inspiral blog

Discussion centred around the call to “not be ashamed”, with many of us expressing the misunderstandings inherent in terms such as “Christian” or “church” for the average punter, especially those of us whose circles are not friendly to such ideas. Finished with an acknowledgment of the potential relational costs of fidelity to Christ.

Thus Jesus sends his disciples out to go, not to “all the world” but only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. So we could get a sense of what this must have been like I sent everyone out (including myself) with the same instructions…what would we come up with?

Well, firstly it was like being thrown in the deep end when you can’t swim – I imagine not unlike how the disciples (or apostles actually) might have felt. Then it was just plain difficult to figure out what it meant for us, now, in suburban Brunswick.

So we wrestled for a while with the implications – is raising the dead really that simple? – but then came back to the context of the passage. Jesus sends them out to “proclaim the good news – the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” and then asks them to be signs of that new Kingdom – a Kingdom where there is new life in that which seems dead, where the sick are healed, the outcasts restored, and demons flee. That may look a little different where we are, but they’re all things we can do right here and now.

Focussed on the lectionary readings this week, including the stories of Abram’s call and obedience, further expounded in the Romans passage, and then onto the call of Levi followed by the sandwiched stories of the synagogue leader’s daughter and the woman with the bleeding. Fantastic post on that stuff here. Mainly focussed on the fact that Abram, Levi, etc had lots of potential excuses for not obeying, but managed (by faith) to push past them…so what are our excuses for not being obedient to the call of God on our lives? We brainstormed a bunch of them and determined to find ways to push past them by starting small.

Started this week with a party to celebrate of Mark’s 6 months of sobriety. Great effort mate, and great to be able to celebrate the milestone as a mob. A ’6′ party complete with gifts of a ’6′ nature – from a 6 cake to my 6 (squared) reasons for celebrating 6, including:

Reason #8: It’s the maximum number of degrees of separation everyone in the world is from Kevin Bacon.
Reason #4: It’s the number of ways inside Robert Smith’s (of The Cure fame) heart.
Reason #20: It’s the number of geese a layin’.

Then we proceeded with the home blessing for Dunstan St, following a similar liturgy to the one we did for Chris and Jane’s house in August last year, including the giving of gifts.

Finally after dinner an intense, difficult, but great conversation ensued about community expectations and hopes and fears.