On having a relationship

Readings for Sunday 26th January if you are keeping the Third Sunday after Epiphany (Year A) can be taken from Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, & Matthew 4:12-25
(We will be celebrating Australia Day...so please look elsewhere on this blog for that)

The early disciples 

got a curious glimpse of something different:

what it might be like 

to follow Jesus.

For two thousand years 

people have got a glimpse of the same thing.

For some it has been very clear

for some it has been a gradual realisation

The question we ask ourselves today is 

what makes me a disciple of Jesus?

Why do I follow, what do I seek to be and do?

You may remember that last week's question was: 

What are you looking for?

This is what Jesus asks those who pursue him.

The two questions are not unrelated

But the mature realisation of the disciple is

that it is not a job description

rather it is an invitation to a relationship

This is not unlike a marriage

I could be tempted when preparing a couple to say

"This is what a husband does" and "This is what a wife does"

as if it were some sort of job description

(this is, incidentally, why some people get Paul's teaching about marriage all skew-whiff,

they mistake his comments about the nature of mutual relationship 

as a role descriptor for spouses!)

in reality what is important 

is not the job that we do as a spouse or as a disciple

but the sort of relationship we have.

With each other, and with God

This week

• You might reflect whether the idea of having a relationship with Jesus is one that works for you
• How might you deepen that relationship, or (perhaps) discover what it means?
• Pray for yourself and your friends that you may have better relationships.