Hazelwell Weekly Contact 15th September 2024

Pray also for all whose businesses have been destroyed and those who have been terrorized or who now live in fear as a result of rioting in recent days.

Parish Update

Look out for details of a quiz (in aid of tear fund ) to be held in November

The Thursday morning meet-up meetings will start again in September.

Date for your Diary 20^th / 21^st September We are making plans for a joint Hazelwell / St Bede’s church (non-residential) weekend to be held at Lickey Church. More details to follow, so reserve the date in your diary

Reflection on Ephesians 4:25-5:2)

From St John’s Lutheran Church, Tea Tree, Gully (Australia)

I have to be careful where I step at the moment.

We have had a lot of rain in Adelaide recently and there is a fair bit of mud around. When I walk from our home to the church, it is easy to walk through some muddy puddles and then carry it on my shoes wherever I go during the day. A few weeks ago when I arrived for worship on Sunday morning I had actually walked in something on my way over to the church. I’m going to assume it was mud, but I really didn’t want to smell it to find out for sure. I had to clean the bottom of my shoes before the service started because I didn’t want to leave muddy footprints all around the sanctuary.

That’s the thing with mud – it sticks.

Usually we think of mud sticking as a bad thing. When I was contemplating these words from Paul in Ephesians 5:1,2though, I started wondering whether we can think about mud sticking in a good way.

The words the NIV translate as ‘walk in the way of love’ and the NLT interpret as ‘live a life filled with love’ are simply ‘walk in love’ in the Greek New Testament. Both the NIV and the NLT translations are good, but I really like the picture of ‘walking in love’ the way that we might walk in mud.

One reason is that if we are going to walk in God’s love, we actually need to get into it like a muddy puddle that’s full of God’s goodness and grace.

To walk in God’s love starts with having both feet in his love. But it doesn’t stop there.

An important aspect of walking in God’s love is that we carry it with us wherever we go and whatever we do. Just like the mud we were walking through stuck to our shoes and boots, when we walk in God’s love it sticks with us. It covers us and even becomes part of who we are. Paul says we are God’s ‘dearly loved children’ (5:1 NIV). Through Jesus, God has given us new identities as people he has adopted into his family and who he loves. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we go and do as people whom God loves enough to give his Son for us. Like mud that sticks to our shoes or boots, this truth sticks to us our whole lives as we live it out in our relationships with others.

The entire Bible points us to the reality of God’s love so we can walk in it with our relationship with him and with others. In Ephesians 4, Paul gives us some specific ways in which we can walk in God’s love with others:

Putting off falsehood (v25) – not just telling lies but living in open, honest and authentic relationships with others

Not letting the sun go down on our anger (v26) – whether we take this literally or metaphorically, it means working our issues out with others

Doing something useful with our hands so we can give generously to others (v28) – this gives us a whole new way to think about our work as a way to love others

Using our words to build others up and benefit them (v29), not knock them down

Getting rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and malice (v31)

Being kind, compassionate and forgiving to others (v32)

It’s worth spending some time contemplating these and asking God to show us where he wants to challenge us in our lives and in our relationships. Living in a congregation like this would be great, but I don’t think many of us actually live up to the love Paul describes.

So, which way are we walking? Do we walk our own ways, heading in our own directions, trying to find our own way through life? Or are we walking in love, stomping around in God’s infinite and perfect love for us, and carrying it everywhere we go, in everything we do?

Walking in love brought Jesus to life that is stronger than death. This is the path he leads us to as he calls us to follow him. When we get lost along the way, then maybe it’s time to jump in muddy puddles, remembering that when we walk in the love God has for us in Jesus, it really sticks!