Reflection

Reflection: Love is the Fulfilling of the Law (5th Nov, 2025, Year C)

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Readings

Romans 13.8–10 – Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Luke 14.25–33 – Large crowds were travelling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.’

Reflection

In our reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we hear some of the most beautiful and concise words in all of Scripture:

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

Love, Paul tells us, is the heart of the Christian life. All the commandments—do not steal, do not murder, do not covet—are summed up in this one word: love. Love is the debt that can never be fully repaid, because it is the very essence of who God is and what God asks of us.

But then we turn to the Gospel reading from Luke, and the tone seems altogether different. Jesus says,

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even life itself—cannot be my disciple.”

At first hearing, it sounds shocking—almost as if Jesus were contradicting everything Paul has said about love. How can the same Lord who calls us to love our neighbour also call us to “hate” our family?

The word translated here as “hate” is not about hostility or bitterness. Jesus is not commanding us to despise those we love most. Rather, he is using strong, even startling language to make a profound point: that our love for him must come first—before every other attachment, every relationship, every possession, even before our own life.

It’s not that we are to love others less, but that we are to love Jesus more.

In other words, Jesus is talking about love too—love of the deepest, truest kind. He is saying that if we want to follow him, we must love him so completely that every other love finds its rightful place beneath it. The love we have for family, for friends, for all those dearest to us, is not rejected but purified and strengthened when our love for Christ comes first.

This is what the first commandment means: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.” Jesus, as God’s Son and representative, calls us to that same all-consuming love. Nothing less will do—for God or for God’s Son.

It’s a hard saying, but also a hopeful one. Because Jesus doesn’t ask us to love in this way without first loving us himself. He who calls us to give up everything for him has already given up everything for us. He has borne the cross, surrendered his life, and shown us that in losing all for love, we gain everything that truly matters.

And so, when we put him first—when we choose to love him above all else—we find that we do not lose our family, our friends, or our lives, but receive them back renewed, enriched, and blessed. The love of Christ does not diminish our human loves; it perfects them.

Paul’s words and Jesus’ words, then, are not in conflict but in harmony. The love that fulfils the law and the love that demands everything are one and the same love—the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

And so, we end with hope: for all who respond to Christ’s call to love, however falteringly, will find that his generosity far exceeds our giving. The Lord never leaves us empty-handed. Those who give their hearts to him will find, as he promised earlier in the Gospel of Luke, that they receive “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”

May God grant us grace to love Christ above all, and in that love to find life in all its fullness.

Amen.

Reflection: The Narrow Door (29th Oct, 2025, Year C)

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Readings

Romans 8.26–30 – Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Luke 13.22–30 – Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

Reflection

In our readings today, both Saint Paul and Jesus remind us that following God’s call is both a gift and a challenge — a journey shaped by grace, but also by perseverance.

In the passage from Luke, Jesus speaks of the narrow door — that striking image of a way that is not wide or easy, but one that demands attention, humility, and effort. He warns that not everyone who claims to know him will enter the kingdom, but those who strive to do so — those who live out his teaching, who seek justice, mercy, and love. The Christian path is not a broad highway of comfort, but a narrow way that sometimes asks of us courage, forgiveness, and sacrifice. It also one where, as Jesus reminds us, “Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

And yet, Saint Paul reminds us in Romans that we do not walk that path alone. When the road feels steep and the way unclear, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” Even when we do not know how to pray, or what to say, the Spirit intercedes for us — expressing to God the prayers we cannot form ourselves. What a comfort that is: that God’s own Spirit prays within us, guiding, strengthening, and transforming us so that we may be conformed to the likeness of Christ.

The narrow way, then, is not a test to be passed by our own strength, but a journey walked with divine companionship. The Spirit walks beside us, within us, drawing us closer to the heart of God. And as Paul assures us, “all things work together for good for those who love God.” Even our struggles, even our failures, can be woven by God into his purpose of love.

So, as we come to the Lord’s table today, we come not as those who have perfectly walked the narrow way, but as those who long to be shaped more fully by it. Here, in the bread and wine, we meet the One who has already gone before us — who walked the hardest road, and who now gives us his Spirit to help us follow.

May we have grace to walk that way faithfully, trusting that the Spirit intercedes for us, and that Christ himself welcomes us through the narrow door into the joy of his kingdom.

Amen.

Reflection: Blessed are the Peacemakers, a reflection following the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march

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Continuing to talk to people, read, watch and listen to accounts of this past weekend’s “Unite the Kingdom” march, it seems that many of the reasons people are giving for supporting it are the same as those that people gave for supporting Brexit.

I’ve heard people share that they are poorer; that public services are worse than they used to be, if they can be accessed at all; that they feel overlooked and left behind; that they are losing a sense of their own story and identity; that they want to get back something that they feel has gone, even if they can’t quite articulate what that is.

Why has Brexit disappeared from our discourse? Has it been fumbled by those who were to deliver its promises? Were those promises hollow to begin with? Both? Has it simply been lost to the mists of time? Something else entirely? Because it seems clear that these yearnings and needs of many have not been addressed or satisfied and are therefore continuing to concern us all.

I’m lucky compared to some. While I’ve had direct recent experience of highly strained public services (of family being denied access to treatment via the NHS for example), and while – like so many of us – I’m directly feeling the challenges of the current economic climate, I’m not destitute or without hope.

Nevertheless, I am deeply disheartened that we are seemingly so ready to blame the ‘other’ for our current woes; that those in positions of power and influence in our local communities, our nation and other nations are prepared to fan those flames, and that we are so willing to uncritically accept and share inaccurate information or deliberate misinformation if it seems to fit our existing worldview or somehow make us feel better about ourselves, however fleetingly. For what it might be worth, I know that I am not somehow above doing the same.

If we are to ease the simmering tensions that we see all around us, locally, nationally and internationally, it is beholden upon us all to try and identify our problems clearly and without prejudice; to examine ourselves and our own motivations honestly and not seek to point the finger at others; to be gracious in our dialogue, slow to anger and abounding in love; to be courageous, fair and creative in seeking to identify solutions to our problems that will benefit the common good rather than the interests of a few; to find and share what we have in common rather than pull up the drawbridge to hoard and hide. I’m not convinced that I see this approach anywhere much in our society right now, including in some Christian communities and in protests and counter-protests.

As a Christian minister, I’m heartbroken to see the name of Jesus Christ being invoked to try and justify the deliberate stoking of division, tension and national exceptionalism. Christ clearly wasn’t above putting the noses of the powerful and influential out of joint in righteous anger, but not in the name of a nation’s borders or boundaries as we understand them today. Christ put noses out of joint to draw ALL people back to God and turn them away from sin (the things that separate us from God and each other), championing a way of life based in justice, peace, mercy, hospitality and a love of neighbour. As Tom Wright puts it: “We must resist Christian nationalism as giving a Christian facade to nakedly political, ethnocentric and impious ventures.” I hope that Christians will find their identity and hope in Jesus Christ and the example of his teaching and way of life, rather than a flag or a man-made border.

I don’t pretend to have immediate answers or clear solutions for the many complex problems that our world is currently facing. I do know that trying to live a life of faith after the example of Jesus Christ helps me find a sure and certain hope in these difficult and uncertain times. Perhaps it might help you too. Those who have been at services that I’ve led recently will know that the introduction to the sharing of Christ’s peace that I use most often is “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. We meet in Christ’s name and we share his peace.” If nothing else, I will continue to do my best to live a life based in love, faith and the example of Christ, and will endeavour to be a peacemaker wherever I go and in whatever I do as opportunity and ability afford. It’s the best I have to offer.