Tuesday, 1 April

Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.” Proverbs 24:29

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”

Matthew 5:7

Many of us are tempted to retaliate when we feel we have been wronged.  Small siblings are well known for their retaliation, and such childhood scraps may be broken up with a request that they should live together peaceably.  It is considered a mark of maturity when such events cease.  Sadly, we all know that this is frequently not the case. 

Justice may demand that the perceived or actual wrong be acknowledged and that in some cases punishment be meted out.  So why did the writer of Proverbs advise against seeking payback?  Perhaps it is because, in seeking retaliation, more harm comes to the person who retaliates than to the person who started it all.  To keep a store of wrongs can hold one back, and what we often need is truth and reconciliation in order to start afresh.

In Matthew 5:7, Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”.

Today is April Fool's Day.  Are you prepared to be a fool for God and turn your back on the desire to get back at people – are you ready to be merciful?  Let your April Fool's jokes be all for fun, not for spite.

Lord, we ask you to save us from the temptation of dwelling on the wrongs we suffer.

Give us grace to seek reconciliation rather than revenge.

Winifred Jones

St Werburgh’s

Monday, 31 March

For I have chosen Abraham, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis 18:9

Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” Romans 4:9

God is good to us and has created a new beginning for us in the telling of his promise and the choice of Abraham and his descendants (us) out of his unfailing love and faith in us, to satisfy both justice and love. I God’s Love for us he disciplines us like a parent would a child, to show of the unfailing love we have from him and to keep us on the true faith. God remains faithful to our faithlessness and patient to our impatience. God is our father and friend; therefore our only hope for the future. If we follow God in our ways and actions in life, the promise God has made to us will be kept.

The happiness from God belongs to all who truly repent and turn to him in faith. Because of Abraham’s faith in God we are all accepted into God’s Kingdom if we are faithful and just throughout our lives. The feeling of wellbeing is from God’s love for us in our faith. With this he will accept us into his kingdom. Do not be afraid of God’s word. There is here a salvation for everyone who has faith in him. We are all worthy of God’s promise. All those who repent in faith God sees as righteous. To them the promise of eternal life will be given. The free gift to us from God.

Steven Cheshire

St Clement’s

Fourth Sunday of Lent, 30 March

As soon as we heard it, our hearts failed, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. Joshua 2:11

Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. Philippians 2:6-7

The setting - Joshua has inherited, from Moses, the position and responsibilities of leader. God has confirmed to Joshua the promise of a land for the Israelites, and reminded him of their commitment of obedience to God. Immediate context - Joshua has sent two spies to Jericho. They are protected by a woman named Rahab. After sending the king’s men away, she speaks to Joshua’s men. She has heard about the strength and power of the God of Joshua; she has no doubt that they will be successful in their conquest of Jericho.  Rahab seems moved by God’s faithfulness, by the strength of relationship between God and people.

The setting - From the most personal of Paul’s letters, written to strengthen the commitment and faith of the Christians of Philippi, Christ is seen as the focus and model for Discipleship.

In our reading there is expression, celebration of Christ’s divinity and humanity. Christ, being one with the Father, became, not just mortal, but like a servant. Through the incarnation God shows an utter faithfulness and commitment to humankind – to humble himself and become human.  

Lord, through the changing seasons:

Help us keep in mind your faithfulness always.

Help us feel the warmth of humility.

Help us see the strength of your love.

Help us know your promise for us.

Help us remain faithful to you.

Lord of the changing seasons,

I place myself in your hands, to love and serve.

Amen    

LMW

St Clement’s 

Saturday, 29th March

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” Psalm 126:1

“...for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” Revelation 7:17

Dreams and visions play an important role in our faith story: they seem to give expression to the ways in which God speaks to our instinctive spirituality, rather than to our rational minds.

Of course, many dreamlike and visionary events described in our scriptures are simply primitive ways of interpreting how a particular story evolved; and such ‘magical’ interventions do not fit comfortably with our 21st century enlightenment.

But there is a depth of spirituality to our Christian tradition which perhaps we sometimes overlook: and we overlook it especially when we are overburdened with the mechanics of simply managing the survival of our particular worshipping community.  We may even recognise that we have stopped looking beyond the immediate horizon, or that we have misplaced our capacity to listen for the still, small voice amid all the mundane demands of ‘being church’. Spiritual depression is very real.

Perhaps we need to look around us.  Who are the visionaries in our churches?  Who in your worshipping community can look beyond the end of the current budget, or beyond the present list of planned events, and sense where the Holy Spirit is leading the people of God?  In the words of Desmond Tutu, who is aware that ‘God has a dream’ for us?  Who speaks out for the journey which leads to the springs of the water of life?

Whoever that may be, bless them and treasure them - even when you need to moderate and manage them - for the spiritual gifts they bring to your community.

Philip Jones

The Metropolitan Church

Friday, 28 March

“Let us have no bloodshed,” he said. “Throw him into this cistern, in the wilderness, but do him no injury.” Reuben meant to rescue him (Joseph) from their clutches in order to restore him to his father. Genesis 37:22

See to it that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but always aim at what is best for each other and for all. 1 Thessalonians 5:15

Joseph was his father’s favourite son, he had also had a dream in which he saw his brothers, in the sheaves of wheat, bowing down before him. Joseph’s brothers, motivated by jealousy and hate, planned to kill him. Rueben persuaded them to put him in a pit in the wilderness, intending to rescue him later. In the end, this plan backfired, and Joseph was discovered by merchants, who sold him as a slave in Egypt. Joseph eventually became rich and a trusted advisor of Egypt’s Ruler, where he was eventually able to rescue his whole family from famine, though not before punishing his brothers a little first.  He did not choose to pay back wrong for wrong, instead he set his family up in the finest lands of Egypt and took care of them.

How many times do we hear today of people taking revenge on others? Wars, genocide, all forms of conflict are often motivated by paying back wrong for wrong. I was quite concerned to see that on a well-known quiz show this week 70% of the audience thought that Revenge was a good idea. Yet, what can it lead to? History books are full of stories of clan warfare, and rivalry between countries, and today we have the same ideas with gangs on the street, and between individuals. Retaliation can be a constant motivational force. Violence is perpetuated and nothing is resolved. How much better would life be for all if we could live by aiming at what is best for each other and for all. It is not always easy to do this when we feel hurt by others, and even more difficult when our children or vulnerable members of society may be victims of crime, bullying or injury. In these circumstances it is hard not to feel angry and wish to “pay back”, but I always feel heartened by, and truly respect those remarkable people who have turned their hurt and loss into forgiveness and positive action to help others in society.

Father, help me, too, to find the strength to live by your word, to continue to find the good in others to try to forgive those who do wrong to me and those about me and, in understanding their motivations, to strive to find a better way forward for all. Amen

Ella Burton

Wilbraham St Ninian URC

Thursday, 27 March

And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground”. Gen 4: 10

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure...you have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you. 

James 5: 1, 4-6

Things go wrong very early in the human story. Selfishness, jealousy, and murder appear in the first chapters of the first book of the Bible. But murder is not only in the act of physically taking the life of someone else. In these passages, murder is more widely interpreted as anything which contributes to the death of others through economic and social injustice.

In this country we have all profited from the suffering of others in this way, through our colonial past and our current economic policies here and overseas, so these are stark words. What can we do? First, we need to recognise that this is what has happened, and to learn sorrow for it. Then, with God’s guidance, we can find ways of doing things better: perhaps through involvement in co-operatives, or credit unions, or campaigning with those who seek a fair wage or to have their voice heard. For, to our great benefit, God does not write us off, but, in Christ, gives us new opportunities to do better.

Loving God, Help us to take the needs of the poor seriously, and to stand alongside them as they cry for justice. Amen

Sue Rowe

Wednesday, 26 March

My hand laid the foundation of the earth, / and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them / they stand at attention. 

Isaiah 48:13

He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgement has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’ Revelation 14:7

These two verses have in common the claim that God created heaven and earth.  Less obviously, but more remarkably, they share the fact that both probably originated in times of distress, when people could have been forgiven for doubting that God was all-powerful.

Isaiah 48:13 comes from part of the Book of Isaiah thought to have emerged when the Jews were exiles in Babylon and when God’s promises to their ancestors (that they would have their own land, that God would dwell among them in his Temple in Jerusalem, and that David’s successors would reign there as God’s regents) all seemed to have been broken.  The Babylonians had ravaged Judah, destroyed the Temple, and taken their king into exile.  On the face of things Marduk, the god of Babylon, whom the Babylonians believed had created heaven and earth, must have seemed much more powerful than their God, Yahweh.  Yet amazingly it was from this dire situation that the first unequivocal statements of monotheism may have come.  It was not simply that Yahweh was as powerful, or even more powerful, than other gods.  Yahweh was the only God!  (See for example the previous verse.)

And centuries later, in a time of persecution and from exile, another voice dared to claim that despite everything God was to be worshipped and glorified because God was the powerful creator who would ensure justice.

Creator God, when times are hard, help us to hold fast to our faith in your power and your justice.  Amen

Adrian Curtis

 Manley Park Methodist Church

Tuesday, 25 March

The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion,

But his favour is like dew on the grass. Proverbs 19:12

After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. Acts 16:7

God loves mercy. Mercy is of His essence. In mercy, He is most completely himself and in extending mercy He most fully reveals Himself.

God is hurt when we reject his mercy for in doing so we refuse his call to intimacy. We do not yet fully trust him and in consequence prefer keep him at a distance. We still have fear.  God’s response ? Mercy.

His mercy is infinite. Like the rising tide, wave after ever higher wave of mercy breaks over us. God’s mercy comes to wear down our hearts of stone not to hurt, belittle or condemn but that he might give us hearts of flesh. He comes in mercy that we might know we are utterly and eternally loved.

There is a certain doggedness too about this wise and merciful mercy. In loving us completely he completely knows us. So mercy’s invitations are always fashioned with us in mind. He addresses you in ways that will never come to me for I need to be embraced in different ways. But, however it comes, whatever is said, the great bass tone beneath everything else is always “You are loved”.

If we will permit, God’s mercy is most effective. It is the voice of one who calls in to being that which was not. So it is with us. In mercy we too are yet being formed and becoming that which in truth we are – children of God. Mercy does not bribe or force, there is a certain innocent nakedness to mercy. May we respond likewise with an ever more spontaneous and open “Yes”.

Gracious father, we are so disinclined to see our need of mercy. So slow to ask for it and so reluctant to offer it. Grant to us Lord that we might become a transformed people. May we become a people rich in mercy, grace and of truth. May we become like you our father.

Grant this for the sake of your son, our saviour, Jesus Christ.

N.N.

 St Werburgh’s Chorlton

Monday, 24 March

How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel!...My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim: for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy. Hos 11:8-9 (RSV)

Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more... Rom 5:20 (RSV)

What a wonderful word “grace “is. It suggests, yet is more than, generosity, bounty, and blessing. It is a word we regularly use in connection with God’s action. It is fundamental to our understanding of God. And yet, its use is also confusing. A literal reading of Romans 5: 20 would suggest that the worse we behave, the more God blesses us. In fact there have been those who have understood God’s activity in that way. Yet a more nuanced approach comes with reference to the reading from Hosea, in which God is experienced as being in pain on witnessing the corruption and idolatry of Israelite society. In this case, grace isn’t a case of “anything goes”, but a loving restraint, alongside a yearning call to Israel to change. The situation is very definitely not OK, and if it continues, the people will reap the consequences of their actions.

What Paul is saying, in his letter to the Romans, is that Law itself cannot help us overcome our weakness and deliberate fault. What it does is to show us what is wrong. But only God’s grace can actually make the difference, and for that to be so, we need to be honest about our failings and go to God for healing and change.

Loving God, help us to be open to you and to your loving, suffering challenge to us to change.  Amen.

Sue Rowe

Third Sunday of Lent, 23 March

Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. Joshua 21:45

For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’ Acts 2:39

The Old Testament reference reveals that all the ‘Good’ promises of God have been fulfilled – kept!

The promises referred to are about the people of God entering and being established in the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey. One intriguing Question to ask is what about the ‘not good’ promises?  Who makes the value judgement of what are considered the Good and the other types of promises?

How do people view the promises we make? How well do we keep our word?

The promise referred to in the Acts reference is part of Peter’s address to the crowds on the day we celebrate in our Generation as Pentecost, 3000 were added to the membership of the church on this occasion. The promise referred to is that the Holy Spirit is promised for all whom the Lord God calls to him. With this promise being defined in this way, how do we know who God has called to him? Is it important to us that we know? Does it affect - or not - how we treat other people? How confident are we that we are ‘in’? What might we need to do, say, think, for our own assurance of being ‘in’?

How by keeping our word are we developing our integrity and reflecting the integrity of God? Do these things aid us to be a light or signpost to others toward our Lord and Saviour, towards the triune Godhead? What will help us be more so?

Phil Gay

St Clement’s

Saturday, 22 March

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  Ecclesiastes 3:1

Then Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” Luke 18:31

Before we can get to Easter Sunday we have to pass through Good Friday.  Jesus knew what awaited him in Jerusalem; trial, torture, and terror.  He knew, prayed to be delivered but submitted himself to it.  Generations of Christians have used Jesus’ example as a source of strength in times of trouble, but, whilst I am moved by Jesus’ heroic example, I’m bothered by using it as a model of meek submission.  In my congregation there are those who have fled to the UK after having been tortured, raped and beaten by agents of their states because of their faith or sexuality.  Their faith helped them endure the dreadful treatment they received; it has given them a gracious strength and resilience – even when dealing with our asylum process and the ever-present fear of being returned home.  I find it hard, however, to accept that there should be time, under heaven, for this ill treatment.  Instead I long for the day when the torturers face trial, when their chambers are closed forever and when Jesus’ message of the coming kingdom is truly believed by both our world and the Church that bears his name.

Lord,

May your Kingdom come: 

for the tortured and torturer,

the oppressed and oppressor,

the powerless and powerful.

May your Church be an agent of its coming:

through our commitment to justice,

our recognition of you in the stranger and

through our desire to make your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

Amen.

Andy Braunston

The Metropolitan Church

Friday, 21 March

And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one. Zechariah 14:9

For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 1 Corinthians 8:6

Zechariah isn't pulling any punches here. 'The day when the Lord will sit in judgment is near'. God means business. He will act, showing he is 'king over all the earth'. 'Everyone will worship him as God', and everyone will 'know him by the same name'. This is victory on a sweeping scale.

Oh, what unity! And what a strong appeal this prophecy has for those of us who live in a land with a history of crusades abroad and persecutions at home in days of yore, a land where right now different religions and denominations abound! What blessed unity! What a chance for lovely peace to thrive!

In my lifetime in England, significant religious changes have occurred which earlier seemed impossible; Protestants and Roman Catholics are friends; URC and Methodists share worship; Christians and Muslims are building bridges. Who would have thought it?

Forgive in me, Lord, any of my words and deeds which have seemed divisive. Let me hold out my hands in friendship and service to all your people who come into my life's sphere; let me hold in my prayers those I don't know and shall never see. Let my tongue speak, with courage, of you, Lord - your mighty acts and also loving ways - and let me help to bring about a time when all people will own You as their God, and call You by the same name. Amen.

Margaret Edwards

Wilbraham St Ninian’s

Thursday, 20 March

“You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Saviour / the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.” Psalm 65:5

“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14:14

This passage poses one of the great mysteries of Christianity: ‘Does God always answer prayer?” On the face of it, this passage from John’s Gospel suggests the answer, ‘Yes.’ Yet this does not always relate to our experience. We ask for peace in our world only to see countries torn apart by civil war; we ask for personal healing but our condition worsens and so on.

To understand the passages context is important. In John’s Gospel, the verse comes as part of one of the final discourses of Jesus; this one on the relationship of love between the Father and the Son which is reflected in the love between the Son and believers. God the Father, will grant whatever we ask in the Son’s name in order that the Father may be glorified. This presupposes that what we ask is in accordance with God’s will and is not just what we want or what suits us.

So, by prayer and thoughtful reading of God’s word, we must first seek to know God’s will and purpose and as we draw closer to that complete union of love with the Father, we will know that what we ask for is part of God’s plan, and so He will answer us. Jesus himself gave us an example in his prayer in Gethsemane: ‘Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done.”

“Ever loving God, may our prayers always be in accordance with your will, so that in answering them, all will know your greatness.”

Christine Howard

Chorlton Central Church

Wednesday, 19 March

They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 37:23

He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:14

Visitors to the Multi Faith Centre at the Manchester Royal Infirmary will find ablution rooms for people of the Islamic faith to use before they pray.

They wash carefully – hands, feet, head and mouth, and as they do so they reflect on any wrong they have done : in words, thoughts, and actions. So the act of washing must be done with care and thought – almost an act of praying in itself – before they can focus on the prayer ritual.

Maybe physical and spiritual cleansing is an attempt towards purification. I’ve not met many people who could be described as pure; if we describe pure as being sinless, then newborn babies are the nearest.

I’ve met lots of people though who try their very hardest, and some who don’t try at all, but show us the way just the same. A young boy called James springs to my mind. His mum was in hospital, very scared, very anxious. At the age of just ten, James had wisdom beyond his years. He held his mum’s hand, told her not to be frightened, and how much he loved her. He gave me a big hug too, and asked if I was going to stay all night and look after his mum, because that was when she was most frightened. I explained that I couldn’t do that, but that we would say a prayer together and give his mum a blessing. James prayed with moving and poignant sincerity and then gave me a blessing.

I reckon we got pretty close to purity that evening.

Sarah Brewerton

Chorlton Central

Tuesday, 18 March

Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my sighing.

Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I pray. Psalm 5:1-2

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

Hebrews 5:7

One of my church members is fervent, and determined, in her prayer life.  She recommitted her life to the Lord whilst in immigration detention (she’d been brought up a Christian in Uganda but was rather nominal) and ever since she’s been eager in her prayers.  She often fasts as well as prays and has been committed to praying for a group of friends she made whilst in detention – all are now released and my parishioner attributes this, in part, to her prayers.  The Psalmist and the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews are eager to inspire their readers to give themselves wholeheartedly in prayer – yet this doesn’t sound very British!  We’re not really prone, as a people, to cry, shout and sigh in prayer.  We’d be embarrassed and, in most of our churches, if we cried, shouted or sighed too much someone would come and either ask if we were ok or ask us to stop! Yet there is a balance between being enthusiastic, committed and wholehearted in prayer and in drawing attention to ourselves.  Let’s use this period of Lent to recommit ourselves to a life of prayer and let’s make our prayers heartfelt.

Lord, you hear the prayers and longings of our heart,

You know our deepest yearnings,

You know the things we worry about.

Help us to express our feelings to you,

Help us to be wholehearted in our prayer life.

Amen.

Andy Braunston

Metropolitan Church

Monday, 17 March

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Jeremiah 7:3

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:36-37

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

This small phrase might jog our memories of a similar phrase in the Old Testament. In Leviticus we read, “you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev 19.2). In some sense, the purpose of the laws of the Old Testament (especially parts of Leviticus) was to mark out the people of Israel as a holy people. The God of Israel was a God of order. We read that God tamed the primordial waters of chaos and brought structure to the world. The laws carried on this creative effort by clearly marking out the world into clean and unclean, sacred and divine. In order to respond to God’s gracious election of them, the Jewish people were meant to become holy. They had to keep the law and so place themselves on the correct side of that profane/sacred divide which embraced all of creation.

But here Jesus says “be merciful.” I want to suggest that mercy is not ordered. It may not be well structured. It does not divide the world into holy or profane. In fact, sometimes mercy may be messy. To be merciful is to transcend any neat categories. It is to make individuals the focus of our attention and not those comforting boxes we like to put people into. To be mercifully is to act with generous compassion, perhaps over turning those religious rules that too easily become all important. To be merciful is to be loving, as our heavenly Father loves us.

Ken Flood

St Clement’s

Second Sunday of Lent, 16 March

"I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am', to a nation that did not call on my name." Isaiah 65:1

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18

Through the prophet, God speaks to his people, who, after Babylon's defeat in 539 BC, had returned from exile to Judah expecting prosperity and stability but finding hardship and famine.  Had God deserted them?  No, quite the opposite.  This is no hidden God, but one eager to be sought out and found.  The heartfelt  'Here I am, here I am,' to his neglectful people reminds us in Lent of Jesus's equally heartfelt lament over Jerusalem:  'How often have I desired to gather your children together ... and you were not willing!'  (Matthew 23:37) This is a God who is longing for each of us, without exception, in all our human diversity and frailty.

If God's longing for us is so intense, and his presence so near, prayer should be easy - but sometimes it isn't. Perhaps we want to feel a warm glow and are disappointed if we don't. Paul teaches us to pray always 'in the Spirit,'  for if we ask him, God's Spirit will pray within us more deeply than we can do ourselves, at a level we probably cannot feel. Our human part in prayer, says Paul, is always and everywhere to be on the alert for God, and, especially, never to give up in our prayer for others.  This is how we, unlike the returned exiles, can truly ask, seek and call on the God who longs to be found.

O God, of your goodness, give us yourself, for only in you do we have all.  Amen   

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)

Pam Hunt

Metropolitan Church

Saturday, 15 March

My soul longs, indeed it faints / for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh sing for joy / to the living God. Psalm 84:2

But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate. Luke 15:22–24

In his book “Walking Home” the poet Simon Armitage tells how he walked the Pennine Way “the wrong way round”, going “home” towards the village where he was born. He took no money, but sang for his supper, reading his poems in village halls, churches, pubs and living rooms, and collecting donations in a sock. Most nights he stayed with people who offered him hospitality in their homes along the route. “I got the impression that I could have knocked on anyone’s door, and they would have helped me,” says Armitage. “After all, it was a fairly precarious journey…It wasn’t like there was a Plan B.”

Hospitality is a recurring theme in Luke’s Gospel. In the Incarnation Jesus left “home” but he constantly experienced welcome at friends’ and strangers’ houses. What would it mean for the church to go “the wrong way round” and stop worrying about practising welcome and instead go looking for welcome? Rather than being the Waiting Father, what if we are the Returning Son or – worse - the Elder Brother? Jesus gives us no neat resolution to the story: the party’s waiting while God asks each of us how we might respond to God’s unfair and outrageous grace.

Father, we give you thanks

that when we think we have exhausted your grace,

and we stumble home, destitute and miserable,

you come running,

you embrace us,

and bring us joyfully home to join in the singing and the celebration,

Amen

Melanie Hall 

Wibraham St Ninians

Friday, 14 March

You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead. Deuteronomy 14:1

And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:6

Verses describing us as “children” can make us seem like God’s little ones, dependent and protected as infants are today. But in the ancient world the family was the basic unit of society, whatever your age. Where there were no police, no companies and no system of courts, authority lay with the head of the family. Sons, grandsons and great grandsons, together with their wives and slaves, were under his rule. He was accountable for them, and they to him. Village courts and councils were gatherings of such heads of families. Codes of shame and honour made the system work.

So these verses are about God’s grown up children, bound to God by their code of honour. Cutting yourself and shaving your forelock was behaving as though the head of the family was dead, but God was very much alive. Acknowledging God as Abba was to give the most intimate allegiance, to do what an adopted child would do when showing acceptance of an unbreakable relationship with the adoptive father.

God, I don’t ask to be your little child, sheltered and protected:
let me be your grown-up child, not vainly waiting for a sign but using the wisdom and good judgment you have given me;
let me accept life’s joys and pains not as worries to be hidden from, but as realities to be confronted as I draw from your strength;
let me defend the honour of your Name, resisting the injustice, exploitation, want and hopelessness that shame your world.

David Goodbourn

Chorlton Central

Thursday, 13 March

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. Genesis 1:3

Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.1 John 2:8

As spring approaches we look forward to longer days, and those light, hopefully warm, summer evenings. Gone will be the long, dark nights of winter when many of us would prefer to stay indoors rather than venture out.

And yet, some of us prefer the darkness.

I recall a while ago when the street lights in Chorlton were being replaced, someone saying to me that they would rather have the old lights that gave off less light.

A few years ago, the island of Sark was designated as the world’s first ‘Dark Sky Island’, they have no light pollution because there are no streetlights, something the islanders strive to maintain. The views of the clear night-skies are amazing.

Psalm 139: 11-13 says: ‘If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night”, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for the darkness is as light to you.’

We cannot hide from God, not even in the heights or depths of the heavens or the earth, which may feel rather scary, but the previous verses of the psalm tell us that wherever we are ‘God’s hand will guide us, God’s right hand will hold us fast’, which is very reassuring.

In creating God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. Jesus came as the Light of the world. God’s light has always been, and always will be.

Thanks be to God, for life and love and light. Amen.

Deacon Lyn Gallimore 

Chorlton Methodist/Manley Park Methodist Church

Wednesday, 12 March

He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears. Ezekiel 3:10

But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’ Luke 11:28

“There was a time when we were all listeners”. We listened to the radio. The BBC produced a weekly publication “The Listener”, as well as The Radio Times. But now the vast majority of us are “Viewers”, and how different it all is. The camera focuses on items of interest, shows close-ups of important “looks” between two people. If we are not careful, we can just rely on being a “viewer”. But that is not enough. It is essential to also be a “listener”. How often have you said to a child, listen to what I am saying.

It is a hard skill to learn and in an age of labour saving devices we are not always willing to make the effort. But make it we must.

But even more blessed are those who hear the Word of God and PUT IT INTO PRACTICE. We have to listen to the Word and Read, mark and inwardly digest the Word. And then

PUT IT INTO PRACTICE.

Beginning with: Love God, Love your Neighbour.

Margaret Heeney

St Werburgh’s

Tuesday, 11 March

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. Psalm 34:15

And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ Luke 18:7-8

We live in an unjust world. This is a fact which we simply can’t deny. We can see injustice in every system we have invented; in any structure we created. 

Nevertheless, whether in politics, science, or economics faith in progress and growth which may remove the human condition has become the new creed: an historical optimism which may not be challenged.

We have witnessed over the last century that this is not true. It has now been a hundred years since the enlightenment lost its innocence in the Great War which we will remember in this anniversary year. Despite technological advances beyond our wildest dreams we also experienced industrial murder on a scale that had not been seen before.

So if we are serious about our faith we are bound to call in to question God’s righteousness, God’s sense of justice. Are we left to just assert that God is just; that we simply can’t see the whole picture? I don’t think that it answers this question. The verses here talk of restoration of justice. The Psalmist and Luke both know that justice is not present. God’s justice is not here. But they offer hope in restoration and reconciliation. Hope through faith that God’s justice will win out in the end. However, we don’t have to wait for the end. God is hoping and longing to find faith that God’s justice will come. A faith that is able to bring a foretaste of God’s healing and reconciling justice into this world. Although we might not be able to overcome our human condition we are able to bring shape our lives to resemble God’s justice more closely in every new generation.

Merciful Lord, your justice is beyond all our comprehension. Let us never lose sight of your righteousness that we may always shape our lives to be the creatures you meant us to be. Amen.

James Grant

St Werburgh’s/St Clement’s

Monday, 10 March

The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. 

Psalm 118:27

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, a about the troubles we experienced I the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

As a child, or even as an adult, did you ever put a comic strip right up to your eyes, so that you could see the individual dots which make up the image? I often find that looking at a Bible verse or two in isolation leaves me with the same perspective. Just like with the picture made up of dots, one needs to take a step backwards and look at the whole picture, or whole Psalm or Chapter.

On first impression, today’s verse from Psalm 118 seems positive, and indeed it is; however, the joy expressed by the Psalmist is one which comes after years of struggle against Israel’s enemies. It is in many ways a triumphal, nationalistic psalm, and the notion of God having a hand in earthly, military victories probably leaves us 21st Century Christians feeling uneasy.

Compare this with the text from 2 Corinthians, where the struggle endured by St Paul was one which arose in his missionary journeys, and the rejection he faced when preaching the Gospel. In 21st Century Britain, it is often the experience of Christians that our faith is alien to many, even though they themselves might identify as “Christian” in a national census, and we may find ourselves keeping our faith hidden.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) folk have the experience of “coming-out”, and thanks to changes in our society, and with equality legislation, that experience is now much easier; however, LGBT Christians often remark that it is harder to “come out” as Christian than to “come out” as LGBT.

In both texts, there is a common theme, one of trusting in God. In his Psalm, David was not reticent in ascribing Israel’s military victory to trusting in God; and Paul’s whole basis of mission was to trust in God.

Today is just the sixth day of Lent, and our Lenten resolutions are relatively fresh in our minds. Beyond the things we may have given up for Lent, at the heart of Lent is a desire for us to become better: that is, to trust in God more and to worry less about what others might think.

Another theme in both these texts is one of achievement: Israel won the war; St Paul completed his missionary journey. What specific goal do we have for ourselves this Lent? 

May God grant to each of us one more step each day in our walk with Him.

Walt Johnson

The Metropolitan Church