SOCL, Easter4C

Sunday May 11, 2025

See

The cultural dismissal of faith as illusory consolation or opium has left its mark on us all. Is it all projection? Has God truly spoken and revealed God’s self ? In Christian faith, our response is a resounding yes and, while we should be wary of facile solace, at the same time we should not deny ourselves the good and wholesome reassurance of faith. After all, one of the most repeated phrases throughout the Bible is “Do not the afraid” (though not in John, curiously). There are grounds for fear; but we, of all people, should not be overwhelmed by the negative.

Listen

Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100 [99]; Rev 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30

Reflect

(John 10:27-30)

Jesus tells us that we can rely on his relationship with us. Think of the relationships you have in which you feel safe and secure because there is mutual understanding and the relationship has stood the test of time.

Jesus says that the disciple is one who listens. What is your experience of listening to the word of God in the Scriptures? To what other voices have you listened and found guidance?

The faithful disciple is also one who follows the path of love that Jesus preached and practiced. Although it may be difficult at times, it is in following it we find life. Where have you had the experience of listening, responding, loving, and finding life?

Pray

Safe in your hand, O God, is the flock you shepherd through Jesus your Son. Lead us always to the living waters where you promise respite and refreshment, that we may be counted among those who know and follow you. We ask this through Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life, who lies and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit God for ever and ever. Amen.

SOCL, Easter3C

Sunday May 04, 2025

See

We prefer familiar failures to uncertain beginnings. After crushing disappointment, these fishermen retreat to what they know—empty nets and midnight waters—rather than navigating the unmapped territory of resurrection. How readily we too abandon possibility for the comfort of old identities, returning to practiced inadequacies when transformation seems too disorienting.

Recognition arrives not in spectacular revelation but through ordinary abundance. The shoreline breakfast—fish caught through borrowed wisdom, bread from unseen sources—reveals how sustenance often appears where we've repeatedly cast empty nets. Our blindness to divine presence stems not from absence but from our stubborn insistence on discovering it in expected forms.

Love's interrogation strips away our pretensions. Three questions penetrate Peter's self-assured loyalty, each peeling back layers of assumed devotion until raw vulnerability remains. True calling emerges not from capability but from acknowledged weakness; leadership authority flows precisely from the wounds we'd rather conceal. Our capacity to nurture others expands in proportion to our willingness to admit our need for nurturing.

Listen

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30 (29); Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Reflect

(John 21:1-19)

Reflect on where you've retreated to familiar patterns after disappointment. What comfortable failures do you return to when new possibilities seem too uncertain? When have your empty nets become preferable to the risk of casting them differently?

Consider moments when abundance arrived unexpectedly in your life. How might familiar landscapes—relationships, work, daily routines—contain unrecognized presence waiting to be discovered? Where have you been looking right past what you need most?

Examine your reluctance to acknowledge vulnerability. How might your wounds and failures—the very places where you feel inadequate—become sources of connection rather than shame? What might happen if you allowed these tender spots to become points of genuine leadership?

Pray

Restorer of broken trust, you meet us in our retreat to old patterns. Transform our unsuccessful night fishing into dawn revelations. Feed us when we cannot feed ourselves. Make our wounds sources of empathy rather than shame. Lead us from familiar failures toward the courage to follow even when the path leads where we'd rather not go.

SOCL, Easter2C

Sunday April 27, 2025

See

We hide our scars beneath layers of curated perfection, terrified that vulnerability might expose our deepest wounds. Yet our obsession with flawlessness denies the very evidence of our journey—the marks that testify to survival rather than failure. In our sanitized digital existence, we've forgotten that imperfection isn't weakness but authentication.

What if our wounds are not deficiencies to be concealed but portals through which genuine connection flows? The most profound relationships form not when we display our trophies but when we reveal our battle injuries. Our scars—physical, emotional, relational—become bridges rather than barriers, offering others permission to acknowledge their own damaged places.

Society celebrates unblemished surfaces while hungering for authentic substance. The paradox remains: we seek genuine connection while hiding the very marks that would make it possible. Our wounds, transformed from sources of shame into testimonies of endurance, reveal a counterintuitive truth: what we survive shapes us more powerfully than what we achieve. The victory isn't in escaping unscathed but in bearing witness to what couldn't destroy us.

Listen

Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118 [117]; Apocalypse 1:9-13,17-19; John 20:19-31

Reflect

(John 20:19-31)

Consider the wounds you carry—those experiences that have marked you deeply. How have you tried to hide or heal these scars? What stories do they tell about your journey that pristine success narratives never could?

Jesus displayed his wounds rather than erasing them, transforming symbols of defeat into evidence of love's persistence. How might reframing your own scars—not as failures but as testimonies—change how you view your life story?

What would change if you stopped hiding your imperfections and instead allowed them to connect you with others? How might embracing your wounds as sacred bridges rather than shameful burdens transform your relationships today?

Pray

Lord, whose power is perfected in weakness, transform our wounded places into wellsprings of connection. Help us find courage to stop hiding our scars and start sharing our authentic stories. Grant us vision to see beyond surface perfection to the beauty of resilience in ourselves and others. Lead us from isolation into community where vulnerability becomes strength and our collective brokenness creates space for your redemptive presence.