Reflections and prayers for Sunday 21 October

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is Mark 10.35-45
                              
Anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all.
There is a big difference between being a servant and being servile.  Jesus tells his followers that becoming like him involves ‘drinking the cup that [he] must drink’.  Part of that ‘cup’ is bearing the cost of the fight against injustice.
Last week’s reflections were about economic injustice.  Challenging such wrongs can involve a heavy price.  Some of the cleaners involved in the Living Wage Campaign have faced pressure in their workplaces because of their courageous stance.  And most of us will have had to face the cost of standing for the truth in some part of our lives.  This teaches us that true servanthood can be anything but submissive. As Peter Nembhard (Senior Pastor of one of CTC’s partner churches) has put it ‘meekness isn’t weakness – it is power which is obedient to love’.   Biblical servanthood and meekness both involve courage; being willing to upset as well as to oblige.
Prayer Intentions

Pray for Christians discerning how best to confront injustice in our own day – and how to combine words of challenge with words of reconciliation.