What we teach
Through Christmas we were in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. We met Mary’s pregnant cousin, and her husband, in Luke’s first chapter. The end of Mary’s pregnancy must have been an unforgettable set of experiences – the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of the baby in such a crowded village, the improvised cradle, and the excited shepherds crowding around the child, not to mention their story of a skyful of angels celebrating the birth of Mary’s baby.
When Jesus was eight days old, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple, to thank God for his safe arrival, and to have him circumcised. When they arrived, there was an old man, and an old woman, both prophets of a kind, who just happened to be there when the two young parents and their baby arrived.
Simeon announces that the birth of this child is part of a grand rescue story, and the boy has been born as a revelation of God for all the world. We took Simeon as our guide to the Christmas story asking the old man to teach us how to make sense of the birth of the child.
We asked: What kind of rescuer is the boy? How does the child reveal the character of God?
What sort of response does God expect?
Through the beginning of this Spring term we are spending some weeks in Matthew 21-23. In it we see how Jesus is both Judge and Saviour of all – and that includes the Religious Establishment.
Who then, can be saved if even ‘the Religious’ will be Judged? Can I respond to his invitation?
January 2012