Wonderings--April 11

Holy Week invites the church to examine, one last time before Easter as we think about the motives for why we lives and serves as we do. How do we practice our faithfulness? How do we reach out to our community? What is example from our Lord are we following. . .  

My theological teacher once said: "Discipleship begins with one realizes that what one must do is to do what Jesus did." As you can imagine I believe that he is absolutely correct in this assumption. So this morning as I think about what Jesus' did, and how He did it, I wonder if we can find a small little step that we can take as well. I am not talking about His suffering, that reflection comes later, but how did Jesus care and how did He live with other? 

Certainly Jesus did the work of atonement on the cross and that can never be minimized, but again notice how his choices, which were deliberate, helped create a posture of openness and caring when the rest of society did not adopt his choice often in their lives.

As a practical example, consider this story from the same author. . .  

"On one housing estate there was a large empty field, fenced off by the city council. Local residents had often asked to be able to use it for sport and recreation, but there was always civic reasons why this as not possible--most referring to the debris on the park and fears of litigation. One morning two local parents arranged for a group of children to clear the park of cans, bottles, and other litter. They made sure the newspapers were aware. They did not tear down the fences, but they carefully dismantled all [of] the local authority's reasons for keeping the fences up. Soon, soccer matches were being played on the field. The council seemed to be able to find sums of money for equipment after all. It became obvious that attempting to sell the park to a major retail developer would be disastrous. Those two parents began with a bottle clean-up. Within weeks they had a youth movement."

This story speaks to my heart about what is possible when we take a small amount of initiative and apply it to our faith and our service. I sit here this morning, at the start of Holy Week, wondering about the small, little thing that God has invited us to do with those around us. It may not be flashy or dynamic in itself, but if we are faithful, and if we follow Jesus' example, we might find a community transformed and remade.

Blessings,

Rev. Derek