12 March 2023
Readings
Exodus 17:1-7
Writing of this Exodus reading Maurice Andrew suggests that:
Creation does not of itself liberate an oppressed people, but a liberated people must also be able to live from creation, as we see when, after only three days in the wilderness, they find no water. After liberation, people become migratory and their wandering is characterised, not by the will to go forward for life, but by the desire to return to security. In the difficult period between liberation and the gaining of land, which the wilderness wandering represents, the limitations of the people are witheringly exposed. [1] We could call this episode ‘the whinging in the wilderness’ and there is a lot of it about.
John 4: 5-42
We often get long readings from John’s Gospel because, in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes long complicated theological speeches and the teaching is in those speeches rather than in the description of events. In this episode we get the vision of the inclusive Christ who will accept a drink from a woman who is of a race considered unclean. Jesus also teaches this woman and sends her out on mission and she in turn brings people to Christ.
Sermon
Through the magic of Facebook, I recently saw a picture of the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, with the Ministry of Education interns who were finishing their 12 week paid internship. What initially stuck me about the group of smiling young people about to return to their studies was that we are obviously a nation of immigrants. If you took a DNA swab from everybody in the group and sent it off to Ancestry Dot Com the results would pretty much cover the globe. Continue reading Liberating Christ Into our world
