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