Topic: Identity

We shall be ourselves when we are able to surrender ourselves to Christ and say ‘not my will, but yours’.

Lent is a time to walk knowingly into the wilderness, to face the Accuser and the wild beasts that emerge when we live out our identity as God’s children.

We are a ragtag bunch, but in witnessing to God’s mercy and love, we become the people of God together.

Our identity as a community of Jesus’s followers is primarily expressed in love, gratitude and hospitality, not in compliance with a negative code of conduct.

It is human nature to think that our ways are God’s ways, and so to shun those whose ways seem alien or disgusting to us, but Jesus calls us to recognise God at work in others, however different.

As creatures made in the image of God, imitation of God is the pathway to fullness of life.

The self-emptying of Jesus reveals both his divinity and the pathway to our full humanity.

Pray for all people and let God do the judging. The world may be an evil place but you are God’s children and evil has been overcome.

Our allegiance to Christ and our citizenship of his Realm take priority over those to our local culture, but that doesn’t rule out a continuing love of our homeland and tribe.

God comes to us, in seemingly insignificant places and borne by easily overlooked people.

But the call is to be “Fair Dinkum” with each other, to be open and trust who we are to this community.

The risen Christ and his word are often revealed in the words and actions of a stranger. Sometimes we are called to welcome and heed the stranger; and sometimes we are called to be the faithful stranger to others.