Following Pentecost, the liturgical calendar moves us into Ordinary Time: an ordered sequence of weeks between the major feast days of the Christian year which allow Christian communities to reflect on the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, to embody the mission of Jesus, and to grow in our discipleship.

JULY: Grounding

As the grey weariness of winter starts to settle within us, July’s readings call us gently into the kin(g)dom life of sharing burdens, cultivating “good” ground, practising neighbourly care, and trusting in God’s slow and subtle transformation.

Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-12,23-24; Romans 8:12-25;
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

Jacob’s dream of a laddered earth in which heaven is not distant occurs while he is travelling in vulnerability and discomfort. Like the Psalmist who confesses that God’s intimate knowledge of us reaches beyond geography and darkness, he proclaims “Surely God is in this place.”

Paul describes life in the Spirit as a reordering of relationship with God through adoption, and with creation through a shared groaning for freedom. Matthew’s parable urges patience and restraint: the servants’ impulse to purify the fields is a caution against a violent uprooting of those who do not fit our prescriptive and premature judgements.

Instead, God meets people on the road, in diaspora, in intercultural spaces, and in our communal longing for a world not yet free. Intercultural neighbouring becomes a practice of justice as we refuse narratives that make difference synonymous with threat, resist policies and speech that scapegoat vulnerable groups, and see in the sacred ground of shared space that “Surely God is in this place!”

PrayerPoem

God who dwells in-between,
not only in the sanctuary but in the borderlands of language and culture,
meet us on the road where Jacob sleeps on a stone and wakes to say,
“Surely you are in this place.”

We confess we have wanted a tidy field,
a clean story,
a quick sorting of wheat and weeds.
But you teach patience.
You teach restraint.
You teach us not to rip up lives in the name of righteousness.

Spirit who prays in groans,
who knows the ache of creation,
hold the long labour of freedom.

When we are tempted to make neighbours into threats,
soften our defensiveness.

This Intercultural Neighbouring Day, train our discipleship in simple, brave practices:
listening longer than is comfortable,
sharing space without controlling it,
being curious instead of certain.

Make our tables wide and low where everyone can reach the bread.
Make our communities places where difference is not a problem to solve
but a gift to receive.
And when we feel the urge to uproot,
teach us to stay,
to tend,
and to trust your hidden work among us.

Downloadable handout

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