Saint Barry

Have you heard of St Barry? Patron saint of all ordinary people in the church today. Saint is used in the New Testament to mean a believer in Jesus. It is a statement of identity rather than personal sanctity. You are a saint because you are related to God through Jesus. You reflect that reality in your life to varying degrees.

There are two ways of looking at the Christian life. I am a sinner who tries to get it right. I am a saint who still gets it wrong. Life in mode one will be a constant struggle for acceptance - am i right enough? The second way is Jesus' way. We are accepted and changed from day one. We fail but go straight to Jesus who puts us on the right path again.

All Saints day celebrates that WE can be saints, pleasing to God and loved by God. Put your faith in his ability to make you his beloved child - and behave according to who you really are - a saint!

Eyes to See

At the end of John’s gospel, he notes that he could have filled libraries with all the stories of what Jesus did and said. However, he included a small selection so that we might ‘come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah...’ So when we read that Jesus healed a blind person, we are also learning about coming to faith in Jesus.

A person healed of blindness has a radical change of life. Opportunities for independence, work, mobility to name a few. Jesus also said that to see the Kingdom of God, we must be born again. We each have a blindness to the realm of God’s activity and providence in this world. We each need to have the eyes of our hearts opened so that we can live freely and fully as God intends for us.

Our inner healing takes place when we call upon Jesus. He is our healer. Ask him and he will ask of us ‘what can I do for you?’ Answer wisely and we can see again the Kingdom of God in our midst.

Saying Yes to Jesus?

Jesus asked his two most eager disciples whether they could drink his cup and bear his baptism. What did he mean? When Jesus was baptised in the river Jordan it was not for his personal need for repentance - it was more an identification with sin and sinners. This identification was total and meant that he went to the cross and to death for the penalty of that sin - your sin and my sin. This was his baptism - to bear our sin. His cup was a fulfillment of prophesy that spoke of the judgement of sin - a cup of wrath to be drained by all who lived wickedly and injustly.

Could you drink Jesus' cup and bear his baptism? The disciples thought they could and Jesus even said they could. I am sure that Jesus was NOT saying that we too bear the sins of the whole world and personally take the wrath of God against wickedness. However, He is saying that the way of righteousness will be costly and there will be persecution. The way to glory will involve indentification with suffering and tasting the gall of judgment. Jesus was offered shortcuts to glory and so will we. We have been saved because he did it the costly way. May we love others and go the same way.