Holy Week. 2016 23rd March -betrayal is always painful

23rd March

Francis rejecting the world

Scripture John 13: 21-32

21 When Yeshua had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
22 The disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Yeshua loved, was at the table, leaning against Yeshua’s breast. 24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.”
25 He, leaning back, as he was, on Yeshua’s breast, asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Yeshua therefore answered, “It is he to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judah, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 After the piece of bread, then Satan entered into him.
Then Yeshua said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
28 Now no man at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 For some thought, because Judah had the money box, that Yeshua said to him, “Buy what things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 Therefore having received that morsel, he went out immediately. It was night.
31 When he had gone out, Yeshua said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him immediately.


Reflection:

A betrayal is always painful, especially if it is done someone close to us. We ask questions that often have no answer, we can be left wondering, bewildered and hurt. Forgiveness is difficult, for some perhaps almost impossible. We can remain trapped in the emotions of the betrayal, or we can move beyond them. A difficult choice, but one we can make, remembering, of course, that Christ who knew betrayal, will accompany us on this life saving path.


Your thoughts:

(C)Br. Luke Efo 2010

Final Words:


We have reached the end of our Lenten journey with the Scriptures.

Through these past weeks, there have been challenges for us to face. Perhaps some difficult questions that we’d prefer to avoid, or not think about. Yet, our faith, like our lives, is never static. It is fluid, constantly changing, reminding us of a flowing stream.

The Scriptures we explore will mould us. When we read them, we may get a new insight, or different perspective on what we have read, or experienced previously. We may be reaffirmed in what we have read before. We should not be concerned about this movement. For when we open ourselves to the Scriptures, we open ourselves to the movement of the Holy Spirit. When we give ourselves, space and time, then the eternal message of love will be renewed and reborn within us.

We rejoice, that we have the presence, the ever the revealing nature, of our loving God in our lives.



Reflection

Do you worry if you get a different perspective on the scriptures each time you read them? If so, why?


Your thoughts:

Lent 5. 2016 16th March - "If God were your father"

16th March

(C)Br. Luke Efo 2010

Scripture John 8: 31-42

31 Yeshua therefore said to those Judeans who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Yeshua answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. 35 A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever. 36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. 38 I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”
39 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Yeshua said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this. 41 You do the works of your father.”
They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”
42 Therefore Yeshua said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.


Reflection:

42 Therefore Yeshua said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.” Jesus is highlighting the mismatch between what the people were claiming and what they were doing. It is the same today. Often what we say and what we do, do not connect. Jesus reminds us to keep the connection between the two strong and to focus on God, not ourselves.

Your thoughts:

Lent 4, 2016 9th March- to believe “him who sent me"

(C)Br Luke Efo 2010

Scripture John 5: 17-30

17 But Yeshua answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.” 18 For this cause therefore the Judeans sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Yeshua therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. 20 For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires. 22 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgement to the Son, 23 that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who doesn’t honour the Son doesn’t honour the Father who sent him.

24 “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgement, but has passed out of death into life. 25 Most certainly I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. 27 He also gave him authority to execute judgement, because he is a son of man. 28 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, 29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgement. 30 I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgement is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.





Reflection:

Notice that in hearing Jesus we can make a choice to also believe “him who sent me”. It’s a choice. Jesus is speaking about his relationship with the Father. There are, I suspect, some people who, today, will be as uncomfortable with what Jesus claims, as perhaps the people of Jesus’s day were. There are some who will hear and not believe, and others who will believe regardless. Some will explain the relationship away and others who will simply say the relationship is no longer relevant. Yet Jesus’s words serve as both an explanation and as a warning. Jesus makes it clear the relationship of him to the Father, is also a connection to judgement and eternal life. Do you agree?


What do you think

Lent 3. 2016 March 2nd- thinking in absolutes

2^nd March

 

(C)Br.Luke Efo 2010

Scripture: Matthew 5: 17-19

¹⁷ “Don’t think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfil. ¹⁸ For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the Torah, until all things are accomplished. ¹⁹ Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Reflection:

Most of us, have a tendency to think in absolutes. That before the new can start the old must be dealt with, perhaps disposed of. Jesus asks us not to think of endings, but of new beginnings. Notice also that the doing is before the teaching. We need to live (or practice) our beliefs if we are to teach them honestly. It is our actions, the deeds we do, that reveal to those watching, and learning, just how much we really believe the words we speak. Let us not forget that hollow words will echo painfully in a fractured world.

Your thoughts:

Lent 2. 24th February-Here is the command to serve others

 Here is the command to serve others


February 24th 2016

(C) Br Luke Efo 2010

 
Scripture: Matthew 20: 17-28

As Yeshua was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ¹⁸  “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, ¹⁹  and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”
²⁰ Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him. ²¹ He said to her, “What do you want?”
She said to him, “Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom.”
²² But Yeshua answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be immersed with the immersion that I am immersed with?”
They said to him, “We are able.”
²³ He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, and be immersed with the immersion that I am immersed with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
²⁴ When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.
²⁵ But Yeshua summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ²⁶  It shall not be so amongst you, but whoever desires to become great amongst you shall be your servant. ²⁷  Whoever desires to be first amongst you shall be your bondservant, ²⁸  even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Reflection:

Here is the command to serve others. To set aside the ego that wants to always be first, at the front, in charge, in control, with the power. The ego often does not want to serve, to be subject to the needs of others. When we allow our egos to remain unchecked, we start to believe that others should serve us. We make demands on them that are intended to only meet our needs and our desires. When we do this then we have forgotten that Jesus focused us on the need to serve others and not to rule over them.  How is your ego?

Your thoughts: