Good Shepherd Morning Communion 5/3/2006


Genesis 9.8-17, Mark 1:9-15


Lent - the desert experience. Time to take stock of who we think we are and who God says we are.

Five words to describe me ... [Son, brother, vicar, Evertonian, music-lover]

Five more words - to describe the way I feel about myself just now ... [waking, confused, hopeful, weak, achy]

The way we think / feel about ourselves is often owing to the way (we think) others think about us. We're caught in patterns of desire which affect our self-image.

The way God thinks about is completely removed from those patterns - owing itself instead to God's unconditional love for us. Lent is a time for us to receive this, to hear the words God has for us.

Remember the words which God had for Jesus, which Jesus had ringing in his ears as he moved from his baptism into the desert: "You are my Son, my Beloved; with you I am well pleased." What words of God will you carry with you into Lent this year?

On the way back from communion, take a paper from the desert.....






Notes

[1] Desert exercise from Jonny Baker/Grace, Finding Identity in the Desert, in the Alternative Worship resource book.