Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the and the week began with the Festival of Creation in Christ or the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 6 September 2026). Today the Church of England in the Calendar in Common Worship remembers Charles Fuge Lowder (1820-1880), who, in many ways, epitomise the 19th-century Anglo-Catholic ‘slum priest’.
I have another medical appointment later this morning, to review recent blood tests as my sarcoidosis and Vitamin B12 levels continue to be monitored. Later, I hope to return to the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, 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.
Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’
Today’s Reflections:
The typesetters’ decision to present much of the New Testament as narrative discourse has left us with little poetry in the New Testament compared with the Hebrew Bible.
But there are poetic hymns throughout the New Testament, and Saint Luke’s Gospel has several poems that we continue to use as poems or songs in the form of liturgical canticles:
• The Song of Mary, or Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55), part of which we read on Monday;
• The Prophecy of Zechariah, known as Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79);
• The Song of the Heavenly Host, Gloria in Excelsis (Luke 2: 14);
• The Song of Simeon, Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2: 29-32), which inspired TS Eliot’s ‘A Song for Simeon.
Two of the best known poetic passages in the Gospels are the two accounts of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10; Luke 6: 20-26). In today’s Gospel reading, Saint Luke then narrates his account of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (verses 20-26). He offers four beatitudes and four corresponding woes or warnings.
The word blessed (Greek μακαριοι, makarioi) also means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate.’ Some people are blessed, happy, fortunate to be included in the Kingdom of God, others are warned of the consequences of their choices in life.
The paired blessings and warnings in today’s Gospel reading are:
• to the poor (verse 20), and to the rich (verse 24);
• to the hungry (verse 21), and to the ‘full’ (verse 25a);
• to those who weep (verse 21), and to those are laughing (verse 25);
• to those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 22), and those who are held in esteem (verse 26).
Saint Luke records the ‘poor’ without any qualification (verse 20), compared with Saint Matthew’s ‘poor in spirit’ (see Matthew 5: 3). In Jewish tradition, the poor and the hungry are not cursed or impure, but are deserving recipients of divine and earthly care (see Deuteronomy 11: 15; Isaiah 49: 10; Jeremiah 31: 25; Ezekiel 34: 29). The poor are to receive the Kingdom of God; the rich have their reward today in their comfortable lifestyles.
Those who are excluded are denied their right to worship in the Temple and in the synagogue. But in the past, the prophets – including Jeremiah – were hated, excluded, reviled and defamed (verse 23), while the people in power spoke well of the false prophets (verse 26; see Jeremiah 5: 31).
This Gospel reading today is set within a large crowd of people who came to hear Jesus and to be healed, and that those who were troubled were cured. If the same people came to our churches today – if they came to me as a priest of the church today – would they know from how we behave – from how I behave – that Jesus cares for them, that he seeks to restore them to the fullness of life?
Poverty comes in many forms today. Exclusion and marginalisation are common experiences for many in our society. Those who hunger and who weep are not just around us, but among us, in the Church, in our community, in this society.
If you feel you are excluded or marginalised, if you know you are hungry and you are often close to tears, do you feel the rest of us in the Church do enough to see to it that you know you are counted in when it comes to the Church being a sign of the Kingdom of God?
If you think you are financially secure, that you have enough to eat, if you have plenty of good reason to laugh and be happy, if you know people respect you and treat you properly, do you see the rest of us in the Church as a blessing to you, as an opportunity to share your blessings, to share your joys, to share your Easter faith in the Risen Christ?
Poor and rich, hungry and ‘full’, those who weep and those who laugh, the hated, excluded, reviled and defamed and those held in esteem: in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Lord Illingworth observes wisely: ‘The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’
He was probably paraphrasing a quotation popularly attributed to Saint Augustine: ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.’
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 9 September 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 9 September 2026) invites us to pray:
Father in heaven, we thank you for Nolene and for carrying her through when she felt overwhelmed and alone. Thank you for walking beside her step by step. Remind us to trust you too and know that you are with us.
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
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, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Merciful God:
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through 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
No comments:
Post a Comment