Thought for the Week:Sometimes, as followers of Christ from different traditions, we get into conflict over how faith works. Is God a personal God seeking individual commitment? Can we serve God effectively on our own without a faith community? Or does God work through groups – churches, communities, families? Must we belong to some congregation in order to be faithful to Christ? Through the centuries, Christian teachers have emphasized on or the other, but perhaps we do ourselves a disservice when we make these two possibilities a choice. This Sunday we read that Jesus goes home with Simon where Simon’s mother-in-law is very ill and Jesus heals her. It’s a touching story of remarkable particularity in Jesus’ ministry. It reveals his care for and commitment to the individuals who had chosen to follow him. There is no question, when we read this story, that...

A Lectionary Reflection on Mark 1:29-39 for Epiphany 5B I often refer to myself as a mainly self-taught guitarist, but this isn’t really the whole truth. When, in my teens, I finally committed to learning to play, I was fortunate to have a cousin, who was a few years ahead of me on the learning curve. I remember the two of us sitting with our song books open, copying chords and talking about how to play the different positions. I learned my first strum pattern from her, and she helped me to see...

A Lectionary Reflection on Mark 1:21-28 for Epiphany 4B This year’s Epiphany season is an incredible journey! It’s like Mark (and the Epiphany season itself) is so determined to show us who Jesus really is that he will go to any lengths to give us a glimpse of Jesus’ character and purpose. After skipping over the baptism and temptation stories of Jesus, Mark jumps straight into the action. Last week he gave us the basic summary of Jesus’ message. This week, he shows us the impact that message...

05 February 2012 There is both comfort and challenge in the Lectionary for this week. On one hand there is the assurance of God’s care, and the particularity of grace as God meets each person at their point of need. On the other hand there is the call to extend a similar adaptive particularity to one another – willingly becoming what others need from us – in order to carry the Gospel’s grace and restoration to...

12 February 2012 The healing narratives continue this week – with a twist! The connection between the healing of the man with the skin disease on Mark’s Gospel and the healing of Naaman in the Old Testament is clear, but things get very interesting – and a little uncomfortable – when the Epistle reading about discipline and focus is added to the mix. Could it be that the nature and extent of the healing we receive...

19 February 2012 Once again Epiphany closes with the Transfiguration of Jesus – the turning point, the final affirmation before Jesus set his sights on Jerusalem and the coming confrontation and sacrifice. The challenge of this week is for us to learn to recognise God’s glory – in Christ, but also in all people and all things. It is this capacity for glory that can make a massive change to how we live in the world,...

22 February 2012 Once again we move into the season of repentance, reflection and preparation for the journey to the cross and beyond. Like Advent, Lent was a season of preparation for baptismal candidates (who were baptised on Easter Sunday). For us now, although we may not be receiving baptism in a few weeks time, the disciplines of Lent remain a profound invitation to allow God’s life and values to direct our lives. As we receive...