Readings:
Revelation 7:9-17; 
Psalm 34:1-10; 
1 John 3:1-3; 
Matthew 5:1-12

Collect:
All holy God,
you have knit together your chosen people
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son, Christ our Lord.
Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
which you have prepared for those who love you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Reflection

The community of the faithful. For all the descriptions of the church, and there are many, this one encourages me and challenges me most. 

Community is those people who know me best – my foibles, my joys, my strengths and my inadequacies. Community is also those people who love me for who I am, knowing full well who I am, but who are also willing to challenge me to be true, true to myself and true to my community. I think this is what that amazing verse means in the psalm (v3): “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt God’s name together.” Here is a clear call from the psalmist to all those in the psalmist’s community to join in together.

The psalm today begins very personally. The first two verses are about the speaker, “I bless” (v1) and “I glory” (v2). Expressions of a personal response to God. This is also an alphabetic psalm, that is, each verse begins with the next letter of the (Hebrew) alphabet, so it’s a kind of a, b, c of life. Praising God (what I take magnify and exalt to mean) is what I am called to do and be, and what we are each called to be and do, the a and b. Then we each join with everyone else as we praise God together, the c. 

This is just the image that Revelation offers us in the reading today. It is “a great multitude that no one could count” (Rev 7:9), engaging together in worship. The word picture is of them standing (those who are able), with palm branches. We are, however, told these have come through “the great ordeal” (v14). What the author of Revelation may have been thinking about, some have tried to discern. Rather than that, however, please remember those who, today, are going through great tribulation. Images on our television screens bring this home in a graphic and intimate way. There is much pain and anguish, and severe injuries permit few to stand. Yet the reading offers words of hope and encouragement. There is shelter (v15). For those who are hungry and thirsty, there is food and water (v16). But this shelter and food and water, they are not magicked out of nowhere. These words of provision remind me of that parable in Matthew’s gospel, the one about looking after those who need it, just because they need it – “just as you did it to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me” (Mt 25:40). No ulterior motives from the providers of shelter, food and water. They did it simply because people were in need. They formed the community providing for those in need.

At Bletchley Park this week, the AI Safety Summit has been thinking and talking about how we can safely engage with this technology. Some world leaders and wielders of vast financial interests have been consulting together about who leads the way in its development and use. Theirs is no simple task, and vested interests are not always obvious. There is a question, however, they must answer, a question that applies to the simplest as to the most complex of our innovations: Who is excluded from the benefits? A second question, just as important: What will be destroyed?

AI clearly has enormous benefits to a whole host of activities, not least for health and well-being. A new tool for humanity. Can we use it to lead us to worship together as community? Or will we use it, as we all too often do, to bring great tribulation upon others? A challenge we constantly face.

Barry Lotz