Anglican Cursillo Tasmania

Nelson Bible publishers bible selling in the first three quarters of 2024 was a 253 million dollar business. In 2024, a strange phenomena occurred. There was a huge demand, with 80% of bibles being bought by people who have no religious affiliation. Brought in a few years ago, the publishers thought they needed to know their market better by asking purchasers about who they were and why they were purchasing bibles. The results for last year demonstrated something very surprising. The market predominately under 35 reported that they had heard or read something about the bible and wanted to check it out for themselves. Something is happening. And for many there is a new beginning.

We are in the season of Epiphany, and of surprising beginnings. In our readings through this season at church we hear again the stories of Jesus, events that laid the foundation of Jesus’ public ministry.

When Jesus begins his public ministry, we understand that there is great expectation happening, and we need to remember that there are several groups working in Israel. We have the Sadducees who downplay the prophets and messianic expectation, the zealots who want to do violence against the roman occupiers, and there are the Pharisees who seek to keep all the laws and have added even more laws to try and cover any violation. So much so that the people are burdened by trying to keep all the laws so hopelessly that they feel crushed. And of course there are the Essenes, who have simply left to live outside the city in an austere and simple community. All of these are based around the temple or in relation to it as being seen the place of the presence of God. The temple was the place where heaven and earth intersected. It had very well defined boundaries to keep separate the holiness of God and the people.

And then there is another group who we meet, that is the baptisers. We meet John the Baptist, who called people to a baptism of repentance in the waters of the river Jordan. In all of this mix of people and confusion, Jesus walked, and pointed the way to salvation.

As Jesus’s disciples today, we walk in a mix of people and confusing time, and we face constant new beginnings. We are reminded of this as we enter a new calendar year. In our lives we constantly face unexpected challenges and opportunities as well as disappointments and failures. Yet each of these new chapters also represents an ending. A new beginning is also a time of grieving for what is lost, a time of giving thanks for what has ended, a time of reflection on what is past. Baptism is all about letting go of the past and committing to God’s future. Although there is only ‘one baptism’ for each of us, its pattern of letting go and moving on is a constant theme of the Christian way of life.

As we enter into 2025 as Cursillitas, let us be open to the leading of the Spirit. God calls us to invite people into relationship with him. Something is happening!

De Colores,

Lee