Life stages and lives of Jesus

At St John's Seven Kings we have enjoyed some innovative thinking in sermons today and last week as well as in a spirituality workshop today.

Last week, for our Patronal Festival, we welcomed Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop of Chelmsford. In preaching from the lectionary readings for the Feast of St John the Evangelist, he took the final statement of John's Gospel (John 21. 25) as a challenge to each one of us to be the extra books that could be written about the life and work of Jesus. As well as being a historical statement about the life of Christ, Bishop Stephen used the possibility of additional books about Jesus to convey the idea that the story of Jesus continues to be written in and through our lives and ministries.

Today, Rev. Ronni Lamont suggested that the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10. 38 -42) could be understood in terms of different life stages - youth as activity, work, child-rearing and family life; later life with more time and space for contemplation and reflection. Drawing on the thinking of Carl Jung, Richard Rohr and James Fowler on life/religious development stages plus writing on spiritual styles, Ronni led us into a workshop exploring ways in which our spirituality naturally changes in later life and raised questions about the extent to which this changed spirituality is reflected in Church services.

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Bob Dylan - Tryin' To Get To Heaven.