The Golden Thread

Sermon preached at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth at 11am Mattins
Sunday 13th June 2010 – Trinity II, Proper 6, Year C

Readings: Ps 32, 2 Samuel: 11: 26- 12: 10, 13-15, Luke 7: 36 – 8: 3
Flower festival in Church.

Our readings give us two stories of sin and repentance.
In our Old Testament lesson we heard the middle part of the story of David and Bathsheba, the beautiful wife of Uriah the Hittite. And it is a pretty salacious story, well worth reading in full starting from 2 Samuel chapter 11. Basically David commits adultery with Bethsheba, gets her pregnant and then goes to great lengths to try and cover this up. The cover up fails, so David assigns Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to what amounts to a suicide mission in one of Israel’s battles. Uriah is killed and David takes Bethsheba as a wife and she bares him a son. The prophet Nathan confronts David with his sin. David repents, the Lord forgives, but nevertheless says that David’s new son will die on account of David’s misdeeds. The son becomes ill, so David enters into an intense period of fasting and pleading with God. After seven days the child dies. David gives up his fast and carries on with his life, restored in his relationship with God.
Then in our gospel reading we heard about the sinful woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears, dries them with her hair and anoints them with expensive ointment. The text suggests that this woman may have been Mary Magdalene, but it is far from clear and biblical scholars spend a lot of time debating whether or not it was her. But the point is that Jesus says she loves him a lot because she has been forgiven a lot, and her tells her to go in peace. Elsewhere Jesus says that, just as the doctor comes for the benefit of those who are sick, not those who are well, so he, Jesus, comes for the sinners more than for the righteous people. These words of Jesus are very reassuring to us as we become aware of all our own sins and inadequacies.
So what do we mean by sin? Well sin is rebellion against God. Sin is turning away from God, refusing his love, and setting our own agenda and priorities independent of God. And sin causes damage. God created us in love, and sets before us a journey towards fullness of life in heaven. He wants to bring his creation in us to fulfilment, he wants our good, he wants to share the life of heaven with us. When we rebel against God and go our own way, we put all these good things in jeopardy. Like David and like Mary Magdalene we have to repent and return to the Lord, and seek to walk the path that he sets before us. We have to give up on our own ideas and do the things God wants of us.
And just as we might use a sat-nav to guide us on a journey here on earth, so we should listen to that still, small voice of our conscience to guide us on our spiritual journey towards heaven. Sin is like making a mistake on the journey, doing something different from what the sat-nav says. Sometimes we might make a mistake and perhaps it is not very serious. The sat-nav immediately re-computes the journey and takes us via a slightly different route. We might loose a little time and energy, but the consequence is small. Sometimes we can make a serious mistake and find ourselves heading in altogether the wrong direction. The sat-nav probably blares out at us, “turn around as soon as possible, turn around as soon as possible.” In the same way our conscience tells us when we are going against God. It calls us to repent, turn around and accept God’s love, to trust in him and his plan for our lives. But however badly we go wrong, the sat-nav can always recomputed our route and find a way to take us to our destination. In the same way our conscience can always lead us back towards the destination that God has planned for us.
And we must not underestimate the depth of God’s mercy. Sometimes we are aware that we have made so many mistakes. Our journey has been endlessly disrupted by failures and wrong turns. We look back over our lives and it is like looking at the underside of a tapestry riddled with lose ends and knots and with no clear pattern. But just occasionally God allows us to catch a glimpse of the front side of the tapestry, the side that is visible from heaven. Suddenly we can see a clear pattern. Suddenly we realise that despite all our stumbling and failings, a beautiful tapestry has been created. And as we look back at this tapestry that our lives have woven we see that it is consistently held together and made good by the love of God, by his mercy, by his perseverance, by his willingness to suffer for us in Jesus. God is the ultimate master craftsman. His love is like a mysterious golden thread running through every part of the tapestry, making everything good. Even our mistakes have somehow been woven into the design by this mysterious golden thread.
Now I think that this is most beautifully illustrated in the flowers of this flower festival. The theme is Deus Caritas Est; God is Love. And each of the 34 arrangements illustrates some different aspect of God’s love, from the most spiritual (the fruits of the spirit) to the most practical (documents and treasurers in the antique chest). And if you look carefully you will see winding its way through the whole collection a golden thread. Often the golden thread is very fine, and hardly visible, sometimes it is thicker and clearer. But it is always there, always strong enough, and it binds the whole collection together in a beautiful harmony, like the heavenward side of the tapestry of our lives.
So do have a look at the flowers before you leave church today. See if you can see the golden tread that runs through all the arrangements. And as you look think about the love of God as it runs through our lives. And let’s try always to live our lives in harmony with God’s love, co-operating with all that he does in our lives and working with him to weave the most beautiful tapestry for our own good and the good of those around us. Amen.