Growing Spiritual Seed ......

 

Footprints in the sand - John (14:23-28)

 

Recently I was lost on sand dunes at Dunnock on the North East of Scotland – just 400 miles from the Arctic circle

 I had gone for a long walk on a vast sandy shoreline with enormous dunes

 Quite suddenly found myself cut off from land by a large, deep, sandy lagoon

I found myself back on my old standby of following footprints. Footprints can tell you a lot.

Who use the path, which direction they were going.

When the last person used that path

Whether they were alone or in company.

Generally, I don’t follow children’s foot prints. I don’t follow casual walkers prints with no tread on their boots.

I follow recent, larger prints made by serious walkers with good tread on their boots

I needed to find such foot prints and then follow a track made by serious walkers who had walked their recently

I also needed the hope of seeing a person on the landward side of the lagoon. Eventually I did indeed see such a person and so pressed on.

Finally, I did cross recent, well-worn tracks made by experienced adult walkers and was soon on my way back to the car – and my sandwiches

 In my way back I wondered if there was a religious message in this experience

Could the necessity of not following children or casual walkers be important? Nowadays we are surrounded by people who don’t really know where they going in religious term but are often full of advice. Surely, we need not follow them

Could the tracks of the serious walkers be analogous to those of the saints and religiously successful people? Certainly, in my own case I have found that associating with saintly and well directed people helped both inspire me and guide me in my own religious life.

Perhaps the people safely the on the other side of the lagoon are analogous to faithful believers worth following?

We know that successfully religious people demonstrate the efficacy of religious life. They are generally in a good place! They are successful because they believe and live in Our Lord’s teaching

Certainly, studying and following the Bible puts us on a successful known way. The Bible is full of great tracks.

Firstly, there the all-important but perhaps legalistic Ten Commandments delivered by Moses in the Old Testament. They were revolutionary in their time – and formed the civilised basis Israel nation as they wandered in the desert before entering the promised land.

Secondly our Lord’s Beatitudes delivered twice in the New Testament represent the core of our own faith – a path to freedom and union with God 

Blessed or fortunate are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed or fortunate are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied. Blessed or fortunate are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed or fortunate are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

These are essence of our Lords teaching - to worship him in spirit and truth – the route to a good, contented productive life full of peace and joy.

Jewish religious life at that time was centred on their temple which was soon to be destroyed by Roman legions in AD 70

Crucially our Lord said that we don’t need a temple to worship in. We just need to worship Our Lord in Spirit and in Truth. Life the Beatitudes

This was the new temple This is the new track.  

The Revelations reading describes the new Jerusalem by contrasting it with the earthly, fallen one. Christianity is a Global religion - the new path to Loving God – it requires no Temple

What are the benefits? In our Gospel reading our Lord promises that ‘those who love him will keep his words, and the Father will love them, dwelling with them.’

Jesus offers his peace, a peace that surpasses worldly understanding – It is the safely of a known way – the way back to His sandwiches - His love and peace

Amen

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John 14:23-28

23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

Revelation 21:10. + 22-22.5

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.