Letter from Jon, September 2022

 ‘My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Col 2:2
 
Dear Friends
 
Last Sunday we began a new Sunday morning series on “Mystery Revealed”, and unlike a good Agatha Christie mystery where you wait until the end for the ‘reveal’, we gave the game away right at the start.  The word ‘mystery’ appears a number of times in the New Testament, particularly in Paul’s letters, and is centred around none other than Jesus Christ.  In some ways, to us, it doesn’t seem like a mystery.  We have the benefit of a Bible which reveals the life of Jesus.  We have the letters which give us a lot of insight and instruction into the Good News of Jesus Christ.  At the time that Jesus walked this earth, however, there was still profound mystery around when and how God would fulfil his plans to rescue and redeem his people.  There were many who were waiting for the Messiah to come, but very few who expected one quite like Jesus.
 
Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say I am?”.  They had walked with him for many years, seen the miracles and the healings, heard the radical teaching, experienced the love and compassion, and when Jesus asked them this question it seemed they were only beginning to grasp who he was.  For many of us, particularly those who have walked with God for years, I wonder whether we expect to find out anything new about who Jesus is; whether we long to know him more, to grow in our faith, to experience a ‘WOW!’ moment when God reveals something new to us.  As Stella said on Sunday, are there times when reading our Bibles that we think that God has just added in a verse which we have never seen before, a verse that brings new insight or even healing?
 
There is a 13^th century prayer which includes the words made famous in the musical ‘Godspell’;
 
O most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly
and follow thee more nearly
 
My prayer over this next season for all of us, myself included, is that we get to know Jesus better, that we experience ‘WOW’ moments of new understanding of who Jesus is, that our eyes are opened, our hearts are expanded, our lives are made richer, our love becomes deeper.  I believe that at any time in our walk with God, regardless of how much we already know, that if we hunger after Jesus, if we read our Bible searching for more of God, that God will not disappoint us.  He will reveal himself to those who seek his face, and as we do that we will become more and more a Community centred on Jesus Christ. 
 
With love and expectancy
 
Jon