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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

Get on with It!

Love in action, not in thoughts (Matthew 10:42).

Context

• Helping the ‘little ones‘ and the insignificant.
• Including other creatures in compassionate actions.
• Enabling mothers to work and stay with their infants keeps them from unemployment/poverty.
• Uncomfortable facts about poverty.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

In Matthew 10:41 Jesus speaks about our being rewarded for how we welcome a ‘prophet’ or a ‘righteous person.’ This writer believes that both of those titles, in fact, refer to the way in which many people viewed Jesus. (Think about when Jesus asked his disciples: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Matthew 16:13) Verse 42 makes it clear that it is by serving the most insignificant of people (‘little ones’) that we will receive any reward. Yet, in our own lives, how often do we await the second coming of Christ to sort everything out, as opposed to getting on with being good disciples and following the example of Jesus – even by simply offering a cup of cold water?

In the USA, where there is a mass shooting (4+ persons) roughly every 16 hours, many so-called Christians post ‘thoughts and prayers’ on their social media pages. What if the ‘Good Samaritan’ (Luke 10) had passed by the injured traveller and simply said, ‘Thoughts and prayers’? What difference would that have made? What if Jesus had done the same with the many people he healed? Doesn’t Jesus call us to action?

 

Questions for discussion

• As Christians, do we leave the majority of helping others in need to the government? Is there any church you can think of that doesn’t have at least one pressing need in their community which they could address to whatever degree – even if it is only providing space?
• As a UK/USA national, I have often thought that the USA’s motto, ‘In God We Trust,’ needs to change to ‘In Guns We Trust.’ This particularly applies to the ‘evangelicals’ who offer the ‘bad news of Jesus Christ’ by claiming he would support their beliefs. How far are they/we willing to go to live by Jesus’ example?
• How often do we treat being a Christian as a ‘privilege’ as opposed to a call to service? Isn’t it easier to tame the Jesus revealed in the Gospels, rather than follow his radical lifestyle? Shouldn’t our lives be an answer to prayer?

Revd Dr Jack Lawson is a free-lance writer and novelist: Doing Time, No Good Deed, Criminal Justice, The Woods and Dirty Business. His newest novel, Joab, (Wipf & Stock) is based on the life of King David.

 

Check-in

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

After becoming aware of the impact that mainstream news was having on her own mental health, Emily Coxhead set about to change this with a simple idea; she created The Happy News, a newspaper that celebrates all that’s good in the world.

Not surprisingly, most of the ‘good’ things are small simple actions, for example, she recently shared Ewan’s story on The Happy News Instagram account. Ewan is a young lad from Yorkshire who used his own pocket money to buy flowers from a supermarket. Nothing too unusual there; however it’s what he did next that made him Happy News-worthy. After buying the flowers Ewan handed them out to passersby simply because he wanted to make them smile! When asked by a reporter what his message to the world is Ewan replied, 'Just spread kindness and be kind to people.’

One simple act, something small, can have a massive impact. Today’s Bible passage isn’t about BIG actions it’s small ones, ‘just one cup’, a ‘welcome’, they are acts of kindness which reflect Jesus to the world. What small and simple acts of kindness could you do today that reflect Jesus to the world?

Lindsay Wright is a freelance writer and designer from Lancashire.

 

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