nineveh take his words to heart; even the king puts on sackcloth and ashes and prays for God’s redemption. They turn from their evil ways, and God changes his mind about the calamity they had faced. They are 40 days that are comparable to our observance of Lent, and at the end the promise of mew life is fulfilled.
But, instead of being pleased with a mission accomplished, Jonah is not only displeased but is angry. He is convinced that the king and the city are not sincere about their repentance. Is he fearful that, having survived, they are now going to turn their attention to his people? This is the Jonah who, only some time earlier, had faced drowning and being devoured, but now he is so angry he would prefer to be dead. And when he survives, he goes away, separating himself from God and people, and sulks.
Even then, when he might have been saved from the harsh weather and climate only to find his shelters destroyed, he is angry with God yet again.
The story of Jonah ends not with an answer to Jonah’s complaints, or a solution to Israel’s conflict with Assyria, or even an indication of whether the king and people of Nineveh remain faithful, but with a question from God: should God not be concerned for the lives of people – even their animals – no matter how immoral or sinful I may see them as being, not knowing their right hand from their left?
It is a salutary lesson for the Church when we think at times that we think we have heard God’s word, think we are following God’s ways, but are reluctant to share with others – whether they are outside our parish, outside our society or culture, outside our country.
Are there times when I limit God’s salvation to those I want to be counted in?
Are there times when I resent calls to recognise that God loves others beyond my circle or circles of faith, family or friends?
No matter how threatening I see outsiders to be, does this justify putting limits on reaching out to them, on my compassion for them?
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 12 March 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 Church and Unity.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by the Right Revd Dr Royce M Victor, Bishop in the Diocese of Malabar, Church of South India.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 12 March 2025) invites us to pray:
We pray for all parts of the world where there is religious conflict and unrest. Lord, may we focus on what connects us rather than what divides.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through 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:
Lord God,
you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in 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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