Three new resources, published each week - helping you connect the Bible passages with what's happening in the world right now.

In touch	Check-in	Intercessions
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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Wake up call

Jesus reaches out his hand and calls us to get up (Mark 5. 41). 

Context

• Five years on from Brexit and for many, the promise of change has yet to be realised. The big changes that are needed to make our society more equal seem further away than ever. Justin Welby joined Big Issue sellers this week commenting that homelessness is an issue that matters to God.
• Five million people became millionaires in 2020 in spite of the pandemic.
• GenZ discuss their losses and their hopes.
• This week saw the publication of government select committee report The forgotten: how white working class pupils have been let down and how to change it – a report considering the reasons for underachievement in schools which a government spokesperson stated can no longer be attributed to poverty alone. Is this another round in the government’s artificially provoked culture war designed to distract us from serious issues of inequality?
• As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, the after-effects are still with us. Human need continues to press for our attention and there has been a huge upsurge in requests for appointments in GP surgeries.

 

Reflection and ideas for a sermon or interactive talks

• Up and down the country, doctors are experiencing huge demand for their services including appointments for undiagnosed illnesses, left for many months as a result of the pandemic. There is need being expressed all around us as restrictions ease and people begin to reflect on the cost of the past 18 months. Though some have made millions, others face joblessness and homelessness. People are beginning to express their fears for the future and their physical and mental scars. The huge numbers of patients trying to access medical services or mental health support tell us that our lives are a long way from being fully healed. We have not woken up into some better version of the world though we had a glimpse of a different world during the first lockdown. We have woken up into the same world with many of the same issues, injustices and challenges. Are we ready in our churches to provide a response to the need we see around us and how can we prepare ourselves for the difficult decisions we may have to take if we are to reach out to others in new and creative ways? What might it mean for us to extend a hand of welcome to others whatever their status and to pay real attention to individual stories of pain and need among so many expressions of grief and loss? Jesus reaches his hand out to us too, asking us to wake up and respond to his invitation into life, however challenging that might feel.
• If the pandemic taught us anything at all, it was perhaps through the insight we gained into the life experiences of those for whom life does not feel like life at all. We saw what it was like to be housebound, to be trapped, to have life opportunities taken away, to be vulnerable or without. Now that we begin to emerge is it time for our empathy to be transformed into action so that everyone can find the abundance of life that is the promise of Jesus? Time indeed for the people of God to get up and take the hand of Jesus.
• There is a golden thread of lament that runs through the fabric of this week’s readings. It is rich and raw and powerfully expressed. David’s lament for Jonathan is deeply sad and yet strangely full of love and hope. The Psalmist expresses trust in a God who transforms sadness to joy. In Mark’s Gospel, the woman who touches the garment of Jesus had suffered for twelve years - twelve years of being an outcast from society and deprived of human contact as she would have been seen as unclean. Yet in that one moment of connection with Jesus her life is totally transformed.
• Sadness and grief are raw in the story of Jairus’ daughter too. In the middle of the noise and distress are moments of encounter between an individual and Jesus. It is as if suddenly there is a close-up shot of a moment of transformative encounter between Jesus and Jairus; between Jesus and the woman; between Jesus and the young girl. Meeting Jesus changes everything. How can we be the helping hands that bring people to Jesus?
• The most moving part of this story is surely when Jesus bends down and speaks to the child "Talitha cum" - "Little girl get up". And, out of the text, Jesus speaks with tenderness and understanding to all of us - to the weary and sad, to the ones who are lost and who have lost friends and family members in the pandemic; to the battered and bruised in life; to the rich and those with nothing; to the ones full of faith and the ones with none: "Get up - all of you! Take my hand." Life is not easy for many people in spite of lockdown easing and more social contact becoming possible. The inequalities highlighted by the pandemic are still with us and are demanding our attention and response. It is time for the people of God to take the hand of Jesus to find new strength and to face a new day with all its challenges. (Though we may need some breakfast first!)
• Jesus is calling us and is offering us his hand - his strength, his company and his healing if we can get up and take it, receiving from him new courage and fresh faith to respond to the needs of the world.

 

Questions for discussion

• What need is presenting itself that requires our response? How do we know which of the many needs around us is the one that we are called to do something about?
• How do we renew our own life in God so that we can then reach out to others?
• How can we care for those who are in the front line of caring for others to ensure that they do not suffer from stress or burnout?
• How might we need to care for our ministers and clergy and church leaders and their families so that we model caring structures and healthy work life balance in our church communities?

Diane Craven is a Freelance Education and Spirituality Consultant and a Reader in the Church of England.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Monday 21 June was meant to be the day that, finally, the barriers and restrictions we’ve all been living with for the past 18 months, would be lifted.

The barriers are still in place, but Boris has stated this week that 19 July is looking more and more likely to be our new ‘Freedom Day’ – just in time for the long summer holidays!

For most of us, this is great news. But, for many, social barriers existed long before Covid and will still be there once restrictions ease. Homelessness, mental health conditions, old age and illness can all push people to the edges of society. For some people it’s just a struggle to fit into a world measured by appearance, affluence and achievement. The barriers to education facing poorer students, of all colours, but specifically white working-class students, has been in the news this week.

The woman with bleeding who we read about in Mark 5.21-43 had been living behind barriers for 12 years: shunned by society, not welcome in public spaces, refused entry to the synagogue, avoided by everyone. But, when she saw Jesus, she saw her chance. The woman pushed through the barriers that life had built up around her and, through Jesus, she received her freedom.

Will we look out for those people who still live with barriers – they’re not always obvious – and respond with compassion? And what barriers are there in our own lives that stop us living life to the full?

As we move towards 19 July, let’s do all we can to ensure it really is ‘Freedom Day’ for everyone.

Lucy Carman is a freelance writer and editor and also works as the Office Manager at her local Anglican church. 

 

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