EXPLORING THE BIBLE

…. we the church are called to be a pilgrim people, never content to settle into a fixed routine, always open to new insights into how we should worship and whom we should serve. With many of our congregations now without settled ministers, God may be inviting us to explore new ways of doing church together.

Lent offers us a time to reflect on who we are, and how we are to relate to other people who are equally God’s beloved. It calls us to allow ourselves to be changed by God’s love, not just to give up some rather insignificant indulgence for a few weeks, although such a fast might help concentrate our minds on the real challenges.

We enter Lent with a mix of emotions/thoughts, this is reflected in the lessons for this day.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.”

…the challenge is to find such a balance between the gratification of honour & encouragement and our human response of selfish pride.

Familiar Bible passages, re-read, often yield previously missed gems. Both Gospel passages for this day are those dreamed of rich reefs.

A light shines…

A light from God shines on those who have lived in the darkness of occupation and oppression. The burden will be lifted.

The “mountaintop experience” is important but means less than the way in which it is worked out in the process of life. How does it impact on life at four o’clock in the afternoon? How does it impact on what we communicate with others? How does it impact on the decisions of our life that form us into new people?