{"id":3025,"date":"2019-10-28T08:39:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T21:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2019-10-28T08:40:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T21:40:24","slug":"coming-out-the-other-side-27-10-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?p=3025","title":{"rendered":"Coming Out the Other Side 27-10-2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>COMING OUT THE OTHER SIDE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Sometimes life just seems like a dark tunnel we will never get out of. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps it is a natural disaster like the bushfires raging across New South Wales at present \u2013 bushfires that could hit Victoria again this summer. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes it is more personal \u2013 the death of a loved one or a serious health scare and we feel we are never going to come out of the dark hole. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Often it is no one\u2019s fault but our own, but it is still just as dark and there is no one else to blame.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Our reading today is from the Book of Joel which is all about a severe plague of locusts which destroys the country\u2019s food for the next year. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Joel also takes this as an image of the disastrous things happening in other ways to the nation. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>People are asking where God can be in all this, and Joel is reassuring them that God has not forgotten them, that this time will not last forever. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes all we can do is hang on and know that this time will not last forever.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Joel goes further, and tells the People that not only will God give them food and wine in plenty in the future, but God actually want to bring something better out of this bad thing that has happened.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>God will send his Spirit on all people, not just prophets and priests, and these are the words that came to Peter hundreds of years later to explain what was happening on the Day of Pentecost. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That is worth holding onto. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>God does not cause bad things to happen to good people, but is with us throughout the bad times and wants to bring something even better to pass if we will be open to the Spirit of God.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The Pharisee did not think he needed any help \u2013 he was sure he was a righteous person whom God would delight in. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But it was the tax collector who went home justified by God, because he acknowledged his life was a mess, all created by him and he threw himself on the mercy of God. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Whatever our disaster, whether we caused it ourselves or it just happened, if we open ourselves to God\u2019s mercy and love, we will not only come out the other side of the dark tunnel, the Spirit of God can make something new for us and for our world.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Robert Johnson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>27 October 2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COMING OUT THE OTHER SIDE Sometimes life just seems like a dark tunnel we will never get out of. \u00a0 Perhaps it is a natural disaster like the bushfires raging across New South Wales at present \u2013 bushfires that could hit Victoria again this summer. \u00a0 Sometimes it is more personal \u2013 the death of a loved one or a serious health scare and we feel we are never going to come out of the dark hole. \u00a0 Often it is no one\u2019s fault but our own, but it is still just as dark and there is no one else to blame. Our reading today is from the Book of Joel which is all about a severe plague of locusts which destroys the country\u2019s food for the next year. \u00a0 Joel also takes this as an image of the disastrous things happening in other ways to the nation. \u00a0 People are asking where God can be in all this, and Joel is reassuring them that God has not forgotten them, that this time will not last forever. \u00a0 Sometimes all we can do is hang on and know that this time will not last forever. Joel goes further, and tells the People that not only will God give them food and wine in plenty in the future, but God actually want to bring something better out of this bad thing that has happened.\u00a0 God will send his Spirit on all people, not just prophets and priests, and these are the words that came to Peter hundreds of years later to explain what was happening on the Day of Pentecost. \u00a0 That is worth holding onto. \u00a0 God does not cause bad things to happen to good people, but is with us throughout the bad times and wants to bring something even better to pass if we will be open to the Spirit of God. The Pharisee did not think he needed any help \u2013 he was sure he was a righteous person whom God would delight in. \u00a0 But it was the tax collector who went home justified by God, because he acknowledged his life was a mess, all created by him and he threw himself on the mercy of God. \u00a0 Whatever our disaster, whether we caused it ourselves or it just happened, if we open ourselves to God\u2019s mercy and love, we will not only come out the other side of the dark tunnel, the Spirit of God can make something new for us and for our world. Robert Johnson 27 October 2019\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Leighmoor.Master","author_link":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/author\/leighmoor-master"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?cat=24\" rel=\"category\">Sermons<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"COMING OUT THE OTHER SIDE Sometimes life just seems like a dark tunnel we will never get out of. \u00a0 Perhaps it is a natural disaster like the bushfires raging across New South Wales at present \u2013 bushfires that could hit Victoria again this summer. \u00a0 Sometimes it is more personal \u2013 the death of&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3028,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions\/3028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}