Spirit & Life

There is nothing like the baby within you jumping and moving with life. It is a gift and a wonder. From the beginning, you are aware of the other.

Ancient wisdom reminds us God is loving, encompassing, uplifting and renewing!
God is in our midst, renewing us in love, recognising all,
lifting the lowly with saving grace and drawing us all ‘home’.

These last two years have left people anxious, fatigued and exhausted. We have overcome outbreaks, followed by lockdown, only to find it repeated with more restrictions in place. While this is a whole community occurrence, the sense of isolation, loneliness, anxiety and uncertainty is individual.

Jesus is right again – our fig tree has certainly demonstrated that summer is approaching! Advent is upon us and Christmas draws near.

The end of the Church Year in the RCL draws us to a time of reviewing the year that was, and anticipating what may yet to be, in both our Church and personal life.

What a beautiful, positive, and hope-filled call! Over and over again, throughout each generation, there will be times of sorrowing, fracture, societal upheaval, and significant loss. In the midst of pain, our hope through faith is found in two ways – individually and together.

Social Influencers are not a new phenomenon. Even Jesus outed ‘Influencers’ in his time, even the ‘teachers of the Law’. There are people who have a positive influence in our community, and people whose influence causes distress, hurt, and even long-lasting grief.

The community would have been so very familiar with this commandment that was recalled daily through spoken and ritual prayer. Its very simplicity reminds us of the depth held in actively living a prayer.

Can you imagine the noise and the crush as excited people tried to meet this megastar of his day? Ostracised and alone, sitting on the side of the road, how would Bartimaeus have known where Jesus was.

James and John’s sense of entitlement seems quite extraordinary. They may have listened to Jesus’ teachings, but not ‘heard’ the truth deep in their souls. They slipped into the patterning of their familiar Honour/Shame, hierarchical society, where ‘position’ denotes power and status, and is sought at every opportunity.