Curate’s Blog
Hello St Mark’s Church,
Can you believe it is June already? I know for us, this year
has been very full and we have been amazingly blessed by your amazing welcome
and love! This term especially has been exciting as we have been digging into
the life of Simon Peter – looking at how we can go deeper in our discipleship
and going further with God.
Simon Peter had an amazing desire to go deeper with Jesus,
to follow him more faithfully. But, it could be argued that he was a man of the
‘big gesture’, which meant that at times he was erratic and then that in turn
lead to some awful mistakes. We are being challenged this term to look at our
own lives. Do we have the deep desire to make the ‘big gesture’ for Jesus? Can we
learn from Simon Peter and make our big gestures part of a rich tapestry of
living for Jesus everyday rather than one off events? Do not misunderstand me,
Simon Peter was an amazing person who followed Jesus to his death and is a true
inspiration to us all. However, one of the reasons he was such an inspiration
was his deep desire to make ‘big gestures’ for Jesus, failing horrendously, and
then returning wiser, humbler and never losing his passion for long.
This Sunday we were challenged with the liturgical prayer:
President: ‘If
you want to walk on water ...’
All: ‘You’ve
got to get out of the boat!’
At St.Mark’s Church we are trusting Jesus as he calls us to
cross over the waters. He is calling us to follow him, through storms and
through good weather. He at times also calls us to do what would seemingly be
impossible in human’s strength but with God’s power is possible. As we embark
on this stage of St.Mark’s life we will be called to ‘get out of the boat.’
This last month has been exciting for St.Mark’s Church for
many reasons. Heading out of Easter was a real joy having celebrated together
as a family. For the Pioneer work that we have been embarking on, we have seen
great growth in the circus workshops and our adult theatre workshop on Tuesdays
has been showing significant fruit. Indeed, we are really looking forward to
our first production together this very week! We were able to hear from Kevin
Pearson about the difficult and yet amazing things that are going on with our Christian
brothers and sisters in Egypt. This is
just a small taste of the things that we are co-working with God in. We have
good reason to be grateful for His provision.
As we walk with Jesus we are constantly moving forward with
Him ready for the call to get out of the boat. Was the boat bad? Were the
disciples doing anything wrong that Simon Peter had to leave the boat? No,
quite the opposite. It was precisely because they were obeying Jesus and doing
the right thing that Jesus was able to call to Simon that day to show His great
and wonderful power.
At St.Mark’s Church, as we walk, talk and listen with and to
Jesus we become increasingly ready to hear and obey when He calls us to do
something seemingly impossible. As we grow as a congregation may we keep Jesus
at the head and fulfil our vision for Lache and Saltney,
of ‘Loving God and making His love known.’
