Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Jeremy Taylor (1667), Bishop of Down and Connor and teacher of the faith; Florence Nightingale (1910), nurse and social reformer; and Octavia Hill (1912), social reformer.
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 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14 (NRSVA):
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2 He called a child, whom he put among them, 3 and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
10 ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.
12 ‘What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’
This morning’s reflection:
I think all of us have been disturbed in recent weeks about the terrors that are being rained down on children in the world today.
I say ‘children’ and not ‘innocent children,’ because there is no such being as a guilty child – there are only innocent children.
And the suffering and plight of children is all the more distressing when is caused by the calculations of adults who dismiss this suffering as merely the collateral damage brought about by war or because these children are dismissed as foreigners or outsiders.
For Christians, this distress must always be acute, must always demand our compassion, must always call for our response.
It cannot matter to us what label is placed on these children – whether the suffering Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are Christians or Muslim, whether the children kidnapped from a kibbutz in Israel are from secular or religious Jewish families, whether the children on boats in the English Channel are from Africa, Asia or the Middle East, whether the refugee children Charlotte and I visited across Europe on behalf of USPG last year are Ukrainian or Russian.
The disciples ask Christ in the Gospel reading today (Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14), ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He responds by calling a child, puts the child among them, and tells them: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’
We are not told whether this child is a boy or girl, Jew or Samaritan, Greek or Roman, a street urchin or the child of one of the Disciples.
Indeed, in all likelihood, the Disciples never noticed, for at that time a child was of no economic value and a burden on families until the child could earn his or her own way, or become the equivalent of a pension scheme for parents.
But Christ tells us: ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’
The Kingdom of Heaven is like little things. The Gospels remind us time and again that the Kingdom of Heaven is like small things:
• Sowing a seed;
• Giving a nest to the birds of the air;
• Mixing yeast;
• Turning small amounts of flour into generous portions of bread;
• Finding hidden treasure;
• Rushing out in joy;
• Selling all that I have because something I have found is worth more – much, much more, again and again;
• Searching for pearls;
• Finding just one pearl;
• Casting a net into the sea;
• Catching an abundance of fish;
• Drawing that abundance of fish ashore, realising there is too much there for my personal needs, and sharing it;
• Writing about it so that others can enjoy the benefit and rewards of treasures new and old.
And this morning we are told that Kingdom of God is like a little child – imagine a child playing on a beach in Gaza, falsely feeling secure in a school or hospital in Ukraine, maimed and injured in a mother’s arms at home, dying in a Gaza hospital, kidnapped at a music festival in Israel or in her parent’s home in a kibbutz, caught in terror in the midst of a far-right riot on our city streets, starving and despised in a refugee camp or in war the world ignores in Sudan, sea-sick in a crowded small boat in the English Channel, cowering in a cramped hotel room as rioters try to set the hotel alight.
In the face of these images I find myself thinking of the prophets, like Ezekiel in our first lectionary reading (Ezekiel 2: 8 to 3: 4), who are called to speaking ‘words of lamentation and mourning and woe’ and compelled to ‘go to the house of Israel and speak [God’s] very words to them.’
But I have hope too, for I hear Christ’s words today: ‘in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 13 August 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 ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Regional Manager Asia and Middle East, USPG, on the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East’s new programme launched in accompaniment with USPG, ‘Whom Shall I Send.’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 13 August 2024) invites us to pray:
We pray for all the young people currently taking part in the ‘Whom Shall I Send’ programme. May they continue to learn and grow in their ministry.
The Collect:
Holy and loving God,
you dwell in the human heart
and make us partakers of the divine nature
in Christ our great high priest:
help us who remember your servant Jeremy Taylor
to put our trust in your heavenly promises
and follow a holy life in virtue and true godliness;
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:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Jeremy Taylor to the eternal feast of heaven;
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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