Sunday Reflections
by Carolyn Rutherford
Easter 7
Acts 1.6-14; Ps 68.1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 5; John 17.1-11
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 17.13)
“Be sober, be watchful.” 1 Peter 5.8
“It is not for you to know times and seasons.” Acts 1.7
“All of these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.” Acts 1.14
What is prayer that we should be devoted to it? Every young Christian and many older ones too, ask, “How do I Pray?” We look to the Lord’s Prayer for answers. We follow recipes of worship, praise, thanksgiving and requests. We use the meaningful words of others who have written what we wish we could compose. Prayer is all of this and so much more. Sometimes it is silence and stillness. Sometimes it is acts of love and service. Sometimes it is creativity and expression. Sometimes it is seeking, other times it is just receiving and resting. But always it is focusing on God. Selfishness must be put aside if we are to truly pray.
Be sober and watchful in prayer and look for truth. We do not know the hour or the season when trials, change, victory or death will come. But we must learn to read the signs, look past the distractions, prepare for what is coming - but live, see, love, and give where we are now. God does not ask us for blind, deluded faith. God asks us for truth, wholeness and love. Sometimes it is only through suffering that we are awakened from our self-centred, self-sufficient stupor, to grow into wisdom, depth and purpose. (1 Peter 5.10) This also is prayer.
Prayer is not something we can achieve simply by deciding that we will achieve it. We can dedicate ourselves to prayer just as the early disciples and countless other Christians have done, but this is only the beginning of prayer not the resolution. Relationship is two way and multifaceted, and prayer is relationship with God. It must be given and received – both ways. And so we have been given a guide, a counsellor, the Spirit of truth to lead us into a deepening union with God. Hear the calling, receive the gift and give yourself to God in prayer.
Easter 6
Acts 17.22-31; Psalms 66.7-19; 1 Peter 3.8-22; John 14.15-21
“The world cannot accept (God’s counsellor the Spirit of Truth) because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives within you and will be with you.” (John 14.17)
“For in God we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17.28)
Do you see and know God’s Counsellor? Do you see and know Truth? The God we love and serve does not live in temples made by humans. Sure we come to our beautiful churches to meet and worship, and in these prayer soaked buildings in the company of others who seek the Lord, we do indeed find God’s presence. But God is not confined to these buildings. God made the world and everything in it (Acts 17.24). God is not far off. God is within and all around. “For in God we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17.24) But do you see God, do you hear God, do you know Truth?
You’ve heard the expression - “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” Seeing and hearing God can be a bit like that. We go searching and striving for a method that will enable us to hear God speaking to us in clear English. We want to be able to pray and see the requests granted as proof that God has heard us. We want God to reveal himself to us. But what if what we need is not for God to meet us on our terms, but for us to become aware that God is already with us on his terms.
How you see is what you see. If we look at the world only from our own selfish reference point, all we will see is ourselves and everything else in terms of how it affects us. But is it possible to see things from a different reference point. Not easily, but yes. It is what the mystics and saints have searched for and spoken about. It is what Jesus teaches and reveals. It is contemplation. It is the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It is union with God. “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14.20)
St Mark
Isaiah 62.6-12; Psalms 89.1-9; Ephesians 4.7-16; Mark 16.1-20
“Until we….become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” ( Eph.4.13)
“Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into…Christ.” (Eph 4.15)
What did you want to be when you grew up? What do you want to be now? What are your current plans and goals? What are the successes and achievements of your life? What are you aiming for now?
Much of our life is spent planning for the future and working toward various goals. We are encouraged to pick a career and strive for it. We undertake the study and training, hone and perfect our skills, compete and achieve our goals, climb the ladder of success and become someone or some position. And when we achieve it we rest in the success, or look for the next goal. When we fail, we feel awful, make excuses, blame someone or something, change direction and hopefully try again. We pray for help to become what we believe we are called to be. We search our passions and our DNA to determine what we were “meant” to be. We pray about it, we seek God’s help, and we work toward what we believe we should do. But what if the goals we have for ourselves and the goal that God has for us are on different plains?
We think God is calling us to be a this or that or do this or that. But looking at today’s Ephesians reading, perhaps what God is calling us to be is - united in faith, loving, wise, mature, and one with God in Christ? Then the career goals we have fade into less significance. The purpose of our life journey takes on a different genre. The things we do; our experiences - all of them - good and bad, successes and failures - become tools for personal and spiritual growth. We are not pre-destined to become a priest, prophet, apostle, teacher, builder, business person, farmer, etc, we are pre-destined, called, designed to become - “one with Christ”. The other roles we play and things we do are important, but they are not our destiny, they are the journey through which we learn, grow and become.
Easter 3
Acts 2.14, 36-42; Psalms 116.1-4; 1 Peter 1.13-15; Luke 24.13-35
“Gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon…Jesus Christ. Do not be conform to the passions of your former ignorance, …be holy in all your conduct.” (1 Pet 1. 13-15)
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2.52)
Have you ever longed to live a more holy life? Is there something inside of you that yearns to draw closer to God, to pray, to hear the voice of God in the silence, and forsake the grip of this complicated world for the simpler, more authentic life? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Nun or a Monk?
What often turns us off the idea, are the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. What draws us in is the yearning for simplicity and connectedness and the commitment to lifelong spiritual growth and transformation. Within our community there are people who have joined the third order of St Francis, and others that are oblates of other religious orders including the Melanesian Brotherhood. But each of us who have given ourselves to Christ and follow his teaching, who are part of a Church community, and dedicate ourselves to prayer, worship and holy service are living the calling of a “Monk in society”.
1Peter 1.13 tells us to “gird our minds”. These days that is a difficult task. A.I. and social media tell us what to think and even think for us. Our phones get “smarter” and we get dumber. God asks us to be sober in a world where everything is designed to get us addicted and make us dependant. And we are called to be holy, united with God and Christ, centred on love, when we are constantly being fed greed and fear. Everywhere we are at risk of being robbed or exploited, and yet Christ calls us to simplicity and community. “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2.40)
If you are longing for truth, authenticity, valued individuality, loving community, wisdom and genuine life then take the plunge and actively seek it. (Matt 7.7)
Easter 2
Acts 2.14a, 22-32; Psalms 16; 1 Peter 1.1-12; John 20.19-31
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20.29)
I am always very grateful for Tomas and that he did not believe the others when they said that Jesus had risen from the dead. I’m glad someone doubted and demanded proof. The core of our Christian belief hangs on the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that he came to teach us, live with us, die for us, and then revealed his true Godself by rising from the dead, before resuming his place in living eternal presence. The theory was proved by Jesus coming back to life days after his death. It is wild and amazing. So I’m glad someone who actually saw that Jesus was dead- dead, and would not believe until he could actually see that Jesus really was alive.
We however have not been able to see the nail scared hands or put our hand in the pieced side of Jesus. And yet we believe. Why? Do we just take it on trust? Do we just accept the testimony of the Saints, history and our beloved doubting Tomas? Perhaps: but how long would our faith last if our experience of the risen Lord was just what is recorded in the Bible. Surely even the most naive of us would at some point doubt and give up? - Unless, we too, were to see Jesus in one of his many disguises.
My granddaughter started school in a Catholic School on Thursday Island this year. In her second week of school at the grand age of 4 and 6 month she came home to announce to her parents that, “I saw God today.” She had attended her first school church service in the ornate Catholic Church at the school. What or who exactly she thought was God, I do not know, but my first thought was that seeing God at 4 was pretty good, as I have been looking to see Jesus all my life!
This week, spend some time pondering; where have you seen Jesus, and where do you see Jesus? When have you doubted, and how has Jesus met you in your times of disbelief, grief, pain or abandonment?
Easter Day
Acts 10.34-43; Psalms 118.1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3.1-4; Matthew 28.1-10
“Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Col3.2)
Easter is a time for new beginnings. It is an opportunity to ponder the cyclic nature of faith and nature. How things are born, grow, die and then reform to be born again. How ideas and beliefs are born in us, grow, are tested, die and then are reformed, and how this in turn reforms us. It is a time to examine the way we think, and see and believe. It is time for surrender, grace, awe and love.
What are you seeking? This is a huge question? Do you even know or realise what it is you are seeking? Have you ever examined on deeper and deeper levels what and why you are seeking? To do this self examination regularly is to move from being at the mercy of primal and selfish instincts, to wonder, wisdom and choice. This is the confessing of sins that leads to new life. Not just confessing our sins, but understanding what motivates us, why, and how this is manipulating us.
Where is Christ? He is seated at the right hand of God. Where is God? Look, seek and you will see; that Christ is here, risen and alive, with you, in you, around you, in heaven, and on earth, in all that is. Do you have to believe to see God? Is it a case of, you only see if/when you believe hard enough? No. Some of the disciples doubted, but Jesus still came among them. (Matt 28. 17-18) It is a question of what you choose to see, what you seek. If your mind is on your own little world of self interest, self pleasure, and private politics, you will see only from the perspective of self. But if you set your mind above, if you realise that “Your life is not about you; you are about Life”* then you will see Christ seated at the right hand of God. And you will see Christ everywhere!
“Set your mind on things that are above” (Col 3.2) and you will experience your own Easter death and resurrection, over and over again, in life giving transformation.
*Richard Rour, “Just This”, Spek, 2017
Acts 1.6-14; Ps 68.1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 5; John 17.1-11
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 17.13)
“Be sober, be watchful.” 1 Peter 5.8
“It is not for you to know times and seasons.” Acts 1.7
“All of these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.” Acts 1.14
What is prayer that we should be devoted to it? Every young Christian and many older ones too, ask, “How do I Pray?” We look to the Lord’s Prayer for answers. We follow recipes of worship, praise, thanksgiving and requests. We use the meaningful words of others who have written what we wish we could compose. Prayer is all of this and so much more. Sometimes it is silence and stillness. Sometimes it is acts of love and service. Sometimes it is creativity and expression. Sometimes it is seeking, other times it is just receiving and resting. But always it is focusing on God. Selfishness must be put aside if we are to truly pray.
Be sober and watchful in prayer and look for truth. We do not know the hour or the season when trials, change, victory or death will come. But we must learn to read the signs, look past the distractions, prepare for what is coming - but live, see, love, and give where we are now. God does not ask us for blind, deluded faith. God asks us for truth, wholeness and love. Sometimes it is only through suffering that we are awakened from our self-centred, self-sufficient stupor, to grow into wisdom, depth and purpose. (1 Peter 5.10) This also is prayer.
Prayer is not something we can achieve simply by deciding that we will achieve it. We can dedicate ourselves to prayer just as the early disciples and countless other Christians have done, but this is only the beginning of prayer not the resolution. Relationship is two way and multifaceted, and prayer is relationship with God. It must be given and received – both ways. And so we have been given a guide, a counsellor, the Spirit of truth to lead us into a deepening union with God. Hear the calling, receive the gift and give yourself to God in prayer.
Easter 6
Acts 17.22-31; Psalms 66.7-19; 1 Peter 3.8-22; John 14.15-21
“The world cannot accept (God’s counsellor the Spirit of Truth) because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives within you and will be with you.” (John 14.17)
“For in God we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17.28)
Do you see and know God’s Counsellor? Do you see and know Truth? The God we love and serve does not live in temples made by humans. Sure we come to our beautiful churches to meet and worship, and in these prayer soaked buildings in the company of others who seek the Lord, we do indeed find God’s presence. But God is not confined to these buildings. God made the world and everything in it (Acts 17.24). God is not far off. God is within and all around. “For in God we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17.24) But do you see God, do you hear God, do you know Truth?
You’ve heard the expression - “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” Seeing and hearing God can be a bit like that. We go searching and striving for a method that will enable us to hear God speaking to us in clear English. We want to be able to pray and see the requests granted as proof that God has heard us. We want God to reveal himself to us. But what if what we need is not for God to meet us on our terms, but for us to become aware that God is already with us on his terms.
How you see is what you see. If we look at the world only from our own selfish reference point, all we will see is ourselves and everything else in terms of how it affects us. But is it possible to see things from a different reference point. Not easily, but yes. It is what the mystics and saints have searched for and spoken about. It is what Jesus teaches and reveals. It is contemplation. It is the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It is union with God. “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14.20)
St Mark
Isaiah 62.6-12; Psalms 89.1-9; Ephesians 4.7-16; Mark 16.1-20
“Until we….become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” ( Eph.4.13)
“Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into…Christ.” (Eph 4.15)
What did you want to be when you grew up? What do you want to be now? What are your current plans and goals? What are the successes and achievements of your life? What are you aiming for now?
Much of our life is spent planning for the future and working toward various goals. We are encouraged to pick a career and strive for it. We undertake the study and training, hone and perfect our skills, compete and achieve our goals, climb the ladder of success and become someone or some position. And when we achieve it we rest in the success, or look for the next goal. When we fail, we feel awful, make excuses, blame someone or something, change direction and hopefully try again. We pray for help to become what we believe we are called to be. We search our passions and our DNA to determine what we were “meant” to be. We pray about it, we seek God’s help, and we work toward what we believe we should do. But what if the goals we have for ourselves and the goal that God has for us are on different plains?
We think God is calling us to be a this or that or do this or that. But looking at today’s Ephesians reading, perhaps what God is calling us to be is - united in faith, loving, wise, mature, and one with God in Christ? Then the career goals we have fade into less significance. The purpose of our life journey takes on a different genre. The things we do; our experiences - all of them - good and bad, successes and failures - become tools for personal and spiritual growth. We are not pre-destined to become a priest, prophet, apostle, teacher, builder, business person, farmer, etc, we are pre-destined, called, designed to become - “one with Christ”. The other roles we play and things we do are important, but they are not our destiny, they are the journey through which we learn, grow and become.
Easter 3
Acts 2.14, 36-42; Psalms 116.1-4; 1 Peter 1.13-15; Luke 24.13-35
“Gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon…Jesus Christ. Do not be conform to the passions of your former ignorance, …be holy in all your conduct.” (1 Pet 1. 13-15)
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2.52)
Have you ever longed to live a more holy life? Is there something inside of you that yearns to draw closer to God, to pray, to hear the voice of God in the silence, and forsake the grip of this complicated world for the simpler, more authentic life? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Nun or a Monk?
What often turns us off the idea, are the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. What draws us in is the yearning for simplicity and connectedness and the commitment to lifelong spiritual growth and transformation. Within our community there are people who have joined the third order of St Francis, and others that are oblates of other religious orders including the Melanesian Brotherhood. But each of us who have given ourselves to Christ and follow his teaching, who are part of a Church community, and dedicate ourselves to prayer, worship and holy service are living the calling of a “Monk in society”.
1Peter 1.13 tells us to “gird our minds”. These days that is a difficult task. A.I. and social media tell us what to think and even think for us. Our phones get “smarter” and we get dumber. God asks us to be sober in a world where everything is designed to get us addicted and make us dependant. And we are called to be holy, united with God and Christ, centred on love, when we are constantly being fed greed and fear. Everywhere we are at risk of being robbed or exploited, and yet Christ calls us to simplicity and community. “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2.40)
If you are longing for truth, authenticity, valued individuality, loving community, wisdom and genuine life then take the plunge and actively seek it. (Matt 7.7)
Easter 2
Acts 2.14a, 22-32; Psalms 16; 1 Peter 1.1-12; John 20.19-31
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20.29)
I am always very grateful for Tomas and that he did not believe the others when they said that Jesus had risen from the dead. I’m glad someone doubted and demanded proof. The core of our Christian belief hangs on the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that he came to teach us, live with us, die for us, and then revealed his true Godself by rising from the dead, before resuming his place in living eternal presence. The theory was proved by Jesus coming back to life days after his death. It is wild and amazing. So I’m glad someone who actually saw that Jesus was dead- dead, and would not believe until he could actually see that Jesus really was alive.
We however have not been able to see the nail scared hands or put our hand in the pieced side of Jesus. And yet we believe. Why? Do we just take it on trust? Do we just accept the testimony of the Saints, history and our beloved doubting Tomas? Perhaps: but how long would our faith last if our experience of the risen Lord was just what is recorded in the Bible. Surely even the most naive of us would at some point doubt and give up? - Unless, we too, were to see Jesus in one of his many disguises.
My granddaughter started school in a Catholic School on Thursday Island this year. In her second week of school at the grand age of 4 and 6 month she came home to announce to her parents that, “I saw God today.” She had attended her first school church service in the ornate Catholic Church at the school. What or who exactly she thought was God, I do not know, but my first thought was that seeing God at 4 was pretty good, as I have been looking to see Jesus all my life!
This week, spend some time pondering; where have you seen Jesus, and where do you see Jesus? When have you doubted, and how has Jesus met you in your times of disbelief, grief, pain or abandonment?
Easter Day
Acts 10.34-43; Psalms 118.1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3.1-4; Matthew 28.1-10
“Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Col3.2)
Easter is a time for new beginnings. It is an opportunity to ponder the cyclic nature of faith and nature. How things are born, grow, die and then reform to be born again. How ideas and beliefs are born in us, grow, are tested, die and then are reformed, and how this in turn reforms us. It is a time to examine the way we think, and see and believe. It is time for surrender, grace, awe and love.
What are you seeking? This is a huge question? Do you even know or realise what it is you are seeking? Have you ever examined on deeper and deeper levels what and why you are seeking? To do this self examination regularly is to move from being at the mercy of primal and selfish instincts, to wonder, wisdom and choice. This is the confessing of sins that leads to new life. Not just confessing our sins, but understanding what motivates us, why, and how this is manipulating us.
Where is Christ? He is seated at the right hand of God. Where is God? Look, seek and you will see; that Christ is here, risen and alive, with you, in you, around you, in heaven, and on earth, in all that is. Do you have to believe to see God? Is it a case of, you only see if/when you believe hard enough? No. Some of the disciples doubted, but Jesus still came among them. (Matt 28. 17-18) It is a question of what you choose to see, what you seek. If your mind is on your own little world of self interest, self pleasure, and private politics, you will see only from the perspective of self. But if you set your mind above, if you realise that “Your life is not about you; you are about Life”* then you will see Christ seated at the right hand of God. And you will see Christ everywhere!
“Set your mind on things that are above” (Col 3.2) and you will experience your own Easter death and resurrection, over and over again, in life giving transformation.
*Richard Rour, “Just This”, Spek, 2017