Hugh Mackay notes that the level of social connection in society is declining.
People are happier when they have meaning and purpose and also deep and significant connections.
The Church is a place that still provides this, where our differences and different gifts are valued, and community and connection is enabled through Christ’s living presence and mission.
In John’s Gospel Jesus’ public ministry begins at a wedding…where he turns water into wine.
Is wine a metaphor for grace…abundant and wondrously good? Jesus was after all, full of grace.
Signs point to God’s abundant provision, all that we need, more than we need, GRACE.
In Baptism we are identified as beloved of God, and all other labels melt away.
“We human beings get so wrapped up with our own fears and distractions, of labelling ourselves and one another, that we often forget this sobering truth: we too are beloved by God.”
Our faith is affected by our perspective – how we see and interpret things.
Likewise our perspective is affected by our faith – what we are open to seeing and how we make sense of it.
Jesus is increasing in wisdom by asking and listening and even amazes his elders!
It is frustrating when we have to call on one much younger, to teach us about computers!
However, there are also times when the wisdom and experience of having lived a bit of life is both important and valued.
The acronym for TEAM: ” Together Everyone Achieves More”, opens us to possibilities and to actively encouraging each other.
Being women, Mary and Elizabeth would have not been more than ‘homemakers’ in the culture of that day.
Mary sang a song which presented a new set of values – she was referring to what Jesus would do in His later Ministry.
In 2024 out culture still thinks of Christmas as being a story about a baby – not about Jesus, who God is and who you and I are invited to be – this is what Mary sang about.
In Biblical times it was common for water to be used for cleansing (not just washing).
John did it differently when he immersed people, baptising in Jesus’s name.
Inviting them to be partners for God and into the warmth of God’s goodness and then taking goodness into the world, for all to partake of.
John was God’s bulldozer! He prepared a road in the wilderness.
God chooses unlikely people in unlikely places to bring about his purposes.
‘Deserts’ for many people are very different places – places with guilt, disappointment, loss.
The way out of deserts is repentance then forgiveness, to bring about Grace and Peace.
Jesus came into the world as the ‘upside down’ king – his kingdom is not of this world.
To commit to following Jesus is not to go along the pathway of power, authority or prestige.
Rather to relate with humility, through compassion, holding fast to a righteous way of living. The turmoil of the heavens was a sign that a new creation was in the making.
In Christ’s birth God proclaimed that the reality of peace had dawned on earth.
The proclamation of peace is costly…even Jesus and his parents became political refugees in Egypt.
In the struggle for liberation all must be connected and so we need each other.
Our actions will follow from where our heart leads us to look and see, and what we think about.
What we focus on and what we fill our time and our minds with has a direct effect on what our
instant responses to people and situations will be.
