Everything you wanted to know about Christianity at the Anglican Parish of the Otways Please join me each week for our reflections of sermons conducted during our church service. Plus, occasional splashes of humour and epiphanies! With much Love and Blessings Rev. Jenny Brandon |
![]() One message that rings our loud and clear in our bible readings this week is the message – “Prepare a way for the Lord,” make a straight highway for our God”. The way of peace they do not know; But the prophet Isaiah who is quoted in our readings is not talking about using bulldozers to straighten winding roads, he is talking about the highway of our life. What we are being called to is a straightening of our attitudes. In this context, we can substitute the word “Straight” with words such as honesty, compassion, righteousness. How often do you hear people telling others they need to straighten themselves out? We know what that means. To go straight means to reform after being dishonest, deceitful or after cheating, and so on. It can be a crooked way of dealing with people, a crooked attitude, a crooked way of living that needs to be straightened out. So how do we find the straight path? We find the path by acting with integrity, treating people fairly, refraining from any form of discrimination or oppression, by not making life more difficult for anyone, tending to the marginalised, sharing with those in need. This is the way to seek God. Peter, in our New Testament reading (2 Peter 3:14-15a), described the way as being at peace, without sin, and in patient hope of the Lords salvation. Micah put it even more succinctly, “This is what God asks of you: That you act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) The path to the Lord however is not always as easy as you might think or hope. To walk the straight path requires inner strength, wisdom, and single-mindedness. The crooked path, which only leads downhill, is the path of lying and cheating and deviousness. It may seem easier at times but it is the road to a diminished vision and darkness. The straight path, on the other hand, leads upwards, and although it may seem steep and difficult at times, it leads to an ever-expanding view which compensates for the difficulty of the climb. Do you have a crooked attitude? Then lets decide right now to choose a different attitude, because our attitudes are a choice. As Christians we have the help of the Holy Spirit to change our attitudes. Do you have a crooked habit, something that stops you from living your life in the fullness God wants for you? Or a crooked relationship that needs straightening out? Let's try to do just that. This advent, let us make a commitment to truly prepare a way for the Lord to come to us more fully and to come to others though us. Lets try to do just that. This advent, let us make a commitment to truly prepare a way for the Lord to come to us more fully and to come to others though us. Let us ask the Lord to take the blindness from our eyes,
the weakness from our wills and the hardness from our hearts, so that we, our families, our friends, our community, in fact the whole of creation may be flooded by the grace of his coming. The Lord Be with You! With Blessings Rev Jenny
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About the author
Rev. Jenny is an ordained Priest of the Anglican Diocese delivering services at Anglican Parish of the Otway churches every week. With great depth of knowledge and a spiritual practice that shows she walks her talk and has taken her to the far reaches of N.T. Australia working with indigenous youth and elders.
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May 2018
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