In the Gospel passage for this Sunday Jesus sketches out his vision for a just society; it will mean good news to the poor and release for the oppressed (Luke 4:14-21). Rowan Williams says that he longs for a church more true to itself. Such a church would be one more determined to oppose war, a church capable of offering hospitality to resident aliens who may be gay, a church that can challenge economic practices that perpetuate poverty. Williams believes that his desire for such a church is godly yet he also believes that we must learn to live and attend to the reality of the church as it is, to do the prosaic things that can and must be done now and to work at our relationships with the people who will not listen to us or may not even like us. What God asks of us is not to live in the future but to live with honesty and attentiveness in the present. ‘The hardest thing in the world is to be where we are in the confusion and complexity of the present moment’ (Williams, R. (2000:85-6). Christ on Trial: How the Gospel unsettles our judgement)

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