#16 Take Alternate Route.

Matthew 7:13-14 

7:13. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. 14. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Well there is a challenge if ever I saw one and I seem to be destined for a life of challenges. This passage resonates loudly for me.

It took me a few years of living and asking the hard question after a particular life experience to ask, ‘so where to now, what is it you want to do and make of your life?’ It was then I decided at the ripe age of thirty something, to go through, what seemed like a ‘narrow gate’ to educate myself or maybe that was re-educate myself, go back to TAFE and if that was successful next stage would be enrol in University.

TAFE taught me well it expanded my skills and knowledge and gave me the confidence to believe in myself that I was skilled/smart enough to attempt Uni so I did that and several years of part-time study, working full time and taking care of my Mum that I completed my degree. Woohoo! I was the first female in my immediate family to achieve that.  I have several smart nieces but two in particular have continued with studies during and since, and one has the title of Doctor.  While I am extremely proud of all of them and thankful for what they have achieved my own journey felt like I had emerged out of the darkness into a whole new world!

‘Gates of Hell’ – Rodin

Stage three I was set, I had the courage to head overseas with my degree tucked under my arm, first to Paris France with great ambition to work there as an Accountant , and subsequently the reality that my limited French language skills meant I was better placed in London. I spent  8 years creating a new life and working in one of the Worlds greatest City’s and experiencing all the challenges of being a foreigner living in a different part of the world all because I had the courage to walk through what seemed like a ‘narrow gate’ many years before and to remain focussed. I could not have imagined what impact that journey would have made on my life then, but what I know now is not to be afraid to walk through the ‘narrow gate’ to keep focussed on what to some might be a ‘narrow path’. To seek out what is the right path because I believe it does open up to a more fabulous world.

Practice

Think about what the ‘narrow gate’ and ‘narrow path’ is for you and imagine what would happen if you walked that way?

So now I am in an age bracket beginning with six, still studying, still walking through narrow gates, along narrow paths!

Peace,

Carol Owen

#15 – Do unto others

Matthew 7:12 

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.’

When I was in primary school I remember the advertisement that regularly appeared on television from a Christian organisation, it coined this part of Matthew and seemed to make a pretty obvious statement, even though at the time I was not a Christian nor belonged to a church.

I wonder today are we doing unto others as we would do unto ourselves? It seems as though this ‘check’ has been lost mostly in our social consciences as we are still unable to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry and help the poor.

I am aware that as we journey through lent our dear friend Tri Nguyen is walking to Canberra with his boat (& Posse) in tow. His radical statement made to SBS just last week strikes me, ‘being able to say thank you in 30 years time rather than having to say to sorry.’

If only we could really grasp what Jesus is teaching here, treating others as you would want to be treated, offering sanctuary to the refugee, shelter to the stranger, a simple meal to the hungry.

Our call during the Lenten period is not only about self-reflection but also how we conduct ourselves in other relationships we hold. These relationships place us in the world, they shape us and they effect us. How are we being perceived? As followers of Jesus how do people describe us? Are our relationships reflecting what we want to receive back?

Practice

A bit of self-reflection is the order today; in this we look not only inward but also outwards as the self-reflection is based in our call to be in community with others. Have a look around, how are the relationships? Do they need some work? Some affirmation?

A Prayer for Tri today would be good, as he seeks to turn the poltical message on its head, true in the style of Jesus…

Peace,

Luke Bowen

14. Value the pearls

Matthew 7:6

 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Much of the past few weeks has had me planning and engaging our upcoming Neighbour Day garden party at Moreland Baps. National annual celebrations of community where we get together to simply say g’day to those whom are our neighbours.

You may ask what has this got to do with what is going on in Matthew today? I think community is sacred, not just any old group put together but true community. The pearls we possess are the integrity, honesty and value that we bring and offer in our community. We accept one another, the loud annoying one and the quiet apparently unengaged one and also the every now and then one.

Our Moreland community is sacred, it may not appear so obviously on the surface, but the reality is that we each seek to be life in community via the wider life that we live.

Our pearls that each of us offer in community are not to be wasted and Matthew encourages us today to think about our own pearls, that is, our own selves and to whom and to what we offer them.

Offering ourselves to community is never easy, a few months ago I had a Sunday off and thought about going to another church for the morning, it was hard and anxiety rising, and I am supposed to be a pastor, church is my bag!

But Jesus invites us into genuine community, not superficial, dishonoring, disarming community, but a community where we can be held in our fragility and upheld in our gifts and abilities. The pearls that make me me are offered and received in a place of love and grace and not to a bunch of pigs that seek to disintegrate me.

Neighbour day is a day where we celebrate our pearls, we are invited to bring our pearls and not be passive in this sacred gathering but rather bring our pearls to the altar where they are marveled and celebrated as all belonging to the body of Christ.

Practice

What’s your pearl? Where do you cast your pearls? Is community a sacred place for you or a place of consumption?

Have a think today what it would mean to offer your pearls in your community where ever that may be. Maybe you already offer your pearls, how are they received? Are they before the pigs? Or are they celebrated, enjoyed and marveled as true beauty from God?

Worth a thought don’t you think?

Peace,

Luke Bowen

#13 Don’t Judge

Matthew 7:1-3 

 

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

If you just start high school its a big experience. there are alot of people all around you, you feel like that you are the smallest person yet you’re so full of enthusiasm that you find high school very overwhelming.

Well since you just came back from grade six trying to be a role model to little kids, then all of a sudden your the smallest in the school.

If you judge people in high school you might get a couple of freinds but a ton of enemies. It’s not good to judge people for all reasons, no matter what race, religion, skin colour.

– Ewen Curnow

#12 Don’t worry 6: 25-34, (10:19)

Matthew 6: 25-34

 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

– NRSV