The 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time | Sunday 2 July 2023

Today is Sunday the 2nd of July, beginning the 13th week of Ordinary time.

One Hope Project sings, ‘Romans 5:8’: ‘It’s the blood of the lamb, with power to save. None too lost, none too broken, none too distant to be healed by the blood of the lamb.’ Can you let these words speak to you today?


Today’s reading is from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

Romans 6:3-4, 8-11

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

If we needed a reminder today of our faith, Paul’s words should help nudge and comfort us… It’s as if Paul is holding us firmly by the shoulders and speaking these words of deep encouragement, deliberately and with conviction. “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” How do you take this message in?


We can be weighed down by so many things…sin, feeling accused or anxious perhaps. How could we recognise that false voice? Could we instead discern the true, encouraging, convicting voice of the Holy Spirit? How do we learn to tell the difference?


As you hear the passage again, hear it in the context of this week’s readings from the Old Testament, where we accompanied Abram on his journey of faith. God powerfully reassured Abram of His authority and the extraordinary way ahead. Here Paul continues the passionate message of hope. God is on the move.


Walking “in newness of life”. What does that look like to you this Sunday? You might want to celebrate that with others today. If you can, let God know how you are sitting with the whole concept of faith. Speak now, as one friend would to another, knowing that you are loved and held within God’s love.


Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.