Left to Right: Gareth, Joleen, Pabi & Mojalefa with Bishop Patrick Glover
Monday, October 20, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Pew Leaflet Matthew 22:1-14
It’s the Thought that Counts
A frail 80-year-old Jewish mother is celebrating her birthday and her three sons each give her a present:
Harry gives her a new house. Harvey gives her a new car and driver. And Bernie gives her a huge parrot that can recite the entire Torah.
A week later, she calls her three sons together and says:
“Harry, thanks for the nice house, but I only live in one room. Harvey, thanks for the nice car, but I can’t stand the driver.
Bernie, thanks for giving your mother something she could really enjoy. That chicken was delicious.
A frail 80-year-old Jewish mother is celebrating her birthday and her three sons each give her a present:
Harry gives her a new house. Harvey gives her a new car and driver. And Bernie gives her a huge parrot that can recite the entire Torah.
A week later, she calls her three sons together and says:
“Harry, thanks for the nice house, but I only live in one room. Harvey, thanks for the nice car, but I can’t stand the driver.
Bernie, thanks for giving your mother something she could really enjoy. That chicken was delicious.
Pew Leaflet Matthew 22:1-14
Shape the Future With God
We tend to think of weddings as celebrations of love and romance. Hearts and flowers. People finding their soulmate, the love of their lives. But in Jesus’ day – and in most of human history – that wasn’t what they were about at all. They were about inheritance. They were about creating a family so that you could have children to continue your line, to carry on your work, to keep the family name alive.
Weddings were about the future – creating a new generation. And if that’s true for ordinary weddings it is even more true for Royal weddings. They are about the future not just of an individual family but of a whole nation. English history has been shaped by anxieties and disputes over Royal marriages and the ability of monarchs to bear legitimate children to succeed them.
When the king in Jesus’ story invites his guests to the wedding of his son, he isn’t just inviting them to a celebration. He isn’t just offering them a good night out. He is inviting them to welcome the future with him, to be part of that future that this new royal couple will create. A new age for the nation. He expects that these guests he has invited will want to be there, want to be part of that new kingdom, in on it from the beginning, working with him to secure it.
We are all capable of behaving like these guests. We’re called to be part of the future – shaping it with God. The phrase the Bible uses to describe this future is “the kingdom of Heaven”. That doesn’t mean life after death. It’s not pie in the sky when you die. The kingdom of heaven is the world God calls us to create with him, here and now, where we are.
It’s a call that comes in many forms. It may be a call to care for the world, threatened by global warming and economic injustice. It may be a call to care for our communities, warped by the pressures to succeed, achieve, have more and do more. It may be a call to care for ourselves, to grow in peace, patience, wisdom, to create relationships that sustain. All these things shape the future.
We tend to think of weddings as celebrations of love and romance. Hearts and flowers. People finding their soulmate, the love of their lives. But in Jesus’ day – and in most of human history – that wasn’t what they were about at all. They were about inheritance. They were about creating a family so that you could have children to continue your line, to carry on your work, to keep the family name alive.
Weddings were about the future – creating a new generation. And if that’s true for ordinary weddings it is even more true for Royal weddings. They are about the future not just of an individual family but of a whole nation. English history has been shaped by anxieties and disputes over Royal marriages and the ability of monarchs to bear legitimate children to succeed them.
When the king in Jesus’ story invites his guests to the wedding of his son, he isn’t just inviting them to a celebration. He isn’t just offering them a good night out. He is inviting them to welcome the future with him, to be part of that future that this new royal couple will create. A new age for the nation. He expects that these guests he has invited will want to be there, want to be part of that new kingdom, in on it from the beginning, working with him to secure it.
We are all capable of behaving like these guests. We’re called to be part of the future – shaping it with God. The phrase the Bible uses to describe this future is “the kingdom of Heaven”. That doesn’t mean life after death. It’s not pie in the sky when you die. The kingdom of heaven is the world God calls us to create with him, here and now, where we are.
It’s a call that comes in many forms. It may be a call to care for the world, threatened by global warming and economic injustice. It may be a call to care for our communities, warped by the pressures to succeed, achieve, have more and do more. It may be a call to care for ourselves, to grow in peace, patience, wisdom, to create relationships that sustain. All these things shape the future.
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