26th April.
As we listened to the reading from John 10, I misheard what was being said. I thought it was “the hard man” – not “the hired man” who sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep. Why would a “hard man” run away? Surely he would be tough enough to send the wolf packing! Yet he is hard in a different sense.
Jesus is often seen as the “soft man” – meek and mild. Yet he was the one who went all the way for the sheep – laying down his life to die for us; rising from the dead and returning to find us – yet again.
This is how Fred Bruner translates the passage in his commentary on John’s gospel: “The hired hand who is not the shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep in the lurch, and runs for his life.” But love does not leave others in the lurch. We love because God first loved us; he showed us what love is all about.
Category Archives: This Week’s Learning
Love lavished
Sunday 19th April
God’s love is a great love, it is unconditional, it is incomparable, it is an unending love. He loves you passionately, he loves you more than you can imagine, he loves you more than you can understand and he loves you more than anyone can love you in this entire world and more than you can love yourself; it is a love not based on your performance, your talent, your success but on who God is – and God IS love…
According to 1 John 3:1-3 God has lavished his love on us by becoming our Father. There were so many great old testament saints who walked so closely with God but none of them get to call God ‘our Father’ and it’s a New Testament blessing that we begin to call God ‘our Father’ or even Daddy… God can be the best perfect Father/Dad that you have ever longed for. Would you run to his wide open arms crying out Daddy?
Hallmark of Christ
Sunday 12th April.
If you examine a piece of fine silver or gold you will find on it somewhere some marks placed there by the jeweler or manufacturer. Hallmarks are engraved into every item for two reasons, the first to show that the item is actually what it appears to be – that it is in fact an item made of pure silver or Gold. The second thing a Hallmark does is tell you where the product comes from. A Hallmark is a guarantee of quality and purity.
The gospel reading was about the Apostle Thomas DOUBTING THOMAS as he has come to be known. Thomas had not been with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them after the resurrection, and when they told him about it his first reaction was a normal one – he did not believe it. Thomas was looking for a hallmark – and ultimately he found it in the loving personal relationship Jesus offered him, rather than in the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side, which were also there.
Today, people still look for hallmarks before they will believe. But rather than the marks of Christ’s love being shown in his physical body, they are shown in us, in the people of his church, which is everywhere called the Body of Christ. That we the church bear the Hallmark of Christ Jesus.
Quite simply that Hallmark is a life that resembles his, a life of light, and of truth, and of faith. But the most notable part of the hallmark of Christ that we bear when we are truly in him and he in us – is our love for each other. When we have Christ in us, his Hallmark means we are made by him and his purity lives in us.
Don’t let anything hold you back from the Hallmark of Christ.
The Peace of Christ
Sunday April 5th
Christ is risen! It is a healing wonder to contemplate that all the complex layers of your life, which neither you nor anyone else can understand, are familiar territory to the risen Jesus who said to his terrified disciples ‘Peace be with you.’
Not everybody has this peace. It is a gift from God. We receive it. Or we walk away from it. Or better to say: we receive him. Or walk away from him.
He is our peace. If you have the risen, living Christ as your Savior, and Lord, and Treasure, and Friend, you have the peace that he gives — the peace that he is.
Good Friday
Friday 3rd April