Weekly Thoughts

Those of you who remember the old Book of Common Prayer will remember the interminable season of “Sundays after Trinity” of which there could be up to 27. The weeks dragged on and finally seemed to peter out just before “Stir up Sunday”, Sunday next before Advent, which brought the season to a close. The Church’s year seemed to fade away quietly rather than to end with a bang. Now all that is changed in 1991 a publication by the House of Bishops entitled: “The Promise of his Glory” introduced new services for use between All Saints and Candlemas including a new Kingdom season. This would occupy the last four weeks of the Church’s year Including All Saints Day, Remembrance Sunday and a new feast, Christ the King on the last Sunday of the year. As ever such innovations take a while to catch on and perhaps this major change to the calendar does need some explanation.

These four weeks are named the Kingdom Season because they lead up to the feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday. But “kingdom” is a concept we may find hard to pin down. When we think of a Kingdom we usually envisage a defined piece of territory with a recognized ruler. But the Kingdom of God is not like that It may have a recognized ruler our Lord Himself but as to territory? The Kingdom of God has no particular location it is everywhere God’s law of self-giving love holds sway. A rather old fashioned hymn, but one which I think still has a lot to say is “O thou not made by hands” by Francis T Palgrave one verse of which goes:

Where'er the gentle heart
finds courage from above;
where'er the heart forsook
warms with the breath of love;
where faith bids fear depart,
City of God, thou art.

So over these weeks we are invited to think about the Kingdom of God in four ways: the heavenly Kingdom (All Saints and All Souls), the absence of the Kingdom (Remembrance Sunday), the coming Kingdom (now and not yet) and the consummation of the Kingdom (Christ the King). Although on the final Sunday we are invited to think of Christ as the Universal and Eternal King this represents a goal to which we should be pressing and thus orientates us towards the future. So it provides the ideal starting point as prepare once again to engage with what God has done, is doing and will do to bring our universe to the perfection for which God created it.

READINGS AND PRAYERS

9 NOVEMBER - THIRD SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT - REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY -Luke20.27-38 – God is God not of the dead but of the living – those who gave their lives in war

10 NOVEMBER - Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher of the Faith, 461 – humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God – Pope Leo XIV

11 NOVEMBER – Martin Bishop of Tours, c.397 – Deuteronomy 15.7,8,10,11 – open your hand to the poor and needy – for a spirit of generosity

12 NOVEMBER – Wednesday - Luke 17.11-19 – Jesus heals a Samaritan – the Samaritans

13 NOVEMBER – Charles Simeon, Priest, Evangelical Divine, 1836 – Colossians 1.3-8 – you have heard of this faith…in the word of the truth – the evangelistic work of the Church 

14 NOVEMBER – Friday – Wisdom 13.1-9 – all who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature – all who teach the Faith

15 NOVEMBER – Saturday – Luke 18.1-8 – pray always and do not lose heart – for all who struggle with their faith