Topic: Discipleship

God has promised a time of resurrection and renewal, and has given us guidance for living faithfully in the meantime.

Jesus challenges us to bring our lives to where God is active, to share in building the kingdom of God.

The Lord’s Prayer is a manifesto for a whole new way of relating to God and the world.

We live in uncertain times, unsure of the future shape of the church, but Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us, not to give us certainty, but to guide and sustain us in the uncertainty.

We come to be followers of Jesus, not when we believe certain facts about him, but when we hear his voice and follow what it says (even if we don’t know where the voice comes from).

The resurrection of Jesus opens a path and calls us to follow into a life that is no longer dominated by the crucifying powers that destroy some of us and dehumanise others.

When God is doing new things, our familiar signposts are no longer helpful, and our capacity to follow is dependent on our living relationship with Jesus.

If we can hold on to the visions of glory, while resisting the urge to nail them down, we can step into a world of suffering knowing that there is light.

In God’s vision for humanity, every person and the role they play is valued and cared for. When society fails to live up to this, the Church is called to go against the flow and courageously champion and model it.

The journey of a faithful life is about risk, about uncertainty, about careful, solitary reflection, and about community and conversation.

We can’t take it for granted that Jesus will be where we want to go, for his ways often go contrary to ours and our business is to follow him.

The joyous message of Christmas demands a response from us all year round.