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Reconciliation
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. Mt 18:21-22 1. Forgive seventy times seven! Why this seemingly random number? Because in Genesis one of…
Read MorePolitics of Prayer
Evensong 27 August 2017 Chris Tyack 1. More and more we are conscious of a strange loss of nerve in the West today—a spiritual torpor, a restlessness. No one knows whether things will hold together; indeed as the poet tells us “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”…
Read MoreEven the puppies
“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” We hear Jesus’ exchange with the Caananite woman—or as it sometimes is, the Syrophonecian woman. Maybe it troubles you, suggesting as it does a rather…
Read MoreWater walking
At the fourth watch of the night he came wandering towards them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him, they were terrified, saying “It is a ghost!” And they cried out. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” (Mt 14) 1. We…
Read MoreFeeding
The sun sets over still waters, all the people reclining on the grass. Jesus takes the loaves in his hands, breaking and blessing them. According to Matthew’s account, 5000 men, apart from women and children, were fed that day. It was, it seems, a prefiguring of the Eucharist: and indeed at every celebration of the…
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