Sermon preached at 9.45 am at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton
Sunday 4th July 2010, Trinity V, Proper 9 – Year C
Other versions of this sermon were preached at 8.30am and 11am at St Mary's Lapworth.
Readings: (Gal 6: 7-16) Luke 10: 1-11 & 16-20
My daughter, Caroline, has just returned from a school trip to Snowdonia. It was a week of outdoor pursuits, including gorge walking and climbing Snowdon. In preparation for the trip both our family and the school worked quite hard to ensure that Caroline had all the appropriate kit. As she set off on the trip, with her hiking boots and carefully packed backpack we were confident that she had the things she needed for the different outdoor activities. And just to confirm that all the preparations had paid off, she sent us a text message from the top of Snowdon.
But what a contrast there is between our attitude in kitting Caroline out, the attitude that Jesus had when sending out disciples ahead of him to prepare the ground in the towns and villages that Jesus himself expected to visit. Far from kitting the disciples out, Jesus seems to tell them not to take things with them. Jesus tells them to “carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” If we had read Matthew’s account (Matt 10) we would also have heard Jesus tells the disciples to take no money (not even coppers), no spare tunic and no staff.
Why would Jesus give such instructions? Surely it would be better if the disciples were properly kitted out for their missionary journey?
Well we can only speculate. It seems to me that Jesus wanted to make sure that the disciples were trusting completely in God, rather than trusting in their own skills, talents and resources. This attitude of complete trust and dependence on God is very healthy especially for people who are engaged in God’s work. If you have no resources of your own, but depend completely on what God gives you, then you have no choice but to stay focused on doing God’s work.
And it worked! The seventy returned with joy saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us.” Clearly the seventy had worked many miracles of healing. Jesus said, “See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.” So it seems that the disciples extraordinary trust in God, going out on their mission with no more than the clothes they were wearing, resulted in extraordinary graces and powers to work great miracles. And this was a cause of great rejoicing. But notice the comment of Jesus: “do not rejoice at this…but that your names are written in heaven.” The significant thing is not that the disciples have extraordinary powers, like comic book superheroes, but rather that this is evidence that they share in the life of heaven, the eternal life in the presence of God.
And this pattern of extraordinary dependence on God, and extraordinary earthly powers is by no means unique to this story about the 70 disciples. At the very end of Mark’s gospel (Mark 16: 17) Jesus says, “These are the signs that will be associated with believers; in my name they will cast out devils, they will have the gift of tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick who will recover.” And in the Acts of the Apostles there are lots of stories of the disciples performing healing miracles and of Paul, being unharmed by the bite of a deadly snake.
And in the history of the Church, this story has many resonances. St Francis was deeply struck by precisely this very story, which we heard from the gospel today. He felt called by God to live it out for himself in a very literal way. Francis went on to live in radical poverty, in complete dependence on God and on the gifts of other people. And as we know Francis developed an extraordinary ministry and demonstrated all kinds of miraculous powers, including healing and exorcism.
But what about us? We are ordinary Christians of the 21st century; ordinary believers. Are we too called to this life of radical dependence on God; this life where we go about with no more than the clothes we wear? Are we, too, to receive powers to heal diseases and tread on scorpions and snakes? Well some of us are called by God in a radical way, for example by giving up everything, and going to live in a monasteries or a convent. But probably, for most of us, God does not call most of us to a ministry like that. For most of us our ministries will be much smaller and simpler things; caring for our families, talking to our neighbours, visiting or offering a lift to an elderly person. We might also be called to specific ministries to help in the church, perhaps through a role on the PCC. Or perhaps we are called to a ministries to the wider community. Sometimes we are called to support particular communities groups, or to serve on their committees and help them to play their part in serving the whole community.
The important thing is to be very attentive to what God wants from us; by what ministry he wants us to serve other people. God always supplies the grace needed for the ministries to which he calls us. If the ministries are small then perhaps the grace need not be so big, but if we live our ministries well then perhaps God will call us to bigger things, and give us bigger graces. But we must be attentive to what God wants from us, because it all starts with what God calls us to do.
But we must not deceive ourselves into thinking that we can escape from our radical dependence on God. We all need to build and develop out trust in God, who created us and loves us. Sooner or later any earthly thing that we put our trust in must fail us. Eventually we must all face death. In death we lose all our earthly processions, even our clothes, even our body. In death our utter dependence on God is revealed. Let us pray that by that time we will have learnt to trust completely in God, and let us pray that, like the 70 disciples, we may rejoice to discover that our names are written in heaven. Amen.
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
04 July 2010
17 August 2008
Everybody called to share in the life of heaven
Preached at 9.15am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 17th August 2008
Trinity 13, Proper 15, Year A.
Readings Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: 21-28
Years ago the Church Times published a letter. It said something like this: “Sermons – what is the point of them? Our Vicar’s preached hundreds of sermons over the years and I can’t remember any of them.” The next week the Church Times published a letter in response. It said, “Over the years, my wife’s cooked me thousands of dinners. I can’t remember many of them, but I am ever so grateful.”
I think it is a very, very helpful letter. It reminds us that, just as we need to keep feeding our bodies with food, so we need to keep feeding our souls with the presence of God. Coming to the Eucharist is a good way of doing this, because we encounter God in his Word proclaimed in scripture and when we receive Jesus present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
So, just as we don’t worry that we can’t remember all the good meals that we have eaten, so we should not worry that we can’t remember all the good sermons we’ve heard. And this is a good job, because I know that I have listened to hundreds and hundreds of sermons and I can hardly remember any of them!
But here is the funny thing, although it feels like I can hardly remember any sermons, I can remember two sermons about the particular gospel reading that we heard today! They were completely different sermons, by different preachers given years apart, and yet I can remember them both! And the reason I remember them is that they both surprised me, shocked me! So, I’ll tell you what the two preachers said, and let’s see if I can surprise you!
The first preacher said something like, “Well, of course, the big thing about this gospel reading is that Jesus is so rude to the Canaanite woman. She comes to him, wanting him to heal her daughter. To start with Jesus ignores her. When she won’t go away, he explains that he is sent to the people of Israel, not to the Canaanites. Then she comes and kneels in front of him. He can’t ignore her then, and so he says to her, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ Well you can’t get much ruder than that, can you? Basically he is calling the Canaanites, dogs. Nowadays we might call that racist.”
I found this a deeply shocking viewpoint. I was very surprised. I was not ready to think about Jesus being either “rude” or “racist”, even if the woman was being completely unreasonable. Fortunately Jesus’ tone does change dramatically at this point in the story. The woman answers him very graciously and with great faith. She says, “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table.” She means that Jesus may have been sent to the people of Israel, but the goodness of Jesus spills over beyond the people of Israel. Like crumbs falling from a table it spills over. Perhaps it spills over because it is so abundant. Perhaps it spills over because the people of Israel don’t value it properly, don’t take it seriously enough. Either way, it spills over and the Canaanites get to share in the goodness of Jesus. Jesus is deeply impressed with this answer. He say’s to her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was heeled at that moment.
So that was the surprise from the first preacher. The second preacher to surprise me when discussing this story said something like this: “This was a crucial moment of Jesus. This was the moment when Jesus realised that his mission was for everybody, not just for the people of Israel. This was the moment when he realised that he had come to save, not just the Jews, but the whole world.” Again, this was a big surprise for me. Since Sunday school I have been taught that Jesus came to save the whole world. I thought everybody knew that! It had never occurred to me that Jesus himself must have learned that at some point. Because Jesus has a divine nature and is God we sometimes forget how humble and ordinary his human nature was. Just like us he had to start as baby and grow up. He had to lean things. We sometimes thing of Jesus as being like some great superhero, but in fact in so many ways he was just like us.
Now I have to say that I am not altogether sure that either of the two preachers was entirely correct. There are certainly other considerations here, but the point is that both sermons helped me to move forward in my journey of faith, and remarkably I remembered them both.
So as we leave church today let’s remember that Jesus came to save everybody. That means he came to save each one of you, and he came to save me. And we might think, “I’m not the religious type”, or “I’m a terrible sinner” or “I’m not worth it” but the fact remains that Jesus came for each one of us. God calls each one of us to our place in heaven. Now we all have a journey to walk. Even Jesus had to walk a journey as he grew up and grew in understanding. We all have to grow in love. We all have to grow in repentance. We all have to become good citizens of heaven. Some of us are starting from places a long way from God, places of great sin and darkness and we have a long, long journey ahead of us, but we are still called. God still wants to share the life of heaven with us. Jesus will still give us the grace we need to walk the journey.
And if we are already on the journey, if we are already growing in love, already growing in repentance then let’s work with God on all these other people, who he also calls to heaven. Let’s love them as God loves them. Let’s have hope for them, as God has hope for them. Let’s want to share the life of heaven with them as God does. And this can be quite a challenge. Do I really want to share heaven with that nasty man at the bus top? We need to grow in love. We need to help the man at the bus stop to grow in love. We will be ready for heaven ourselves when our love is like Jesus’ love; when we truly want to share heaven with everybody.
Trinity 13, Proper 15, Year A.
Readings Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: 21-28
Years ago the Church Times published a letter. It said something like this: “Sermons – what is the point of them? Our Vicar’s preached hundreds of sermons over the years and I can’t remember any of them.” The next week the Church Times published a letter in response. It said, “Over the years, my wife’s cooked me thousands of dinners. I can’t remember many of them, but I am ever so grateful.”
I think it is a very, very helpful letter. It reminds us that, just as we need to keep feeding our bodies with food, so we need to keep feeding our souls with the presence of God. Coming to the Eucharist is a good way of doing this, because we encounter God in his Word proclaimed in scripture and when we receive Jesus present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
So, just as we don’t worry that we can’t remember all the good meals that we have eaten, so we should not worry that we can’t remember all the good sermons we’ve heard. And this is a good job, because I know that I have listened to hundreds and hundreds of sermons and I can hardly remember any of them!
But here is the funny thing, although it feels like I can hardly remember any sermons, I can remember two sermons about the particular gospel reading that we heard today! They were completely different sermons, by different preachers given years apart, and yet I can remember them both! And the reason I remember them is that they both surprised me, shocked me! So, I’ll tell you what the two preachers said, and let’s see if I can surprise you!
The first preacher said something like, “Well, of course, the big thing about this gospel reading is that Jesus is so rude to the Canaanite woman. She comes to him, wanting him to heal her daughter. To start with Jesus ignores her. When she won’t go away, he explains that he is sent to the people of Israel, not to the Canaanites. Then she comes and kneels in front of him. He can’t ignore her then, and so he says to her, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ Well you can’t get much ruder than that, can you? Basically he is calling the Canaanites, dogs. Nowadays we might call that racist.”
I found this a deeply shocking viewpoint. I was very surprised. I was not ready to think about Jesus being either “rude” or “racist”, even if the woman was being completely unreasonable. Fortunately Jesus’ tone does change dramatically at this point in the story. The woman answers him very graciously and with great faith. She says, “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table.” She means that Jesus may have been sent to the people of Israel, but the goodness of Jesus spills over beyond the people of Israel. Like crumbs falling from a table it spills over. Perhaps it spills over because it is so abundant. Perhaps it spills over because the people of Israel don’t value it properly, don’t take it seriously enough. Either way, it spills over and the Canaanites get to share in the goodness of Jesus. Jesus is deeply impressed with this answer. He say’s to her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was heeled at that moment.
So that was the surprise from the first preacher. The second preacher to surprise me when discussing this story said something like this: “This was a crucial moment of Jesus. This was the moment when Jesus realised that his mission was for everybody, not just for the people of Israel. This was the moment when he realised that he had come to save, not just the Jews, but the whole world.” Again, this was a big surprise for me. Since Sunday school I have been taught that Jesus came to save the whole world. I thought everybody knew that! It had never occurred to me that Jesus himself must have learned that at some point. Because Jesus has a divine nature and is God we sometimes forget how humble and ordinary his human nature was. Just like us he had to start as baby and grow up. He had to lean things. We sometimes thing of Jesus as being like some great superhero, but in fact in so many ways he was just like us.
Now I have to say that I am not altogether sure that either of the two preachers was entirely correct. There are certainly other considerations here, but the point is that both sermons helped me to move forward in my journey of faith, and remarkably I remembered them both.
So as we leave church today let’s remember that Jesus came to save everybody. That means he came to save each one of you, and he came to save me. And we might think, “I’m not the religious type”, or “I’m a terrible sinner” or “I’m not worth it” but the fact remains that Jesus came for each one of us. God calls each one of us to our place in heaven. Now we all have a journey to walk. Even Jesus had to walk a journey as he grew up and grew in understanding. We all have to grow in love. We all have to grow in repentance. We all have to become good citizens of heaven. Some of us are starting from places a long way from God, places of great sin and darkness and we have a long, long journey ahead of us, but we are still called. God still wants to share the life of heaven with us. Jesus will still give us the grace we need to walk the journey.
And if we are already on the journey, if we are already growing in love, already growing in repentance then let’s work with God on all these other people, who he also calls to heaven. Let’s love them as God loves them. Let’s have hope for them, as God has hope for them. Let’s want to share the life of heaven with them as God does. And this can be quite a challenge. Do I really want to share heaven with that nasty man at the bus top? We need to grow in love. We need to help the man at the bus stop to grow in love. We will be ready for heaven ourselves when our love is like Jesus’ love; when we truly want to share heaven with everybody.
13 July 2008
Our destiny in Christ
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull at Evensong 6.30pm 13/07/08
Readings: Amos 7:7-17 Psalm 63 Ephesians 1: 3-14
Both of our reading today talk about destiny. However the contrast between the two readings could hardly be greater. One talks of a terrible destiny of destruction and death; one talks of blessing, holiness and grace.
Our first reading came from the prophet Amos. Amos prophesied in the 8th Century BC, when God’s chosen people were split into two kingdoms. There was the Northern Kingdom which comprised 10 of the 12 tribes of the original Israel. The Northern Kingdom was known as Israel and it lived in the area around Samaria and Galilee. There was also the Southern Kingdom, based around Jerusalem which was made up of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. Although the two kingdoms were politically separate they still shared the same religion and were all part of God’s chosen people. Something that the kings of the Northern Kingdom found very difficult was that all the citizens of the Northern Kingdom still needed to go to Jerusalem, in the Southern Kingdom several times a year for the religious festivals. Kings of the Northern kingdom were therefore always tempted to set up their own temples, or worse still their own idols in the Northern Kingdom, to stop people going to worship in Jerusalem. God however would not tolerate such behaviour and Israel experienced great political instability as kings came and went quite rapidly.
Somewhere round about 786 BC Jeroboam II came to the throne of Israel. He was a shrewd politician and his 41 year rule of Israel was very successful in terms of things outward and visible. Jeroboam II maintained good relationships with the kingdom of Judah. He recaptured lands that Israel had lost to the Syrians and the Moabites. Above all his economic policies were extremely successful and Israel enjoyed great wealth and prosperity during his reign. Jeroboam II’s relationship with God however appears a little ambiguous. On the one hand Jeroboam II appears to have supported and helped God’s prophets Hosea and Jonah. On the other hand, the worship of Baal and images of cows and calves continued during his reign and seemed to grow in its lavishness with the increasing wealth of the population. Also economic injustices and corruption became a big problem. Jeroboam II colluded with the rich and powerful in his land, and did little to defend the rights of the poor and weak.
And it was to this Northern Kingdom of Israel, in this time of great prosperity, that the prophet Amos was sent. Amos came from the land of Judah, so in some sense he was a foreigner in Israel. He was not a “professional prophet” who set out to make his living through prophecy. Just as today we buy different national newspapers according to what we want to hear, so in 8th century BC Israel, people often paid for and supported the “professional prophets” who said the things that they wanted to hear. Amos is quite clear that he is not a “prophet” but rather one sent by God to prophesy to the people of Israel. And the message that God sends to the people of Israel through Amos is very firm. He wants to see Israel straight and true, like a plumb line. He is critical of the religious cult at Bethel, because the unjust are not sincere in their worship. Of course this message did not always go down well. In our reading today we heard Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, took great exception to it, and complained to the king. Amos was not put off, however, we heard that he also had very strong words for Amaziah.
Throughout his prophecies Amos demands justice and integrity in trade. He is scandalised by the biased weighing scales used to sell food to the poor. He is scandalised that the poor are sometimes sold chaff and the sweepings of wheat, rather than real wheat. He warns of a forthcoming “day of the Lord” which will be a terrible day of justice. He talks of Israel being taken into exile. Scholars think that Amos was prophesising round about 750BC, towards the end of Jeroboam II reign. After Jeroboam died (round about 745BC) Israel experienced political instability and great political pressure from the Assyrians. When the Assyrians finally conquered Samaria in 722 they took and many of the citizens of Israel away into exile.
In sharp contrast to Amos we heard in our New Testament lesson of the wonderful destiny promised to us in Christ. Paul goes on an on about this. First of all he tells us that we have been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. Perhaps we don’t quite know what that means, so Paul elaborates; we were “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. This does not mean that we are already holy and blameless in love, but this is what we are called to. This is what we must seek and must work towards, by practicing as best we can being holy and blameless and by practicing loving the people around us. Of course we know that this is not easy and that we will fail many times, but Paul has an answer for this. He says, “In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, that he lavished on us.” It is not we who make ourselves holy, rather it is the grace that Christ lavishes upon us that makes us holy. Our part is to want it, to pray for it and to do what we can to work towards it. However it is God that actually does it.
St Paul tells us that we are destined for adoption as children of God, through Christ. We are called to be brothers and sisters of Jesus. This is a very high calling. St Paul talks of the inheritance that we will share with Christ. He says that the seal of his spirit that we receive in baptism is the pledge of this inheritance. And what is this inheritance. It is “to live for the praise of the Glory of God.” Elsewhere in the scriptures we might understand this to be to share in the life that Jesus shares with the Father.
So let’s give thanks to God for the great destiny that we have in Christ. Let’s praise God that he considers us as brothers and sisters of Christ, and worthy of sharing the same inheritance as Christ. Let’s do all our part to seek this destiny; to want it, pray for it and work towards it. Let’s not be put off when we fail. Rather, let’s always start again, and in this way we learn to trust and rest in the forgiveness and grace of Christ, which brings this destiny about. Amen.
Readings: Amos 7:7-17 Psalm 63 Ephesians 1: 3-14
Both of our reading today talk about destiny. However the contrast between the two readings could hardly be greater. One talks of a terrible destiny of destruction and death; one talks of blessing, holiness and grace.
Our first reading came from the prophet Amos. Amos prophesied in the 8th Century BC, when God’s chosen people were split into two kingdoms. There was the Northern Kingdom which comprised 10 of the 12 tribes of the original Israel. The Northern Kingdom was known as Israel and it lived in the area around Samaria and Galilee. There was also the Southern Kingdom, based around Jerusalem which was made up of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. Although the two kingdoms were politically separate they still shared the same religion and were all part of God’s chosen people. Something that the kings of the Northern Kingdom found very difficult was that all the citizens of the Northern Kingdom still needed to go to Jerusalem, in the Southern Kingdom several times a year for the religious festivals. Kings of the Northern kingdom were therefore always tempted to set up their own temples, or worse still their own idols in the Northern Kingdom, to stop people going to worship in Jerusalem. God however would not tolerate such behaviour and Israel experienced great political instability as kings came and went quite rapidly.
Somewhere round about 786 BC Jeroboam II came to the throne of Israel. He was a shrewd politician and his 41 year rule of Israel was very successful in terms of things outward and visible. Jeroboam II maintained good relationships with the kingdom of Judah. He recaptured lands that Israel had lost to the Syrians and the Moabites. Above all his economic policies were extremely successful and Israel enjoyed great wealth and prosperity during his reign. Jeroboam II’s relationship with God however appears a little ambiguous. On the one hand Jeroboam II appears to have supported and helped God’s prophets Hosea and Jonah. On the other hand, the worship of Baal and images of cows and calves continued during his reign and seemed to grow in its lavishness with the increasing wealth of the population. Also economic injustices and corruption became a big problem. Jeroboam II colluded with the rich and powerful in his land, and did little to defend the rights of the poor and weak.
And it was to this Northern Kingdom of Israel, in this time of great prosperity, that the prophet Amos was sent. Amos came from the land of Judah, so in some sense he was a foreigner in Israel. He was not a “professional prophet” who set out to make his living through prophecy. Just as today we buy different national newspapers according to what we want to hear, so in 8th century BC Israel, people often paid for and supported the “professional prophets” who said the things that they wanted to hear. Amos is quite clear that he is not a “prophet” but rather one sent by God to prophesy to the people of Israel. And the message that God sends to the people of Israel through Amos is very firm. He wants to see Israel straight and true, like a plumb line. He is critical of the religious cult at Bethel, because the unjust are not sincere in their worship. Of course this message did not always go down well. In our reading today we heard Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, took great exception to it, and complained to the king. Amos was not put off, however, we heard that he also had very strong words for Amaziah.
Throughout his prophecies Amos demands justice and integrity in trade. He is scandalised by the biased weighing scales used to sell food to the poor. He is scandalised that the poor are sometimes sold chaff and the sweepings of wheat, rather than real wheat. He warns of a forthcoming “day of the Lord” which will be a terrible day of justice. He talks of Israel being taken into exile. Scholars think that Amos was prophesising round about 750BC, towards the end of Jeroboam II reign. After Jeroboam died (round about 745BC) Israel experienced political instability and great political pressure from the Assyrians. When the Assyrians finally conquered Samaria in 722 they took and many of the citizens of Israel away into exile.
In sharp contrast to Amos we heard in our New Testament lesson of the wonderful destiny promised to us in Christ. Paul goes on an on about this. First of all he tells us that we have been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. Perhaps we don’t quite know what that means, so Paul elaborates; we were “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. This does not mean that we are already holy and blameless in love, but this is what we are called to. This is what we must seek and must work towards, by practicing as best we can being holy and blameless and by practicing loving the people around us. Of course we know that this is not easy and that we will fail many times, but Paul has an answer for this. He says, “In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, that he lavished on us.” It is not we who make ourselves holy, rather it is the grace that Christ lavishes upon us that makes us holy. Our part is to want it, to pray for it and to do what we can to work towards it. However it is God that actually does it.
St Paul tells us that we are destined for adoption as children of God, through Christ. We are called to be brothers and sisters of Jesus. This is a very high calling. St Paul talks of the inheritance that we will share with Christ. He says that the seal of his spirit that we receive in baptism is the pledge of this inheritance. And what is this inheritance. It is “to live for the praise of the Glory of God.” Elsewhere in the scriptures we might understand this to be to share in the life that Jesus shares with the Father.
So let’s give thanks to God for the great destiny that we have in Christ. Let’s praise God that he considers us as brothers and sisters of Christ, and worthy of sharing the same inheritance as Christ. Let’s do all our part to seek this destiny; to want it, pray for it and work towards it. Let’s not be put off when we fail. Rather, let’s always start again, and in this way we learn to trust and rest in the forgiveness and grace of Christ, which brings this destiny about. Amen.
19 February 2007
Creation by God's will
Thought for Pew Slip - Sunday 11th February 2007 – Second Sunday before Lent
Readings Genesis 2:4b-9&15-25 Revelation 4 Luke 8:22-25
Today our reading from Revelation presents us with a vision of heaven. There the elders continually worship God saying, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
It is all too easy for us to get bogged down thinking about scientific mechanisms and lose sight of the underlying reality that all things come into being because God wills them to be. God’s will is the driving force behind all creation. When Jesus, who is God, commands the winds and the waves, they inevitably obey him.
As human beings we achieve the fullest potential of our creation when we move in harmony with what God wills. We have the capacity to sin, that is to go against the will of God, but this undermines our own being. Rather the way to fullness of life is to follow the path that God wills for us. We do this moment by moment in our daily lives. Let’s use the grace that God gives us in each present moment of our lives to be and do precisely what God wants from us in that moment. This way we make our lives a series of many small steps on the pathway to heaven.
Readings Genesis 2:4b-9&15-25 Revelation 4 Luke 8:22-25
Today our reading from Revelation presents us with a vision of heaven. There the elders continually worship God saying, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
It is all too easy for us to get bogged down thinking about scientific mechanisms and lose sight of the underlying reality that all things come into being because God wills them to be. God’s will is the driving force behind all creation. When Jesus, who is God, commands the winds and the waves, they inevitably obey him.
As human beings we achieve the fullest potential of our creation when we move in harmony with what God wills. We have the capacity to sin, that is to go against the will of God, but this undermines our own being. Rather the way to fullness of life is to follow the path that God wills for us. We do this moment by moment in our daily lives. Let’s use the grace that God gives us in each present moment of our lives to be and do precisely what God wants from us in that moment. This way we make our lives a series of many small steps on the pathway to heaven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
