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Framing the Future - Dorothy
Sermon Summary
Dorothy reflects on her sabbatical journey of rest, reflection, and realignment with God’s timing, emphasising that our mission as a community is to live out resurrection life together by being present for one another, embodying love, and following Jesus’ way in daily life.
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A three-month sabbatical unfolded in clear phases: release, relaxation, reflection, realignment, and return. The initial release moved responsibilities to others so attention could focus wholly on God. Two weeks of annual leave created space to rest without an agenda, then decluttering and slowing down made room for concentrated prayer and scripture. Opening twenty-five years of prayer journals in order offered a compressed view of a long spiritual journey, revealing steady, patient work by God across ordinary life. That review exposed how restoration often moves slowly—painstaking, intricate, and precisely timed—so small, faithful steps and long seasons both bear forward God’s pattern.
Reflection brought a renewed sense of being part of a multigenerational story that begins in the garden and runs through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into present ordinary lives. Realignment surfaced trust in God’s timing and an unexpected peace in stepping into a slower pace. The mission under consideration shifts from distant acts of outreach to the lifelong call that begins the moment someone says yes: living out Jesus’ way day by day. Mission becomes a visceral struggle to apply truth in daily choices, behaviour, and relationships, not a scoreboard of conversions.
John’s account of Lazarus frames both mission and community practice. Jesus delays, mourns with those who grieve, then speaks the resurrection into being publicly so the crowd may believe. The spectacle of Lazarus emerging still wrapped in grave clothes highlights a deep reality: resurrection life begins immediately when awakened to Christ, but brokenness and the habits of sin remain present and require unwrapping. The crowd’s command—“unbind him and let him go”—shows how healing needs the touch and participation of community.
The work of Christian life asks for presence with others for their good and for mutual presence in return. True mission looks like Mary at Jesus’ feet and Martha in the kitchen; it looks like lives that read as letters of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit on human hearts. Obedience means choosing the terms of creation—being loved, receiving formation, responding to God’s commands—and prioritising love over self-preservation. The community that practices unbinding, generosity, forgiveness, and steady obedience becomes a door of hope for a disconnected, anxious culture.
Key Takeaways
- 1. Sabbath rhythms reorder life: A disciplined cycle of release, rest, reflection, realignment, and intentional return reshapes priorities and reveals hidden patterns of God’s work. Long-term spiritual clarity often arrives not by urgency but by slow recovery of attention to God and careful review of one’s spiritual history. Let extended rest become an instrument for re-seeing life through God’s timings rather than personal schedules.
- 2. Mission begins after saying yes: Conversion does not end the mission; it marks the start of a lifetime of choosing God’s way in decisions, relationships, and habits. The core struggle becomes daily obedience—applying gospel truth to ordinary choices—rather than tallying distant successes. Living this way reframes service as formation of character more than public achievement.
- 3. Resurrection life still needs unbinding: New life in Christ arrives at the instant of response, yet the effects of sin and habit remain tangible, like grave clothes. Freedom grows when community participates—touching, unwrapping, and calling one another to move forward in obedience. The unbinding process trusts Jesus’ timing and the patient work of others rather than lone attempts at self-freedom.
- 4. Presence with others enables healing: True mission unfolds as mutual presence: being available for others’ good and allowing others to be present for one’s own unwrapping. Community acts as the hands that help loosen bindings and the eyes that witness transformation, making faith visible and convincing. Prioritising such presence resists survival instincts and models the kingdom’s generosity.
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