Part 2: Thoughts for Sunday 10th May 2020

As per last week, what follows is a compilation of words from Roots & Fresh from the Word as well as some of my own thoughts.

I have only used a single lectionary reading for today, for those wishing to delve deeper go to: Acts 7: 55-60, Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2. 2-10
 
Gospel: John 14.1-14
Jesus is speaking to his disciples before his death. He explains that he and the Father are joined in a close relationship to one another (John 14.10-11), so close that whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (14.9). This is why Jesus can assure the disciples that they will not be left abandoned and that he himself is the way which they need to travel – he is both the means and the route. A fuller life awaits them: ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life,’ he declares. He is life itself, even in the face of his own approaching death. He is truth – the most complete and accurate truth, truth that he promised would, by its very nature, set them free. And he is the way – the way for them to be fully united with God, and the way that they need to journey, in order to serve God. No wonder he can promise, ‘I will come again and take you to myself.’ This is a promise of unity with him within this life, not just after death. Jesus is commissioning his disciples for service. He speaks to them about praying and believing and doing even greater works than he has done. He describes his return to the Father not as a separation from the disciples but the way in which their relationship with God will be even clearer and stronger, when they are drawn up into the love between the Father and the Son.
 
Our satellite navigation systems give us directions? In my last job I travelled the length and breadth of the UK. Initially I had to use an old fashioned map to plot my trips, when I first purchased a Sat-Nav some of the well-established colleagues laughed (but they all new there individual areas very well, they all covered different quadrants of the UK) in the end over a twelve year period all my colleagues were using them, I didn’t totally trust them they were a guide, and if I had the time I would share some of the mishaps I had along the way, but overall they were a benefit. But we can totally trust the guidance Jesus gives us through his teachings.