Patrick Comerford
We have arrived at the beginning of a new month, the beginning of September. We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and yesterday was the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, 31 August 2025). We are celebrating the 1700th anniversary this year of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 CE. One of the decisions at Nicaea was that the New Church Year begins on 1 September, a tradition still observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Rite Catholics.
Today is also the first day of Autumn, Creationtide begins today, the beginning of the Church year in the Orthodox calendar, and continues until 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Giles of Provence, Hermit, who died ca 710. Saint Giles is the co-patron of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. There is an organ rectital by Jacob Collins in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church at 12:45 today. 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 4: 16-30 (NRSVA):
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ 23 He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum”.’ 24 And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Today’s Reflection:
This morning we begin a series of readings in Saint Luke’s Gospel that bring us to the end of the Church year.
In this morning’s Gospel reading, we find ourselves at the beginning of Jesus’ public life. After his baptism by Saint John the Baptist (see Luke 3), he returns to Galilee and his home towns of Capernaum and Nazareth, the small towns where he has spent his early years.
In this reading, Jesus not only returns to his home region, but he also lays out the agenda or reads the manifesto for his ministry for the coming years, yet sets the scene for his rejection by his own people.
The reading opens with Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as is his custom. He is called up to read the Scripture and comments on it. The synagogue was controlled by a board of elders and by the chazzan or attendant. On Saturdays, the sabbath service began with the shema, ‘Hear O Israel …’, a simple declaration of faith (see Deuteronomy 6: 4-9), and included prayers, fixed readings from the Torah or the first five books of the Bible, a reading from the Prophets, a sermon, and a blessing.
The two readings were in Hebrew, with a running translation into the vernacular, that was normally Aramaic but might have been Greek in some places. It would have been normal for literate adult male Jews to be called in turn to read the Scriptures in the synagogue: first those who were of priestly descent, the Cohanim, then the Levites, and then the other Israelites. So, on this particular Saturday, Jesus may have been the third person called on to read, or he may even have been further down the list.
The scroll of Isaiah is given to him by the chazzan or attendant, who combines the functions that we might associate with a sexton, verger, churchwarden and Sunday school teacher. And it is to him that Christ returns the scroll when he is finished reading from it (verse 20).
The portion Christ reads from (verse 18-19) is actually three verses, and they do not come in sequence: Isaiah 61: 1, part only of verse 2, and a portion of Isaiah 58: 6. So, even if Christ had been handed a pre-selected portion of Scripture to read, he makes a deliberate choice to roll back the scroll and to insert a portion of an extra verse, Isaiah 58: 6.
Having read while standing, Christ then sits down, the normal posture at the time for someone who is about to teach. When he sits down, all eyes are on him (verse 20), so it is he and he alone who is expected to preach and teach that morning. The reading may need explaining and interpretation before the people who hear it realise they have just heard good news.
Christ tells the people in the synagogue that the Scripture is fulfilled in their hearing. Scripture has not been read that morning just to comply with part of the ritual; it actually has immediate meaning, significance and relevance that day. Christ is not merely reading the words, he is promising to see them put into action, to transform hope into reality.
His reading from Isaiah amounts to his manifesto or mission statement:
• to bring good news to the poor
• to proclaim release to the captives
• recovery of sight to the blind
• to set free those who are oppressed
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
The ‘year of the Lord’s favour’ is the Messianic age when salvation would be proclaimed. Isaiah, in the original text, is describing the Year of Jubilee, when every 50 years slaves were set free, debts were cancelled and ancestral lands were returned to the original family.
As he finished the reading, Jesus put down the scroll and said: ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ (verse 21).
At first, those who hear him are overawed by his words and his wisdom. But there is an unexpected turn of events as the people wondering why he is not doing in Nazareth what he has been doing in Capernaum and other places.
Jesus reminds them that prophets are seldom accepted in their own place, and gives two provocative examples: Elijah, who was sent to a poor widow in Zarephath, near Sidon, a Phoenician city beyond Tyre; and Elisha, who healed Naaman, a gentile general from Syria.
His remarks so anger the people of Nazareth that they think of killing Jesus.
Driven out of that synagogue and out of town, I think of Christ having three options:
1, To allow himself to be silenced.
2, To keep on preaching in other synagogues, but to never put into practice what he says, so that those who are worried have their fears allayed and realise he is no threat.
3, To preach and to put his teachings into practice, to show that he means what he says, that his faith is reflected in his priorities, to point to what the Kingdom of God is truly like.
Christ takes the third option, as we see as the readings in Saint Luke’s Gospel continue. He brings good news to the poor, he releases this poor captive, he can now see things as they are and as they ought to be, the oppressed may go free, and all are amazed.
This morning’s Gospel reading is good news, and not just to the poor and oppressed in Nazareth in the past. Who are the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed among us today?
How do we respond to them and their needs?
Do we remain others take to the streets of our town and cities, outside hotels and in our public spaces, to further oppress them, even using the law and misusing the symbolism of the cross to further their violent actions?
And what do we do so that the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed among us know that we believe compassion for them is at the heart of Christ’s ministry, message and mission?
Today’s Prayers (Monday 1 September 2025):
The theme this week (31 August to 6 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Faith that Listens and Grows’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections from Soshi Kawashima, Seminarian, Diocese of Chubu, Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan). Soshi took part in the Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA), a cross-cultural learning opportunity for young people across the Anglican Communion.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 1 September 2025) invites us to pray:
Lord, heal the wounds of division and bring reconciliation to those experiencing pain and separation. May your love unite us all, regardless of our differences.
In my prayers this morning, I am also including the members of the PCC of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, who are meeting the Bishop of Buckingham and the Archdeacon of Buckingham this afternoon.
The Collect:
O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; 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 of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.
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
