This blog provides a meditation o the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

Scientist Stephen Hawking says heaven is a fairytale 

Remembrance day for the Martyrs of the Sudan (1983-2005)

Colossians 1:1-14

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Scholars are divided on whether this letter comes from the hand of Paul or someone writing in his name. In either case, it seems to me to be authentically “Pauline” in its main themes. He established the custom of extending the polite thank-yous at the beginning of Greek letters into genuine thanks to God for the life and witness of the addressees. The key word chosen by the author in this case is “hope”, the “hope laid up for you in heaven.” This hope gives rise to the faith and love of the church community which thereby shares in the fruitfulness of the gospel amongst people all over the world. The cosmologist Stephen Hawking, himself a man of great courage, is quoted in an interview in today’s Guardian describing the hope of heaven as a fairytale. I accept that is his faith but it cannot be his knowledge as such a hope is not subject to verification in this life. (If he’s wrong, he’ll find out but if I’m wrong, I won’t!) For many believers this hope (which is really trust in the love of God) is the wellspring of goodness in their lives here and now. It was so for the modern martyrs of the Sudan (1983-2005) killed under Shariah Law, whom the Church remembers today. People say to me, “But surely you don’t believe in angels and harps and gleaming cities with twelve gates?” Well, yes I do.

Luke 6:1-11

6One Sabbath while Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ 3Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?’ 5Then he said to them, “The Son of man is lord of the Sabbath.”

6 On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’ He got up and stood there. 9Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’ 10After looking around at all of them, he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored. 11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

To do good..Christian Aid goat

According to scribal interpretation of Torah, the disciples were “preparing food” on the Sabbath. Jesus meets this accusation by appealing to the concept of the “Son of Man” which means “The Messiah and his followers”. David and his companions, the prototype “Son of Man” ate the holy bread and Jesus and his followers, the true “Son of Man”, can pluck grain. In this reply Jesus claims the status of Davidic Messiah.

to do harm...

Again according to Torah healers had to cease work on the Sabbath day except for life-saving interventions. In his reply Jesus goes to the root of Sabbath Torah, distinguishing what he is doing-life-saving good- from what they are doing –life destroying harm (in their intentions towards him). If we object that the healing of a withered arm was not a life-saving emergency we come up against Jesus’ reluctance to split hairs over God’s gift of Sabbath goodness. For Jesus, the Sabbath is heaven here and now; in the midst of this life a foretaste of the life to come.