From Caroline - [email protected], 01285 712467

Sunday readings: Deuteronomy 30.9-14; Colossians 1.1-14; Luke 10.25-37

As we continue through this green season, our readings are helping us to think about how we live out our faith in our daily lives. One of the things Jesus calls us to be is what we might call ‘everyday disciples’ – people whose lives are shaped in every part by our faith and our desire to follow him. Our faith isn’t just something for a Sunday, or something we think about when we open up the Bible – it needs to be there in every decision, every action, every conversation.

This is actually a really tough thing. When Jesus taught that he had finished the Law, and that now our relationship with God was to be worked out in a different way, he wasn’t really making it easier for us – just different. If all we had to do was follow a list of rules and regulations then everything would be very straightforward. Very difficult, maybe, even impossible, but there’d be no room to manoeuvre. Things would be Right or Wrong. Except, of course, that human beings and relationships are complicated, and Right and Wrong are rarely as simple and straightforward as that. People love to find loopholes.

But Jesus showed us a new way. Now how God is calling us to be isn’t written down in a nice clear list. It’s about a changed mind and heart. This is what Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan is all about. The Priest and the Levite in the parable were perfectly within the Law to ignore the injured man on the side of the road. But loving our neighbour is about where our heart is. We see someone hurt, we help – we don’t find excuses to look the other way. And the willingness to live like that, to have Jesus deeply in our hearts, is a big change. It can take a lifetime to grow into it. God’s love needs to sink into our bones, to shape our attitudes and our attention. And we have to be prepared to let it. It’s not easy – it’s a life-long task! But with each step along that road, each increment of change, we become more and more the people God has made us to be, with all the peace and strength that comes with that change.

This week, let’s set ourselves deliberately once again on the road, ready to be changed an inch at a time as Jesus’ love takes root in our lives.

Rev’d Caroline

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