Jesus promises those who believe in him that they will have ‘rivers of living water bubbling forth from them’. What on earth might this mean?!

This was a looking forward to the coming and impact of the Holy Spirit. A spirit not of humanity but from beyond us. A unique and other spirit.

This Spirit changes everything for disciples of Jesus. We are transformed from being consumers to being a resource for those around us and the whole world.

Well established expectations take a long time to die. When we have held a particular hope in our hearts for a meaningful duration of time, letting go of that hope - even in the face of overwhelming evidence that holding on to such a particular hope will certainly end in disappointment - is not straightforward for us!

When the disciples meet the risen Christ, and begin to come to terms with the fact that he has come through death, they default to their well established hope of kicking out their Roman overlords and establishing an independent Israel.

But this was never what Messiah was going to be about. The risen Christ allows space for the disciples to reflect a little longer on the revelation of salvation history. Even as Christ bids them farewell and is taken up away from their sight, he sends them forth to infiltrate the whole world.

In this excerpt from Peter’s pastoral letter to the churches in Asia Minor there are some very particular concepts and images.


It seems likely that letters like this one from Peter were deliberately coded messages. They used images and ideas that the church would know how to interpret.
 They wrote using code because the church was engaged in something that was considered profoundly subversive to the authority of the empire.

This meant it was risky business!

Letters could easily be intercepted by Roman authorities. But the encoded messages meant the uninitiated would not be able to get what they were actually saying.


I believe this is what we have before us today.

So many things about the Jesus story have the potential to mess with our sense of justice. Perhaps that is the point?!

Could it be that our sense of justice has not been much like justice from the beginning?!

The gospel story offers an alternative approach to seeing and weighing everything.

The church has always championed the resurrection as the key moment in the story of salvation - as it surely is.

Too often this has found expression in a kind of misguided attempt to exert a form of authority over people who were not sure they wanted to come under that authority.

But the resurrection is the pivot point of the meaning of everything. It is the point that turns conventional structures on their head and subverts our most effective survival strategies and motives.

The resurrection effectively says the point you all thought was the end... that's not the end!

St Paul takes up an ancient hymn to highlight the self-giving nature of Christ. This is perhaps the most challenging aspect for disciples of the call to follow Christ.

It is common to develop a sense of who we are, based on where we have come from. Our roots often set our course through life and remain an unconscious guide for us as we proceed.

However, where we have come from cannot tell us all of who we are. Neither does it contain all the resources required for us to fulfill our calling.

Jesus offers us a new source. A living source that is not simply past history but ongoing discovery and engagement. This new source is Jesus himself.

Jesus’ way of engaging with us becomes for us as living water that not only nourishes our life, but also becomes a resource of nourishment for all who we share with.

As if it were not enough that Jesus places exacting expectations on his followers with regard to their words and behaviours… in today’s reading (Matt 5:21-37) Jesus goes still deeper with concern for intent, desire and integrity in his followers.

It might be easy to hear these words as a kind of judgement over parts of our life that we often seem to have limited control over. It is better to understand that Jesus wants the liberating grace of the Kingdom of God to be not simply about behaviour modification, but also heart transformation.

As we give ourselves to the Grace of God… our intent and desire does shift. We have opportunity to be more fully integrated and to be people of integrity. This has the power to deeply impact the world around us for good!

Temptation is a feature of human existence. Life is an running stream of choices that are sometimes straightforward for us. But sometimes our choices are nuanced with a sense of clarity regarding the ’right’ thing to do that is undermined by an overwhelming desire to do something else.

What is going on when we are tempted? What mechanisms are activated around and within us? Are all temptations equally injurious to our wellbeing, or are their particular things to beware of?

The devil’s tempting of Jesus focused on three key areas...

* Wherein is life?

* What does it mean to trust God?

* How does authority function?

There is much to be gained in seeing these issues clearly.

Jesus made extensive use of metaphor when he taught and preached. He found word pictures the most useful way to convey his meaning. These are deliberately imprecise and open to variable interpretations. Almost as though the wresting conversation that would ensue down through history was a design feature of this approach.

This morning we are presented with the call to be salt and light, and to fulfil the Law by surpassing the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees. As with so many of Jesus’ sayings, there is no comfortable way to hear this call. It cuts to the core of our natural desire to simply ‘fit in’. Even when we think about being different, we prefer to be different in the same ways as everyone else!