CMM’s latest Yellow Banner mounted on the steeple!
Grace and Peace to you
Every Sunday newsletter carries the words from Micah 6:8 “What the Lord requires of us: To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God”. The prophet Micah sums up the purpose of life perfectly. It really is as simple and as difficult as that.
Jesus certainly took this to heart. If we look at Jesus’ living and teaching — it all fits into these three ways of being. If we are not sure about this “God stuff”, do as Micah says and God will smile. If we question what we should be doing with our one little life or find our living meaningless then following Micah’s advice should do the trick.
As 2014 turns to 2015 we are given another opportunity to pause and reflect on what we are doing with our time and our life. To explore how we can act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God more faithfully in the coming year is at the core of the being a follower of Jesus.
To act justly is to learn and name the ways that social, political, economic and religious systems oppress; to work to transform them, refusing to give in to apathy or cynicism. It is to believe that “unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word” – MLK.
To love mercy is to live in solidarity with those who are marginalised, despised, forgotten and ignored. Those that society considers to be the least. To offer relief and healing for those suffering and who carry upon themselves the sin of the world. To live out the truth that we are all family.
To walk humbly with God is to embrace practices of prayer, meditation, fasting, confession, Bible study, spiritual direction, recovery and therapy; to be sustained by the God made known in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Grace, Alan
Prayerful Preparation
O God, who am I now?
Once, I was secure
in familiar territory
in my sense of belonging
unquestioning of the norms of my culture
the assumptions built into my language the values shared by my society.
But now you have called me out and away from home
and I do not know where you are leading.
I am empty, unsure, uncomfortable.
I have only a beckoning star to follow.
Journeying God,
pitch your tent with mine so that I may not become deterred by hardship, strangeness, doubt.
Show me the movement I must make
toward a wealth not dependent on possessions
toward a wisdom not based on books
toward a strength not bolstered by might
toward a God not confined to heaven
but scandalously earthed, poor, unrecognised…
Help me to find myself
as I walk in others’ shoes.
Kate Compston
