We all tend to project our faulty thinking into eternity, and to assume, like the Sadducees, that the unjust structures that currently benefit us will continue to benefit us forever. It can be hard to look forward to God gently lifting the burden of our unjust privilege from our shoulders so that all will be equally free and equally blessed in the resurrection. But Jesus insisted – many times – that the first will be last and the last will be first. It will be unspeakable joy for us to see all the people who currently seem to be behind us and below us streaming into resurrection light ahead of us. It will be unspeakable joy because that broken place in our heart that needs to be first will have been healed.
If saints are a teeny tiny percentage of specially sanctified individuals, then they are so far beyond our reach that there is no point even trying to follow their example. On the other hand, if every Christian is a saint, then we are already there and have nothing to strive for. But somewhere between those positions, it makes sense to remember people who lived and died, in relative obscurity perhaps, but who were so courageously faithful that they left us an example of behaviour we consider saintly – sufficiently inspiring to encourage us to do better, but not so far beyond our reach that we give up. I’m sure you have known people like that. Perhaps you are holding them in your heart today.
A baby and a rich, powerful man: what is it that leads Jesus to welcome one and send the other away?
Hearts are beautiful fragile things - easily broken and often in pain. Everything in pain cries out for relief, and the heart is no exception. As Emily Dickinson wrote: The Heart asks Pleasure – first –And then – Excuse from Pain –And then – those little AnodynesThat deaden suffering Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
To be saved is to be fully restored to a state of flourishing, where we experience peace with people, peace with creation and peace with God. The only one of those ten cleansed people to arrive at this place of flourishing is the Samaritan – the one with the uncertain pedigree, the incomplete scriptures, the incorrect theology. The reject of rejects.
We have no shortage of stories about saints and animals. There are so many that we have to conclude that either there may be some truth to those stories OR, at the very least, there is a human intuition that spiritual maturity is connected with having a deep affinity with animals. When humans reflect on how we are at our best, when we think about what we were created to be, and we imagine how we wish we could be, the human imagination takes us into the realm of deeper, clearer capacity to communicate with animals and with all of creation. (Available from 4 October 2025)
“You need to make the right friends if you want to get ahead in life.” “Correct”, says Jesus, “but you might be wrong about who those right friends are!”
Rev Pam Hynd's sermon for Pentecost 15
Rev Pam Hynd's sermon for 14th Sunday after Pentecost - Season of Creation
A woman whose back has been bent and stiff for eighteen years; A man whose heart has been bent and stiff for - who knows how long? Jesus came to bring freedom and healing to them both. But only one of them accepts.