Thy Kingdom come (Judges,2,6-end, Hebrews 2, Friday after Ascension Day, Matins BCP)

Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement, which invites Christians around the world to pray between Ascension and Pentecost for more people to come to know Jesus Christ. What started out as an invitation from the Archbishops’ of Canterbury and York in 2016 to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer.
 
Yesterday evening, representatives of Fulham-parishes celebrated the mass of the Ascension of the Lord. The service was followed by a Eucharistic adoration with prayers, a whole night Vigil. At the heart of the City of London, a city-church with open doors. People walking by could see the light of the candles surrounding the monstrance exposed on the altar. It was a sacred time.
 
A sacred time, which echoes today’s reading from Judges. In the friendly presence of the Blessed Sacrament we could face the reminders of our culture’s fall. ‘And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord’s anger.’
 
We no longer read our situation in Biblical terms, but what our culture is doing is a dangerous forgetting. ‘And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves until them…and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them.’
 
Yesterday’s vigil was a healing time. Full of warmth and compassion. The more time we spent with the Sacramental Jesus, the more the balance got right. It was so good to feel that there is a Eucharistic Center of history, which speaks, heals, embraces and creates anew. In the words of Saint Paul: ‘But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.’