Our readings this week are all over the place! The 'official' ones are Genesis 21.8–21 and Matthew 10.24–39, but at Fresh Grounds we'll be using Matthew 10:5a,7-8,16-20, and at Forest Church Mark 5:1-20! (I told you this weekend had variety!)

So embracing the variety, here's a thought from each in the order we're likely to meet them on Sunday:

• Genesis shows us one of the most beautiful descriptions of prayer in the Bible.  God hears, and responds not to an eloquent, erudite, well-crafted moment of intercession, but to the cry of a child in distress.  We don't always need to have the right words - or even words at all: we can just tell our Father how we are, however that comes out.  He still knows, he still loves, and he's still there for us.

• In Matthew 10:24-29 Jesus recognises and calls out quite openly the distress that exists in the world; and that his followers are not going to be immune to it.  In fact, following him can make things even tougher at times.  Nonetheless we know ourselves held by him, even when holding on takes all we have.  Maybe our faith isn't so much a crutch, as it is a walking pole - not something that props us up when we're broken, but something that can help us keep walking when the going gets tough, and enables us, if we're brave enough, to take on more difficult terrain than we otherwise might?

• Matthew 10:5ff shows us Jesus sending his disciples out into the world, carrying the message of the good news.  That good news in this instance is specifically that 'the Kingdom of Heaven has come near'.  And he means near.  In this moment it isn't post-mortem hope being peddled, but a touch it, see it, taste it now sort of reality.  It's experienced not in the abstract, but in the actual - in the healing of the sick, the casting out of the demons, the cleansing of lepers...  the faith we carry isn't something to wrap up and keep safe for later, it's something that's meant to be shared liberally, and generously now in ways that make real differences to people's lives.

• In Mark 5 we meet a man plagued by demons - a whole legion of them - for whom life is massively disordered.  He lives amongst tombs, he self-harms, he refuses clothing.  He can't be controlled or contained.  Yet Jesus sees who he is underneath all the chaos - and speaking to him, brings order.  When the crowds arrive they find him calm, clothed, and in his right mind.  Their response is interesting: they were afraid.  Not calmed, afraid.  Somehow, they realise (and Jesus underlines), they have to accept this man, whom they have feared, whom they have been unable to control, back into their community.  They need to be restored to him, as he has been restored to and by Christ.  Jesus, it seems, is not just about individuals - but about the transformation of whole communities.

So, just for fun, let's run those in reverse order and stitch them all together.  Jesus - God incarnate - spent his time bringing restoration not only to individuals, but to entire communities.  He sent his disciples out to do the same - generously, and abundantly, without counting the cost.  Yet he recognised that there would be cost - that following him, and bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into view in a hurting and hostile world will not always be easy, and will not always be peaceful.  But in the midst of the challenge, the King of that Kingdom is one who doesn't need us to always keep it together, and is perfectly capable of hearing what we mean when all we can do is scream.  And holds us, and encourages us, through it all in love - as a parent, tenderly caring for a child.

Whad'ya know... maybe there's some common ground after all.  Ready to stand on it in faith?