Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the First Sunday after Trinity (7 June 2026). Stony Live 2026, Stony Stratford’s Festival of music, dance and arts, began yesterday (6 June 2026) and continues until next Friday (14 June 2026), and today’s events include Stony Classic, with the town filled with displays of classic and vintage cars. The afternoon events include the Big Lunch @The Riverside Fair from 12 noon to 4 pm on the Millfield, and is being opened by the Mayor of Milton Keynes Paul Trendall, and local author Sarah Pinborough.
Later this morning, I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today even 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.
Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26 (NRSVA):
9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.
10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 12 But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.
Today’s reflections:
This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26) in the Lectionary is divided into two parts: verses 9-13 tell of the call of Matthew the tax collector, and the questions that are raised by the dinner that follows in Matthew’s house; verses 18-26 tell of two healing miracles – the daughter of a leader of the synagogue (verses 18-19, 23-26), and a woman who is healed when she touches the fringe of Jesus’ cloak (verses 20-22).
Part 1 (verses 9-13):
Saint Matthew the Evangelist (מתי/מתתיהו, Gift of Yahweh; Ματθαίος) is one of the Twelve and is identified with both the author of the first of the four gospels and with Levi the publican or tax collector in the Gospels according to Saint Mark and Saint Luke.
Tax collectors were considered unclean ritually, they worked for the occupying power and they were suspect financially. As with Peter and Andrew, Christ sees Matthew the tax collector beside the sea, and he responds immediately to Christ’s call to follow him.
Christ first called fishers as first four disciples: Andrew and Peter, then James and John. His next choice of a tax collector seems a bold move. Tax collectors were typically local Jews who were employed by the Romans to collect taxes from the people. They extracted money from their neighbours and local people to cover the expenses of the foreign rulers and occupiers.
Some translations use the word publican instead of tax-collector. The word publican is a translation of the Greek word for tax-farmer, and we come across it also in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18: 9-14).
The Romans paid tax collectors well, and seemingly did not care if the collectors took more than the tax required. They were free to take as much as they could for themselves – once the Romans had been paid.
Rome collected three principal kinds of taxes: a land tax, a head tax, and a customs tax of 2% to 5% of the value on goods being moved around. A tax office or booth stood near a city gate or port to collect the custom tax from people engaged in commercial trade, such as fishers exporting dried fish or farmers sending surplus crops to a larger city.
Tax collectors were seen as collaborators and as greedy, and they were despised. This attitude was reflected in the words of Jesus when he said: ‘If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector’ (Matthew 18: 17).
The Greek terminology indicates Matthew is a low-level tax collector. Unlike Zacchaeus, he is not a chief tax collector. The words tax booth, or tax office translate the Greek τὸ τελώνιον (to telōnion, ‘revenue or tax office’). Perhaps the booth indicates he collects tolls along the road along the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. He would have been seen as a state-sponsored thief who socialised on the fringes of respectable society.
But when Jesus calls Matthew to follow him, Matthew becomes the disciple of a rabbi who is well-respected, invited him into his home, and organises a welcoming banquet for Jesus, to which he invites other tax collectors.
Dining with Matthew damages Jesus’ reputation in the eyes of the religious leaders, local Pharisees and teachers of the law. To eat with a Gentile or tax collector was regarded by strict Pharisees as rendering one spiritually or ceremonially unclean, to the point that even a house entered by a tax collector could be considered unclean.
Matthew is a Greek form of a Hebrew name, מַתִּתְיָהוּ (Matityahu), meaning ‘Gift of God’ and transliterated into Greek as Ματταθίας (Mattathias). Many New Testament figures have two names: Simon becomes Cephas or Peter, Saul becomes Paul. Mark and Luke name the tax collector as Levi, indicating he may have been a descendent of the tribe of Levi, which included the priests and Levites. But instead of a holy service in the Temple, this Levi is an unholy civil servant in his tax booth.
The roles of the Levites include washing the hands, and sometimes the feet of the kohanim after they remove their shoes and before they ascend the bimah or platform to give the priestly blessing to the congregation. As this custom developed, the association of the Levites with this washing led to iconographic depictions of pitchers, ewers, and bowls on the tombstones of Levite families.
Mattew abandons his lucrative business as a tax collector, and is called too to be a new form of Levite, to minister hand and foot to Christ the great high priest. In accepting Jesus’ invitation, Matthew extends his own invitation: he invited Jesus to dinner in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others eat with them in his large house, suited to a wealthy man. Yet those who are invited are seen as thieves, unbelievers, open sinners and social pariahs.
Did the guests also include Peter and Andrew, James and John, who once despised Matthew who extracted tolls on their fish exports? When they see Jesus warmly accepting Matthew, did they too accept him? Or did it take time? Were they hurt to hear their new fellow disciple put down with the question put not to Jesus but to them: ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ (Matthew 9: 11).
Christ dines with people whose trades made them ritually unclean and social outcasts. When the religiously powerful question his actions, Christ replies: ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners’ (verse 13). Christ calls and invite into his Kingdom those in need of repentance, not those who think they are righteous in God’s eyes.
Part 2 (verses 18-26):
The second part of this Gospel reading (Matthew 9: 18-26) tells two stories about Christ’s response to the plight of two very different women: a 12-year-old girl who is on her deathbed, and a woman who has been suffering for the previous 12 years, as long as the young girl has lived.
Both of them remain unnamed, like so many women in the New Testament. One is the daughter of a leading male figure in the synagogue. But religious position and social status in the local community are of precious little value when a small girl is at the point of death.
In both cases hope has run out, for a little girl and for an old woman. In restoring their health, Christ teaches what faith means, Christ offers new hope, and Christ shows what love is.
In both cases, these women are ritually unclean … a bleeding older woman, and a dying young woman. Jesus should not touch them. Yet their plight touches his heart, and he reaches out to them with a healing touch.
This passage presents us with a large cast of dramatis personae, people who receive the gentle, caring, loving pastoral attention of Christ in equal measure, each within the list of people we are told should be our priority.
They include:
The crowd who gather around Jesus by the lake are going to learn what the Kingdom of God is like, not through another sermon or another lecture, but by seeing what Jesus does. After hearing this Gospel story, would each and every one of them be happy to wear one of those wristbands with the initials ‘WWJD’ – ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ If they looked at our actions for an example of Christian lifestyle, would they know what Jesus does?
Jairus, as he is named in the parallel passage in Saint Mark’s Gospel (Mark 5: 21-43), is a respected provincial leader. He shows what true worship truly is when he throws himself at the feet of Jesus. He prays, entreats, begs, not on behalf of himself, but on behalf of a sick and dying girl. If we were to look at ourselves today, would we see ourselves placing our lives at the feet of Christ, and making our first priorities the needs of others who cannot speak for themselves?
By now the large crowd is pressing in on Jesus. They really want to see what he is on about, what the Christian lifestyle is about. And who becomes the focus of attention within this crowd?
Too often in a crowd, it is those who get to the front first, who have the loudest voices, who are heard and whose demands are met.
In this case, though, it is not the loud and the proud, the rich or the famous, who grab the attention of Christ – it is a weak, timid, neglected impoverished, exploited and sick woman. All her money has gone on quacks, and she has no man to speak up for her.
But look at what Christ does for her. Without knowing it, he heals her. And when he realises what has happened, in very affectionate language, he calls her ‘Daughter’ (verse 22).
In a society where men had the only voices, where to have a full place in society was to be known as a Son of Israel, he takes hearts and calls her ‘Daughter.’ She too has a full and equal place in society, she is commended for her faith, she is restored personally and communally, she is offered healing, and she is also offered peace. From now on, she can be at one with herself, with her society, with the world and with God.
But perhaps there was a danger that all this could become a sideshow for the crowd. The young girl’s father appears to have been forgotten. His household – perhaps religious and community leaders too – tell him to give up on Christ.
Christ does not want to put on a sideshow, either to impress the pressing crowd or to prove wrong the inner circle around this man. In Saint Mark’s account, accompanied by just his three closest friends – Peter, James and John … the three disciples who would soon witness the Transfiguration – he goes directly to the house of the dying girl, where her family and neighbours are in great distress, where the funeral the funeral dirges can already be heard.
It is shocking that the first reactions of some of the key local figures seem to be to upbraid the father for seeking whatever help he can find for his daughter, and not to offer him comfort and sympathy. We can see that in his despair this man was finding no hope from his own community.
Their lack of compassion and sympathy contrasts sharply with the compassion Christ shows for the woman who has been suffering for 12 years. She has spent all her money with consultants and doctors and specialists. None of them has been able to offer her a cure, and now that all her money has run out, all her hope has run out too. All this is compounded by the fact that she is ritually unclean … no man should come near her.
Even as he is being told not to bother coming, even when he is being laughed at, Christ keeps focussed on who is important here – not those who shout the loudest and who press their demands.
Twelve-year-olds have no say, no voice, no power. But Jesus now offers this girl new life, new hope, a new future, a full place in society. When Jesus was her age, he was in the Temple, lost in discussion and debate with the doctors of the law. God becomes present in the presence of the young and vulnerable.
I missed the three-day annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (the United Society Partners in the Gospel) in High Leigh, Hertfordshire last week (2 to 4 June). But I recall how many years ago at this conference (2015), I heard powerful and engaging stories of projects supported by USPG that are empowering women, from these islands to South Africa, from the West Indies and West Africa to India and Pakistan.
Canon Delene Mark from South Africa, gave harrowing accounts of gender-based violence, people trafficking, child murder and forced prostitution.
Sheba Sultan from the Church of Pakistan described the lives of women in Pakistan, from tribal people with few resources and many restrictions, to the elite women who have lives of luxury but find cultural values also stop them from living life to the full.
Anjun Anwar, a Muslim woman born in Pakistan, spoke of her experiences on the staff of Blackburn Cathedral. The Revd Dr Monodeep Daniel shared the work of the Delhi Brotherhood in challenging gender-based violence, including rape and murder. The Revd Dr Evie Vernon spoke of women challenging injustice and violence in Jamaica and in Liberia.
The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, now the Archdeacon of Liverpool, talked about gender justice and shared a vision of equality for men and women who are created equally in the image and likeness of God, who are made one in Christ, who are called and equipped by the Holy Spirit, and who live with the promise of abundant life for all.
We were challenged that year to ask ourselves: how is the Gospel good news for women? Speaker after speaker insisted it is Good News – but only if we read it, accept its consequences for us, and then live it out.
The Gospel is Good News for the two women in oday’s Gospel reading: they are at opposite ends of the scale in terms of both social status and age. Yet one does not come before the other. The younger woman is restored to her place in her family and in her community. The older woman, who has lost everything, who is at risk of being marginalised even by the Disciples, is offered the hope of her proper place.
Christ has equal compassion for both, and restores them to full life, physically, spiritually and socially, despite objections from men on the scene – the privileged men who have access to the house of Jairus, or the men around Christ who find that a poor, old sick woman is embarrassing.
The Gospel is Good News for women like these two women in this morning's reading, for the women I have heard at USPG conferences year after year. But it is only good news if we hear it and then put it into practice.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 7 June 2026, Trinity I):
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 7 to 13 June 2026 (pp 8-9), is ‘Safe Churches in Zambia’. This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager for Africa, USPG:
‘Across the Anglican Communion, churches are working to strengthen safeguarding and create safer environments for children, young people and vulnerable adults. In Zambia, church leaders gathered in Lusaka earlier this year to take this work forward within the Church in the Province of Central Africa.
‘At the meeting, Dr K Mwanza reminded participants that Safe Church work is not only about policies and procedures, but about everyday behaviour and how people are treated in church communities: “Safe Church work is broader than safeguarding. It involves treating everyone with dignity and respect.”
‘This was reinforced by the Most Revd Albert Chama, Archbishop of the Province of Central Africa and Bishop of Lusaka, who warned: “Documents alone will not keep people safe.” He emphasised that real protection requires committed leadership, practical action, and communities willing to speak up when harm occurs.
‘The gathering also looked to the future by strengthening learning and training. Evangelist Canon Janet Munde highlighted the importance of building “a foundation of knowledge that will be passed on to the next generation.” The Very Revd Canon Jacob Manda added: “Our mindsets and attitudes have been changed, and we have been empowered to go out and [create] safe spaces partners in global mission 8 for all.”
‘The meeting reflects a growing commitment across the Anglican Communion to ensure churches are places of trust and care. Safeguarding is not separate from mission, but part of faithful discipleship, where children, young people and vulnerable adults are protected and able to flourish.’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 7 June 2026, Trinity I) invites us to pray by reading and meditating on Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26.
The Collect:
O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
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:
Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son.
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
