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Praying Jesus style

If we go looking in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, we find plenty of references to Jesus praying … for sick people, for enemies, for the people of Jerusalem, when seeking God’s guidance. Jesus prayed a lot!

Yet the way that Jesus prayed was apparently quite distinct from how other Jewish people of his era prayed, which the disciples noticed. So one day they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray in a similar way. Jesus’ response is what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. This short prayer provides a pattern for our praying – starting and ending with a focus on God and God’s character, simple, honest about ourselves, focusing on genuine needs, and learning to see the world and other people through God’s eyes. And doing all this in community (the language is all plural … ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’).

Jesus goes on to speak of the need to persevere in prayer and that God gives us good things in response to prayer. But we know that praying is not easy and often prayers seem to go unanswered. At such times, perhaps we are part of the answer, or prayer is designed to change our perspective. However we view prayer, it seems that it was important for Jesus and it was assumed that his followers would follow his example.

From the Minister

Learning to sit at Jesus’ feet

The story from Luke’s Gospel about Martha and Mary is actually quite radical and revolutionary, although it hasn’t always been interpreted that way. Martha is sometimes viewed as the anxious and fussy host, complaining that she has too much to do, but restricted to her rightful place in the kitchen. She is in fact fulfilling the important role of welcoming others to her home and providing hospitality. It may be a traditional role for women in her culture, but she is doing it well.

Mary by contrast is sometimes viewed as passively sitting at Jesus’ feet, looking down, and remaining demure and unobtrusive. In reality, Mary had crossed a significant boundary in sitting with the other male disciples. Jesus affirms her right to be there and more, the desirability of her being there, listening and learning about discipleship.

In its early years, Christianity was known as ‘The Way’ with Christians following the way of Jesus. In order to follow this way, all of us need to regard ourselves as disciples and choose to sit and learn the way from Jesus. What practices do you have in your life that facilitate your growth as a disciple?

From the Minister,

Croydon North Community Meals

Despite upgrades to the kitchen being undertaken currently, with no oven, no cook top, no hot water (and for a short while, no water), the Gifford Community Meals volunteers were still able to provide a hearty meal for last weeks diners. Sausages, rissoles, mashed potatoes and veggies, followed by swiss roll, custard and mixed berries. We are looking forward to cooking next week’s meal on our new, bigger oven and cook top. Yeah!!!!

Croydon North Community Meals, What's on

God is doing a new thing

The theme for this year’s Synod meeting is taken from Isaiah 43:19 that reads:

I am about to do a new thing;
 now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
 I will make a way in the wilderness
 and rivers in the desert.

Heavy summer rains leave the desert across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands teeming with life.

The message to the Israelite exiles living in Babylon was not to give up hope, for God still loved them and had not abandoned them. As is so often the case in the prophetic Scriptures, the task of the prophet was to change the conversation and use poetic imagination to paint a different story, one of new hope and new life for the nation.

What are the stories that we tell each other? Do we share our worries about the future of our congregation or even of the Uniting Church? Or do we look through the eyes of faith and imagine a vigorous and flourishing congregation that is a signpost to the world of an alternative way to live? God is the one who brings life, even in the wilderness, like a desert that blooms after rain.

From the Minister,