For Sunday the 7th of January

Most of us feel a naturally affinity with people who speak our language and share our culture. Most of us also feel a natural suspicion of people who speak another language, or who have customs that are foreign to us. Usually the experience of these different feelings doesn’t stop us getting on together in society, but sometimes racial vilification and even violence can occur. It’s then that we wonder about the hope of people of different races living together in harmony.

This Sunday we will be hearing from the Bible about the way God brings people from different races into a real and lasting unity. Through the Jews, and in particular through Jesus, God has brought his commands and promises into our whole world. This means that all people, no matter what their ethnic background, are loved by God, and are called by him to be members of his family. As we place our trust in Christ we get a new way of appreciating the unique aspects of our own culture, while being free to welcome and give thanks for what people of different cultures bring to us.

This Sunday we will be meeting at 9:00am. We will be experiencing the unity that God gives as we together receive the Body and Blood of Christ.