Ramble for Kirwan Uniting Church Keeping in Touch pew sheet 1 January 2023

 Our new pad has an electrically operated gate for our cars to come in and out (to our electrically operated garage, which is being used for storing assorted unopened and part-opened boxes for the time being.) The pedestrian gate opener is obstructed (on purpose, for security reasons) by a padlock. So how do parcel deliverers, meter readers and bearers of mulled wine (thankyou Robin 😊) gain ingress? Well, they press the groovy wi-fi connected camera doorbell which rings my and Leisa’s iPhone, wherever we might be in the world, displays their pic and allows one or both of us to tell them that we’ll be right down (if the dog is safely in) or ignore them if we’re in Woop Woop so that they can leave goodies at North Ward or JCU PO. Except it’s not connected yet. Give me a day or two to understand the accompanying installation instructions.

Two well-known instances in scripture of Jesus, as it were, pressing the doorbell, are in Revelation 3: “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” And Luke 12, the master of the house returns from a wedding, knocks at the door, the servants who are ready let him in. In the first case, it’s the Laodicean church being addressed, a half-baked (according to St John on Patmos) outfit, and in the second, it’s servants who were well down society’s pecking order. But in each case, Jesus (who is the unnamed but real speaker) says that He’s on his way to eat with them. More than that, to wait on them at table!

Here we are, at, as Minnie Louise Haskins put it, at the gate of the year. A few enemies lurking around that gate – geopolitical peril, uncertainty in so many areas of our lives, health, economy, relationships, family. “Let me in”, says Jesus, “I’m going to spread a table before you in the presence of those enemies.”