Rhythm

One of the odd things about Christmas is that, even with our very best intentions, the focus of our celebrations can drift from Christ to Christmas itself. It’s way easier in Advent. During our morning prayer in St Aldhelm’s Chapel, at 9am each day, we read the Old Testament prophets longing for the birth of the Messiah and the New Testament epistles anticipating the return of the Christ; it would have been pretty hard not to have been Jesus-focussed by the time we arrived at Christmas Eve.

Lent and Easter, similarly, have a devotional depth in readings and worship that keeps us journeying to the cross until we at last shout ‘He is risen indeed’ at the empty tomb. I think for many Christians they love Lent, fasting, Holy Week and Easter because of the personal significance of the desert, the cross and the resurrection; but actually, part of it is that they love those 6 or 7 weeks because their discipleship and devotional lives work pretty well. Forgetting for one moment the secular pseudo-Christmas that society leads us through, even in our services at Christmas we can end up entering deeper into Christmas, not deeper in our relationship with God.

As 2013 begins, like many years, we will start with an opportunity at the Abbey to get our rhythm back, to re-become disciples. To join with our community each week in worship and prayer, to commit to serve regularly in the life of the Christian community, and to reignite our discipleship with a teaching series that places our eyes on Christ and allows everything else to flow from that.

This year our recovery series is Living: Studies in 1 Peter (see below). You can probably guess who wrote it, you can go away and read it in less than 30 minutes, but we are going to spend nine weeks looking at it. Peter famously said to Jesus ‘You are the Christ’. Living: Studies in 1 Peter helps us to live in light of that statement: What is our hope? What would a holy life look life and how do I live it? How do I follow Jesus at work or in unemployment, and how are Christian relationships and marriages to be distinctively different? How when life is difficult or blatantly unfair should I respond? Is the devil real? Over time we’ll get our rhythm back together; but in the meantime the question is actually pretty simple: Jesus loves me, now what?

Jan 6                1 Peter 1:1-12             Living Hope

Jan 13              1 Peter 1:13-2:3          Living Holy

Jan 20              1 Peter 2:4-12             Living Stones

Jan 27              1 Peter 2:13-25           Living in the World

Feb 3               1 Peter 3:1-12             Living Relationships

Feb 10             1 Peter 3:13-22           Living Confidently      

Feb 17             1 Peter 4:1-11             Living for God alone              

Feb 24             1 Peter 4:12-19           Living Resiliently

Mar 3               1 Peter 5:1-14             Living Community