The Presence of God

Before Connection Point yesterday we prayed that we, and our guests, would the presence of God in the space and time we were setting aside for the morning.  A Nigerian man, who has been along a few times before, came along, sat down, and said, "This is the only place I can relax!  I can't relax at home, but here I feel at home."  We were able to pray with this man for peace and a sense of the presence of God at home as well as at The Point.  Praise God that, as we simply open The Point, and offer ourselves as well as refreshments, God can meet people!

This Sunday morning is a Communion morning - we pray that God will be known to be present as we share bread and wine together, even in our own homes via Zoom.  We're continuing to meet some of the women in the patriarchal world of the Bible, and seeing how God was present to them - more on this below.

Come for Breakfast!  The next Women's Breakfast will be on Saturday 7th August, 8.30-10am at The Star Café, with the next Men's Breakfast two weeks later (at Manor Café).  Even though it's the summer holiday season, I'm sure there are enough of us around to get together for these - mark at least one of them in your diary!

Blessings, Ian

Joanna - Junia

Last Sunday morning we looked at Joanna, one of the women who travelled with Jesus and his male disciples, supporting Jesus' work, and staying committed to Jesus right up to the Cross and Resurrection.

I hope, as we look at some of these less well-known women in the Bible, that we will see how the purposes of God shake the patriarchal assumptions of the times the Bible was written in, and also those of today.  We talked about how, as Joanna was the wife of such an influential person as Herod's steward, she must have been acting with his agreement and was probably using his money to support Jesus' ministry - quite a liberated and egalitarian marriage for the times!

We also looked briefly at the possibility that Joanna of Luke's gospel is the same person as the apostle Junia named (alongside Andronicus) by Paul in Romans 16.  And we saw how Junia has been sorely treated by scholars and translators - sometimes being renamed as a man (Junias) and sometimes not being acknowledged as an apostle.  If you want to know more of the background to this question, this article gives an overview, and this article goes into more detail.

This Sunday we're in the Old Testament and an incident involving two unnamed women who went to the king for help resolving a heart-wrenching argument - you can read it in 1 Kings 3:16-28.

I'm away at the weekend, so I'm recording the talk (with help from others) for Sunday morning.  It's something a bit different for us at CCC, so I hope and pray it will be effective.  More than that, I hope and pray that exploring this passage will help us see that God is interested in the 'little people' just as much as the rich and famous!