Monday Reading and reflection
- Monday Reflection from Rev. Jerry Eve
Our children and young people are not able to go to School or College at the moment, and it’s a concern; not as big a concern as coronavirus, but we do all worry about them, and their education.
Our readings for today – all three of them I want to suggest – have a youthful focus. Our New Testament one is an account of a dramatic incident in Paul’s life – most of Paul’s life, it has to be said, was lived ‘dramatically’.
But, on the eve of his departure from Troas (aka Troy), for a young man to fall out of a third-storey window, and ostensibly die; what a dreadful note for Paul to leave on. While this passage, however, is often cited as a helpful corrective for ministers whose sermons are far too long, it’s good I think that we have this story for another reason:
And that’s that, just as St Paul argued that God’s Kingdom was for Gentiles as well as Jewish people, this gives him the opportunity to underline the fact that the Church is for children and young people as well as the middle-aged and elderly. The name Eutychus, by the way, means Lucky.
In our Old Testament story, then, while the focus almost always tends to be on Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath, just as at Troas, it’s a boy who has his life restored.
The opening words of our psalm taking me right back to when I was a young man, and visited the Taize Community in Burgundy, France, an ecumenical monastery comprising over 100 brothers from all around the world, who welcome in excess of 100,000 young people every year. I was there for a week, and looking back it was such a formative experience for me as kneeling (three times a day) for worship in the Church of the Reconciliation, and being called to worship by three bells whose names were Kindness, Simplicity and Reconciliation (rather than the usual Poverty, Chastity and Obedience) I too joined in singing Jacques Berthier’s famous chants.
There are literally hundreds of these, in numerous languages, but one I remember having a profound effect on me is one the words of which have been taken directly from the 143rd Psalm. They’re simply:
Oh, Lord, hear my prayer
Oh, Lord, hear my prayer
When I call, answer me
Oh, Lord, hear my prayer
Oh, Lord, hear my prayer
Come, and listen to me
Amen.
Page last updated: Tuesday 31st March 2020 2:21 PM