Messiah

Sunday Reflection – Easter IV, May 11, 2025

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Feed my sheep

John 10 22  That winter, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Temple Festival. 23 One day he was walking in the part of the temple known as Solomon’s Porch 24 and the people gathered all around him. They said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!”

25 Jesus answered:

I have told you, and you refused to believe me. The things I do by my Father’s authority show who I am. 26 But since you are not my sheep, you don’t believe me. 27 My sheep know my voice, and I know them. They follow me, 28 and I give them eternal life, so that they will never be lost. No one can snatch them out of my hand. 29  My Father gave them to me, and he is greater than all others. No one can snatch them from his hands, 30 and I am one with the Father.

Kids Korner: You know me (May 11th)

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Read John 10:22-30 with your family.

Jesus never asked us to be part of the religion of Christianity, and some people who attend church get really confused by that.

When Jesus was alive, there was no such thing as “Christian” or “Jewish”, they were all Hebrews and believed in God loving them unconditionally. They knew that God asked them to take care of each other. They knew love for family, neighbours and strangers was the most important thing.

If we have love and caring for everyone we meet, even if we do not like them, then we are hearing what Jesus had to say.

It is not enough to say we believe in Jesus. We have to show love in our actions, too.

Kids Korner: Forgiving others (Sept 17th)

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Read Matthew 18:21-35 with your family.

You might have heard people tell you to “forgive and forget”. A lot of people think those are Jesus’ words or they are from somewhere else in the Bible, but they are not. All the Bible says is to forgive as often as you have to.

Forgiveness is hard. Sometimes you can do it once and everything is fine. But sometimes the hurt is deeper and you don’t know if you can ever forgive the person. Jesus says to keep trying.

And sometimes the hurt is bad enough you need to tell another grown up and keep telling until someone believes you and wants to help. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean they don’t have consequences. Forgiving someone only means you are letting go of your anger and hurt feelings. It’s still up to the other person to do the right thing and take responsibility.

Kids Korner: Working out conflict (Sept 10th)

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Read Matthew 18:15-20 with your family.

The people who lived around the time that Jesus lived were just like us. They loved and the fought, they cried and they laughed, and sometimes they didn’t agree with each other. When those disagreements got too big, they pulled in others to take sides. Jesus didn’t want his followers to fight like that. He wanted his followers to get along and focus on the things that needed to change in our world. Jesus wanted everyone to love and care for each other.

In order to help the community who was following Jesus, he talked to them about how to solve conflict. He told them to be brave and take responsibility if they hurt someone else’s feelings. He told them to talk to each other in private when someone felt hurt.

But Jesus knew that some conflicts were too big for a small, private conversation, so he told his followers to ask for help when a private conversation didn’t solve the problem. And only if that didn’t work, bring in the whole community to help solve the conflict.

And if that didn’t work, Jesus said it was okay to tell the person causing trouble they had to leave. But that person would not be alone, they would be with others who helped remind them what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

Even in conflict we are always given as many chances as we need to remember how to love like Jesus wants us to love.

Kids Korner: Jesus predicts his death (Sept 3rd)

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Read Matthew 16:21-28 with your family.

In last week’s story when Peter told Jesus he knew Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus was so happy he said Peter’s statement would be the foundation for the new community Jesus was trying to build. This week we realize Peter didn’t understand fully what being the ‘Messiah’ meant.

Peter wasn’t a bad friend, and Jesus wasn’t calling him a horrible person for not understanding. However, Jesus was frustrated. Peter did not understand and instead of trying to understand and support Jesus, he tried to talk Jesus out of following through with God’s plan. The Messiah had to experience some hard things and actually die and come back to life so everyone would see the power and importance of everything Jesus was trying to teach.

It’s easy and more comfortable for us to say the bad things can’t happen and to turn away when other people are struggling, but that’s the opposite of what Jesus asked of us. Jesus wants us to face the hard things and help each other through hard things. Because, when we help others we are showing what true love looks like, and that is what Jesus came to teach us.

Sunday Reflection – August 27, 2023

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Jesus is the Messiah

Matthew 16 13 When Jesus and his disciples were near the town of Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “What do people say about the Son of Man?”

14  The disciples answered, “Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah or Jeremiah or some other prophet.”

15 Then Jesus asked, “But who do you say I am?”

16  Simon Peter spoke up, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus told him:

Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn’t discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. 18 So I will call you Peter, which means “a rock.” On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it. 19  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything you don’t allow.

20 Jesus told his disciples not to tell anyone he was the Messiah.

Kids Korner: Jesus is the Messiah (August 27th)

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Read Matthew 16:13-20 with your family.

One of the more confusing things Jesus said was not to tell anyone he was the Messiah, even though we know that is who he was. Why wouldn’t he want people to know that?

Perhaps it has to do with what the people who lived around Jesus thought the Messiah would be.

There were a lot of different ideas about the Messiah. Some thought the Messiah would be a military leader to help get rid of the Romans. Some thought he would be a special king like King David who would talk the Romans into letting them become independent. Some thought he would be both the king and a military leader. Some thought there would be only one Messiah. And some thought there would be multiple people who were all the Messiah with specific jobs to do.

None of them imagined a quiet man who didn’t like violence, and told everyone to love each other and take care of each other. That was not the message anyone expected from the Messiah.

Jesus was the Messiah, but he was not who anyone was expecting him to be.

And maybe Jesus wanted to control the time and place of the announcement so people wouldn’t have the wrong idea about him.

Sunday Reflection – Advent III, December 11, 2022

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Ministry of John the Baptist

Matthew 11 2 Now when John heard in prison about the things the Christ was doing, he sent word by his disciples to Jesus, asking, 3 “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

4 Jesus responded, “Go, report to John what you hear and see. 5 Those who were blind are able to see. Those who were crippled are walking. People with skin diseases are cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. The poor have good news proclaimed to them. 6 Happy are those who don’t stumble and fall because of me.”

7 When John’s disciples had gone, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John: “What did you go out to the wilderness to see? A stalk blowing in the wind?8 What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in refined clothes? Look, those who wear refined clothes are in royal palaces. 9 What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 He is the one of whom it is written: Look, I’m sending my messenger before you, who will prepare your way before you.

11 “I assure you that no one who has ever been born is greater than John the Baptist. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Advent III (December 11th)

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Read Matthew 11:2-11 with your family.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we don’t know if John and Jesus had ever met or talked about their ministry. In today’s story, John sent his messenger to question Jesus, since John was in prison at the time.

Jesus takes John’s messenger seriously and gives him a plain answer – that is not something Jesus normally did. Jesus usually turned the question back on the one asking and made them give some answers first. Not this time. Jesus sent the message back to John that he was the one John had been talking about. It must have made John feel relieved knowing the Messiah was now with the people, just as John had told them would happen.

Then Jesus turned to the crowds around and did not give a plain answer, but rather asked them what they were looking for. They had watched the conversation between Jesus and John’s messenger and were curious. Jesus asked them who they thought John was and what they thought was going on. John did not share an easy message, in fact his message was very harsh. John told them they had to stop their poor behaviours and put others ahead of themselves.

The Gospel story quotes another part of the Hebrew scripture, this time Malachi 3:1, which reminded all the listens around Jesus that God’s coming is not just a happy thing, but also something that challenges everyone. God is not going to tell us all we are doing a great job, but instead will tell us what we need to do better.

Jesus tells them John might be the most amazing person on earth at the moment, but with God’s new world everyone is expected to be even better than John.