Daily ScriptureVery truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)Daily ReflectionWhat a very simple farming image to understand: the grain of wheat needs to be planted in order to produce more grain. (If it’s left in a sack, it stays as just one grain.) Metaphorically, the seed of grain dies; it is then transformed, grows, and produces much more than one grain of wheat. Easy to understand.Jesus used these words as he was speaking to his disciples, trying to get them to understand why he must die. Suddenly this moves from a farming story to thinking about life and death…..and life once more! This is the kernel (if you’ll forgive the pun!) of what we are thinking about in Lent; of what we are preparing ourselves for in Holy Week, before celebrating the joy or the resurrection on Easter Sunday. Will Jesus’ death bear much fruit in you? Revd David
Daily ScriptureWho is like the Lord our God, that has his throne so high, yet humbles himself to behold the things of heaven and earth? (Psalm 113.5)Daily ReflectionJust nine months to Christmas! Today is the traditional Feast of the Annunciation, marking the time when the ‘ordinary’ girl Mary became pregnant with the extraordinary child who was to be a colossal figure in world history – the man who was lifted up on a cross, looking down with the eyes of God and offering forgiveness. The idea that God is powerful is familiar enough – here the focus is on the humility of God, God side by side with criminals, God in the cemetery, God with us wherever and whatever. “He that is down needs fear no fall. He that is low, no pride. He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide.” (John Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress) David Harmsworth
Daily ScriptureHappy the one whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.Happy the one to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile. (Psalm 32 v 1-2)Daily Reflection I think that it is very liberating to know that when we are truly sorry for the things we have done wrong, God will forgive us. Modern medicine has shown that when we suppress our sins, worries, guilt or anxiety it manifests itself in physical symptoms - sometimes not showing up for months or even years later. If we have confessed, then God has forgiven. That doesn’t mean we forget what we did wrong, but we move on and refuse to allow it to define us. But how many of us continue to carry around that guilt? It is almost as if, despite God’s forgiveness, we can’t forgive ourselves - but God does not want us to feel guilty, he loves us too much for that - so let it go - and feel liberated. Lyn Hayes ALM
Daily Scripture:The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,the spirit of wisdom and understanding,the spirit of counsel and might,the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:2-3)Daily Reflection:Today, in the lectionary, the Church remembers Joseph of Nazareth. Joseph was the man whom God guided to marry Mary and raise Jesus, from birth to toddler, child to teenager, and on to being a young man. Joseph was a man of whom - in his culture and at that time - much was asked by God. He was also a man who fulfilled what was asked of him. These words, from the prophet Isaiah, were not written of Joseph; but in order to undertake what God asked of him, these spirits of the Lord must have been upon Joseph. May we too have at least some of these spirits in our lives, and be as faithful and obedient to God as Joseph was.Revd David
