This parable is a well known story of the Good Shepherd who was prepared to lay down his life for his sheep to keep them safe.
The sheep knew the voice of their shepherd – as sheep do we know and hear the voice of Jesus and God?
This story is talking about a reckless love for his sheep – a matter of life and death. We need to listen.
The disciples walked the road to Emmaus and were lost and confused by what had happened.
Jesus joined them but they did not recognize Him. He opened the scripture, restored their hope and re-framed their understanding.
Many of us still walk through the seasons of confusion and disappointment and do also not recognise Jesus.
We need to expect Jesus to meet us along the way, in the course of everyday.
In our very troubled world how do we navigate a sense of peace?
Many are locked away in fear but Jesus tells us 3 times “Peace be with you”. Take Notice!
Jesus has a solution for doubters – not only Thomas but for all of us.
This is so all may have life and a life that takes away our fears.
If Christ is not risen, then our faith is futile. The first 2 people to see the risen Jesus were 2 women.
We are called to focus on the people in the Easter Day Story whom God engaged with, in a real and personal way.
We can find resurrection in the tough places of life, where fear and joy combine for positive responses.
Easter is a beginning and not the end!
It’s a wild, subversive and glorious scene, full of defiantly high hopes in the face of oppression and threat.
The momentum is unstoppable, and the only question now is: how is Jesus going to make it happen?
Then Sunday’s King will be plotted against, abandoned, denied, arrested, tortured, mocked and end up defeated in a borrowed tomb.
And yet, in the darkest of time, mending and joy happens!
In living out our faith, what hope is possible. Can shattered lives be restored, dignity reclaimed and self worth be rediscovered?
Can our society look with outward eyes and love with open arms to see greed replaced by grace, and fear and suspicion replaced by love and trust?
After all, it is God’s kingdom and not ours.
Where is your heart at, that God Spirit can hear your stirring towards His people and His community to recognise that the least and the lost, the overlooked and missed are part of His
plan.
Sometimes the one’s chosen are often the unexpected. That is the nature of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus asks for help from a Samaritan woman. She is symbolic of her people.
For her and Jesus to be in conversation challenges the status quo and breaks 2 taboos.
A Jew talking with a Samaritan, a man initiating conversation with a woman in Public.
The only water she knows is Drinking Water…Jesus offers “Living Water” – the Holy Spirit and eternal life.
The Lenten Walk is with the intent to find deeper meaning.
Nicodemus met Jesus in the dead of night and Jesus told him what he needed to hear.
The invitation Jesus gives, is to face our brokenness as there in lies the way to being led to God’s healing.
The path to healing often unfolds by weird and unexplainable ways.
In the text, Moses has moved out of the Empire and is in the wilderness with his people living in tents.
God provides to their worried minds about the need of sustenance, a rain of bread comes in the morning, so their bellies have food.
He assures them hoarding of food is not needed. Abundance in scripture is about how life is organised so that all have enough.
