Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 28 September). Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers George Bell (1881-1958), Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker (3 October).
I may have a lengthy return journey to Heathrow Airport later today. The choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church begins a new term later this evening, with rehearsals in Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and 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.
Luke 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.
16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’
Today’s Reflections:
We have been reading in Saint Luke’s Gospel this week how Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, and a Samaritan village had refused to welcome his messengers (Luke 9: 51-62). But Christ rebuked James and John for their response to this rejection, and he then sent out 70 (or 72) disciples on a mission of healing and proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God.
In this morning’s readings, Christ tells the Seventy to expect but not to be dejected when they meet hostility, and to leave rejection to God’s own judgment and God’s own time.
The term ‘woe’ (Greek: ου̉̀αὶ, ouai) is often used in prophetic literature to express divine displeasure and impending judgment, and it appears frequently in prophetic writings, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and in Christ’s teachings.
Could the disciples could have expected to face rejection in these familiar Galilean town or even similar rejections in the Phoenician towns of Tyre and Sidon?
Chorazin was about 3 km (two miles) north of the Sea of Galilee, and archaeological excavations suggests the small town had a thriving Jewish community. Bethsaida, on the north-east shore of the Sea of Galilee, was the hometown of apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip, and the town where Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8: 22-26). Capernaum is often called Jesus’ own city (Matthew 9: 1), it served as the centre for his Galilean ministry, and he taught and healed in the synagogue.
Tyre and Sidon were ancient Phoenician coastal cities, known for their wealth and maritime trade. Prophets often denounced them for their pride and wickedness (Ezekiel 26-28, Isaiah 23). Sodom was infamous for its wickedness and destroyed by God in the time of Abraham (Genesis 19), and became a byword for divine judgment and extreme sinfulness among Jews and Christians.
But Jesus and the disciples often retreated to Tyre and Sidon, the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre begged for healing for her daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28; Mark 7: 24-37), and the deaf man was healed in Sidon (Mark 7: 31-36).
The woes serve as both a lament and as a warning, expressing sorrow over the cities’ current state and educating those who are listening about the future consequences of such a state.
They are a challenge too to think of how the very threats we face in life are not always the ones we fear, and those who offer us comfort and support in life may be those we least expect to offer it.
Today’s Prayers (Friday 3 October 2025):
The theme this week (28 September to 4 October) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘One Faith: Many Voices’ (pp 42-43). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 3 October 2025) invites us to pray:
Lord God, as we reflect on the history of the Council of Nicaea, renew us afresh with the beautiful truths of who you are.
The Collect:
God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
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:
Keep, O Lord, your Church, with your perpetual mercy;
and, because without you our human frailty cannot but fall,
keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful,
and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Lord God,
defend your Church from all false teaching
and give to your people knowledge of your truth,
that we may enjoy eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
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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