How do we know that we are loved?

Readings for The Second Sunday in Lent, 20th March 2011 can be taken from Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17. [ Matthew 17:1-9..(if not used two weeks ago) features in the older lectionary]



During this early part of Lent we focus on the need to REPENT.
Christians talk about this a lot.
Turning away from sin,
asking forgiveness
saying sorry: to God and to those we have sinned against.
It is an important idea.
More than an idea, it is something that needs to happen,
we all know this

We could make many observations
and no doubt will.
I want today, however,
to just put together this idea
with what the Bible readings offer us,
because today the Scriptures are filled with hope
and we have the most famous bible verse
for Anglicans, and indeed all Christians, which reminds us of this

God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but have eternal life
John 3:16

These words that we know so well
contain in a nutshell
all that is good, true, hopeful and profound
about what God is doing in our lives and the world.
At the heart of it
we are reminded that our God is the God who LOVES
that everything is done out of love, because of love
in order that we might be loved and that we might love better.

Jesus invites Nicodemus to be 'born again from above'.

This process of being "born again"
is difficult for Nicodemus (and us) to understand.
What is interesting about it
is that although we often see ourselves
as passive receivers of God's grace
of this 'being born again'
[that is, we sit back and God does it to us]
there is more force in it than that
"You must be born again", says Jesus.
We have to submit to it, to desire it, to want it!
Repentance is like that
it requires that we invite its cooperation
that we want to repent
we want to be born again.

It will not just happen.
we need to invite cooperation
we need to decide that we are going to make this happen.

This is not neat and tidy,
and maybe we would like it to be more so
but that is what sin, repentance, prejudice and reconciliation
are like.
They are not black and white
but grey and less grey,
grey and greyer.

And the mystery of reconciliation, being born again,
repentance
is not so much bought and sold
as entered into
and lived out.
It is this that Abram is invited into
when God says:

Set out from your country. to a new land that I will show you
I will bless you , and in you all the earth will be blessed

This great message of hope and promise
is the journey of faith
which we are called to as individuals
but now also as a nation.
But it does not
and will not
just happen.
We have to set out and invite it.
We have to be born again
We have to repent.

This week

• Where does God call you to make a new beginning
• -----by rejecting what you have done wrong in the past (repentance)
• -----by opening yourself to the Spirit of God (being born again)
• -----by embracing a new spirit in your life (reconciliation)
• Is there one thing I can do this week to make something happen to unfold God's working in my life?

God's kindness.

Romans 2:1-16-A Sermon preached at Evensong Sunday 30th January 2011

Do you not realise that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance (Romans2:4)

As we come to the end of a Sunday and worship quietly

quite often we are invited to reflect

on that which separates us from God

that which is less than we want it to be

that which we want to put right.

In order that we might orient ourselves to live well

to live properly.

St Paul reminds us that God desire for us

is not one of punishment

but one of kindness, forbearance and patience

So we do not come with a sense of fear and foreboding

but rather one of confidence that, as Paul says elsewhere,

everything works together for good.

God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

God's kindness invites us to live our lives differently.

So tonight:

1. Take time to bring to God any things for which you know you need forgiveness

And also to pray for insight into other areas where we may need forgiveness

but have perhaps forgotten or suppressed.

Perhaps we need to pray for insight and courage to bring our own sinfulness

to God for healing, wholeness, forgiveness!

2. We are also reminded from a number of parables which Jesus tells

that God's kindness and generosity to us

should also result in a similar generosity on our behalf.

We should forgive as we have been forgiven.

Where do you need to be forgiving?

Where has your heart been hardened towards another

and you have refused to forgive

Do you not realise that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance

Repentance means that we should live differently

Imagine if we went to God and asked for forgiveness

And God said NO!

But that is not what happens

We come always expecting forgiveness

and God always forgives us.

So it should be for us

Never refusing to forgive

those who seek our forgiveness.

As we sit for a few moments

We pray for God to forgive us

and know that there is nothing

that God cannot, does not and will not forgive.

Even as God is kind to us

so let us also pray for grace to be forgiving.

Making a difference....Easter Day

I am glad that we are spared in the Southern hemisphere the incessant link of Easter with Spring.
Although almost everything we do symbolically and liturgically
is redolent of the Northern and Western hemsipheres
here in the south, it is dry, dusty and dying
as autumn sets in.
So we do not have to grapple too much with the idea that
Easter is just a sort of universal principle
of death and rebirth
like the bulbs that are planted
and come back to life
or the lambs which skip in the fields
and the chickens that hatch on the supermarket shelves!!


What then is Easter for us?

It is caught up, I suggest with the rumour of Easter
that spreads amongst the early disciples
that things can be made new
that things will change
that life will be different.
That difference is spelled out
in the focus on baptism
that is so much for us the focus of Easter.
In saying
I turn to Christ
whether as a baptismal candidate
or renewing our promises
we are seeking a radical re-identification
of our lives with something that is important.
We don't just want life to be the same
we want it to change.
That is not to say that we are called to flit around from pillar to post
never settling at anything or anywhere,
but rather that there are aspects of our lives
which need to change.

The baptismal vows invite us to repent of sin
who of us in our right minds would not do this
I don't want to be a thief, a liar, a cheat, an adulterer.
Easter says, then don't.
Live differently.
I am invited to reject selfishness
a hard ask in today's world.
We all know that
piles of stuff, and an endless supply of everything
will not give us what we want.
That "looking after number one: is a vain and empty philosophy
Strangely as we look at families bringing babies to be baptised
we see a radical challenge to selfishness
right in the most obvious place.
People commit themselves to live with each other
not selfishly
but giving their lives to each other,
parents to children, wives and husbands to each other.
We reject this mystery of the unselfish life at our peril.
We are understanding on a global scale
that we need to live cooperatively
with each other, with our environment
if we do not live unselfishly, then we will not live at all


And finally I renounce evil that pattern of life
which will say principally
that other people are for my use and benefit.
This is is both a "micro" pattern and a "macro" pattern.

Micro evil exists, for example, when I think that I can use other people
for my own fulfilment.
This is a warped view of relationships.
It is the parent who enslaves their child through guilt
It is the boss who exploits the worker.
It is the friend who use their friendship to manipulate their friend
rather than to set free.
This is the level at which most of us seem to choose to operate most of the time.

There are bigger patterns.
Where wealthy countries (like our own)
exploit the resources of the world disproportionately
where we abuse our power so that we get wealthier
whilst the poor get poorer.
There are iniquities like prostitution, pornography and the drug trade
which treat people liek commodities.
Easter says there is a possibility to say NO!
I reject evil

If we appreciate nothing else at Easter
we are called to appreciate that
the bold words
I turn to Christ
are words of change and words of action.
They are the possibility that things will be different
and end to sin, selfishness and evil.
We make an individual commitment to this.

Of course there is a sense in which this will all go pear-shaped.
That is not the point.
because we can come back and make this commitment
again and again if necessary.
It is a freedom to understand that things can and will be different.
I am part of that.
And so so are you.

Do you turn to Christ?

Struggling with failure and success

Although we may try to inoculate ourselves
against pain, suffering and the effects of evil
this is not possible in this life
reading for Sunday 3rd October 2009: The 18th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27) Job 1:1; 2:1-10; Psalm 26; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16. Plenty of good readings ...one for each day!

Most of us at times are overwhelmed by the sense of things going wrong in our lives.

The readings for this week tap into some of the most common and obvious tragedies that ordinary human beings face

Job, a man of legendary faith, has to deal with sickness in his own life and tragedy in his family.

The letter to the Hebrews is written to a church which feels itself in great danger and constantly under threat of persecution

The Gospel opens up the question of what divorce might mean in people's lives

and in reminding us about the great treasure that small children are

almost every week we are faced with the awfulness of people who abuse the trust of children committed to their care

So we might (and do) ask:

Where is God in all this?

Is the all powerful God not really in control?

The traditional, but not necessarily satisfying, answer is that

much evil is due to our own wilfulness

and it is wrong and innacurate (even though tempting)

to lay it at the feet of God.

God did not cause a maniac to shoot young girls,

or war criminals to torture and rape

But we need to ask the legitimate question:

why does God permit these things?

(Perhaps we also need to realise, too, that

this is also not a correct way of naming this issue and that

God does not permit it either!

But we do insist on inflicting it!)

Wilfulness

God does not stand in the way of our wilfulness.

To do so would be to cause individuals to become little more than robots.

But we are more dynamically and powerfully created than that,

this is because above all else we are created to love.

In order to be able to love

we have to be able to choose to do it.

Love that is not freely chosen is not love,

it may be blackmail,

or bribery or selfish seeking of advantage

but it is not love.

To love requires that we give ourselves unconditionally.

We cannot love and say.....

I will love you if you love me

We cannot say I will love you as long as things are going along OK

To give any meaning to love at all means

that we give and do not count the cost.

This is hard stuff

at times we find that we will fail

which is why in our system of belief there needs to be scope for forgiveness and repentance.

We will sometimes get it wrong,

we will sometimes be betrayed.

We will sometimes be the betrayer.

As with all these things we see in the life of Jesus

love demonstrated dramatically.

And we see there persecution and failure.

We see the need for forgiveness and the need to start again.

This week

As we reflect on our human relationships:

where are we called to give this unconditional love?

Do we hold ourselves back?

Is there a way we can be more open, more vulnerable?

Are there aspects of failure and wilfulness in our loving relationships

that we need to seek forgiveness for

are there places where the strategy is repentance

we might interpret that as meaning weighing up the failure of the past

and looking for a small way to begin again?

I do not suggest that this is easy, or without cost.

It is indeed, very costly?

In seeing our failure to love

the question is not so much why are we and others so bad at this

but will we keep on trying to love unconditionally

Finding our deepest identity

[During Lent we will be following a local series of lections.If you are looking for the Common Lectionary References try here Revised Common Lectionary]

This Sunday 1st March 2009 the focus reading is Mark 1:9-15. Mark's account of the baptism of Jesus

A lot happens in the first chapter of Mark. In the space of these few (only 7) verses...Jesus is baptised, he hears the voice of God, he goes into the wilderness and is tempted by Satan. John is arrested, Jesus goes back to Galilee and he makes a public declaration of what his ministry is about.

"The time is fulfilled 

and the kingdom of God has come near

therefore I call you to repent and believe in the good news"

It's a lot!

The Spirit affirms Jesus in the profoundest way possible

What ever it means, Jesus hears the voice of God saying

"You are my Son, and I love you, and I am well-pleased with you"

What does God say to you? What is God saying to me?

At our deepest level?

In Lent we are being invited to pay attention to God.

The idea of God speaking to us

is not without problem.

What do we mean by it?

It is not clear, for example, in this passage

whether Mark wants us to understand this as an external, audible voice.

Whether others might have heard it,

or whether this is just fanciful stuff.

I suspect if we allow ourselves to accept this passage,

not worrying too much about the mechanics of what is being addressed

that many of us would allow that God might be speaking to us

(heart-to- heart someone suggested to me during the week).

The wilderness

What unlocks some of this for us is that the same Spirit

who speaks this deep affirmation of Jesus's personhood

drives (a very strong word) Jesus into the wilderness.

This wilderness as we know, is an ambivalent place,

at once threatening (beasts)

but also where we are thrown back on total reliance on God.

It is as though Jesus not only has to hear the affirmation

but also then to go and appropriate it.

This needs the confrontation and threat of the wilderness.

It is not just nice words.

What might God be saying to you at this time of your life?

Can you take time this week to struggle with that a bit?

What don't I like about what God is saying to me?

Where do I resist? Where am I vulnerable?

Where do I deceive myself...about myself/about God?

It is out of this struggle

that Jesus comes to some realization

of what is happening!

The time is now, God is close

Things must change...I need to repent, to behave differently

(what will this mean for me today)

The time is NOW!

This Good News, if we are to believe it,

is for now

and will affirm us at our deeepest  level.

It will require some change,

and that we trust God for all that is necessary to effect it.

It is not without beasts,

but also with angels!

Do we trust God enough to enter into this?

THIS WEEK

• What is God saying to me at my deepest level (heart to heart)?
• Can I strip back everything and allow the wilderness to speak this to me?
• Will I decide to embrace the freedom that is being offered? To be free of sin? To live as one who tries to accept others? To embrace the possibility of failure? To trust only God?
• What is to stop me doing this now?

+

Coming back to God

Reading for Sunday 25th January 2009 are for the 3rd Sunday in Epiphany and can be taken from: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; and Mark 1:14-20

Unfortunately most of us know only one thing about the prophet Jonah
and that is that he was swallowed by a big fish!
It is of course a compelling story, but what is it actually about.
Most of us don’t know that Jonah was actually running away from God
nor that God had asked him to go to the roughest toughest place in the world and tell the people to repent
(no wonder he ran away)

When he finally yields to God’s will
he gets annoyed with God
because God accepts the repentance of the Ninevehites
and doesn’t just blast them out of the water!
This repentance is a call to change our ways
As we continue to focus on the call of Jesus
are we like Jonah and running hell for leather in the other direction?
and/or are we also angry that some people seem to get closer to God than we do? Particularly angry that so often it seems they are the ones who don’t deserve it.

The Call to Repent is genuine
This call that we hear to get serious is a genuine one
God is not playing games with us
but are WE playing games with God
The time is short
people need to be healed
Sinners need forgiveness
It is not a call to wait until it is convenient
It is a call to act now.
So we see:
these disciples drop everything and act
those who, like Jonah, run away are pursued by a devouring spirit. The sources of discomfort and disease may well be our own wilfulness

Where am I being invited to act, and to act now?
Where am I running scared?
Where am I resentful of God’s grace to others?

The call to repent is a genuine one
It is not only to other people via my mouth (it may be)
It is also to me...to you
And yes, the time is short
...the time to act is now….

This week we follow our Christianity Explained course theme of Repentance: Ezekiel 36:25–27;Psalm 130; Acts 17:24–31; Mark 8:34–38 (Common Lectionary themes for Sunday 32 can be found here )

Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us there is no such thing as Cheap Grace
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, (it is) baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
What do we make of the promises that we have been thinking about that come to us as free gift from God?
God is not just toying with us.
He is not suggesting that there is no such thing as a free lunch,
or that there is always a catch
but rather that now, having heard the promises of God:
For example the new heart promised by Ezekiel's God, or the washing away of sin,
the gift of abundant and eternal life
promise by Jesus to those who are born again
If we are to live out of these promises
then we are to live rather differently.
We cannot have a different quality of life
and just go on living as though nothing has changed.
This is Bonhoeffer's point... no cheap grace...
there are consequences
not because God is tricky
but because God wants us to live our lives well
If we want forgiveness, then we must act as if forgiven
We must live differently, we must forgive,
we need to confront our own darkness: sin, selfishness and evil
If we want God to be close
then we must live close to God
..prayer, worship service
will be the watchwords...
let's not play games.
Quality relationships?
Then let's love unconditionally.

This repentance, is about making a choice to live rather differently.
Not just about dealing with the bad stuff
(though it is that)
but also about living the faithful, humble, life of Christian integrity.
Stop playing games.

We remind ourselves again

God who is rich in mercy
out of the great love with which he loved us
even when we were dead through our trespasses
made us alive together with Christ.

May we choose to live out of that promise

Enter the tomb

Easter Day . For a selection of readings see here Isaiah 25:6-9;Acts 10:34-43;Psalm 118:1-2,14-24; 1 Cor 15:1-11; John 20:1-18; Mark 16:1-8

Easter is not about avoiding death

It is about choosing to not be defeated by it

Today, as every Easter Day, we are given the opportunity

to reaffirm our Christian commitment.

We are asked:

Do you turn to Christ? and we will gladly reply

I turn to Christ.

We are asked also three questions

about what we will do

to put this into practice

Do you repent of your sins?

We choose to admit our past failing

and today, on this day of new beginning,

Easter Day

we promise to live our life differently.

Do you reject selfish living?

When we reject selfishness

we must find ways to be kind, to be generous, to share

We cannot combat selfishness and not share.

Finally we are asked a serious question

Do you reject evil?

We might ask ourselves: but what is evil?

And it is not an easy question.

But it revolves around the way we view other people.

Each one of us is made in the image of God,

and therefore we should treat all other people

with equal dignity and respect,

but do we do that?

When we see people as commodities rather than individuals,

when we think only of people as sexual objects

when we see anyone as disposable

we are assenting to evil in the profoundest way.

When we are silent, when we should speak out,

or when we trivialise the lives of others

and say that they, their problems, their aspirations

are not worthwhile

we diminish ourselves, and each other.

This is serious stuff

But it is a choice we make

When we ask ourselves 

What is it that makes Christian experience of death

Of sin, of selfishness and of  evil 

Different from that of others

It is that we choose to enter the tomb.

We do not escape death, pain or sin.

Rather we believe that those things ]

Are not the last word

And we choose to live our life differently.

It is as we choose

As we exercise our freedom

As we decide

To follow Christ

To repent

To reject selfishness

And to renounce evil

 This is not passive

We do nto stand pn the edge of the death experience

And peer in.

Each of us who has grieved

Knows that the mystery of death

Is that it is as we get into it

That we discover

That we pass through it

And are transformed.

The little deaths, 

Sin, selfishness and evil

All have the same dynamic.

We are not to sit passively  by and do nothing

But we decide to reject them as a way of life

This is not always easy

We often get it wrong

We sometimes fail

That, in a way, doesn’t matter

It is not as we get it right that matters so much

As that we choose to live free from sin, selfishness and evil

We go into the tomb

We do not seek to avoid the death

And we discover that we are set free.

This is a key mystery of life

It is the invitation of Easter.

Choose life, not death

But choose it knowing that it is not an easy way

It requires us to struggle with sin, selfishness and evil.

But it is the only way that is worthwhile.

 

No condemnation

Readings for The Second Sunday in Lent, 17th February 2008 can be taken from Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17. [ Matthew 17:1-9..(if not used two weeks ago) features in the older lectionary]
NOTE: Non Australian readers may like to follow up on the Apology to Indigenous Australians offered this week by the Australian Prime Minister and Parliament (here) which is referred to in this week's homily


During this early part of Lent we focus on the need to REPENT.
Christians talk about this a lot.
Turning away from sin,
asking forgiveness
saying sorry: to God and to those we have sinned against.
It is an important idea.
More than an idea, it is something that needs to happen,
we all know this
and we have seen it played out in very public view for us this week.


We could make many observations
and no doubt will.
I want today, however,
to just put together this idea
with what the Bible readings offer us,
because today the Scriptures are filled with hope
and we have the most famous bible verse
for Anglicans, and indeed all Christians, which reminds us of this

God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but have eternal life
John 3:16

These words that we know so well
contain in a nutshell
all that is good, true, hopeful and profound
about what God is doing in our lives and the world.
At the heart of it
we are reminded that our God is the God who LOVES
that everything is done out of love, because of love
in order that we might be loved and that we might love better.

Jesus invites Nicodemus to be 'born again from above'.

This process of being "born again"
is difficult for Nicodemus (and us) to understand.
What is interesting about it
is that although we often see ourselves
as passive receivers of God's grace
of this 'being born again'
[that is, we sit back and God does it to us]
there is more force in it than that
"You must be born again", says Jesus.
We have to submit to it, to desire it, to want it!
Repentance is like that
it requires that we invite its cooperation
that we want to repent
we want to be born again.

It will not just happen.


Now we have observed the events of this week,
clear in our own minds
are like that too.
They will not just happen
we need to invite cooperation
we need to decide that we are going to make this happen.

This is not neat and tidy,
and maybe we would like it to be more so
but that is what sin, repentance, prejudice and reconciliation
are like.
They are not black and white
but grey and less grey,
grey and greyer.

And the mystery of reconciliation, being born again,
repentance
is not so much bought and sold
as entered into
and lived out.
It is this that Abram is invited into
when God says:
Set out from your country. to a new land that I will show you
I will bless you , and in you all the earth will be blessed
This great message of hope and promise
is the journey of faith
which we are called to as individuals
but now also as a nation.
But it does not
and will not
just happen.
We have to set out and invite it.
We have to be born again
We have to repent.

This week

• Where does God call you to make a new beginning
• -----by rejecting what you have done wrong in the past (repentance)
• -----by opening yourself to the Spirit of God (being born again)
• -----by embracing the new national spirit of apology (reconciliation)
• Is there one thing I can do this week to make somethign happen to unfold God's working in my life?

Drawing close

Readings for the First Sunday in LentFebruary 10, 2008 may be taken from; Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32 ; Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11

It is a great treat to have three highly focussed seasons
one after the other
Advent...leading us to Christmas
Christmas-Epiphany...exploring the mystery of the Word made flesh
and now Lent, causing us to reflect on our lives in a spirit of penitence
as we look to Holy Week and Easter.
Maybe you don'tquite think of it this way.
But let me try and convince you
that what is on offer here is a chance to draw closer to God,
and that drawing close to God
is the best thing for us.
It is not an easy thing, but it is the best!

The readings today are (in a way) introductory to Lent
they set the scene for us.
The Genesis reading is part of the way we talk about
the separation of humanity from God.
Adam and Eve get kicked out of the Garden of Eden!

It is a powerful story which uses legend/myth/poetry/theology
to explore the human condition.
And (for Genesis) the human condition is this:

We find ourselves separated fromGod.
because having been created by God
we chose not to be what God created us to be
rather than being ourselves
we wanted to be God.

This is not a debate about equality/inequality
But rather a statement about the fact that we find oursleves to be fundamentally separated from God.
At the conclusion of the Eden story
we discover that rather than remain in Paradise
we are destined to leave the place God has put us
because we chose to not be what God intended.
This is an important dimension to grasp
while in a sense we are "exiled" from Eden (the place God intends us to be)
we also exiled ourselves
because we wanted to be God
and of course could not live up to this.

The human story from this point onwards
is about how we return to Eden.

The Inner Struggle
The temptations of Jesus point us to the fact
that part of this return to God
is confronting our own inner selves
and turning away from the seductions of untruth
---we will not live by material support (bread) alone
---the magic of the supernatural holds no way forward
---even having all power possible is a dead end

In a way, these tempations

• materialism
  supernaturalism
  megalomania
  

are fundamental human temptations
which every human being will need to confront
in their spiritual journey.

In what ways have I:

• put my trust in the wrong place, and think that possessions, wealth and material goods are the sole purpose of what life is about
• surrendered my autonomy to the supernatural, or to a view of God and the universe which is corrupt and untrue. Have I tried to cause God to fit into my narrow conception rather than open myself to the possibilities of what God is offering me?
• used my power to manipulate others, to abuse and force my will on others

This week

Take time to be quiet with God and to reflect on where you have moved away from God's desire for you to share in abundant life

Look for one thing to do this week which might restore a sense of faithfulness to your call and desire to be God's person in a difficult world

Review this from time to time during the week and have the courage to implement it

In need of forgiveness

Proper6 Sunday 17th June 2007

Luke 7:36-8:3

7:36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.

7:37 And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.

7:38 She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.

7:39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner."

7:40 Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak."

7:41 "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

7:42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?"

7:43 Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."

7:44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

7:45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.

7:46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

7:47 Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."

7:48 Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

7:49 But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

7:50 And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

8:1 Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,

8:2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,

8:3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

We, each of us, are capable of consciously or unconsciously
doing some awful things.
When we act out of rage, or impatience, or frustration
or just sheer badness
we potentially separate ourselves from God and other people.

We invest an awful lot of energy in either pretending this isn't so
or that things are some how otherwise.
This process begs the question about how conscious we are
or can be of such behaviour.

But we see a number of times in the Gospels
people who actually become aware
of their own unconscious behaviour
and seek to change.
They come to Jesus and he opens up to them (us!)
to enable this process to happen.

This story shows us that this process
is not reserved for the pious
or the intelligent
and certainly not for the good
But rather for the one's who realise they need to repent.
They become conscious and start to live differently.

What is also interesting in this particular story
is that Jesus does not see the righteous or the religious
as being particularly welcoming of this process.
Quite the reverse.
Religion often seems to decrease the likelihood that people will be able to see the need for this.

This is exposed by judgmentalism.
When we all to readily see the faults of others
but fail to see that
we are just like too.

THIS WEEK
Where is God inviting me to be conscious of what is happening in my life?
Where does my own judgmentalism of others exposed my own need to repent?
Pray for consciousness of Christ living with and in me, for grace to repent, and for courage to be non-judgmental

Lord have mercy

Isaiah 55:1-9

Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

(readings are changed from earlier in the week as the wrong ones were posted)

In this season we have something of a focus on the need for repentance
Oh, said my colleague, are you going to preach about sin again.
No, I said, I am going to preach about repentance.!
The subtlety may escape us but repentance is not only about sin.
Repentance is about lifestyle.
It is about how we choose to live our life,
and the way we choose to live our life is about more than saying sorry for the things we have stuffed up.
The Gospel reading reminds us of this:
First it breaks the connection that we often make between disaster and sin.
In modern terms we might ask: Do those who get blown up by terrorist bombers
get caught in that position because they have been particularly sinful?
Do those who suffer the consequences of earthquake do so because they have done something wrong?
The answer to these questions seems obvious to us when put like this.
These things happen!
There is not necessarily a particular cause or connexion.
BUT, says Jesus, that is not to say that we should therefore not care about how we live our life.
These events are not punishments
but they do help us to call to mind
that life is fragile
and that we need to live our life as though it might end today.
Bceause indeed it might!
The tragedy is not a punishment.
But the call to repentance is constant.
The call to repentance
And what exactly is that call?
We could suggest it has two parts:
a positive and a negative.
Paul reminds us that there are things we do wrong,
some of those (and I stress only some) are sexual immorality,
testing God...we might call that using the certainty of God's grace and forgiveness
as an excuse to sin....Ah well God will forgive us us any way
This is classically called the sin of presumption,
But there are many other things we know about too:
if we were to list sins that people commit
we could easily get a Top 10!
So Yes! repentance is about saying No to these things,
but it is more than this too!
It is saying No!, seeking forgiveness, and choosing to live life in a different way.
I am not only going to try and control my anger
I am also going to try and nurture patience!
I am not only going refrain from immorality
I am going to work towards developing faithfulness and maturity in my relationships.

Digging
We dig ourselves into difficult places
and we can start to die
or become unfruitful
The gardening image of the fig tree says this
certainly dig out the rubbish
but you also need to ruffle up the soil
add a bit of fertiliser
So our life of repentance is like that.
Certainly get rid of that rubbish
Confession, apology,seeking forgiveness, making amends
these are some of the things we might do
BUT
we need also to ruffle and fertilise
how do I deal with my anger, my greed, my tendency to be judgmental
my selfishness?
Can I think, pray, read discuss with friends how to attack these questions?
are there positive things I can do
that will enable deepening
a chance to be more fruitful.
My repentance will not just be about saying sorry
as important as that is
I need also to make decisions
about how I live my life.