Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 18 August 2013

Christ Church Cathedral

20th Sunday of the Year C

I often spend time at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, though it is our smallest medieval cathedral it has a tremendous sense of history and like most of our Anglican Cathedrals it continues on with the ‘sacrifice of praise each day, Matins and Evensong are sung or said and there is daily Eucharist celebrated. Around it are monuments to people of the past, one poignant cavalier tomb defiantly names Charles I as blessed martyr. The Becket window with its glorious medieval stained glass has still got the medieval figures of Blaise, Cuthbert Martin, Christ in Glory and the martyrdom of Becket ( though on the orders of Henry VIII Becket's face was poked out! However the Norman building quietly points to one other figure at the heart of any pilgrimage, to that of Frideswide, our Anglo-Saxon saint whose shrine has been reconstructed from pieces found hidden away and whose bones are said to lie mingled with others under the floor of the Lady chapel.

All these are the great cloud of witnesses whose presence is more than monument, in prayer we connect with them and in devotion know them to be our friends in Gods Kingdom. Sometimes they seem to find us and in prayer and reflection a relationship is born. But in their lives and also their deaths they remind us that the words of the Gospel are true, that Jesus did not come to bring peace, rather he came to bring the Kingdom and its righteousness.

The divisions that tear relationships apart that Luke mentions, destroying even basic family structures should not surprise us, after all he told us the a prophet is not honoured amongst their own people, and in the Beatitudes we are reminded that discipleship may even lead to dishonor for his names sake. This is also the cost of discipleship, the cross we must take up, that we lose our lives to find it in another way.

As we follow Jesus, do we try our best to be like Jeremiah, not pandering to popularity but seeking the truth? Do we like those great crowd of witnesses persevere in running our race, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus? I am sure we do, because even though we may think we fall and fail, mercy and grace walk with us and on our life’s journey the Lord Jesus himself is always with us!