One of our core values as a church is encounter. We believe in a God who is relational, who desires to meet with us and who comes close to us, and that when we meet him it changes us. We see time and time again through scripture that God interacts this way with His people. God reveals himself, and it calls out a response from us. In 2 Corinthians 3, we read about the freedom and identity we have because of the work of Jesus. This new life in Jesus means that we can come before God with expectation that we will meet with Him and be changed in his presence. Every, single, time.
Corporate worship has been part of the identity of the gathered people of God since the Exodus from Egypt. There is something distinctive and of eternal significance about the people of God singing the praises of God in the presence of God (Redman). Ephesians 5 offers us just one example of where we are given clear instruction around the importance of corporate worship and the role it plays in the life of the church. Worship is the call on the people of God whenever we gather together. It draws us together, it connects us at heart level to the presence of God and it shifts our perspective as we reflect on and thank God for the work He has done.
The Spirit doesn’t just equip, the Spirit unites us! Unity is tough, it’s hard to do, it’s messy and sometimes we get it wrong but it’s an important call to the Church at large and it’s a beautiful thing to participate in. How can we be unified both within our own church and also with other churches surrounding us? How can we celebrate and honour fellow believers? How does the Spirit help us to do that?
Through the Spirit, we are equipped! The Holy Spirit pours himself into the church in abundant ways, ‘for the common good’ and we get to work together as Spirit-filled believers. How has Holy Spirit equipped you, do you know or do you believe he has? How has Holy Spirit equipped Central? How can we continue to be open to the equipping and gifting of the Spirit among us?
Why is the Ascension of Jesus important? The disciples didn’t understand it, they are still in fact asking Jesus about when he will restore Israel even at this point! And although it’s a familiar part of our own canon, perhaps we don’t understand the significance of it either. But Jesus himself tells us, he had to go, he had to go because if he didn’t the Spirit couldn’t come and his desire for us is to be filled with the Spirit! What does this final earthly encounter with Jesus tell us and how can we live as those filled with the Spirit, expectant that Jesus who left, will return joyously once more?
We know that the story of Jesus is one of redemption and we see that perhaps most clearly in this encounter with Peter. Peter had stuffed up, denied Jesus, walked away and to top it all off he didn’t think there was any way he could make amends, so he went back to the thing he knew best, his old life as a fisherman. But that morning on the shore was one like no other, not only did he and the other disciples experience a miracle catch of fish but more importantly Jesus took time with Peter to speak with him and reverse those three points of denial. Jesus comes to us in our broken and messed up places and he holds out redemption to us, he has already proved that he will go great lengths for us, why so often do we live as if that isn’t true now? Where in our lives do we need to experience the redemption of Jesus?
What do we do with our doubt? How do we navigate the fearful waters of faith, belief and understanding changing? Is there room in our faith for our doubt? Thomas is often landed with the title ‘Doubting Thomas’ and is sometimes given a bad rap for that, yet his experience is one we will probably all have. What we see in this passage is how Jesus interacts with Thomas in the midst of his doubt; he doesn’t dismiss him or condemn him, he comes to him. How can we allow Jesus to come to us in our places of doubt?
The first apostle is not who is expected at all – Mary, a woman, a so-called ‘unreliable’ witness is charged by Jesus to go and tell the news that he is risen! Their first encounter with each other is a beautiful moment, in coming to the tomb she did not in any way expect to go away joyful and yet an encounter with Jesus changes all of that. The risen Jesus transforms everything and from this encounter and from the responsibility given to Mary we see how much things are turned on their head when Jesus is involved – the least likely, the least expected, suddenly not so ‘least’ anymore. Are there places in our lives that we do not expect joy from? How can we resurrect expectation and hope in Jesus again in those places? Do we feel like we’re the least likely ones, the unexpected, the unwanted, the halted one, how can Jesus resurrect hope and permission for us? Or perhaps we need to be the ones who believe and listen to the unexpected messengers and who make space for those who are the ‘least likely’ to flourish.
The day of resurrection dawns with the women making their way to tomb to care for the body of their beloved Jesus. We have accounts of this moment in the story in all four gospels and we get different details from each. Here in Mark’s gospel we see the women discovering the empty tomb, they hear from an angel that he has risen, they are charged with telling the others what has happened and they leave feeling amazed and terrified. This is unequivocally a day of celebration, the day that we rejoice together that Jesus has risen from the dead and he is alive today! As we contemplate Jesus resurrection once more we remember the things that we are called to as his followers – to believe for the things that Jesus has told us he’d do and to tell others of the things we know about him. As we journey on out of Lent, what new things have we learned about our Saviour and how are we going to live with the light of his resurrection guiding and illuminating our way?
As Christians, many of us are almost too familiar with the story of Jesus’ death, Tom Wright says we need to find a way to make it strange to us again so that we can hear it once more as if it were new. The journey has reached its peak, we’ve made it to Jerusalem, just outside the walls, to the hill on which Jesus was mocked, beaten and crucified. There is so much for us to see here. From the darkness covering the land, to the anguished cry of Jesus, from the mocking voices of the crowd, to the final breath, from the tearing of the curtain, to the centurions testimony, to the women who stayed. Sunday is coming, but for now it is Friday and we sit in the shadow of the cross, beholding our Saviour who bore the weight of our sin, who gave himself freely for us. Our journey is not over, in many ways it’s just beginning, but this moment at Good Friday is a sobering and sombre moment of pause and reflection.