The passage from our gospel today describes a situation in which siblings are disputing their father's estate, and Jesus responds with wisdom by choosing not to take sides. We can wonder exactly what the cause of the sibling dispute was but one can’t help but imagine that money must play a part in that.As he often does, Jesus does not give an answer but tells a story. This passage occurs between teachings in Luke’s Gospel focused on worry and human valuation. Both sections end with statements of reassurance: "You are worth more than many sparrows" and "You are of greater value than the birds." The main message is that Christian life is not defined by possessions, emphasizing the importance of inner worth and our need to be generous and consistent in our attitude towards God.Greed seeps into our lives. Many of us have possessions and riches our ancestors of 100 years ago would never have dreamed possible and yet we find ourselves curiously looking for more. We should be on our guard and remember our true worth, and that of every person, is found as a precious child of God. Our “things” never define us.Fr Simon
“….you who were once estranged and hostile in mind. he [Jesus] has now reconciled” declares the Letter to the Colossians. What a beautiful thing! Jesus, who “is the image of the invisible God” reconciles us to God, to one another and to creation. He calls us to join him in his work of life, of love, transformation, forgiveness and hope. Can there be a greater message to offer to a world where so many seem “estranged and hostile in mind?” It is our duty as members of his “body, the church” to do all we can to draw others to Jesus’ healing and reconciling power. This is our mission as a church.Rev Richard
In our Gospel reading from Luke this Sunday, Jesus tells a lawyer to obey the law, ‘love God and love your neighbour’ in order to inherit eternal life. The lawyer asks Jesus, ‘who is my neighbour?’ which prompts Jesus to tell the story of the good Samaritan. What the story illustrates is that our ‘neighbours’ aren’t just the people who live next door to us, or along the street, who we quite like, or the people we chat to in church. Our neighbours are sometimes hiding in plain sight. They are the people without homes living in tents around the town. They are the young people roaming around and getting into trouble because they have very little else in their lives. They are the lonely, isolated people who don’t venture from their homes because of illness or anxiety. Loving our neighbours can pose us something of a challenge, but it is the way we create flourishing communities and give people abundant life.Revd Liz
It’s a ridiculous idea to put your lambs in the middle of a load of wolves. They are not going to stand a chance and it’s an image which hardly makes sense in any culture.This is the vision Jesus sets out in our gospel reading today where the objective is to usher in the new ways of the kingdom into the madness and badness of the world. The forecast from the very start is for a rocky road so why does Jesus say this to his friends? Jesus knows himself to be totally vulnerable (even to death on a cross) yet protected by his Father, therefore Jesus suggests the same vulnerability to us!Friends, it appears that this journey of faith was always going to be a rough ride. Good news is that God‘s faithfulness rests with us and that the powers of darkness will flee. Whatever rough ride you may be having or have had through life, the reassurance for Christians is that God is with us at all times and in all situations.Fr Simon
