Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 171, Tuesday 29 October 2024

‘The kingdom of heaven … is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened’ (Luke 13: 20-21) … three trays of bread in a baker’s shop in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (27 October 2024). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls James Hannington (1847-1885), Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda.

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘The kingdom of heaven … is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened’ (Luke 13: 20-21) … varieties of bread on a stall in a market in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 18-21 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 18 He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’

20 And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

‘World’s Smallest Seed,’ 40”x30” oil/canvas, by James B Janknegt

Today’s Reflection:

Have you ever found yourself lost for words when it comes to describing a beautiful place you have visited?

If you have ever been to the Bay of Naples or Sorrento, how would you describe what you have seen to someone who has never travelled very far beyond where they live?

You might try comparing the first glimpse of Vesuvius with looking at Carrigtwohill, Croagh Patrick or the Great Sugarloaf … but that hardly describes the experience of climbing the rocky path, looking into the caldera, or the experience of the sulphuric smell.

You might want to compare the Bay of Naples with the vista in Dingle Bay or across Dublin Bay from the Dart passing through Killiney … but does that reflect the majestic scope of any one of these views?

You might want to compare the church domes of Venice or the Greek islands with the great copper dome in Rathmines … but that goes nowhere near describing the intricate artwork on those Italian domes or the impact on the Greek skyline.

You might compare the inside of the duomo in Florence with the inside of your favourite parish church … but you know you are getting nowhere near what you want to say.

And as for Capri … what other island conveys the romantic allure of Capri.

Comparisons never match the beauty of any of the places that offer us a snatch or glimpse of heaven.

And yet, we know that the photographs on our phones, no matter how good they seem to be when we are taking them, never do justice to the places we have been when we get back home.

We risk becoming bores either by trying to use inadequate words or inadequate images to describe experiences that we can never truly share with people unless they go there, unless they have been there too.

I suppose that helps to a degree to understand why Jesus keeps on trying to grasp at images that might help the Disciples and help us to understand what the Kingdom of God is like.

Christ tries to offer us a taste of the kingdom in this reading, as he continues to speak in parables. The two parables in this reading – the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Yeast - are really similes that must have seemed incredible on the day because of Christ’s use of exaggeration and hyperbole.

A mustard seed is very small, but it grows into a large shrub, rather than a tree. Birds do not nest in it.

Bread made with three measures of flour would feed 100 people, so once again we have hyperbole. The Kingdom of God Kingdom will grow from small beginnings to something beyond our measure or imagination.

We have a romantic imagination that confuses gardens with Paradise, and Paradise with the Kingdom of Heaven. But perhaps that is a good starting point, because I have a number of places where I find myself saying constantly: ‘This is a little snatch of heaven.’ They include:

• the road from Cappoquin out to my grandmother’s farm in West Waterford.

• the train journey from outside Ferns to Wexford, along the banks of the River Slaney.

• the view from Stowe Pool across to Lichfield Cathedral at sunset.

walking along Cross in Hand Lane on the north fringe of Lichfield.

• the Backs in Cambridge.

• sunset at the Fortezza in Rethymnon on the Greek island of Crete.

• the sights and sounds on some of the many beaches I like to walk on in Ireland and in Greece.

I could go on. The Kingdom of Heaven must be so like so many of these places where I find myself constantly praising God and thanking God for creation.

But … but it’s not just that. And I start thinking that Christ does more than just paint a scene when he describes the kingdom of heaven.

Later today, you might challenge yourself to think of three places, three gifts in God’s creation, that offer glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to think of three actions that symbolise Christ’s invitation into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Give thanks for these small seeds or fistfuls of yeast, and share them with someone you love and cherish.

An evening’s walk in winter along Cross in Hand Lane in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 29 October 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 ‘All Saints’ Day’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor, General Secretary, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 29 October 2024) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for churches across the Anglican Communion. May they continue to flourish as they seek to praise your name.

The Collect:

Most merciful God,
who strengthened your Church by the steadfast courage
of your martyr James Hannington:
grant that we also,
thankfully remembering his victory of faith,
may overcome what is evil
and glorify your holy name;
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 our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr James Hannington:
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

‘The kingdom of God … is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden’ (Luke 13: 18-10) … the Mustard Seed is a restaurant in a country house setting in Ballingarry, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Bishopsgate Street in Kuching has two names and many memories of an episcopal pathway

The former Bishop’s Gate in Kuching is now reduced to its Belian or ‘ironwood’ frame and a small surviving portion of brick wall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are staying in China Street, off Carpenter Street, in the heart of the old Chinese area of Kuching. The next street east along Carpenter Street, where Carpenter Street meets Ewe Hai Street meet, is Bishopsgate Street. It cuts across Carpenter Street and runs parallel with China Street.

Bishopsgate is also named on signposts and street signs as Bishopgate, and it is also known locally as Little Side Street or Side Street.

Walking north, Bishopsgate leads to the Main Bazaar and the Waterfront. Walking south, the street comes to an end where a Victorian-era gate once led into the garden of the Anglican Bishops of Kuching.

The street has no connection with Bishopsgate in London. Instead, it takes its name from the Bishops of Kuching who once used this gate with other senior church figures to reach the market or the bazaar in Kuching from the grounds of Saint Thomas’s Cathedral.

Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, a brick wall and the gate separated the Anglican mission complex, including the Cathedral, the Bishop’s House and the House of the Epiphany, from the Chinese shophouses and the bazaar.

The stout ironwood doors of the Bishop’s Gate were used for pedestrian access to the main streets of Kuching, including the bazaar and the Waterfront. At dusk, the bishop’s watchman locked the gate, keeping the mission staff and families safe inside and making sure any unwelcome visitors or intruders were kept outside.

Bishopsgate or Bishopgate? … it depends on which street sign you read (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Chinese migration to Sarawak probably took places in three waves, with the first arrivals crossing into Sarawak from West Kalimantan, then in the Dutch East Indies and now part of Indonesia, in the early 19th century. Those early settlers were mainly the Hakka whose origins were in Jiaying Zhou in China.

The second wave of Chinese settlers in Sarawak arrived by sea before the arrival of Sir James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak, in the 1800s and they were mainly Teochew and Hokkien people. They were followed by the Cantonese who came at the invitation of the then Rajah in the 1900s.

The last carpenter on Carpenter Street shut up shop some years ago. But some of the traditional craft and artisan shops survive on these streets, including the tinsmiths, watchmakers, silversmiths and jewellers.

Until the early 1960s, there was a kindergarten near the Bishop’s gate, and after a year the children there went on to attend Saint Thomas Primary School.

A new road, named Jalan Wawasan, was cut through the area between the back of Carpenter Street and the north side of the cathedral grounds in 1993, leaving the Bishop’s Gate without its original function. The once prominent gate is now reduced to its belian or ‘ironwood’ frame and a small surviving portion of the brick wall, close to a bar known as the ‘Drunken Monkey’.

Bishopsgate Street, Carpenter Street, Ewe Hai Street and China Street are popular with tourists, with their cafés, food shops, and street stalls. In the evening, the area around the Bishop’s Gate has become a popular meeting area, with bars such as the Drunken Monkey, food stalls and vans, including a good pizza van known as Balkanoo.

Looking north from the Bishop’s Gate and the Drunken Monkey along Bishopsgate Street towards the Main Bazaar and the Waterfront in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)