July 2025

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. It is not intended to be definitive.  In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

Saying for the month: ‘I came … to call … sinners’. Matthew 9.13 (ESV).

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:  ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28)

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

‘I came … to call … sinners’.

This word comes from St Matthew’s account of the early days of Jesus’s ministry.  Already Jesus was attracting attention in Galilee as a teacher and healer.  He had already enlisted his first disciples, the fishermen, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, whom he had begun to teach.  Crowds of people were coming and asking him to heal themselves and their loved ones. His fame was growing.  It was so widespread that the Pharisees had become interested in what he was doing, and were anxious to check that he was not a threat to the Jewish authorities. 

When they discovered that Jesus had asked a tax collector, Matthew, to be one of his disciples, and had started socialising with a group of his colleagues then they began to get very concerned.  These tax collectors were local men who were employed by the Romans.  Because they worked for the Romans, and often demanded unreasonable payments, they were hated by many.  They were not people with whom good Jews were allowed to sit and eat, and the Pharisees wanted to know what was going on when they saw Jesus with them; surely he was defiling himself by being with these men.

When Jesus heard this he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice”.  For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners’.  This pronouncement can be reduced to this, our Saying for July: ‘I came … to call … sinners’.  Let us use our first silence to consider how the Pharisees, upholders of the Jewish faith and worship would have heard those words.  What would have been the response of Matthew and the tax collectors, the despised outsiders?  Did the disciples understand what Jesus was saying?  How do we understand what Jesus meant?  ‘I came … to call … sinners’.   

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

The first silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

‘I came … to call … sinners’.   

What is Jesus saying to us in his words to the disciples and the tax collectors in Matthew’s house?  Where do we place ourselves in terms of them?  Do we rightly or wrongly consider ourselves righteous and obedient worshippers like the Pharisees?  Do we keep the ten commandments and go to church regularly?  Do we feel included or excluded from the concept then, of being saved precisely because of our sinfulness?

It may not take long for us to think of some of the people in the world that we consider to be sinners, but if we spend some time looking into our own hearts we will soon discover that we are sinners too.  Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery in John.8: ‘If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’. 

Jesus is calling us, just as he calls all people.  God wants us to be with Him.  Remember in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11-32), the loving father ‘filled with compassion for him, ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him’ (vs 20).  God does this for all of us.  

St. Paul makes it clear in Romans 3.22-4 that this ‘righteousness of God [comes] through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction: for all have sinner and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift’.  Jesus’ message of redemption is for each one of us.

‘I came … to call … sinners’.  How do we as individuals respond to Jesus’ call?  What difference does it make to the way we behave?  Do we realise how much God loves his sinful children?

As we take this word into our hearts, we allow God’s words to speak in us, to let it touch us and work more deeply upon our lives.

Let us reflect on the wonder and the transformation that can come from our response to his call, not just for ourselves but for all the world. 

A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

The second silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.

Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world.

‘I came … to call … sinners’.   

Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison and your family  …  ‘I came … to call … sinners’.

As we allow the word to speak through us we might direct Jesus’ word towards those people and situations where God is being forgotten or denied, or where Jesus’s call is difficult to hear because of pain or suffering. 

Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

The Conclusion

Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer:

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen.