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A day in the life of Jesus

I wonder what fills your typical day. Work? Volunteering? Catching up with friends or family? Minding grandchildren? Housework and preparing meals? I wonder also where God fits into your day. A prayer at the start and end of the day or before meals? An intentional time of reading the Scriptures and meditating on them?

In the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel we are given a glimpse of a typical day for Jesus. It’s fairly breathless activity from morning until evening as Jesus teaches, heals, confronts unclean spirits, heals some more and plans his next move. Somewhere in the busy schedule there must be time for eating and there is definitely a time for prayer and solitude. In other words there is both action and reflection, doing and connecting with God … which is a good model for our lives.

As followers of Jesus, are we called to emulate Jesus’ busy schedule of speaking and healing (and what might this look like in our context)? In this passage from Mark, we are offered both positive and negative examples of what it means to be a disciple. Negatively, we are offered the example of the male disciples who seem to want to organize and bend Jesus to their own program of ministry, which Jesus resists. Positively, we are shown the example of Peter’s mother-in-law who serves and offers hospitality. Our first response may be to dismiss this as first century gender stereotyping. But the same word for serving (diakoneo) is later used by Jesus to summarise his own mission (Mark 10:45). So let us learn to follow Jesus using the gifts and passions we’ve been given, but to do so from a position of loving and serving others.

Worship this week is at Croydon UC building but will be streamed on Zoom using a different link which is the Croydon Zoom Link. Folk at Croydon North can also gather at Croydon North church to watch the service together or you can watch from home as during lockdown.  So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am. Please click on the Zoom link in this week’s newsletter or contact Sue McKenzie for access.

From the Minister,

Digging deeper on Australia Day

For many people in Australia, 26th January is a final public holiday to be enjoyed before schools start back and life resumes its hectic activity. But for indigenous Australians it is a day to mourn – for loss of ancestors who died during the invasion by Europeans, for land stolen and culture destroyed.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus states that the truth will set us free. The truth that Jesus has in mind is the truth about the nature of God and how to live the abundant life that is possible through God. The truth about Australia Day is of a different order but still vitally important for our country. The truth that can set us free is to know what happened during and following the settlement/invasion of British colonisers – to recognize the great harm and suffering inflicted on the indigenous inhabitants and also to recognize that our current prosperity is built on the theft of land from indigenous peoples. These injustices from the past continue in the present and must be addressed if we are to truly become one people.

In the words of a Benedictine prayer, may God bless us with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that we may seek truth boldly and love deep within our hearts. And may God bless us with holy anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that we may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

From the Minister,

The shape of Jesus’ ministry

One sometimes hears the comment from a person who professes to be a Christian and follower of Jesus that they want nothing to do with the church. This may be because they think the church is corrupt and only interested in propping up the institution, or that the church is pretty much irrelevant in our day, or that they’ve had a bad experience with someone in the church previously. Whatever the reason, it seems unlikely to me that Jesus would ever encourage a person to be a solo Christian in the world.

Why do I say this? Based on the reading from Mark’s Gospel this week that the first act in Jesus’ public ministry is to call four people to follow him. These four are ordinary folk, fishermen, and have no particular qualifications or experience to make them stand out from others. As we soon discover they are also quite fallible and make mistakes and get confused. So they are quite like us! Jesus will be their mentor and teacher, but pretty soon they will be extending the ministry of Jesus based on what they have seen and heard from him. These four are soon joined by others – both women and men – so that there is a growing community of people who follow Jesus.

So it has always been, right from the beginning. This was clearly Jesus’ intention rather than being a Plan B if things did not go well. Jesus deliberately formed a new community who followed his ways and taught others to do the same. Certainly the church over the years has shown itself to be fallible, to make mistakes and to get confused – just like the people who make it up – but the shape of Jesus’ ministry is clear – follow me and be part of the movement that I am establishing.

Worship this week is at Croydon UC building but will be streamed on Zoom using the regular link. Folk at Croydon North can also gather at Croydon North church to watch the service together or you can watch from home as during lockdown.  So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am.

From the Minister

Jesus is baptised

We’ve barely finished singing Christmas carols and eating Christmas leftovers and hot cross buns are already on sale in our supermarkets. Consumerism, it seems, waits for no one. It’s a little the same with Mark’s Gospel. Within the opening few verses he’s introduced John the Baptist and his message about repentance. Then Jesus arrives on the scene, unannounced and incognito. He’s one among many people being baptised by John in the muddy waters of the Jordan River.

What marks Jesus out is what happens after he’s baptised … as God’s Spirit descends on him like a dove and a voice from heaven proclaims him to be ‘My Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’. Jesus is named and affirmed and empowered, ready to begin his ministry (after a period of testing in the wilderness). What is true for Jesus is also true for Jesus’ followers, including ourselves. We too are named and affirmed and empowered for ministry by God’s Spirit. What a blessing and what a challenge! How ready are you to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as we begin the new year?

Worship this week is at Croydon North UC building abut will be streamed on Zoom using the regular link. Folk at Croydon can also gather at Croydon church to watch the service together or you can watch from home as during lockdown.  So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am.

From the Minister