Moving on up! Life in the Spirit

Readings for Whitsunday or Pentecost, June 12, 2011; Numbers 11:24-30; *Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-34,I Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23

Anglicans like candles!

In fact people like candles;
they are such a warm symbol
and so multi-layered in imaginal links
that we readily warm to them.

At Easter the principal symbol in many Churches
is the Paschal or Easter candle
which is marked in various ways at the Great Vigil.
With Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) , the number of the year, the sign of the cross,
and often including five nails.
It burns for the great 50 days which conclude today with today's feast of Pentecost

when we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples

What, then, to do with with this very rich symbolic candle at the end of this season?
Well of course the logical thing to do is extinguish it!
though we do not want to give the impression that everything is now over and done with,
because of course it isn't!
In a way it has only just begun.

So in our churches today as the large candle is extinguished
individual worshipers are invited to light a personal candle of their own.
The simple idea is that the Easter Commission
to proclaim the risen Christ

is deliberately transmitted
to each individual as part of their baptismal responsibility.
This is, indeed, the movement that we trace in the readings today.
God pours out the Holy Spirit to renew the world
and to encourage and bless the community of faith
in order that they may bring the hope of Christ to the world.
The way this Spirit works is that it is given to individuals
whether it be (as in Numbers) the elders of the Church
or as in Acts and I Corinthians on the individual baptised;

We are invited to appreciate that the gift of the Spirit
apart from being a numinous spiritual blessing
to the world or community of faith in general
is also, in practice, worked out

in the individual giftedness of each of the baptised.

So, St Paul's idea is that
the Holy Spirit gives to each of the baptised an outpouring of the Spirit
which manifests itself in particular gifts
He cites a number of gifts..teaching, hospitality, prophecy, prayer, deep faith
and so on (some number these as many as 75 specific gifts)
His implication is that every baptised Christian
is gifted in some way
and that we are to use those gifts
for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.

That is, the presence of the risen Christ
is committed to you and me
and we are gifted by the Holy Spirit
to carry on Christ's work.

We are not expected to pass an exam
or do a whole pile of learning
in order to do this work
we are rather required to use the gift that has been given.

This may cause us to think about
how the Spirit has lit our personal candle!!!

Far from the work being over when Easter is finished
and we extinguish the candle
it is not so much over as transferred
to each of us individually.

So what we might ask ask,
is my particular gift?
and how am I to use it to further the kingdom of God?

We are given gifts, our candle is lit,
not to hide (Jesus uses this sort of image)
but for a purpose.
We do not have to get a qualification
it is more that we need to take the gift out of the box and use it.

So there are two questions for each of us
the second more important than the first,
First, what is my gift
and the second important question how might I use it?
The kingdom is weakened in so far
as we hide our light
or ignore it.
Our gift, be it prayer, teaching, almsgiving, hospitality
prophecy or what ever is to be used.

Paul is clear that not everyone has the same gift
we are not all teachers or prophets,
but we are all gifted as individuals and as community
with all the gifts necessary to do what God wants us to do
and to be what God wants us to be.

This week

• Give thanks to God for the Easter mystery, and the promise that Christ has given to be with us always
• Ask the Spirit to show you how you ahve been gifted by God, and what you are to do with that gift?
• Pray for imagination, opportunity and courage to use the giftedness that God has given me.

We pray, this today and every day:

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us

Belonging

Fifth Sunday of Easter , May 22 2011, Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 I Peter 2:2-10 John 14:1-14

The story is told of St Christopher

that he searched the world over

for the strongest king to serve

he rejected one after the other

even the devil

and finally he is told to serve God

and to do this by helping people across a dangerous river.

One night a small child comes

and Christopher carries him across the river

he senses the burden getting heavier as he crosses

and it is only as he gets to the other side

that he realises he has been carrying the Christ child.

It is a nice story, and has a good moral.

These days it is regarded as legendary

rather than an account of an actual event.

This does not make it untrue.

It rather points us to the fact

that we are called to serve Christ in the work we do in this world

and that we often don't realise that Christ is there.

It is an Easter encounter

we don't realise at first that Christ is alive and there amongst us.

He surprises us by being in the ordinary place.

The disciples have to learn this.

They are often easily distracted and, well,...just plain 'thick'

Not unlike you and me really!

What is on offer by Jesus is not some fairy tale encounter

nor is it some pious ritual.

It is a glimpse of glory,

it is sharing of the vision of the open heaven and God reigning in power, peace and love.

St Stephen, at his martyrdom, is able to blurt this out.

Things often become very clear to us in the valley of the shadow of death.

For most of the time it is a struggle, like Christopher,

to not insist that God does things in the way that we want them done

and rather to open ourselves to the mystery of what God might be offering us.

Not what we vainly want but what God might be trying to invite us into.

In the halting passage in John 14 again, often read at funerals, Jesus promises a prepared-place.

He is of course speaking imaginally

we are not talking about the Legian Beach Hotel or some Georgian mansion

But rather of the fact that there is a place.

This is a comfort to the dying and the bereaved, I suggest, to know that whether we live or whether we die God has a place for us.

But as we read on we discover that the place is not so much a location as a relationship....

How can we know the way? and Jesus says to you and me

I am the way and the truth and the life

I think once we grasp this we are, indeed, on the way.

This is what Christopher found.

It is not discovery of the answer it is by entering into relationship with Jesus.

This is the relationship which will reveal to us the life of God himself

We Christians believe that this shepherd, this Jesus,

this way, this truth, this life

uniquely draws us into the life of God.

This is not an exclusivist claim it is the promise and hope of relationship.

I will know God, and God will know me.

I will know and be known. It is a glimpse of glory.

This week

• Where is Jesus telling me about himself?
• What do I tell Jesus about myself?
• How does this mutual revelation change us both?
• How do I change my life to better live that experience
• What will I do this week as I live out of this relationship

• .......love.....forgiveness...reconciliation all seek resolution in practice

Jesus meets us

Readings for this week, of Sunday May 1, 2011 are for The Second Sunday of the Easter Season Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Psalm 16 I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31

Easter is not just a one day festival

but rather a way of life

The rather good stories that tell how early Christians encountered Jesus after his death

help us to assimilate our own experiences of Jesus.

Take Peter, for example, who stands up boldly and reminds his listeners

"This Jesus who you crucified"...

he might also be saying....

"and who I deserted at his time of need"

...well "This Jesus God has shown to be the Messiah,

the incarnation of God himself."

It is, a reminder of the way we take the revelation of the Godhead for granted

and fail to see

what mind-blowingly transforming stuff we are involved in.

Thomas, too, who is a quintessential figure in the Christian story.

Not with the disciples when Jesus appears

he does not just take at face value

the fact that they have "seen the Lord"

Why, indeed, should he?

There is perhaps a salutary reminder

that sometimes we assume that people will take our witness for granted.

When we tell them what our experience of the Godly encounter is

we should not just assume that is going to be the last word in the debate.

We often mistake what is happening

we do not name it rightly

we may fail to appreciate where the other person is

(all these are warnings for the would-be evangelist)

but more than this we need to appreciate

that conversion is not so much about persuasion

as about openness to the Holy Spirit of God.

The disciples encourage Thomas

to articulate what it would take for him

to be convinced of the truth

of what God is doing in our lives.

What would it take for me to be convinced?

Perhaps more deeply convinced, or more fundamentally convinced,

can you write a short list of the doubts you have

and what God needs to do to allay those doubts.

Thomas did....I need to see and feel the wounds...

to experience the physicality and the aliveness of Jesus.

This confrontation and naming of doubt enabled him to respond well

when the moment came.

This is an important statement about the integrity of God

The God who honours our shortcomings

as well as our insights and our strengths.

Indeed the story seems to suggest

that doubt is not necessarily a "shortcoming"

The experience of resurrection

invites us to explore

both the light and dark places

where God is to be encountered in our faith journey.

What would you name as your doubts?

What would it and does it take to be more firmly and deeply committed?

and can I allow that process to take place in God's good time

The voice of the prophets in Holy Week

Some short reflections from the prophets for Holy Week

Palm Sunday

Amos 5: ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream

It is not as if God's people do not know that justice is the preferred way.

Amos 9: ¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

God will restore, and restore properly. Not without pain, but through the very gift of his holy Son

Holy Monday

Obadiah 1: ²I will surely make you least among the nations;

you shall be utterly despised. ³Your proud heart has deceived you, you that live in the clefts of the rock, "> whose dwelling is in the heights. You say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ ⁴Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down,

says the Lord.

How easily we misplace our trust.

Jonah 2: ⁷As my life was ebbing away,

I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. ⁸Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. ⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.

Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’

I make a mistake when I think I am the source of justice and holiness.

Holy Tuesday

Micah 1: ³For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place,

and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. ⁴Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. ⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

The Lord's will to deal with my sin is unremitting and determined. He will forgive me. He will have me, even if I am slow and unwilling to respond.

Holy Wednesday

Micah 4

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, ² and many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

In hope, not desperation; in faith not in decline. I come to the Lord because he draws me to himself.

Maundy Thursday

Habbakuk 3

His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. ⁴The brightness was like the sun; rays came forth from his hand,

where his power lay hidden.

There is no way to overlook the glory of the Lord

Good Friday

Zephaniah 2

¹¹The Lord will be terrible against them; he will shrivel all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place,

all the coasts and islands of the nations.

Everything that would wrongly demand our attention and our worship will be destroyed before Jesus, that we his sisters and brothers may live with the freedom and dignity that God destined us to share.

Holy Saturday-Easter Eve

Zephaniah 3

¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;

you shall fear disaster no more. .

The Lord completes all that he sets out to complete

Speaking through the wall

The reading for today are the continuation of the Easter narratives:Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

This Sunday is the Second in Easter, April 11th 2010 sometimes called Low Sunday

We are at the business end of the Gospel

because, in the end, the resurrection is what it is all about.

In this passage from John 20:19-31 that we read today

we encounter a lot of important ideas.

So it is worth taking time this week to go through the whole passage.

Today I am only going to look at the beginning:

Jesus says Peace. Jesus says I send you with this peace.

Jesus says I equip you to do this by giving you the Holy Spirit

And, this peace which you are to share through the Holy Spirit is about

Forgiveness.

The resurrected Jesus brings peace.

This peace that we are talking about is the peace -shalom-that permeates the First Covenants

It is not only about the absence of war

It is about wholeness of life.

This is the life God wants us to have...abundant life, eternal life.

God wants a life for you and me

that is better than what we want for ourselves.

If you wonder what you are supposed to do with this

then this is The Good News that we are to share with others.

Key to this is the promise that forgiveness

can be a reality:

Forgiveness by God of those things we have done wrong

The capacity to forgive other people

and the openness to seeking the forgiveness of those who we have hurt.

Lest we think this is a tall order

Jesus also tells us....you do not have to do this in your own strength

but Receive the Holy Spirit of God to let you do this.

Today, as you worship and pray

Pray particularly for God's Holy Spirit

to enable you to receive

abundant life

to exercise forgiveness

to forgive

and to seek forgiveness.

Peace be with you

Looking for Jesus

The reading for today the Second Sunday of Easter, 11th April 2010, are the continuation of the Easter narratives:Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

This Sunday is the Second in Easter, April 15th 2oo7 sometimes called Low Sunday

A spiritual companion once advised me when talking of "speaking to Christ"

that if I was unsure about the process

then I should ask Christ to show me the wounds in his hands.

It seems a macabre thing to do, but it is I think authentic

We should beware the sort of Christianity that avoids the wounds of Christ.

We should not make the mistake of thinking, on the other extreme,

that we should inflict suffering in order to encounter Jesus,

But we have here an insight about resurrection faith that is quite keen.

It will be in pain and anguish

that we come to understand

that Christ holds us in place.

It will be at death's door

that the mystery of life eternal

is most keenly felt.

It will be when we feel uncertain

unsure, and even faithless

rather than when we are confident, strong

and full of spiritual energy

That we hear Jesus call us by name.

This sort of experience is so widely documented

in the lives of faithful people

that we do well to note that it was right there at the beginning

with the apostles

In our life

Look for the wounds

and there you you will find the Christ

Making a difference....Easter Day

I am glad that we are spared in the Southern hemisphere the incessant link of Easter with Spring.
Although almost everything we do symbolically and liturgically
is redolent of the Northern and Western hemsipheres
here in the south, it is dry, dusty and dying
as autumn sets in.
So we do not have to grapple too much with the idea that
Easter is just a sort of universal principle
of death and rebirth
like the bulbs that are planted
and come back to life
or the lambs which skip in the fields
and the chickens that hatch on the supermarket shelves!!


What then is Easter for us?

It is caught up, I suggest with the rumour of Easter
that spreads amongst the early disciples
that things can be made new
that things will change
that life will be different.
That difference is spelled out
in the focus on baptism
that is so much for us the focus of Easter.
In saying
I turn to Christ
whether as a baptismal candidate
or renewing our promises
we are seeking a radical re-identification
of our lives with something that is important.
We don't just want life to be the same
we want it to change.
That is not to say that we are called to flit around from pillar to post
never settling at anything or anywhere,
but rather that there are aspects of our lives
which need to change.

The baptismal vows invite us to repent of sin
who of us in our right minds would not do this
I don't want to be a thief, a liar, a cheat, an adulterer.
Easter says, then don't.
Live differently.
I am invited to reject selfishness
a hard ask in today's world.
We all know that
piles of stuff, and an endless supply of everything
will not give us what we want.
That "looking after number one: is a vain and empty philosophy
Strangely as we look at families bringing babies to be baptised
we see a radical challenge to selfishness
right in the most obvious place.
People commit themselves to live with each other
not selfishly
but giving their lives to each other,
parents to children, wives and husbands to each other.
We reject this mystery of the unselfish life at our peril.
We are understanding on a global scale
that we need to live cooperatively
with each other, with our environment
if we do not live unselfishly, then we will not live at all


And finally I renounce evil that pattern of life
which will say principally
that other people are for my use and benefit.
This is is both a "micro" pattern and a "macro" pattern.

Micro evil exists, for example, when I think that I can use other people
for my own fulfilment.
This is a warped view of relationships.
It is the parent who enslaves their child through guilt
It is the boss who exploits the worker.
It is the friend who use their friendship to manipulate their friend
rather than to set free.
This is the level at which most of us seem to choose to operate most of the time.

There are bigger patterns.
Where wealthy countries (like our own)
exploit the resources of the world disproportionately
where we abuse our power so that we get wealthier
whilst the poor get poorer.
There are iniquities like prostitution, pornography and the drug trade
which treat people liek commodities.
Easter says there is a possibility to say NO!
I reject evil

If we appreciate nothing else at Easter
we are called to appreciate that
the bold words
I turn to Christ
are words of change and words of action.
They are the possibility that things will be different
and end to sin, selfishness and evil.
We make an individual commitment to this.

Of course there is a sense in which this will all go pear-shaped.
That is not the point.
because we can come back and make this commitment
again and again if necessary.
It is a freedom to understand that things can and will be different.
I am part of that.
And so so are you.

Do you turn to Christ?

Celebrating Baptism at Easter

Easter Day, April 12th 2009. In our readings we particularly think about Mark 16:1-8 today
It’s always a great privilege
and very insightful thing to be able to baptise someone at Easter.
Easter is about new life and new beginnings
and baptism really invites us to adopt a lifestyle that is about Easter.
We affirm as we see Jesus
who once was dead, being declared to be alive
in a new sort of way
that this is the sort of character we want to live our life with.
We believe as Christians that this can only happen through faith in Jesus.
And so Jack and Catherine bring their daughter Marianne
to make that commitment on her behalf today.
She will need to learn how to practice this faith
and so Jack and Catherine, supported by Matthew and Wendy,
also promise to teach her by example
what it means
This is how children learn
by example.
But we are all given a clue
about the practice
by promising
three specific things
which remind us not only what children need to have explained to them
but also what we as Christians are called to reaffirm at this Easter time.
REPENT of your sins
This means that we need to stop doing the stuff that destroys us and others
Seek forgiveness and be forgiving.
REJECT SELFISHNESS in a world that is obsessed with ourselves
and what we can acquire
we reject the idea that people
achieve their full humanity by selfishness
RENOUNCE EVIL there is also bigger picture stuff
where we are seduced by ideas that people are disposable
or that we can exploit people as if they were to be bought and sold.

This is serious stuff
for Marianne.
We pray that Jack and Catherine will continue to do this.

And for each of us.
We renew our personal commitment
Don’t leave Church without it!!

During Lent we will be following a local series of lections.If you are looking for the Common Lectionary References try here Revised Common Lectionary

Happy Easter! Sunday 12th April. We will focus on Mark's account of the Resurrection Mark 16:1-12

Pentecostal challenge

Readings for Whitsunday or Pentecost, May 11, 2008; Numbers 11:24-30; *Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-34,I Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23
Anglicans like candles! In fact people like candles
they are such a warm symbol
and so multi-layered in imaginal links
that we readily warm (sorry) to them.
At Easter the principal symbol in many Churches
is the Paschal or Easter candle
which is marked in various ways at the Great Vigil.
With Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) , the number of the year, the sign of the cross,
and often including five nails.
It burns for the great 50 days which conclude today with the feast of Pentecost when we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples
What to do with with this very rich symbolic candle at the end of this season?
Well of course the logical thing to do is extinguish it,
though we do not want to give the impression that everything is now over and done with,
because of course it isn't!
In a way it has only just begun.
So in our churches today as the large candle is extinguished
individual worshipers are invited to light a personal candle of their own.
The simple idea is that the Easter Commission
is deliberately transmitted
to each individual as part of their baptismal responsibility.
This is, indeed, the movement that we trace in the readings today.
God pours out the Holy Spirit to renew the world
and to encourage and bless the community of faith
in order that they may bring the hope of Christ to the world.
The way this Spirit works is that it is given to individuals
whether it be (as in Numbers) the elders of the Church
or as in Acts and I Corinthians on the individual baptised;
we are invited to appreciate that the gift of the Spirit
apart from being a numinous spiritual blessing
to the world or community of faith in general
is also, in practice, worked out in the individual giftedness of each of the baptised.
So, St Paul's idea is that
the Holy Spirit gives to each of the baptised an outpouring of the Spirit
which manifests itself in particular gifts
He cites a number of gifts..teaching, hospitality, prophecy, prayer, deep faith
and so on (some number these as many as 75 specific gifts)
His implication is that every baptised Christian
is gifted in some way
and that we are to use those gifts
for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.
That is, the presence of the risen Christ
is committed to you and me
and we are gifted by the Holy Spirit
to carry on Christ's work.
We are not expected to pass an exam
or do a whole pile of learning
in order to do this work
we are rather required to use the gift that has been given.
We each need to think about
how the Spirit has lit our personal candle.
Far from the work being over when Easter is finished
and we extinguish the candle
it is not so much over as transferred
to each of us individually.

So we need to ask,
what is my particular gift?
and how am I to use it to further the kingdom of God?
We are given gifts, our candle is lit,
not to hide (Jesus uses this sort of image)
but for a purpose.
We do not have to get a qualification ourselves
it is more that we need to take the gift out of the box and use it.

So there are two questions for each of us
the second more important than the first,
First, what is my gift
and the second important question how might I use it?
The kingdom is weakened in so far
as we hide our light
or ignore it.
Our gift, be it prayer, teaching, almsgiving, hospitality
prophecy or what ever is to be used.
Paul is clear that not everyone has the same gift
we are not all teachers or prophets,
but we are all gifted as individuals and as community
with all the gifts necessary to do what God wants us to do
and to be what God wants us to be.

This week

• Give thanks to God for the Easter mystery, and the promise that Christ has given to be with us always
• Ask the Spirit to show you how you ahve been gifted by God, and what you are to do with that gift?
• Pray for imagination, opportunity and courage to use the giftedness that God has given me.

We pray, this today and every day:

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us

Enter the tomb

Easter Day . For a selection of readings see here Isaiah 25:6-9;Acts 10:34-43;Psalm 118:1-2,14-24; 1 Cor 15:1-11; John 20:1-18; Mark 16:1-8

Easter is not about avoiding death

It is about choosing to not be defeated by it

Today, as every Easter Day, we are given the opportunity

to reaffirm our Christian commitment.

We are asked:

Do you turn to Christ? and we will gladly reply

I turn to Christ.

We are asked also three questions

about what we will do

to put this into practice

Do you repent of your sins?

We choose to admit our past failing

and today, on this day of new beginning,

Easter Day

we promise to live our life differently.

Do you reject selfish living?

When we reject selfishness

we must find ways to be kind, to be generous, to share

We cannot combat selfishness and not share.

Finally we are asked a serious question

Do you reject evil?

We might ask ourselves: but what is evil?

And it is not an easy question.

But it revolves around the way we view other people.

Each one of us is made in the image of God,

and therefore we should treat all other people

with equal dignity and respect,

but do we do that?

When we see people as commodities rather than individuals,

when we think only of people as sexual objects

when we see anyone as disposable

we are assenting to evil in the profoundest way.

When we are silent, when we should speak out,

or when we trivialise the lives of others

and say that they, their problems, their aspirations

are not worthwhile

we diminish ourselves, and each other.

This is serious stuff

But it is a choice we make

When we ask ourselves 

What is it that makes Christian experience of death

Of sin, of selfishness and of  evil 

Different from that of others

It is that we choose to enter the tomb.

We do not escape death, pain or sin.

Rather we believe that those things ]

Are not the last word

And we choose to live our life differently.

It is as we choose

As we exercise our freedom

As we decide

To follow Christ

To repent

To reject selfishness

And to renounce evil

 This is not passive

We do nto stand pn the edge of the death experience

And peer in.

Each of us who has grieved

Knows that the mystery of death

Is that it is as we get into it

That we discover

That we pass through it

And are transformed.

The little deaths, 

Sin, selfishness and evil

All have the same dynamic.

We are not to sit passively  by and do nothing

But we decide to reject them as a way of life

This is not always easy

We often get it wrong

We sometimes fail

That, in a way, doesn’t matter

It is not as we get it right that matters so much

As that we choose to live free from sin, selfishness and evil

We go into the tomb

We do not seek to avoid the death

And we discover that we are set free.

This is a key mystery of life

It is the invitation of Easter.

Choose life, not death

But choose it knowing that it is not an easy way

It requires us to struggle with sin, selfishness and evil.

But it is the only way that is worthwhile.

 

Palm Sunday-The journey continues

Sixth Sunday in Lent _ commonly called Palm Sunday. March 16, 2008 Readings of the Eucharist are: Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 and the Passion according to Matthew 26:14-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54

Journeys require tenacity

they need planning

and they change us

As Holy Week begins we take something of a journey

it is undergirded by the story of Jesus last days before his death.

We have also been taking a journey through Lent,

in these weeks we have been thinking about what it means to be Christian

and how do we live faithfully in the spirit of the promises we made

or which were made for us at Baptism.

How do we continue the journey begun at our baptism

when we were asked :

Do you turn to Christ?
Do you repent of sin?

Do you reject selfishness?

Do you renounce evil?

These promises are reaffirmed on Easter Day

We have also reflected on the mystery of life and death
and hear that there is a great overshadowing promise of Jesus:
"I am the Resurrection and the Life!"
It is the promise which breathes life back into our deadness.
And which open the eyes of the blind heart.

The reading from the letter to the Phillipians addresses this journey, this transition, this growth,
in a more poetic and philisophical way

St Paul writes

Philippians 2:5-11

2:5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,

2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,

2:8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

2:9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,

2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

2:11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The purpose of the journey is that we may become like Christ.
Not presuming on our Godly nature but acting out of it.
It is a journey of suffering
a journey of challenge
which will transform us that we may be like him

Such journeys require tenacity

they need planning

and they change us