| 20200928_135527.jpgSeptember 29, 2020 Good afternoon, ” Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men ” Jesus in Matthew 4 ” And the first shall be last, and the last shall be first ” Jesus in Matthew 20 The attached photo has a dried fallen brown leaf among a lawn of clover. This can be a metaphor for leadership and following the ways of Jesus of Nazareth. There must be a leader within the group. Jesus was the Son of God , and he stood among the clover. But, the leader cannot be too far ahead of the group of followers, or the people will go in a variety of directions. I believe that Jesus was patient with the disciples and others who followed him So, the leader must stand with the people that she/he leads, and be not too far away. And yet we are also like the leaf, in that we are one of many that make up the community. We might be the “last” for a while, but we are all part of the community. We listen to one another, and try to discern the will of the Spirit. This might take a long time to come to a decision, but we all own the agreement together. We clovers are finding our way to the church, God and each other. The clover, from a distance looks all the same, but some clovers are bigger, and some are smaller, and some are three-leafed while others are four-leafed. It is a long journey to understand everything . As the lone leaf, it can be a lonely place of leadership. You can get blown all around,. You can get all wet and soggy . You can change colours, from a brilliant green, to a bright red, to a dark and dying brown. But, you still sit around among the clover, sitting on top of the people, and being carried along by the church and the Spirit in the clover field. How are you the clover at Poole ? When have you been the brown leaf ? Where is God in this picture ? Do you want to stand out in the crowd or just blend in ? Prayer. Thank you for the creation. Thank you for the clover, the grass and the leaves, especially, for the changing of the colours of the leaves, red, yellow, orange and brown. for the shiny ones, the shriveled ones, and the ones with life lines. God change us, just as the creation is forever, changing. AMEN Fred |
