Collect For Epiphany 4
1 Corinthians 1: 18-31
Matthew 5: 1 – 12
For the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…
…subtitled ‘You couldn’t make it up…’
The world is in a state, and has been for thousands of years. There have been a seemingly never-ending succession of cruel tyrannical rulers, warring countries, occupying armies, ordinary people treated like slaves, unspeakable atrocities. In so many countries, you’re not even allowed the freedom of belief, at pain of imprisonment, family threatened, sometimes even death.
So. Imagine for a moment that to fix this, you have been given the job of setting things right, with whatever you need to deploy in the way of human resources, clever advisors and lessons from history.
Hands up if your chosen strategy involves you being ridiculed, tortured, humiliated and nailed to a tree. You’d be laughed at and labelled as a feeble minded dreamer who doesn’t live in the real world, someone completely off their trolley.
Problem is, everything else people have attempted since the ark didn’t work, despite God sending prophet after prophet. Things got better for a time, and then, insidiously, the Satan crept back into people’s lives and wrecked ‘em.
What was really needed was a once-and-for-all victory over sin – and it didn’t involve the exercise of military might or clever politics. Instead, the power of unconditional love won the last battle that will ever need to be fought. God allowed His Son, the Servant King, to climb the cross that saves and redeems the world.
It’s a pity that the world doesn’t appear to want to be saved – the way of the cross appears to be too much effort and too little faith. Nations choose the easy way that inevitably ends in disaster – again and again. When will they ever learn? They deny the simple fact that the war is won, that victory belongs to Jesus, and if we so wish, we can share it and live it. Now. This minute. A simple ‘yes’ to God’s call. That’s the best bit – we don’t have to wait for eternity – we can be the body of Christ right here, right now. And then we can begin to take our part in the healing of the Nations.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
G K Chesterton
Previous Posts
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And while we think of the things we value most, do we remember that we are of such value to God, that His Son was prepared to go into the flames for us?
Praying Together 27th July 2025
In a word, it is all prayer, a rich sequence, choreographed in different moments of gathering, praise, listening and communion.
Praying Together 20th July 2025
Jesus comes to us in many ways and with many faces. Are we aware we may ‘entertain Angels without knowing it?
Praying Together 13th July 2025
May we never miss meeting your gaze,
in the eyes of our sibling, the stranger.
Praying Together 6th July 2025
Always remember that ‘success’ is simply doing His will – it’s not necessarily achieving the outcome we would ourselves consider to be ‘successful’. Leave that definition with Him.
Praying Together 29th June 2025
Jesus is looking for commitment. Absolute, unconditional, commitment. When I think of what that means, I’m always minded of Martina Navratilova’s remark: “The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.”
Praying Together 22nd June 2025
As Christians, may we never regard mercy and compassion towards others as weakness, naivety or gullibility, but display the traits which demonstrate that we follow a Saviour who came to rescue those left behind.
Praying Together 15th June 2025
You couldn’t fly a kite inside a church building –for the Kite to fly you’d have to go into the windy street outside. Where does that place the need for the Spirit to act?
Praying Together 8 June 2025
Of all the strange things happening on the Day of Pentecost, perhaps the most puzzling is when God appears to have second thoughts. In Genesis 11, He makes it difficult for people to understand each other’s language
Praying Together 1st June 2025
The song by Mary Black, ‘Bless the Road’, while written as from a parent whose child is leaving home alone for the first time – maybe first day at primary school, going to college, beginning an independent life – always puts me in mind of the thoughts and blessing of Jesus as He prays for His disciples before His Ascension.
Praying Together 25th May 2025
‘Peace I give to you… do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.’
His peace is not remote and only there at the end of things – His Peace is with us now.
Praying Together 18th May 2025
So the commandment is a challenge. To love those who betray you. Those who jeer. Those who wield the whips embedded with flint, hammer in the nails, pierce your side.