Reflection for 10th November 2024Remembrance SundayJonah 3.1-5,10, Hebrews 9.24-28, Mark 1.14-20This Sunday, we remember those who have endured conflict since the time Armistice Day first began. It's crucial to remember that we dedicate this day to reconciliation. Reconciliation, whether it's intergovernmental or interpersonal, is crucial for individuals whose relationships have suffered. Relationships with family, friends, comrades, and work colleagues add wondrous depth to our everyday lives. However, despite their love and support for us, our lives can still feel empty. The terrors of the past continue to prevent true relationships and true life satisfaction from truly settling within us.However, life does not have to be that way, nor should it be. For there in Christ, the true reconciler of all life, is true relationship—a transformed life and love that knows no bounds. For in Christ, God became a vulnerable human at work in the world.In our gospel reading today, we hear Jesus calling men away from their homes and their work. Jesus called them away from their familiar and comfortable lives, leading them to a life filled with uncertainty and persecution, yet also propelling them into a realm beyond their imagination and fostering a fresh bond with God. Jesus called Simon, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, for Jesus had begun God’s work of ushering in His kingdom. Yet what does this mean for us?When anyone suffers and thinks the powers of this world have the final say, then Jesus is the one who says no; look to God. God has final say—authority over the world. The world governs in methods that do not align with God's principles. Often, we humans govern with haste, while God governs with wisdom; we make snap decisions, while God provides steady guidance. We have a tendency to use force, whereas God governs with vulnerability through the humanity of Jesus. We are prone to selfish concerns where God rules with self-giving, dying on the cross; we offer empty promises where God rules with the dawning of a new day. Christ's rule is characterized by justice, love, mercy, and grace. Death's defeat and God's justice's victory will prevent the powers of this world from triumphing. However, the coming of God’s total reign, although it gives us hope, ought not to sound superficial or trite. I am not going to say that everything will turn out alright. That is not the hope in God we have. Our hope lies in loving God, who is himself the source of all goodness and by whose grace inspires us to accept His invitation of love and new life in Him. We are called to live in God's kingdom, which is both here and yet to come, in Christ right now, unbound by the past or yearning for the future. Blessings and prayers, Emma
Reflection for 4th August 2024The Tenth Sunday After TrinityExodus 16.2-4, 9-15, Ephesians 4.1-16, John 6.24-35I was in a shop the other day when I heard a little girl shout at her mother, “But I NEED it! I WANT it NOW!" The mother, slightly embarrassed, said, “You’ll have to wait for your birthday next week." Unsurprisingly, this did not go down with the little girl, who proceeded to cry as if her whole world had just crumbled down. Each of us has probably seen or experienced scenes like this. We can all understand the pain of a child demanding something they want but can’t have right away. We also understand that the child will hopefully learn to distinguish between need and want as they grow up. Such awareness develops through discipline and experience with how life works. However, there is a spiritual yearning in all of us for something we need and want, but for some, we may not be able to articulate or even accept it.Need and want are both themes that run through the readings. In Exodus, the people wander through the desert while fleeing from Egypt. The crowd is in a state of crisis because of their hunger, to the point where they are literally starving. Like all groups of people, they start complaining bitterly to their leaders, Moses and Aaron, that they have been brought out here to die. I always wonder at this point: Where is the people’s faith in God? They had not long ago had their thirst quenched by water flowing miraculously from a boulder struck by Moses. Why were they grumbling again? Had they forgotten God’s care for them so quickly? Despite their lack of faith, God does hear the cries of His children and promises to provide bread from heaven. Quails are strangely migrating across their path. However, verse 4 reminds us that with the gifts comes a test. God will see if the people will obey God's instructions or not, which include the command to only gather as much as they need to eat (verse 16) and not leave any for the next day (verses 19–20). Of course, they do not obey, and their lack of obedience tests the patience of both Moses and God. It appears, however, that the disobedience is not solely due to stubbornness or defiance; they simply do not know God enough to trust Him.John's reading further explores this lack of sufficient knowledge to trust God. In this passage, a crowd of people has chased down Jesus because they want to see more godly signs and want Jesus to become their king. Although they need Jesus as king, their reasons are wrong. They wanted a political king who would free them from their oppressors, just like Moses did in the Exodus. Jesus, however, wanted to open up their understanding of the fact that the new Passover, the new Exodus, was taking place right in front of them, and that He was leading it. This is why Jesus' rebukes appeared almost churlish, as the crowd was on the verge of crowning him king. When people referred to Moses leading the Jews in the Exodus, they meant a journey from oppressive governments to political liberation. Jesus points out that during the Exodus, God provided not only physical nourishment by dropping bread from the sky but also spiritual nourishment, which kept alive their faith and hope. However, Jesus would provide something far greater and deeper than political freedom or spiritual sustenance. In contrast to what the crowds expected, Jesus will rule in a different way. The crowd was unaware that they had just witnessed the feeding of the five thousand, which was a prelude to the true nourishment they would receive from the Son of Man, Jesus himself. We know that Jesus would go on to offer His life for all on the cross, bringing them freedom from sin and into true relationship with God. Jesus is the true bread from heaven, the food they and we really need and should want.The crowd did not realize that who Jesus is was more important than what he could do for them. In verse 27, Jesus is the one for whom "God the Father has set his seal." Like a goldsmith with a hallmark or like a king with his great seal, God has stamped Jesus with a mark that declares not only where he comes from but that he carries his authority. Jesus bears the marks of what he is doing by providing care, preaching the coming of God’s kingdom, and healing the sick—actions that say this is the kind of thing that, in Israel’s scriptures, God himself does. Verse 35, the climactic conclusion of the passage, reveals this point with the first of the famous 'I am' sayings in John's gospel, "I am the bread of life." Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." God is imposing a demand on both the people and us: while we may feed them with bread and fish until they recognize who Jesus truly is, a deep hunger within them remains unsatisfied.Believing in Jesus requires a change of heart away from what we think we want or need. This requires a yearning heart that is open to discipline, obedience, and acceptance of who Jesus truly is—the saviour and true king of our lives. Although faith in Jesus will never remain untested, God assures us that even in the midst of seemingly meaningless troubles and trials, there are deep purposes for Him at work, and He calls us to faith obedience. He invites us to actively offer the little we have, for He will provide the resources we need because God chooses to work through and with us. Are you ready to face the true nature of Jesus in a fresh perspective? This will help you understand what he can do for you. Make verse 34 your prayer: "Sir, give us this bread always" to meet your deepest needs. Blessings and prayers, Emma