How does the City to Surf teach Christians to be accepting of everyone we meet especially as we celebrate Migrant & Refugee Sunday, August 26, 2018?

The first day of the week, Sunday, speaks to Christians everywhere inviting us once again to disciple ourselves to God, in Jesus, as we go into another week. The City to Surf event today can help us in our discipleship. 

How we do this will be different for each of us but perhaps we can learn from those participating in the City to Surf event today. Here are three things to take with you into every new week to help in your life as a dedicated Christian.

First, the City to Surf has a definite route and a final destination and the participants commit themselves not only to the journey but also to the finish point. Likewise, our spiritual pathway calls us to focus on Christ who is both the way and the end point for our lives. 

We commit to following Christ’s way – his mind and his heart – in our thoughts, words and deeds. And on this World Day of Migrants & Refugees, this means being generous enough to meet Him in everyone we encounter no matter who they are for this is a sure sign of Christian love.

Second, like the City to Surf, the Christian life of holiness requires effort. We do this by recognizing our limitations and our weaknesses before Christ and, in so doing, we are more ready to accept people just as they are no matter where they are from for persistence in seeking Christ’s aid for ourselves and those around us is Christian faith indeed.

Third, notice that on finishing the City to Surf, many a participant wears a smile even as they stop to catch their breath. For us, this means knowing that following Christ is worth it to the end and our joy is to catch our spiritual breath often through prayer knowing that it is the grace of Christ which alone enables us to remain generous, accepting and open to those around us no matter what language they speak for our belief in the risen Christ and his grace is the great Christian hope.

As we come to the Eucharist today, let us give ourselves, body and blood, to wanting God and wanting what God wants for us and those around us. We ask for the grace to let God speak a new language in, with and through us by virtue of our baptism – a covenant language based on the ‘bread’ of faith, hope and love and one filled with the ‘life’ of goodness, beauty and truth.

Gregory Lowe © 2018