Jesus sent out 72 ordinary, unnamed followers to bring peace, healing and hope into the world. Their quiet faithfulness reminds us that God’s kingdom grows through everyday acts of love and service. As we celebrate St Luke, we explore what it means to be sent by Jesus, accompanied by his presence, and called to make a difference wherever we are.

This is The Slow Apprenticeship — a four-week series for the Sundays of July, recorded with our parish in Hamilton.

Over these four weeks we sit with the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, paired with the unfolding story of Jacob in Genesis. We're listening for what it means to apprentice to Jesus over a lifetime — slowly, patiently, in a culture that has lost the patience for slow things.

Our anchor for the series is a sentence from the French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "Above all, trust in the slow work of God." That trust is what we're learning to walk in.

The kingdom begins not with performance but with a quiet yes to Jesus. We open the series in Matthew 11, where Jesus offers the most counter-cultural invitation of his ministry: come and learn from me. Three Greek words — yoke, easy, rest — unpack what apprenticeship to Jesus actually looks like, when we're done trying to impress him.

Most of us don’t say no to God; we never get round to replying. In Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:1–14), a generous invitation is ignored, then opened to the streets. Discover how God’s grace welcomes us as we are but changes us, and why following Jesus means making room: for him, and for the neighbours around us.