It was Saturday, October 14 last year. The BBC Radio was about to play a pre-recorded interview with a spokesman for Hamas and needed to explain to listeners something in advance…

We enter the story of the Good Samaritan with the dialogue of Jesus and the lawyer. This well-educated lawyer was steeped in Jewish law, but he had never met anyone like Jesus. This rabbi had done miracles, drew crowds, and alienated the religious establishment. The lawyer wanted to test him.

There was that one night when Jesus walked miles and miles on a windblown Galilean sea (Matthew 14:22-33). He had a purpose in setting His disciples off alone in their fishing boat. The sun would go down, the night would pass, and through the storm tossed waves the disciples see the unfathomable. Jesus was walking on water.

Each year, during or on Good Friday, churches and congregations around the world take up offerings for the work of Christ Church in Jerusalem. The offerings we receive underwrite the ministry of our Mercy Fund, which is used by Christ Church throughout the year to relieve suffering of many kinds.

It was at the end of an evening plenary session at New Wineskins Global Mission Conference in 2013 that a healing and peace came over me that was totally unexpected.

Bishop Leslie Newbigin argued that there are two world religions: the Christian faith and everything else. These two world religions can be summed up best as, “One in which we laboriously ascend to God and the other, in which God descends to us” (The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society). To laboriously ascend is to spend your life climbing a spiritual mountain. Picture God at the top imperiously looking down on his creation, while we climb to meet him, suitcases in hand. Backpacks strapped on.