We invite you to join us on Saturday, 21st October 2023 at Koster Park, 140 Ashbrook Ave, Trinity Gardens SA 5068. 12pm – 3pm. Please reply with numbers for catering. RSVP by Monday, 16/10/23. Suzane: 0402 494 406 or Mark: 0430 213 596 by SMS. Please text your name and the number of people who are coming.
Archive for October, 2023
The Challenge of Ongoing Forgiveness
To be able to forgive is an important part of being able to live together in community. Whenever Jesus was confronted with the question of ‘forgiveness’ – the answer was always the same: that forgiveness was to be an ‘ongoing’ interpersonal action between followers. Forgiveness is a ‘Kingdom Value’ that continues – when we have done it, still we must keep on doing it. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant which follows in Matthew’s Gospel suggests that God holds us...
The Call of the Shepherd
From the beginning, God the Father’s heart has always focused on looking after those who need rescuing or need bringing back in. It is God’s will that not one of them should perish or be denied entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. This parable has been told from a couple of different perspectives – according to two different Gospel writers. In Luke the focus is on the lost sheep. In Matthew it is on the ‘little ones’ who have strayed...
Living Together in Community
Living in community is often empowering, but other times difficult and never easy in practice. People are different and not everyone one wants to play by the rules of life together. Living within Christian communities of faith are frequently very similar. We know there can be differences of opinion, disputes and individuals who continue living out their old ways – before they knew Christ. Here (in Matthew 18:15-20) Jesus provides a Kingdom-based model for people living in faith communities of...
God’s ‘Little Ones’
In Matthew’s Gospel, we can see Jesus demonstrate real concern for the ‘little ones’ of the Kingdom. After all Jesus has already said to the disciples – about who he is, the Kingdom and his mission – they still have time, it seems, to argue about who is the ‘greatest in the Kingdom’. Jesus makes it apparent to them: Look at things the opposite way around, turn it all inside out. Don’t think it is all of about power or...
Are God’s Children Truly Free?
Jesus challenges and changes people in ways that we may never truly understand. This seems on the surface, at least, to be one of the strangest stories in the entire Bible. Why has Matthew told this story (17:22-27) we might well ask? The point of the story, isn’t that Jesus had the power to perform a miracle and make a coin appear in the mouth of a fish – although that is certainly implied. Nor is it that Jesus is...
