The Anatomy of a Journey

Fellow Labourers-

We are all on a journey, and somewhere along the journey we will meet someone in need. The need could be for a number of things, but the need for God beckons. It beckons in many ways and at different frequencies. As pilgrims we have a responsibility to respond to these needs to get others on the same journey on which we have embarked. We have grown accustomed to meeting the needs from a distance, and thus our impact is not as impactful as we might have wish. We are not sitting in the chariot and gently sharing God by sharing ourselves. Sometimes it is not that we are too busy, but we are afraid to trust enough to draw near.

But, "there is call come ringing o'er the restless waves: send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine, from shore to shore." Os Guinness in his book The Call quite poignantly observed "Is the Church of Christ ready to meet the challenge? Are followers of Jesus sufficiently gripped by the gospel to 'behave as he would wish us behave'? Do we know in reality the great living truths of the faith that have a proven capacity to affect history and transform cultures as well as radically alter individual lives? Calling, as we shall see in a score of ways, is indispensible to the integrity and effectiveness of the Church at this momentous hour."

"I am often asked how one can be radical in analyzing what is wrong, yet hopeful about the prospects for the Church. Part of the answer is that the very crises themselves are opportunities-some people in both the Church and wider society must surely blush to think of the things in which they trusted so recently. But the deeper answer is the character of the gospel itself. The gospel is a constellation of truths that simply cannot and will not be worsted. Put differently, in the decades I have followed Jesus, second only to the joy of knowing him has been a sorrow at the condition of those of us today who name ourselves his followers. If so many of us profess to live by the gospel yet are so pathetically marginal to the life of our societies and so nondescript and inconsequential in our individual lives, is there something wrong with the gospel, or does the problem lie with us?"

On this journey let us listen to Jesus of Nazareth.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor