One of the things I’ve appreciated most about the changed
way of life we’ve all been experiencing over recent weeks is the sharing of
articles, ideas and reflections by email.
One of my email correspondents last week posted me a piece recently published reflecting on a homily given by Pope Francis in Rome on May 15th in which he said that Christianity is…not about following rules but having a relationship with Jesus. I think those are super words and worthy of our consideration.
It has, of course, been quite a time for rules since the Spring. The media, in our unhealthy ‘blame game’ culture, are besotted with the quest to find public figures who have ‘broken’ them.
We are all having to take on board new and different ‘rules’ every month. When we return to church for ‘in person’ worship every one attending will have to accept that we’ll be doing things differently than before Lockdown.
By and large we have, and are, accepting these ‘rules’ because we know they have been issued for the benefit of society and we want to play our part in beating this virus.
When it comes to faith it is sometimes a dilemma for us to decide between keeping the letter or the spirit of the ‘law’.
Brian Mclaren, an inspiring
theological writer, makes a similar point to the Pope when he says in his book A
New Kind of Christian that we often find ourselves with a choice of being a
Christian whose faith is founded on a ‘constitution’ or a ‘relationship’. I suspect, however, that we all flit between
the two.One of my email correspondents last week posted me a piece recently published reflecting on a homily given by Pope Francis in Rome on May 15th in which he said that Christianity is…not about following rules but having a relationship with Jesus. I think those are super words and worthy of our consideration.
It has, of course, been quite a time for rules since the Spring. The media, in our unhealthy ‘blame game’ culture, are besotted with the quest to find public figures who have ‘broken’ them.
We are all having to take on board new and different ‘rules’ every month. When we return to church for ‘in person’ worship every one attending will have to accept that we’ll be doing things differently than before Lockdown.
By and large we have, and are, accepting these ‘rules’ because we know they have been issued for the benefit of society and we want to play our part in beating this virus.
When it comes to faith it is sometimes a dilemma for us to decide between keeping the letter or the spirit of the ‘law’.
Part of the message this Pentecost season is that God gifts us The Holy Spirit so that our lives might more obviously reflect the way of Jesus.
The Ministers’ Book Group to which I belong will, this month via Zoom, be discussing Bishop Richard Harries’ book Seeing God in Art and this is what he says as he reflects on a sixth -century mosaic of Moses encountering God at The Burning Bush: …in our limited human minds there is an ultimate unknownness about God, before whom there can only be reverent silence…what God does reveal, however, is the way of life he wants his people to follow…
And that way I life, I would suggest, is indeed experienced best in a ‘relationship with Jesus’.
May you, today, know God’s blessing and joy in all you do.
Ian
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