Did we hear that right in the reading this morning? The same awesome God who created the universe, and raised Jesus from the dead - he calls US his children!? Brothers and sisters of Christ!? You and me? Wow. With this in our minds, might this make a difference to the way we live our daily lives?

In our reading from Acts, Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. A lame man, who was being carried in, asked them for alms. They looked at him, and told him to look at them. This eye contact would have lifted the man up spiritually, giving him dignity and recognition as a fellow human being. Peter said “In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk.” He took the man by his hand and raised him up, and the lame man was healed! He entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God! He became a witness of God’s power. It changed the way he lived his daily life!

Peter addressed the people who crowded around them. Peter had been a fisherman. It changed the way he lived his daily life too, once he accepted the call and followed Jesus. It wasn’t us who did it by any power or piety of our own, he told them, but in the name of the Jesus you had put to death. “We are witnesses” he said. The disciples were first hand witnesses of God’s power - they saw it through Jesus as the man on earth, and as the risen Christ. They touched him. He showed them and taught them.

Peter passed on the message of Jesus - the people must repent, they must change the way they lived their daily lives.

It strikes me that the gift of being a witness to God’s power is given with additional responsibility - to share the story as Peter did, to point other people towards God so that their daily lives will be changed too. This is prophecy as I see it, that we accept what God gives us and pass it on.

Prophecy is at the heart of our whole diocese this year, but few people grasp what it means to us. It’s not about foretelling the future, although at times God does give people insights into what will be. He did so to let the people know that Jesus was coming, as Christ himself later opened the minds of the disciples to see. Prophecy is about passing on what we are given by God.

Bishop Graham came to our deanery on a pilgrimage this week. I went to join in with their service at West Runton church. Afterwards, people asked the bishop about all kinds of things. One of the things he said was that when he was a young man a lady in her eighties asked him whether he had thought about becoming a priest. Her words were prophetic - they wouldn’t leave him, and his life was changed. None of us is too old or too young to pass on what God gives us.

We are his witnesses - and not only witnesses, but close family members!

See what love the Father has given us! The same awesome God who raised Jesus from the dead calls US his children, brothers and sisters of Christ!

This must surely make a huge difference to how we live our daily lives!

Amen.

Julie Rubidge, Lay Minister.