Colourful Dreamer

As I have said, Lent is inspired by the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness wrestling with and being tested in his identity. Who was he as the “beloved son of God”? How would he live that out? What would he trade it in for?   Lent is our time to ask what it means for us to be beloved children of God. (Or as the writer to the Ephesians says, God’s works of art). Asking whose we are using the four words we used to describe Jesus – how to they describe God? Who are we – how do those words apply to us? What is ours to do – how do we live them out? And what gets in the way of knowing and living all that? How do this Sunday’s readings help us in this work? There are many who find our gospel reading (John 3:14-21) condemning and difficult. Your safe if you believe, otherwise eternal damnation!   But I don’t think that fits with what John is saying in this Gospel. His focus was God’s active love of this world and God’s commitment to redeem and restore it. So let’s put this passa...

As this Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent, we hear again of Jesus testing time in the wilderness. Because we are in the year of Matthew, we get his version. Jesus is baptised and is declared to be the God’s Beloved Son. The Spirit then takes Jesus into the wilderness to face the big questions. What kind of beloved son will he be? How will he live that out? The wilderness is a harsh place where there is no hiding. Here he fasts and prepares. He is anchored in God. And at the end the Satan tests this identity.    How will he respond? Will be put his own needs first or trust that God will provide? Will he succumb to the dramatic and lure of fame, or will he trust God and meet the needs of those who encounter him on the way? Will he seek power and fortune, or seek nothing for himself and live in response to God’s compassion and justice? The Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount come out of this experience. They are who Jesus is. We too are beloved children. But too often, like A...