Holy Communion for the Second Sunday after Trinity: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo. Junior Church takes place at the same time in the hall.

First reading: Psalm 77. 1–2, 11–20
Gospel: Luke 9. 51–62

There can be few more uncomfortable poems than William Blake's 'The Tiger', with its telling question; 'Did He who made the Lamb make thee?'. The answer is of course that he did; God made apex predators as much as he made cuddly animals, and it follows that the world in which we are placed is one that offers challenges as well as comfort. Psalm 77 illustrates the power of God through descriptions of storms on land and sea, but also reassures us of his guidance, present unseen no matter what is going on around us.

The Gospel is a similarly challenging passage. Jesus is unequivocal: he knows what lies ahead of him, and makes no secret that discipleship is challenging. As so often happens, he makes his point through an image which would have been very vivid in the past and now seems merely conventional; the significance of setting one's hand to the plough is that, in order to drive a straight furrow, the ploughman has to focus on a distant point and keep his eye firmly upon it, never looking back.