Author: Mark Okor

I grew up reading this story. I have fond and vivid memories of Sunday school and the visual aids used by my teacher to illustrate the manna [bread] coming from heaven to feed the people of Israel. This story of course is much more than bread coming from heaven; is about our inability to LISTEN what the Spirit of God is saying and SEE where is trying to lead us.

Israel’s journey through the wilderness was mean to be a transformative process to help them to learn to listen to God and see the unfolding mystery life in all its wonderful shades of colours!

So what was the miracle? There was a crowd of people trying to get to Jesus. He’d wanted a bit of down time with his closest followers, but that wasn’t to be – not that day. And they were hungry. What was he to do? He’d already rejected the idea of turning stones into bread – that kind of something from nothing miracle-that wasn’t his way – but they were hungry. Then the boy come with his picnic lunch and everything became possible. Not something from nothing but taking what was offered and changing a hungry crowd into a community of people who knew what it was to have enough. Could that approach work now? A chance of changing the world? Worth a try? ( John ch 6:1-21)

This week’s account from Mark’s gospel (Mark 5:21-43) has at least 2 stories sandwiched together. Two people – Jairus a synagogue ruler and an unnamed woman prepared to take the risks of approaching Jesus. Two women- a daughter on the brink of adulthood and a woman who’s been struggling with health, finance and being on the edge of society whose lives were turned upside down- because, despite all the obstacles, all the reasons why they might have kept away – they met with Jesus.

We can do that too. That’s what it means to live the Good News that God reveals to us in Jesus Christ. Church is not about keeping things safe, but about taking the risks that the things that we do and the words that we say might change people’s lives, maybe even ours. Can we really do that? I believe we can – if we are ready to trust God’s promises.

Jesus painted pictures about the kingdom of God. The truth was too subversive to put in plain speech. If the people understood, then they knew what to do. It’s the same for us. Mark chapter 4 has parables about plants growing. What do they have in common? The seed has to be sown. If it’s not, then nothing will happen. If it is, then what may follow could be beyond our wildest dreams. Are we prepared to trust that what God has for us is more than we can know? Or will we believe that we are limited by our political and economic systems?

Meeting with God can change your whole perspective. That’s what Isaiah found ( Isaiah 6:1-8). He knew that all wasn’t well with the world that he knew. There was injustice, cheating, lack of compassion – and that in the pretty small world that he knew. When he went into the temple to meet with God he came out knowing that he had to speak into that situation and it wasn’t going to be easy.

Nicodemus was a religious leader, but meeting with Jesus changed his whole world, from the narrow view that he held, to the openness and inclusion that is God who loved the world so much that he sent his Son so that we could know that love. ( John 3:16.17).

If you are ready to take the risk of meeting with God, Creator, Son and Spirit, it’s about to get a whole lot bigger…

Does God need an invitation? That’s not how it was on that Pentecost day. The believers were together, and were blown away ( not quite literally) by what they experienced. So were the people they met when they went out onto the streets. It was Peter who preached the sermon, but the tongues of fire rested on every one of them. God doesn’t need an invitation to come into the world, that’s already happened. But the followers of Jesus do need to ready to respond when God calls us and if we’re ready to walk with God, wherever that might be, who knows what might happen. John’s Gospel tells us that the Spirit of God will challenge pretty much every preconceived idea that we, or others, might have about life, the universe and everything. (John 16: 8ff) Are we ready for that? Is the world?

Sometimes we feel that waiting times are wasted times.  Yesterday at Cornerstone Archdeacon Karen Gorham reminded us that the first followers of Jesus used the time between Jesus leaving them at the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to meet together, to reflect and remember and the pray.  They didn’t plan because...

There were two very famous texts in the readings for Sunday, 3 May 2015: ‘God is love’ (1 John 4 : 8) and ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower’ (John 15 : 1). God’s love is shown by the gift of God’s own life flowing through Jesus the true vine into us, but only if we choose to be and to stay connected, and to accept all that goes with that decision. Often we think that love is a feeling, an overpowering emotion, but God’s love is shown by actions. Love means deciding to do what is good for another person before what seems best for myself. This is not so rare as it seems. Lots of people have chosen to give to the appeal for Nepal rather than spend their cash another way, and that is love, connecting people to each other and to God, who is always closer than we think. (Marian Ballance)

A report for the Mission and Social Responsibility Committee of the Church of Christ the Cornerstone Glynne Gordon-Carter January 2014 History In preparing this paper it would be remiss of me not to refer to the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade which was carried out from 1518–1865. Western European nations were actively involved in this...