Today’s reading is a wake up call! Seeking the wrong things in life will do you no good!
Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is challenging us to live a life against the grain of our society and to see things differently.
The Kingdom of God is the reverse of the earthly kingdom we live in. It seeks to level the playing field.
Peter must have felt strange when he had been a fisherman all his life and Jesus a carpenter , tells him how to catch fish!
Go out deeper!
When we feel discouraged and in need of ‘catching fish’ Jesus calls us to listen to him and he will take us into deeper waters, to form honest Christ centered relationships when people will encounter God – and Grace – in a safe place. Jesus will teach us how to ‘fish with people’.
The ‘real world’ is not kind to underdogs!
Mary was a young Jewish woman in a Roman empire and pregnant out of wedlock – an underdog!
In her lonely situation she still sings praise for the God who extends mercy.
A God who has good news to the poor and oppressed.
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.
