Doing what's right...and being what's right

The readings for Sunday 18th July 2010, the 8th Sunday after Pentecost ( Proper 11) of Year C are :
Amos 8:1-12 and Psalm 52, Colossians 1:15-28,Luke 10:38-42

I guess that no one other than the sociopath wants to do the wrong thing!
But we also seem to have a bit of difficulty doing the right thing.
St Paul at one stage is so frustrated with all this that he protests
It is almost as though the more I try to do the right thing
the more likely I am to do the wrong thing.

he says in Romans 7 for example

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ^{...he goes on in verse 18 .......} I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

This is quite a complex, yet real argument about our inner struggle with sin
and our difficulty with doing right
The key to doing right is understanding that it will not just happen accidentally
It will be a decision we make
and which we stick to.
Unless we decide to do the right thing
it will not just turn up out of the blue.

The lessons point us to various dimensions of this reality
Amos the prophet does not shy away from
telling the people that they have not done what is right.
he suggests, what we all basically know to be true,
that we actually know what is right, merciful and just.
For Amos wrong has come about because the people have
chosen to NOT do it.

you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

Yes, when we not only ignore the plight of the needy
but we also exploit them
make no mistake
we are not doing what God wants.
This sort of wanton abandonment of what God wants
will bring about a famine
not so much of of food and water
but of the living Bread and of the Word.
When we choose not to act as God's people
we starve ourselves of the very food
that will keep us spiritually alive.

How to do right
Paul's teaching is clear for us
we do what is right by keeping
Jesus at the Centre
of our life and faith
The work of reconciliation in us happens
as we continue secure in our relationship
with Jesus
who is as Paul says
The image of the invisible God.
We see the will of God made visible in Christ.
This is why the other picture we see is the contrast of this morning's Gospel.
Two sisters,
Martha and Mary,
who pay attention to Jesus in different ways.
What ever else we may make of this story
there is perhaps a warning here for us
of what is a great danger
for us.
Let us not make the mistake
of thinking that extreme busy-ness
is the same thing as doing God's will.
We are often guilty of this.
We mistake busy-ness
for faithfulness.
So the point of the story
is that Mary who sits
at Jesus feet
is doing the right thing.
This rankles us somewhat,
as indeed it rankles her sister,
we have sometimes sat at meetings
and said this to each other.
So careless are we with what is committed to us
that we make the mistake of thinking

• that doing anything is better than doing nothing
• that activity is always a sign of doing good
• that paying attention to what God wants of us is a waste of time

This is not what we are getting this morning
Quite the reverse.
the lessons perhaps help us to see the great dangers in these attitudes
when we do not pay attention
when we do not know what it is that Jesus wants us to do
then we are not actually so much
in danger of being diverted
as in peril for our life.
and on the threshold of sin.

We make choices all the time

the choices that as Christians

we seek to make

should be God's choices

How sure are we that the choices we make

for our own convenience

for our own comfort

out of our own busy-ness

are attentive to what God wants?

We recognise what God wants

in our openness

to what Jesus wants

are we so busy fussing around

that we do not take the time to listen

So listen now...

Today

and each day

can there be a time in your daily prayers

(do you indeed pray?)

to ask the question

if there is one thing that you want me to hear today then what is it?

Lord, this week

let me put aside the busy-ness that I so easily find

which fills my life

and let me hear you speaking

and give me courage to respond.

Outrageous living

The readings for Sunday 21st March 2010. Lent 5 (formerly known as Passion Sunday) Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8

This story (John 12:1-8) in which a woman pours strong perfumed oil over Jesus, spikenard (here), always reminds me of an incident with our eldest child who one day aged 2 or three sprinkled a whole bottle of perfume over herself and through the house. The perfume was aptly name Poison

It helped me to appreciate a number of things:

• How quickly kids learn to emulate their parents without any fear of consequences.


• The difference between perfume and scent (not immediately obvious to men...other than by cost)


• And how children remind us of our stupid attachments. She was having fun...but I mindful of the cost noted how this could have been better spent on the poor!!
  

Yet is is not difficult to understand what is being said here.

God is extravagant.
God pours out on us the costliest perfume there is...Jesus
And the "smell" totally fills our life and transforms us.
We can be scandalised by the waste and extravagance
but in the end...the gesture, the passion, the statement
are more important than the meanness
which we are so often given to.

This story is "over the top", extravagant, passionate...

even poisonous
Because God is like that..."over the top" and passionate.
John's narrative invites us to share God's life
in the way that God shares life with us.

We use the word Passion to describe the climax of this story.
It is a word that is oft used and abused.
Our world almost uses is as a synonym for lustful.
Our "passionate" relationships
are filled with bodily heat, and risk
of daring and bravado.
Passion puts us in a place
where we usually do not like to be.
(Certainly not after the age of 30!)

As we go back to the linguistic roots
we discover that Passion
does not mean "hot steamy sex" at all
it means suffering
So this is why we refer to the stories of Jesus's arrest and crucifixion
as The Passion.

Connection
If we think this through then we understand something fairly important
about God,

about our call to be like God,
and about the challenge to be passionate.
And it is that

LOVE and SUFFERING
are so intimately connected
that they can't actually be separated.
If we are to Love Passionately then we will
we will Suffer.
The great theme of John's gospel
is that God Loves us
his people and his creation
so much so that he will give us a Son
who will be the total expression of his love for us
More than this,

this Son
who is God's great gift
will be poured out over us,

over the world,

over those who believe,

over humanity
with the same extravagance
that we witness in this story
of the most precious ointment
just being flung about
as if there is no tomorrow.

Do we get this?
or do we, like Judas,
stand back and see, not the invitation to throw ourselves into life and love
but instead to hold back and say..What a waste?

it is "a waste" certainly
but there is also a sense in which you cannot love any other way!
If you are to love
then you are to love passionately
if you love passionately then there will be pain.
This pain, this suffering
will in itself be redemptive
and open up our lives to a new way of being human.

This is risky and powerful stuff.
It is poisonous

We need to scrutinise our own lives and relationships:
Are they passionate?

Do we want them to be?
Where do we spend more energy protecting ourselves, holding back
so that we might not be hurt?
Are we afraid to share our thoughts,

to discuss and admit our failures?
Can we admit weakness,

say sorry,

risk rejection?
If passion means suffereing then it will mean all these things.
We are not here talking about the relationships with acquaintances and people we don't really know about
this is about the relationships we want and need to work.
Do we wonder why things have gone cold, have we lost the means of being passionate,
the courage to risk being hurt or to be criticised.


This week
Where is God calling us to confront our own meanness in our human relationships?

Can we open ourselves to being more passionate?

Pray for confidence to trust God's promises

that through the Passion and Death of our Lord and Saviour,

even though this means suffering,

there is also redemption and a new way of living

JESUS, you love us passionately
as you are anointed with an extravagant gift of love
so you also anoint us with the passionate gift of your life

Grant me the courage to live passionately
give me the desire to live life as you show us how to live
let me live expansively in your Spirit
rather than narrowly in my smallness
for you are my Lover
you are my Passion
you are my Hope

The right thing

The readings for Sunday 22nd July, Proper 11 of Year C are :
Amos 8:1-12 and Psalm 52, Colossians 1:15-28,Luke 10:38-42

I guess that no one other than the sociopath wants to do the wrong thing!
But we also seem to have a bit of difficulty doing the right thing.
St Paul at one stage is so frustrated with all this that he protests
It is almost as though the more I try to do the right thing
the more likely I am to do the wrong thing.

he says in Romans 7 for example

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ^{...he goes on in verse 18 .......} I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

This is quite a complex, yet real argument about our inner struggle with sin
and our difficulty with doing right
The key to doing right is understanding that it will not just happen accidentally
It will be a decision we make
and which we stick to.
Unless we decide to do the right thing
it will not just turn up out of the blue.

The lessons point us to various dimension of that
Amos the prophet does not shy away from
telling the people that they have not done what is right.
he suggests, what we all basically know to be true,
that we actually know what is right, merciful and just.
For Amos wrong has come about because the people have
chosen to NOT do it.

you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

Yes, when we not only ignore the plight of the needy
but we also exploit them
make no mistake
we are not doing what God wants.
This sort of wanton abandonment of what God wants
will bring about a famine
not so much of of food and water
but of the living Bread and of the Word.
When we choose not to act as God's people
we starve ourselves of the very food
that will keep us spiritually alive.

How to do right
Paul's teaching is clear for us
we do what is right by keeping
Jesus at the Centre
of our life and faith
The work of reconciliation in us happens
as we continue secure in our relationship
with Jesus
who is as Paul says
The image of the invisible God.
We see the will of God made visible in Christ.
This is why the other picture we see is the contrast of this morning's Gospel.
Two sisters,
Martha and Mary,
who pay attention to Jesus in different ways.
What ever else we may make of this story
there is perhaps a warning here for us
of what is a great danger
for us.
Let us not make the mistake
of thinking that extreme busy-ness
is the same thing as doing God's will.
We are often guilty of this.
We mistake busy-ness
for faithfulness.
So the point of the story
is that Mary who sits
at Jesus feet
is doing the right thing.
This rankles us somewhat,
as indeed it rankles her sister,
we have sometimes sat at meetings
and said this to each other.
So careless are we with what is committed to us
that we make the mistake of thinking

• that doing anything is better than doing nothing
• that activity is always a sign of doing good
• that paying attention to what God wants of us is a waste of time

This is not what we are getting this morning
Quite the reverse.
the lessons perhaps help us to see the great dangers in these attitudes
when we do not pay attention
when we do not know what it is that Jesus wants us to do
then we are not actually so much
in danger of being diverted
as in peril for our life.
and on the threshold of sin.

We make choices all the time

the choices that as Christians

we seek to make 

should be God's choices

How sure are we that the choices we make

for our own convenience

for our own comfort

out of our own busy-ness

are attentive to what God wants?

We recognise what God wants

in our openness

to what Jesus wants

are we so busy fussing around

that we do not take the time to listen

So listen now...

Today

and each day

can there be a time in your daily prayers 

(do you indeed pray?)

to ask the question

if there is one thing that you want me to hear today then what is it?

Lord, this week

let me put aside the busy-ness that I so easily find 

which fills my life

and let me hear you speaking

and give me courage to respond.

Over the top

The readings for Sunday 25th March . Lent 5 (formerly known as Passsion Sunday) Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8

This story (John 12:1-8) in which a woman pours strong perfumed oil over Jesus, spikenard (here), always reminds me of an incident with our eldest child who one day aged 2 or three sprinkled a whole bottle of perfume over herself and through the house. The perfume was aptly name Poison

It helped me to appreciate a number of things:

• How quickly kids learn to emulate their parents without any fear of consequences.
• The difference between perfume and scent (not immediately obvious to men...other than by cost)
• And how children remind us of our stupid attachments. She was having fun...but I mindful of the cost noted how this could have been better spent on the poor!!
  

Yet is is not difficult to understand what is being said here. God is extravagant.
God pours out on us the costliest perfume there is...Jesus
And the "smell" totally fills our life and transforms us.
We can be scandalised by the waste and extravagance
but in the end...the gesture, the passion, the statement
are more important than the meanness
which we are so often given to.

This story is "over the top", extravagant, passionate...even poisonous
Because God is like that..."over the top" and passionate.
John's narrative invites us to share God's life
in the way that God shares life with us.

We use the word Passion to describe the climax of this story.
It is a word that is oft used and abused.
Our world almost uses is as a synonym for lustful.
Our "passionate" relationships
are filled with bodily heat, and risk
of daring and bravado.
Passion puts us in a place
where we usually do not like to be.
(Certainly not after the age of 30!)

As we go back to the linguistic roots
we discover that Passion
does not mean "hot steamy sex" at all
it means suffering
So this is why we refer to the stories of Jesus's arrest and crucifixion
as The Passion.

Connection
If we think this through then we understand something fairly important
about God, about our call to be like God,
and about the challenge to be passionate.
And it is that LOVE and SUFFERING
are so intimately connected
that they can't actually be separated.
If we are to Love Passionately then we will
we will Suffer.
The great theme of John's gospel
is that God Loves us
his people and his creation
so much so that he will give us a Son
who will be the total expression of his love for us
More than this, this Son
who is God's great gift
will be poured out over us, over the world, over those who believe, over humanity
with the same extravagance
that we witness in this story
of the most precious ointment
just being flung about
as if there is no tomorrow.

Do we get this?
or do we like Judas
stand back and see not the invitation to throw ourselves into life and love
and say...What a waste?

it is "a waste" certainly
but there is also a sense in which you cannot love any other way!
If you are to love
then you are to love passionately
if you love passionately then there will be pain.
This pain, this suffering
will in itself be redemptive
and open up our lives to a new way of being human.

This is risky and powerful stuff.

We need to scrutinise our own lives and relationships:
Are they passionate? Do we want them to be?
Where do we spend more energy protecting ourselves, holding back
so that we might not be hurt?
Are we afraid to share our thoughts, to discuss and admit our failures?
Can we admit weakness, say sorry, risk rejection?
If passion means suffereing then it will mean all these things.
We are not her talking about the relationships with acquaintances and people we don't really know about
this is about the relationships we want and need to work.
Do we wonder why things have gone cold, have we lost the means of being passionate,
the courage to risk being hurt or to be criticised.


This week
Where is God calling us to confront our own meanness in our human relationships? Can we open ourselves to being more passionate?

Pray for confidence to trust God's promises that through the Passion and Death of our Lord and Saviour, even though this means suffering, there is also redemption and a new way of living

JESUS, you love us passionately
as you are anointed with an extravagant gift of love
so you also anoint us with the passionate gift of your life

Grant me the courage to live passionately
give me the desire to live life as you show us how to live
let me live expansively in your Spirit
rather than narrowly in my smallness
for you are my Lover
you are my Passion
you are my Hope