Family Communion for the tenth Sunday after Trinity: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo.

First reading: Jeremiah 1. 4 - 10
Gospel: Luke 13. 10 - 17

Brunel famously said that 'Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men'; he meant that, while rules are necessary and helpful in any aspect of life, it is important to understand why they were created and in what circumstances a 'rule' might be set aside. The religious leaders who criticised Jesus for healing on the Sabbath were wrong on many levels: they contradicted traditional Jewish teaching about giving help on the Sabbath; they hypocritically ignored their own readiness to perform necessary tasks on that day; and, above all, they tried to use the God-given law as a weapon to catch Jesus out, emphasising its letter and completely disregarding its spirit. This contrast of letter and spirit is illustrated in the image above from the 'Ottheinreich Bible', an illuminated manuscript containing an early translation of the New Testament into German. The crippled woman kneels between Jesus and his followers on the left, all adorned with vivid haloes, and his halo-less opponents on the right. The magnificent illuminations from this manuscript are freely available online, and a link through the Library of Congress in Washington is given in 'More Info' below.

Some rules are carefully drawn up; others are more like guidelines drawn from general experience. The Old Testament reading shows God defying expectation (and in that sense breaking a kind of 'rule') by entrusting the young Jeremiah ('only a boy') with the role of prophet.