In one of my thoughts last week, I said that one of the things that I was missing during lockdown; was the insights that other people shared during the Bible Study.
Yesterday evening on Zoom we shared together in our first time of prayer and reflection around a Bible passage. (We intend to continue this each Sunday evening at 5:00pm and on a Thursday at 2:30pm, if you would like to join us and you did not get an invitation to yesterday’s meeting then please email and we will add you to the list of invitees.) As together we reflected on a passage in Luke 4, I posed the question “What was it about the way that Jesus taught in the synagogue that made people say, “He speaks with authority”. Someone ventured the suggestion, that Jesus’ authority came from his relationship with the Father. An idea that had not struck me before, from before the beginning of the universe Jesus, the Father and The Spirit had dwelled together in unity, it is through that relationship that Jesus can speak with authority. Unlike other teachers who spoke about what they had read and what they had heard, Jesus spoke about what/who he knew.
That took me to my next question, how is it that we in the church can speak with authority? The answer is the same, the closer our relationship, the closer our walk with Jesus, the more we will be speaking about what we know, what we experience, the greater will be the authority of our words.
On a completely different tack, I am always nervous before leading a service, hosting one of Zoom, a completely new experience for me, made me even more nervous than usual, by the time the meeting was over I was exhausted and my legs had turned to jelly. Please remember me in your prayers as I prepare for future meetings.