Glebe Road Uniting Church - Booval, Ipswich.

Brief Encounters

Admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:25:30 +0000

Brief Encounters Along The Way
Read: Acts 8: 26 – 40
Today we give attention to the brief encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip was prompted to go on the road to Gaza and it was in this unlikely place that he was led to approach the Ethiopian’s carriage. Philip explained the passage that the Ethiopian was reading and preached the good news of Jesus to him. At his own suggestion, the Ethiopian was baptized, and left rejoicing.
He would have been so grateful, but wouldn’t have had a chance to thank Philip. If only he had known about ‘uencounter.me’, a recent web startup focused on the creation of virtual pin maps, and which considers the expression of gratitude a major element of its platform. ‘Every one of us has someone from our past who deserves our gratitude for something that we were only able to appreciate in retrospect’, the website says. How does it work? Users post messages of appreciation called ‘encountergrams’ to people who provided a random act of kindness, were inspirational, or impacted life in a positive way, in an encounter along the way.
Brief encounters happen every day. Some are random, some might be prompted as Philip’s was with the Ethiopian. Some are recorded for our pleasure, like when Gandhi met Charlie Chaplin in the East End of London, and when Elvis jammed with the Beatles.
That’s all interesting, but all this has raised a question in my mind. How much attention do we pay to the times when we are led down unusual roads by the spirit’s prompting to draw alongside people? Often, when we do take that opportunity, we find people seeking and asking questions as the Ethiopian did. How much do we take the opportunity to reach out to people on the margins, in industry and in the shopping mall, amongst refugees and Asylum seekers, or those we encounter briefly in our daily lives?
Brief encounters like this provide opportunities every day to ‘be church’ to brothers and sisters on the margins, and to those known and not known to us.
Grace and Peace
JR

Mother’s Day

Admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:05:49 +0000

Sunday Night Baptism Series

Admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:26:03 +0000

The Book Club

Admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:44:52 +0000

I have got the first out-and-out orthodox Methodist feeling of being
backslid I ever had in my life. And it was not going to the theatres
and tea parties that brought it on. It was going to church every
Sunday and hearing some preacher explain away the Divinity of Jesus, or
reduce His miracles to scientific formulas. I do not wonder that so
many men and women go wrong in New York.
They are orphans, deprived of their Heavenly Father by the very preachers themselves.

the final paragraph .. The Circuit Rider’s Wife. by Corra Harris

Not Available At Present

Admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:18:29 +0000

Dr Roulston’s weekly reflection is available this week, as every week, in the weekly newsletter. The newsletter is available either at the church door each Sunday, or, delivered by email each Friday. To subscribe to the emailed version, please email … Continue reading →

Jesus Confronts US Directly

Admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:23:08 +0000

Read: John 2: 13 – 22 J

Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves, and loan sharks there in full strength. ‘Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall’ he shouted in anger, as he drove them from the temple.

The story is very familiar to us. Jesus was reminding them that the purpose of the temple isn’t for the exchange of goods; it is for the worship of God.

Apart from the fact that this passage seems out of place – it is usually a Holy Week passage – there are many angles for reflection on this story. I’ll suggest two that you might want to reflect over this week.

First, if you were to compare your spiritual life to the rooms of your house, which room do you think Jesus might want to clean up? For me, while I am a fairly organized person, if Jesus were to turn up in my study at home, he’d see in a flash that I thrive on chaos. So what about you? Dining room – appetites, desires; workshop – where your skills, gifts, labels are; what about your lounge room where most of your relationships are lived out; and then there’s your walk-in wardrobe where all your hang-ups are. This makes for interesting reflection, doesn’t it!

Second, do you have a place where you live that helps you worship God? Jesus’ zeal for his Father’s house ‘consumed him’ [v.17, and see also Ps 69:9]. The temple was for the worship of God. So I wonder, perhaps you have a table or somewhere where you display the family Bible. Or maybe you have a chair near a picture that reminds you of God. Possibly you have a worship centre where you have placed a cross, or perhaps your garden is where you find God best. I recall visiting friends once who had a two-person pew stand where they separately or together knelt to read the Bible and pray. If you don’t have a particular place at home that reminds you to stop and worship God, perhaps decide on a place that helps you do that.

This story of Jesus clearing out the temple is quite shocking really. Clearly Jesus was not attacking mafia hit men in a casino, he was angry with the religious folk who had come to church, but neglected to worship. Wow, that opens up a whole other Reflection!

Grace and Peace

Jesus – Our Teacher

Admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:07:28 +0000

‘Lent is probably the easiest thing you could ever give up for Lent because it means absolutely nothing changes’. I read these words today and thought to myself ‘smart alec’ and was about to toss the article when my eye caught a bit more. The author went on to tell his readers that if they were to accidentally actually give something up for Lent, just to regard it as a mistake. ‘After all’, he went on, ‘that’s what Lent is all about – making mistakes and then feeling guilty about it for a very long time.’
Tongue-in-cheek? Of course, but a segue into what Lent is really all about.
Last Sunday we said each Sunday leading up to Easter is a ‘little Easter’ and therefore is not counted in the 40 days of Lent. We also said the Church recognizes Lent as a time to intentionally bring ourselves closer to God – each week a new and deeper call for a closer walk with God.
We also set the theme ‘From Water to Wilderness to Witness’ (from Jesus’ baptism to his time in the desert to his declaration of the nearness of God’s kingdom), and we were taken into the wilderness with Jesus. We stayed a while, and came away knowing that just as Jesus was driven by the Spirit into that wilderness, and just as he went from there to Galilee to proclaim the Good News that God’s kingdom was near, so we are sent by his Word to follow him and be his body in the wilderness places of our daily lives.
Today is all about following him. Jesus spells out for us his expectations of any who follow him and wish to be his disciples. Earlier, when his disciples told him that people were looking for him because they wanted him to do some more miracles and to heal them, Jesus replied, ‘let us go somewhere else….so I can preach there also. That is why I have come’ (Mark 1:38). Jesus knew he had come fundamentally to lay down his life for us, and for that to be understood, he had to teach. That is exactly what He is doing with us at Glebe Road today – teaching us what it meant for him, and what he expects of us.
Grace and Peace JR??

Footy Tipping Comp starts

Admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:37:06 +0000

Giving Up And Adding Life

Admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:44:27 +0000

I was driving from Kenmore to Glebe Road on Wednesday, listening a to ABC Classic FM Breakfast with Emma Ayres. At one point Emma said, ‘ Folks, it’s Ash Wednesday today, the first day of Lent. I’m making up my mind at the moment what I can give up for the next 40 days – chocolate or cheese? Yes, I’ll give up cheese; I like chocolate too much! So what are you giving up? Text me, I’d love to know.’
I thought about that. Often Lent is seen as a ‘giving up’ time. That’s part of it, but we need also to plan ways that Lent can be an ‘adding life’ time. I suppose to ‘add to’ we might need to ‘give up’. Some of us might give up an hour of TV and add an hour of Bible Study. A family might decide together what each person will do to add life during Lent and what each family member will give up in order to do so. As each week passes, there could be ‘progress reports’ on how everyone is doing.
In some countries – Africa for instance – these arrangements are called ‘embrace’ and ‘relinquish’ lists. One I looked at included relinquishing excuses to go the doctor, and embracing the need to have a colonoscopy! So while Lent is a season when we give something up, as committed disciples let us also ‘add life’ by putting something positive in place. For example, moving out of our comfort zones (that is, giving something up) so we can reach out and touch a person in need (that is, add life for someone).
The Colours and Symbols of Lent
I was watching the news when I got home on Wednesday, and saw the release of the 185 butterflies, each representing one victim of the Christchurch earthquake just one year ago that day; each butterfly so powerfully symbolic.
The colours and symbols of Lent are also powerfully symbolic. The colour used for most of Lent is purple, symbolizing both the pain and suffering of Christ leading up to the crucifixion, as well as the suffering of humanity and the world. Purple is also the colour of royalty, anticipating the hope of newness of life through the Resurrection. Some traditions use black for Maundy Thursday, and it is the colour for Good Friday and Holy Saturday, symbolizing the darkness brought into the world by sin. It also symbolises death, not only of Jesus, but also of the whole world as human beings try to make their own way in the world without God. Black is replaced by white before sunrise on Easter Sunday.
Apart from the colours, the traditional wooden cross is the visual symbol of the beginning of Lent, and sometimes becomes a Prayer Cross during Lent. In one place I read about, a hammer, square nails, and small pieces of paper are placed near the base of the cross. During prayer, worshippers are invited to write their prayer requests on the paper, and then hammer the paper to the cross. The quiet time of prayer, with only the sounds of the hammer striking the nails can be a moving time for reflection on the meaning of Lent, and a powerful call to prayer.
Grace and Peace
JR

Listen

Admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:31:11 +0000

Read: 2 Kings 2: 1-12; Ps 50: 1-6; 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6; Mark 9: 2-9

The first Sunday after Epiphany, sometimes called ‘Baptism of Jesus’ Sunday, began with a revelation of Jesus Christ and a voice from the sky. The revelation was to John. The sky split open, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice declared, ‘This is my beloved son. In him I am well pleased.

Today, the seventh Sunday after Epiphany, also known as the ‘Transfiguration of the Lord’ Sunday, the revelation is to three disciples who accompanied Jesus to the top of a mountain. Jesus becomes dazzlingly bright, Moses and Elijah appear briefly, and a voice from a cloud declares clearly, ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him’.

In the intervening weeks we have seen what it is about Jesus, and about the Church, that pleases God. We have seen Jesus in action, and we have all the time been observing who we are to be as his disciples.

Today, we move from observation to deep listening. We move from where we have been, to where we are going. For the next six weeks we will be listening to Jesus teach, and seeking to encompass that into our life of discipleship also.

Certainly today, all the lectionary readings listed above offer dazzling images. Elijah is taken up in a chariot of fire. The psalm presents earthquakes, storms and fires. Paul reminds the Corinthians of ‘the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’. The Gospel presents Jesus transfigured, his clothes dazzling, brighter than anyone could bleach them.

Such glory! All we have seen of Jesus and his ministry, and of his Church, is such glory. But now, from today, it is no longer to see, but to listen, really listen.

Really listen, for just a few days earlier, Jesus had said to his disciples that what he was doing would inevitably lead to his execution, and after thee days, his resurrection.

Really listen, for just after the encounter on the mountain we mentioned earlier, Jesus asks the disciples not to tell anyone what they saw until after his resurrection.

So as we enter Lent in a few days, we are to listen. We are to listen to Jesus. As well though, as a worshiping community we must listen for the voice of the Spirit in each other as we journey together in the lead up to our celebration once again of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace