Lectio Divina

I spent spent most of yesterday on the road to the small South Canterbury town of Albury where the community had gathered to mark the closure of their 120 year old church.  While i have never served as Parish Priest of the Mackenzie region I was driver for my 93-year-old uncle Jack who was priest for the Fairlie and Albury (and later Twizel) communities both in the 1970’s and the 1990’s.

I was interested to see what I have posted for this Sunday in recent years. On this third Sunday of Lent in 2011 Elizabeth Taylor had just died and I noted a link between today’s Gospel encounter with Jesus at a well and Elizabeth Taylor. While both women had been married many times that’s not the link I’m thinking of.

If there is one Old Testament account that is a must for every adult and child of faith it is the great Exodus epic which begins with Joseph and his amazing technicolour dreamcoat.
The entire saga is a pre-Christian primer in discernment preparing us for a God who in Jesus is available, personal, powerful, and eager to carry us through any captivity and challenge through death to resurrection.

The mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus (Mt 20), humbly bowing low and ready to speak. Jesus got in first asking “What is it you want?”

It’s Census day in Aotearoa today, our five-yearly opportunity to (according to the 2023 census website) “represent ourselves, our families, whānau, communities, and cultures.”
I can’t help but recall the Bible censuses, especially the one early in Luke providing the reason that Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem.