![]() The eighth theme we are exploring for #MoreThanSunday is Generations.If you would like to sign up to the monthly #MoreThanSunday emails and receive these actions, reflections and podcasts directly into your inbox, you can sign up HERE. '...let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs...' Matt 19:14 NRSV Podcast episode eight: GenerationsReflectionComing from a long line of Lithuanian Rabbonim it was always expected that I would follow in the Orthodox Jewish faith as generations of my family before me. Yet often, as a very small child walking home from the synagogue with my father on a Saturday morning I would stop to watch the cars whizzing by on the main road. In later life, I began to study Literature. Suddenly, here were the Gospel accounts as part of the set reading. I read them over and over again. I loved Jesus immediately: a fellow Jew from my own faith tradition. And that strange loneliness of heart I had experienced all through childhoodand into adult life disappeared. Matthew's Gospel was my favourite, perhaps not surprising as theologians tell us it is Jewish in character, intended to bring Jews and Gentiles together. What Matthew's Gospel means to me, in my own discipleship, is to hear the truth, and do it, for the Kingdom is our childhood inheritance. So one Sunday morning, after much 'soul searching', I went to a local church, terrified to walk through the doors. But I did. I was baptised and confirmed in that same church many months later, along with three of my little grandchildren. Raylia Chadwick (Reader Emeritus at Manchester Cathedral) Suggested Actions
Join the conversation!Share your thoughts on this month's reflection on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #MoreThanSunday We'd love to see you join our # MoreThanSunday Facebook group. |