Reflectionary (Reflection on the Lectionary) 25th October 2026

 When we lived in Melbourne, we worshipped at St Mark’s Camberwell. The minister was a mad keen Hawthorn AFL supporter. A (probably apocryphal) story was that when he was a Ridley ordinand in the 1970s, his field placement was that church, and when the then priest put up an evangelical poster, “What would you do if Jesus Christ came to Hawthorn?”, he scribbled on it “Move Peter Hudson to Centre-Half Forward.” So, a second connection for us, Hudson owned a bar in Lygon St which we might have accidentally entered 🏉 😇

The same minister once announced (again, apocryphally) that there would be an all-night prayer meeting for the outcome of the next weekend’s AFL qualifying finals. The following evening, if the Hawks won, the processional hymn would be “Now thank we All our God”. If Essendon, “Oh God, our help in ages past”. If Fitzroy (before the Brisbane merger), then “God moves in a mysterious way”.

“Oh God, our help in ages past” is Isaac Watts’ paraphrase of this Sunday’s lectionary Psalm 90.
“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Those generations have read the psalm or sung the hymn at critical junctures in their or their nation’s life. When Neville Chamberlain told the world, via the BBC, 87 years ago, that Britain was at war, the BBC followed his broadcast not with the National Anthem but with Kings College Choir singing O God Our Help in Ages Past. You are reading this because God’s mercy is from generation to generation. For those children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom you love, the psalmist prays:
“May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendour to their children.”

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