Scattered today
We are now well into the final week of Lent. For Jesus the time of the Cross is approaching and he is preparing his friends for what will come. In John 16 his friends declare he is already speaking in plain terms to them. This he has just promised is shortly to come. They speak with confidence now but Jesus tells them they will not feel the same and speak with such confidence when they scatter for fear of the Jewish authorities.
Jesus tells them they will run home and leave him alone to face his final hours without support. Yet it is these same people with whom he is leaving the task of preaching the gospel throughout the world. These folks, he says, will be scared and run for it when he is taken by his enemies. But the fact is that everything will depend upon them very soon. Without their input the gospel will not go out to the world. Was it crazy to entrust such as these with the gosepel that will save the whole world?
Today we play their part. We are those with whom the gospel is entrusted in 2006. Like the men who very soon would run for their lives, we weak people are given the gospel to carry to the rest of the world. God knew back at the beginning he was trusting weak people to have the strength of lions in spreading the good news to the rest of humanity. Taken as individuals we are limited in the sort of load we can support. But if we are viewed as a group our load bearing capacity is great.
The people of the Iona Community take for their symbol the wild goose. In his book, Chasing the Wild Goose, Ron Ferguson comments: "Geese in flock have seventy per cent greater range than a single goose on its own; geese in formation fly seventy five per cent faster than single geese." It is on this that I base my thoughts of load bearing being greater if we are in a group. In giving the good news to his disciples, Jesus knew that they would find their standing together more effective than if he had separately charged individual men. As a group we often find our strength and courage are much greater. We therefore face the world more certainly as a group of people committed to Jesus.
One of our greatest and uplifting experiences as Christians is something we describe as fellowship. It happens when we come together as a congregation to worship God. It happens when we gather to discuss the way forward. It happens when we work together in the greatest cause of all. Collectively we have far greater strength to do God's work. Working together, we experience fellowship which empowers us to achieve far more that our individual capabilitity multiplied by the number in the group.
At first we are a scattered community but if we come together then we can take on the greatest challenge in the name of Jesus. It is this strength that we find on Easter Day when it seems impossible to find it during Lent. Just now we are in the depths of sadness with little strength to offer. But wait until Jesus is risen and see what strength we have then. It is the resurrection of Jesus that gives us the true strength we shall need for the days ahead.
For now just watch and pray. In a few days time you will be renewed again to carry great burdens for Jesus.
Jesus tells them they will run home and leave him alone to face his final hours without support. Yet it is these same people with whom he is leaving the task of preaching the gospel throughout the world. These folks, he says, will be scared and run for it when he is taken by his enemies. But the fact is that everything will depend upon them very soon. Without their input the gospel will not go out to the world. Was it crazy to entrust such as these with the gosepel that will save the whole world?
Today we play their part. We are those with whom the gospel is entrusted in 2006. Like the men who very soon would run for their lives, we weak people are given the gospel to carry to the rest of the world. God knew back at the beginning he was trusting weak people to have the strength of lions in spreading the good news to the rest of humanity. Taken as individuals we are limited in the sort of load we can support. But if we are viewed as a group our load bearing capacity is great.
The people of the Iona Community take for their symbol the wild goose. In his book, Chasing the Wild Goose, Ron Ferguson comments: "Geese in flock have seventy per cent greater range than a single goose on its own; geese in formation fly seventy five per cent faster than single geese." It is on this that I base my thoughts of load bearing being greater if we are in a group. In giving the good news to his disciples, Jesus knew that they would find their standing together more effective than if he had separately charged individual men. As a group we often find our strength and courage are much greater. We therefore face the world more certainly as a group of people committed to Jesus.
One of our greatest and uplifting experiences as Christians is something we describe as fellowship. It happens when we come together as a congregation to worship God. It happens when we gather to discuss the way forward. It happens when we work together in the greatest cause of all. Collectively we have far greater strength to do God's work. Working together, we experience fellowship which empowers us to achieve far more that our individual capabilitity multiplied by the number in the group.
At first we are a scattered community but if we come together then we can take on the greatest challenge in the name of Jesus. It is this strength that we find on Easter Day when it seems impossible to find it during Lent. Just now we are in the depths of sadness with little strength to offer. But wait until Jesus is risen and see what strength we have then. It is the resurrection of Jesus that gives us the true strength we shall need for the days ahead.
For now just watch and pray. In a few days time you will be renewed again to carry great burdens for Jesus.
posted by Keith Alexander at Wednesday, April 12, 2006
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