Dear Friend,
There are moments in the Gospel when Jesus does more than simply invite us to listen - He asks us to decide what truly matters.
In this edition of the Lectio Divina Newsletter, that invitation comes to us through images of treasure, discovery, journey and the courage to move beyond the familiar.
Bishop David Walker begins with The Treasure Worth Everything, reflecting on Jesus’ parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price. Both ask a deceptively simple question: what do we value enough to reorder our lives around it? The Kingdom is not presented as one good thing among many, but as something whose discovery changes the value we place on everything else.
Dr Laurie Woods then takes us more deeply into the Gospel for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A, helping us sit with Matthew’s rich collection of images of the Kingdom and the challenge they place before every disciple.
From there, our attention turns towards another compelling Gospel image: Jesus’ invitation to Peter to leave the shoreline and “put out into the deep.” In Into the Deep: Leaving the Safety of the Shoreline, Bishop David reflects on the Christian life as a journey from outward observance towards an increasingly intimate relationship with Jesus. His question is not whether we have arrived, but whether we are still travelling.
That same invitation is taken up from another perspective by Martin Scroop in Pilgrims - Into the Deep, reminding us that faith is never meant to leave us comfortably where we began. To be a pilgrim is to keep moving, trusting that Christ continues to call us beyond what is familiar and into a deeper life with Him.
Perhaps that is the thread to carry through this edition: What is the treasure I am seeking, and am I willing to leave the shoreline to pursue it?
May these reflections give you some space to listen, to recognise where Christ is calling, and perhaps to take one more step into the deep.
The Lectio Divina Team
