Patrick Comerford
We are coming to the end of Passion Week, the first of the last two weeks in Lent, and we are just a week away from Good Friday (18 April 2025). The Church Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers the life and witness of George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878), first Bishop of New Zealand (1841-1868) and later Bishop of Lichfield (1868-1878). He died at the Bishop’s Palace in Lichfield on 11 April 1878 and gives his name to Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Selwyn House, Lichfield.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading 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.
John 10: 31-40 (NRSVA):
31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ 33 The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ 34 Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”? 35 If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods” – and the scripture cannot be annulled – 36 can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ 39 Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there.
Today’s Reflection:
There is an oft-repeated children’s rhyme that is used as a defence against name-calling and a response to verbal bullying abd that says, in various ways:
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But names shall never hurt me.
It has been traced back to the 1830s and 1840s, but must date from even earlier. It had spread from England and Ireland to the US in the early 1860s, when it appeared in a publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and in Boston, where it was attributed to a ‘little Irish girl’.
In popular music, variations of the saying have adapted in many albums and songs, including lyrics by the Who, Neil Hannon and the Divine Comedy, Madonna, Pete Doherty, Tom Waits, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Pink.
Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, which is included in the Septuagint and in some traditions, including Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, appears to offer a diametrically opposite saying: ‘The blow of a whip raises a welt, but a blow of the tongue crushes the bones’ (Sirach 28: 17).
The conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem continues in the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (John 10: 31-40).
In yesterday’s Gospel reading (John 8: 51-58), Jesus promised that ‘whoever keeps my word will never see death’ (verse 51), but ends with him being threatened with death.
His interlocutors in yesterday’s reading picked up stones to throw at Jesus (verse 59), threatening him with the very same form of execution that faced the woman who had been caught in adultery and was brought before Jesus by scribes and Pharisees in the earlier incident (John 8: 1-11), which we read about on Monday (7 April 2025).
Once again in today’s reading, his enemies want to stone Jesus to death for they continue to accuse him of blasphemy and of making himself God.
In a play on words, probably laced with irony and insider humour, Jesus quotes from Psalms, where God saying of some people, ‘You are gods’. This is a reference to the people called judges in Israel. Since they were judges of their people, taking on themselves something which belongs only to God, they were called ‘gods’ (Psalm 82: 6; see Exodus 21: 6; Deuteronomy 1: 17).
If people inspired by the word from God could be called ‘gods’, can Jesus whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blaspheme because he says: ‘I am God’s Son’? (verse 36).
Once more Jesus escapes death, and crosses the river to a quiet place (verse 40).
Perhaps early readers of Saint John’s Gospel would have grasped the literary device in these passages that connects stones and death, for it is Jewish custom to place pebbles and stones, rather than flowers, on graves to commemorate the dead.
We know now to expect that his death is inevitable, and we shall focus on his passion and his death, not by stoning but on the Rock of Golgotha, next week throughout Holy Week.
Today’s Prayers (Friday 11 April 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 ‘Healthcare in Bangladesh.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Suvojit Mondal, Programme Director for the Church of Bangladesh Community Healthcare Programme in Dhaka.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 11 April 2025) invites us to pray:
Pray for the Church of Bangladesh to continue being a beacon of hope, demonstrating Christ’s love and compassion through its ministry of healing and service to its communities.
The Collect:
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
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 Jesus Christ,
you have taught us
that what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters
we do also for you:
give us the will to be the servant of others
as you were the servant of all,
and gave up your life and died for us,
but are alive and reign, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Gracious Father,
you gave up your Son
out of love for the world:
lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion,
that we may know eternal peace
through the shedding of our Saviour’s blood,
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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