Every year I choose words of Jesus to read every day for a year,
words which in their subversive simplicity
destabilise our assumptions with the rumble of new truth
open our eyes to look at the world and other people differently
silence our complaints by contradicting our anxieties
question our easy answers by posing harder questions
enlarge our ideas about God's love, justice and grace
disturb our complacency with constructive discontent
undermine our despair by resurrection hope
refresh our barren acres with streams in the desert
words which
call to The Way of the cross
compel embodied performance of The Truth
commit us to be, and do, and share Jesus The Life.
This year the words of Jesus I am reading/praying every day are the Beatitudes from Matthew's Gospel. Matthew 5.1-11.
Slow reading of the increasingly familiar, prayerful committing to heart and memory, cumulative study of the text so that exegesis becomes the Gospel interpreted in life, and a tapestry as a way of giving visual reality to words that are transformative.
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