I often experience a grateful little swelling in my heart when I hear of people in the parish responding to different opportunities to either gather, learn, serve or give. The significant number of Maleny parishioners who have given their time, organising the centenary celebrations this weekend is a prime example. Another great response can be found in the three Alpha courses starting at this time. All three Alpha locations – Little Mountain, Caloundra, and Landsborough – are full and we’ve even had to call in extra volunteers to assist; what a terrific response!

Friends, responding to opportunities to gather, learn, serve or give, is, in essence, responding to the voice of God, who never ceases to invite us to desire more in our faith journey, and that’s what we celebrate this Sunday. Sure, on Word of God Sunday, you’ll see the lectionary – the book containing the Sunday readings – enthroned and given extra reverence, but the book is merely a sacramental symbol of the deeper reality of God’s presence, the Word, who became flesh in the person of Jesus.

While the Bible, which contains God’s Word, is our primary means of not just knowing about, but getting to know the person of Jesus, the Word of God is beautifully alive and active in other ways. Thousands of years ago, the ancients looked at the world around them and noticed an order or set of rules in the way the world worked. For Christians, this order was known as the Logos/Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Psalm 147 also offers a beautiful example of this physical order: “[God] sends out his word to the earth… He showers down snow white as wool… The waters are frozen at his touch; he sends forth his word at it melts them.” “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

On this Word of God Sunday, I invite you to a renewed curiosity and desire for discerning God’s living presence in your life. This might find expression in a commitment to pray with Scripture daily for the season of Lent, starting in ten days; it might mean sitting quietly in prayer each day, repeating name of Jesus on your lips and in your heart (did you know that ‘Jesus’ is the only name which contains the Divine presence it signifies? What a beautiful, wonderful and powerful name it is!). Finally, a renewed curiosity for discerning God’s presence – which is to say, a desire to Encounter Jesus – finds chief expression in simply asking for it in prayer! May God bless you with curiosity.