Week beginning Sunday 1st of November
Lectionary Reading: Luke 6:20–31

Out of the Ashes

Opening Prayer

God of every blessing,
you turn the world upside down with love.
Teach us to see with your eyes —
to recognise grace among the poor,
hope among the grieving,
and holiness in our shared
need of one another.
May your Spirit weave us
into the web of your compassion,
that together we may become
a blessing to the world.
Amen

Icebreaker

• Think of a time when you had to rely on others – perhaps through illness, loss, or a big change.
  What did you learn about community, dependence, or grace?
• Or share a time when someone depended on you.
  How did that experience affect the way you see relationships?

First Reading: Luke 6:20-26

The Blessings and the Woes
Invite someone to read slowly.

Pause for silence, then a second reader reads the same section, perhaps from a different translation (e.g., The Message).

Afterwards

• What word, image, or phrase caught your attention?
• What feelings or questions arise as you hear these blessings and woes?

Second Reading Luke 6:27-31:

Love Your Enemies
Read the continuation aloud.
Sit in silence, then ask:

• How does this second part connect with the first?
• What does it mean to love our enemies or those we find difficult, in the context of blessing and woe?

Background Reflection

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus stands on level ground — eye-to-eye with the crowd.
His blessings are not abstract virtues but real experiences: poverty, hunger, grief, exclusion.

He names these places not as failures but as openings where grace can flow.
God’s blessing is found wherever people must depend on one another and on the Spirit’s sustaining love.

The “woes” are not threats, but gentle warnings against self-sufficiency.
Those who imagine they can live without others risk cutting themselves off from life itself.
We see here a vision of mutual flourishing – an economy of grace in which joy, justice, and compassion are shared.

Jesus’ command to love enemies is the crowning reversal: love that refuses the cycle of hatred.
Such love is not sentimental; it is active resistance — keeping the door open between adversaries, trusting that even broken relationships can be healed.

Going Deeper

Choose a few to answer

1. Where in your community do you see the Beatitudes being lived out – people finding strength in vulnerability or solidarity?
2. What might Jesus’ “woes” sound like in today’s society of comfort, consumption, and competition?
3. How does love for enemies challenge our usual understanding of holiness or justice?
4. What does “interdependence” look like in the Body of Christ today — locally and globally?
5. How might this passage reshape our understanding of sainthood and the communion of saints?

“Leaning on love and Grace”

Read the following and give space for silent reflection at the end of it.
(Inspired by Luke 6:20–31)

I didn’t expect this reading to hit so hard. When the vicar started with “Blessed are you who are poor,”
I almost laughed. Because that’s not how it feels — not this week.
Not when the heating bill’s due, not when the silence in my flat echoes like a warning bell.

“Blessed are you who are hungry.”
Well, yes — I know hunger.
Not just the kind that gnaws at your stomach, but the other kind —
the hunger for a voice to say your name, for someone to notice when you’re not there.
I come to church mostly to be in a room where people still sing, where the air feels full, even if my chest doesn’t.

And then: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” It almost sounds cruel at first — like a promise from another planet.
But maybe that’s what hope always feels like when you’ve run out of reasons to keep it.

I looked around during the reading —
other people nodding, a child drawing on the service sheet, someone’s phone buzzing softly in their bag — and I thought, do they really believe this?
That the ones who have nothing are somehow at the centre of God’s heart?
Could that possibly include me — with my messy flat, my tired faith, my small mistakes?

Then came the “woes”: “Woe to you who are rich… who laugh now… who are well spoken of.” It sounded like another world, but maybe that’s what this whole passage is — a different world, hidden inside this one, a world where being needy isn’t shameful but sacred.

And then Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
And I thought — that’s impossible. I can hardly love myself some days.
But what if he’s not setting a rule, but describing how the world could work if everyone stopped pretending to be invincible?
If we all admitted we need each other?

Maybe that’s the blessing.
Not the poverty or the hunger or the tears — but the web that starts to form when we dare to need and be needed.
Maybe holiness isn’t about being strong; maybe it’s about being held.

When the choir sang just now, their voices folded round me like a shawl, and for a moment I didn’t feel quite
so outside.
Maybe that’s what Jesus meant — that somewhere in the middle of all this struggle, there’s a grace that leans toward you, softly saying:
“You belong. Even here. Even now.”

Wonderings

• I wonder what it means to be blessed when life feels fragile or unfair.
• I wonder whether we can see holiness in the faces of those the world ignores.
• I wonder how our church might embody the “web of grace” that Jesus describes.
• I wonder what kind of world God dreams of when we live this way.

Sharing ideas

with worship leader and preacher

What photo would you want to be shown as this reading is read?
What piece of modern music, hymns or worship songs might fit this theme?
What ideas from your discussions would you want to share?
What questions does this reading or All Saints time pose for you?

Reflective Action

Invite silence and consider:

• Where are you being called this week to practise holy dependence – to receive help, or to offer it?
• Write a name or situation on a small card and hold it in prayer.
• You might share a story next week of what happened when you reached out or allowed someone to help you.

Closing Prayer

Spirit of Christ,
you bless the poor and hungry,
you comfort the grieving and challenge the powerful.
Bind us together in your communion of saints,
that we may lean
on one another in love,
resist the myth of self-sufficiency,
and live as channels
of your grace in the world.
Through Jesus,
who calls us friends.
Amen.

PDF

You can download the printable bible study here

Image: Charlotte Knight, Unsplash.com