{"id":6238,"date":"2020-04-16T14:46:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T04:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6238"},"modified":"2020-04-16T14:57:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T04:57:54","slug":"journey-of-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/journey-of-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey of Resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Journey of Resilience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by HG Bishop Angaelos<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

There are many elements of our \u2018journey\u2019 during passion week. Most are\ninspiring and uplifting, for this is a wonderful journey to be with our Lord.\nIt is a time of joy, growth, power and faith. It is a time to witness and a\ntime to serve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight, we see another element of this journey \u2013 a journey of\nperseverance. A journey of resilience and focus, where we come to understand\nthe direction this journey is heading in… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see the obstacles that the Lord must face in the space of a few hours.\nHe is betrayed by one of his disciples and abandoned by all his disciples. He\nwas arrested, rejected, captured unjustly, tried, and had false witness borne\nagainst him. And of course, he was subject to extreme insult and injury. Yet\nour Lord, the incarnate word, continued in His mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a beautiful journey, but it is a journey to an end. It\u2019s end that\ndoesn\u2019t come easily. For our Lord suffered this to give us a completely\ncountercultural message. He went against every norm and He did it with power,\nstrength, grace and love, with a divine perseverance and endurance that\ninspires us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On our personal journeys, we may face some or all of these obstacles. For\nmost people, that\u2019s the end of it. We get angry, upset, disappointed or\ndisillusioned. We often forget that there are people who have been offended by\nthese obstructions and have left the church. Maybe it\u2019s because they didn\u2019t\nhave resilience or strength \u2013 but what we need to consider is what we are doing\nabout it. How are we, in our journeys, inspiring them to return? How are we\ntrying to fix the betrayal, the denial, the rejection and\nmarginalisation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t imagine going into a life-threatening situation, where my life\ndepended on your witness, and one of you, after all these years, suddenly says,\n\u201cI don\u2019t know him\u201d. Not once, not twice, but three times. What effect would\nthat have on me or you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What effect would it have on me if I thought I was speaking the truth,\nand quite blatantly saw someone bearing false witness? How would I react or\nfeel? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We put ourselves in the place of our Lord in this situation, maybe we\ncan put ourselves in the place of those who have been mocked, abandoned,\nmarginalised, persecuted and denied. And then we can try to see how we can heal\nthat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We often focus on the message that we need to be resilient. Which is\ntrue. But we also need to care for those who may have been less resilient,\nwhether through intention or negligence, whether through their fault of ours.\nFor the journey of our Lord, in flesh, to the cross and beyond the cross was a\njourney for us. He walked every mile for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we come out of this week with anything, let it be that we remember to\nwalk in the footsteps of our Lord beyond this week. Now we have a constant\nreminder, but on Saturday, the black drapes are gone, the hymnology\u2019s changed,\nthe readings are different to suit the new season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that stop us from journeying in his footsteps? Does it stop us from\nremembering that His journey was for those who were outcast and living in\ndarkness and the shadow of death? He didn\u2019t discriminate based on whether we\nwere intentional or negligent, but he came for all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy for us to focus on the cross this week and it’s important, but\nthe cross should be something we carry with us always in our hearts throughout\nour Christian journey. We carry it, we persevere, but we know that it is the\nLord who carries the cross with us, and sometimes for us as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy for us to lose steam and become bored of these same issues.\nBut thankfully, this is not how God looks at us. Every day He deals with the\nsame issues, same insecurities and inadequacies and sinfulness, but he is\nresilient and persistent. We are able to journey regardless, courageous and\nconfident that we are not alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In tonight\u2019s setting, He was completely alone. Being brought before a\ncounsel, He was tried and sentenced with all those He had known, mentored,\ntaught, supported and healed all gone. There was not an adulteress or leper or\neven disciple in sight. No one.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet for us, our situation is never so dire because there is always\nsomeone there for us. Even if we don\u2019t feel it or believe it, we are there for\none another. The Church is there. The body of Christ is there. Your confession\nfather is there. Your spiritual guide is there. Your companion is there. Your\nservant is there. This is a journey that we take together, and we are never\ncompletely alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satan often tells us that we are completely alone. Yet we are not, and\nwe are confident in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So as we journey tonight, and as we continue in the knowledge that beyond the cross there is a resurrection, we are confident that our God is with us. We are confident that we are never alone. The Lord says to us that in our patience, we will possess our souls. He tells us to be brave. Not to worry. He tells us that He will never leave nor abandon us. These aren\u2019t empty words \u2013 they are divine promises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our God is a God of fulfilled promises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We persevere because we know what the end is. Beyond this life, there is\na life to come, and that is what we are aiming for. But we don\u2019t want to go\nthere alone \u2013 we need to remember all those who may be feeling exactly the same\nas we are. Those who are deceived into feeling that they are alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where it is important for us to not only see God\u2019s actions in\nour lives, but how He desires our actions to be in the lives of others. We do\nnot deceive, we do not abandon, we do not betray, we do not bear false witness,\nwe do not perform acts of injustice, because if they hurt the Lord, they will\nhurt us. If they hurt us, they will surely hurt everyone else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a blessed journey, but one that needs focus, resilience and the\nconfidence that it is a journey alongside our Lord, Who takes us beyond the\ncross and resurrection into the life that He has promised us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journey of Resilience Adapted from a sermon by HG Bishop Angaelos There are many elements of our \u2018journey\u2019 during passion week. Most are inspiring and uplifting, for this is a wonderful journey to be with our Lord. It is a time of joy, growth, power and faith. It is a time to witness and a … Continue reading “Journey of Resilience”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[256,281,24,27],"class_list":["post-6238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-passionweek","tag-resilience","tag-christ","tag-journey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6242,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238\/revisions\/6242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}