Faith Daily | 29 September 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - PENTECOST APBA p586

O God,

you declare your almighty power

chiefly in showing mercy and pity:

mercifully grant us such a measure of your grace

that, running in the way of your commandments,

we may obtain your gracious promises,

and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: Luke 9: 57-62

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 59To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 60But Jesus* said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ 61Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ 62Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by: Neville Eckersley

One of the many parodies of Christianity asserts that we are a smug, self-congratulatory religious club for people who are weird, in this modern scientific age, in our need for “religion” to solve our problems and make us feel secure.

Such an idea simply melts away and is seen as rather laughable in front of the real Jesus of the New Testament.

We see him here making hard demands of his followers. They are not invitations to a soft, comfortable life where no problems arise and all is sweet and lovely. They are instead a demand for top priority in our lives, at the negation of all other expectations, cultural, familial and even traditionally religious.

Following him he insists, will involve a readiness to be homeless, with nothing, (verse 58), foregoing a strong cultural and family tradition of burying a father ( verse 60), and not looking back to “the good old days “prior to starting on the disciple’s path ( verse62).

These are not simply metaphors from Jesus.

His followers had to face any or all of these issues in reality in many persecutions. Today our fellow Christians are facing them still, and we should pray for them that they stay on the path as disciples of Jesus.

For ourselves, in our relative safety, we should pray for clarity in seeing what hinders us from following him as the top priority in our lives ( Matthew 6:33)

FINAL PRAYER: John L. Bell & Graham Maule

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don't know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Amen.