Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV).
In the Jewish Calendar, today is Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה), which began at sunset last night (11 September 2026) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (13 September 2026). Rosh Hashanah, literally ‘head of the year’, is the Jewish New Year. In Jewish tradition, the day commemorates the creation of humanity and serves as a day of divine judgment. This is the first of the High Holy Days and begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Sunday 20 September and ends at nightfall on Monday 21 September.
Later today, I may take part in some of the ‘Come and Sing Choral Classics’ day in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, from 12 noon to 7 pm. Singers are welcome to learn to sing some choral classics at this event. It is part of Heritage Open Days and the September Organ Festival, and includes an exhibition in the church on the Willis pipe organ. The day ends with an informal concert at 6:15 pm.
Meanwhile, 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: 43-49 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 43 ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
46 ‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’
Today’s Reflections:
Today’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 43-49) is a reminder that our faith must always be reflected in your lifestyles, that there must be a connection between what we believe and what we do, that our faith must bear fruit, that if our faith does not have firm foundations it will disappear with the next challenges we face.
This reading brings to a close concludes Christ’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’, in which he speaks of the qualities of what it means to be a true disciple and challenges us to examine both our inner character and the foundational structural integrity of our spiritual lives.
In the first part of this reading (Luke 6: 43-45), Jesus refers to the tree and the fig, and he notes that ‘people do not gather figs from thorns’. A tree is recognised by its fruit, and so a good heart naturally yields good actions, words and thoughts.
The goodness of every disciple comes from within and is not to be measured merely by one’s external behaviour: ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit’ (verses 43-44).
At the same time, consistently good behaviour is a sign of a healthy interior: ‘The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks’ (verse 45).
In the second part of today’s reading (verses 46-49), he contrasts the wise builder, who builds with deep foundations and rock with the foolish builder, who builds a house on soil or sand, without secure foundations.
The person who hears Christ’s words and acts on them is like a builder who digs deeply and lays a foundation on solid rock. When the flash floods and torrents hit, the house stands firm.
Those who hear Christ’s words but fail to respond or to act on them have superficial faith and are like a builder who builds a house on soft soil or sand without a firm foundation. The moment the river bursts against it, the structure suffers complete collapse.
A measure of the good disciple is how one both listens and acts on Christ’s words. To ‘listen’ includes hearing, understanding, accepting and assimilating his teaching and vision. Discipleship follows naturally, almost effortlessly.
On the other hand, those who listen but do not take in and do not act on what has been heard are like the man who built his house on a poor foundation: when the floods came, the sands shift, and the whole edifice collapses.
We are living in a time when the foundations of Christian discipleship are shifting like sand, and in the torrent that is gushing in with far-right populism the foundations of Christian discipleship are being undermined.
Trying to live a life that follows God’s directives seems to grow harder as the world and its leaders change their value systems so frequently, and as the name of Christianity is hijacked, whether it is by the merchants of hate who carry crosses at far-right events on the streets in Britain or the so-called Christian fundamentalist leaders and Christian Nationalists who sell out on Christianity in return for access to Trump and the Oval Office.
Last weekend, Andrea Williams, chief executive of an organisation that calls itself Christian Concern, spoke at a fringe event at the Reform UK party conference organised by the self-styled Christian Fellowship for Reform. In her speech, she came close to blasphemy as she tried to interweave that party’s name with Christ’s name at least six times in three sentences: ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the ultimate reformer. He reforms my heart, and when he reforms my heart, he reforms my family. He reforms my community, and it reforms our nation.’
She claimed atheistic secular ideology ‘has gripped our institutions’ and she spoke glibly of finding the ‘true answer’ not in ‘mere values’ but Jesus Christ himself.
When values are reduced to or even dismissed as ‘mere values’, when faith is separated from discipleship that is lived out on a daily basis, when listening fails to draw a response, when faith is devoid of hope and love, we have what Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as ‘cheap grace’, we have become unwilling to pay the Cost of Discipleship.
Christan Concern claims on its website, ‘We want to see Jesus Christ at the heart of society – we seek justice, speak truth and bring hope’. But this does not include, it seems, justice for asylum seekers and refugees, truth about the dangers of the rise of racism, Islamophobia and hatred on the streets of our town and cities, or hope for the poor, the marginalised, the outcast, the children in need, the very priorities in Christ’s ministry yet those who would the first victims of Reform UK’s state economic policies.
The sneering and laughing of Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick in response to the violent treatment of women who stood up and protested at that Reform UK conference, as they were beaten and assaulted, is in sharp contrast to the treatment by Jesus of women who pushed their way through the men in the synagogue or the men in the crowds to seek healing, to seek to be restored to their place in society.
Christan Concern’s website includes regular postings by Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at Christian Concern, who pursued Dr Jason Arday throughout his short time at Cambridge University, right through to the sad and bitter end. Yet he is silent about Dr James Orr who teaches ethics as an associate professor at Cambridge while appearing on a recent Channel 4 documentary to condone and be complicit in unethical donations to Reform UK.
Dieppe says ‘the Jason Arday scandal shows Cambridge University needs to return to the Christian foundations which made it great in the first place’. Yet he has stood by Dr Nathan Cofnas, who also pursued Jason Arday, who advocates ‘eugenics’ and far-right politics, who was eventually forced to leave Emmanuel College Cambridge.
‘The capture of Cambridge is a direct result of the abandonment of Christianity at Cambridge and across our culture,’ Dieppe claims. ‘Christian values cannot be expected to last in a non-Christian culture. We are witnessing the decline and fall of a once great institution, which is paralleled by the cultural collapse we see all around us across the nation. The only real and lasting solution will be for Cambridge University to be recaptured for Christ.’
Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has warned strongly against such a co-option of Christianity into politics. ‘I worry … that the Christian ‘brand’ becomes compromised if it’s seen, as so often in the US, as allied to political agendas and ambitions,’ he said recently. ‘It concerns me greatly that bits of the British right reach for this transatlantic rhetoric and repertoire of Christian nationalist ideas so as to ally themselves with some sort of global movement, even if they don’t fully sign up to the American version.’
Archbishop Williams, who was master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and has supervised theology students, has also expressed discomfort at politics infiltrating the academic environment. ‘I’m always concerned if vulnerable young scholars get the message that they need to line up with a specific ideological approach – of any kind – in order to secure their future.’
Fascism is on the rise in Britain, Bishop Arun Arora of Kirkstall in the Diocese of Leeds, warned last weekend. Speaking in Lambeth Palace, he condemned the ‘twisted theology’ of self-described ‘Christian patriots’ who demonstrated at ports on the south coast of England last weekend. The masked agitators were heard chanting ‘Christ is King.’
Bishop Arora identified ‘the tidal wave of nationalism’ as the ‘biggest threat to England’s fabric today’ and said the Church has to challenge the ‘sinful idolatry’ and ‘twisted theology’ of so-called Christian nationalists, saying they are using the Cross of Christ as a fashion accessory, with no understanding of Jesus’s message of love.
At the same event, Archbishop Sarah Mullalley said ‘there is an increasing responsibility on Christian leaders to speak up and not be silent, because silence itself encourages a society in which people think it’s all right to intimidate in this way.’ Bishop Rosemarie Mallett said: ‘The Church can tell the truth about history, protect the dignity of radicalised people, and offer a theological vision of belonging that lives out Jesus’s call to welcome the stranger.’
The challenge is immense today. We must pray for the encouragement to build on rock-like values rather than a sand-like foundation. Even the strongest building needs care and repair. The foundations of a building are often its least recognised feature, usually hidden and seemingly insignificant. My faith foundations may not be known to many but are cherished by God to whom I bring them now in prayer, that they may be blessed and strengthened, and may find expression in my response to those who are prioritised by Jesus in his teaching and his ministry.
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 12 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), has been ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced last 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 (Saturday 12 September 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord God, we pray for the Anglican Church in Hamburg, Germany today. For the growing witness of their community and disciples in the city, and for courage and humility for their church officers and council.
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.
Collect on the Eve of Trinity XV:
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.
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