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Lisa Wenmouth

Revd Sara's Reflections - w/c 15th September 2024

Revd Sara’s Reflection for Sunday 15/9/24 Bible Reading: Mark 8:27-38 

Responding to the reading How can you reflect the glory of God?


Today’s Gospel reading from Mark 8 is centred on the words of Jesus bringing a note of reality. Take up the cross, do what you can to bear witness to justice and to build a more just world for all.


Anything worthwhile has a cost, reflected in the focus on the cross. Bearing the cross declares the message of the church loud and clear. It is Gospel wisdom that we are invited to bear the cross. It is the pathway to resurrection and hope. With the cross at the centre of our existence, we are called to model leadership that handles power with redemptive love, with a capacity to share and give up power, always seeking to empower others.


The Cross is the Christian symbol of humility, the humility of God, and that changes how we engage with the world around us, with our neighbours. The Cross is an invitation to recognise that all human beings desire dignity, respect and flourishing.

Most refugees and people seeking sanctuary come from situations of pain and suffering and danger. The experience of the rejection, suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ gives meaning totheir experience of rejection and hurt. In the cost of Christ’s passion and pain is also the gift of healing and hope. Here suffering is not willed by God, but is encompassed in God’s love. In the face of sorrow and hurt it is appropriate to ask “why”, and to want to find meaning and wholeness in it. The Bible reflects the stories and experiences of a travelling people, undertaking difficult and dangerous journeys. Their hopes lie in a bruised Messiah.


We are called to practice the gospel by listening to, paying attention to, entering and identifying with the stories of pain and suffering, that refugees, and those seeking sanctuary, bear and tell.This is part of what it means to carry and bear witness to the cross. In working with those who are hurting through the violence of war, famine, poverty and persecution, we together bear the weight of sin; we together struggle for justice, and seek the freedom of all. Refugees and those seeking sanctuary among us are ambassadors, the messengers and witnesses of God.


It is worth remembering that Jesus carried his own cross. Along the way, Simon of Cyrene was “compelled...to carry his cross”. He just did it. No fuss, no noise, no seeking of attention. A quiet witness. Reflecting the glory of God, without words. We are likewise compelled in our faith journey to pick up the cross, without seeking attention.

In what ways are you compelled to carry the cross with those bearing hurt?


Prayerfully consider your response love and prayers Revd Sara




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