Jesus takes the disciples to the mountain top. Some doubt, some have faith. Jesus affirms both their call to mission and his continued presence with them.
Matt 28:16–20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
There are paths on a hill close to home, paths that I sometimes walk, sometimes run. However, and whenever I take time on these paths, I discover three things. First, I need to focus on my breath. Second, I must watch each step that I take. And third, old ideas re–form and re–frame themselves. I think this is called finding focus and perspective. Is this the experience to which Jesus was ‘directing’ the disciples?
Perspective is a gift. Wherever he was directing them, it was on this mountain that Jesus offered the disciples three further gifts.
The gift of tension – a creative tension between faith and doubt, like that between light and dark. The one may only exist with the other – a symbiotic relationship embedded in the paradoxes of each day. For many, this may be an irreconcilable tension. For many it is a tension onto which we hold in the midst of the mundanity and in the joy of daily life. What are the tensions that are essential to your faith and life?
The gift of vocation – Jesus offered the disciples an in–sight, a clarity of purpose complex as it may be to ‘make disciples of all nations.’ Not an easy task, but a clear one. What is your clear vocation, what is the one thing to which you alone are called?
And the gift of presence – ‘I am with you always’. Even in the times of doubt, and perhaps most especially in these times, ‘I am’ with you. Mediators and reconcilers, living a ministry of conflict transformation offer a presence, a support, a sense of community and solidarity with folks on the edge – of society, of the economy, of breakdown, even on the edge of crisis. The gift and commitment of presence offered by one to the other mirrors the gift, or commitment of our God who lives community wrapped up in the trinity.
When we find ourselves in tough places, perhaps in times of conflict or disagreement, it can be useful to reflect on these holy gifts which ground us: perspective, tension, vocation and presence.
Holy God, God in community
Trinity of peace,we praise you for the gifts
of perspective and tension,
calling and presence.
In and through the hard times,
the virus times, the times of
re–emerging from our cocoons,
bathe us in these gifts.
This we pray in the name of
One–God in community,
creator, son and spirit.
Amen.
Jesus takes the disciples to the mountain top. Some doubt, some have faith. Jesus affirms both their call to mission and his continued presence with them.
Matt 28:16–20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
There are paths on a hill close to home, paths that I sometimes walk, sometimes run. However, and whenever I take time on these paths, I discover three things. First, I need to focus on my breath. Second, I must watch each step that I take. And third, old ideas re–form and re–frame themselves. I think this is called finding focus and perspective. Is this the experience to which Jesus was ‘directing’ the disciples?
Perspective is a gift. Wherever he was directing them, it was on this mountain that Jesus offered the disciples three further gifts.
The gift of tension – a creative tension between faith and doubt, like that between light and dark. The one may only exist with the other – a symbiotic relationship embedded in the paradoxes of each day. For many, this may be an irreconcilable tension. For many it is a tension onto which we hold in the midst of the mundanity and in the joy of daily life. What are the tensions that are essential to your faith and life?
The gift of vocation – Jesus offered the disciples an in–sight, a clarity of purpose complex as it may be to ‘make disciples of all nations.’ Not an easy task, but a clear one. What is your clear vocation, what is the one thing to which you alone are called?
And the gift of presence – ‘I am with you always’. Even in the times of doubt, and perhaps most especially in these times, ‘I am’ with you. Mediators and reconcilers, living a ministry of conflict transformation offer a presence, a support, a sense of community and solidarity with folks on the edge – of society, of the economy, of breakdown, even on the edge of crisis. The gift and commitment of presence offered by one to the other mirrors the gift, or commitment of our God who lives community wrapped up in the trinity.
When we find ourselves in tough places, perhaps in times of conflict or disagreement, it can be useful to reflect on these holy gifts which ground us: perspective, tension, vocation and presence.
Holy God, God in community
Trinity of peace,we praise you for the gifts
of perspective and tension,
calling and presence.
In and through the hard times,
the virus times, the times of
re–emerging from our cocoons,
bathe us in these gifts.
This we pray in the name of
One–God in community,
creator, son and spirit.
Amen.