This blog has been quiet over the last few weeks because I’ve been on leave. But, now, after a very good and much enjoyed rest, I’m back. Thank you for your patience in the silence.

In the next few weeks I will be making an announcement about a new Lent worship resource for Year A that I’m busy working on. I’ll still be posting the weekly resources on this blog, but for those who would like something with more detail, more in depth study of the main passage and more purpose-written resources, this resource will take what I offer here to a new level. It will have a small cost attached, but it will definitely be worth it. Keep watching this space for more information!

This week the Lectionary continues with the Sermon on the Mount, and with an examination of what true spirituality looks like. Here Jesus focuses on the heart as the place where true obedience and true righteousness happens, and from which a Christ-like life of grace and compassion flows.

May our worship capture and transform our hearts, so that we become true reflections of Christ in the world.

READINGS:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20: Moses offers the people a choice between life and death, challenging them to love and remain faithful to God and God’s commandments, and promising them prosperity and blessing if they do.
OR Sirach 15:15-20: Before each person are life and death, and each must choose which they will receive.

Psalm 119:1-8: Because a life of integrity is blessed, the psalmist pleads with God for the ability to live a life of obedience to God’s commands.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9: Factions among people of faith are a sign of immaturity. Paul calls the Corinthians to be mature and to recognise that those who serve God’s people are equal, and insignificant. It is God’s work in the believer to bring growth that matters.

Matthew 5:21-37: Continuing the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that righteousness is not just about following externals, but is about what happens in the heart. He challenges his hearers to true integrity, goodness and compassion with regard to dealing with anger, lust, adultery, divorce and making promises (vows).

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
Not surprisingly, there is a clear development this week from last week’s readings. The Old Testament passages, though, if looked at alone, can be misleading in the sense that they seem to indicate that obedience to God’s law is a guarantee of health, wealth and happiness. This is, of course, much the way the world was believed to work back when these passages were written, but we know that it’s a little more complex than this. It is this complexity that both Paul and Jesus try to engage in their teaching. For Paul it’s about growing into a spiritual maturity that no longer needs competitive factions to feel secure and “righteous”. Paul calls the Corinthians to recognise that all of God’s servants are just that – people doing a job for God’s reign. What is important is not aligning oneself with particular people, leaders or ideas, but following God’s constant work of growth into becoming a true Christ-follower. For Christ, faithful and true spirituality is not about ticking off a few laws in a box of obedience, but is doing the work of the heart, of checking the real impact of who we are and how this works out in what we do and in our relationships. It is embracing the quest to reflect God’s grace, God’s goodness and God’s integrity that is the heart of this week’s call. Law is easy, and does not transform. Living with a God-formed integrity of heart, speech and action is what truly saves.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: There are two ways to apply the theme this week. The first is to reflect on Paul’s ideas of factions, and Jesus’ call to reflect on how we treat each other. It takes only a few seconds to identify the many ways we separate ourselves in the world – nations war against nations; political parties slander and undermine each other; religions seek to kill one another’s followers; wealthy and poor seek to protect themselves from each other. The destruction brought about by this division is devastating. If we can begin to find our common humanity within, and begin to live, globally, from a Christ-like heart, we can begin to heal some of the damage we have done. The second is to focus the challenge on living our faith from the heart in a globally connected world. It is easy to do business in ways that are legal, but that nevertheless hurt poor farmers, factory workers or the environment. It is easy to lead nations or organisations in ways that are constitutionally and legally sanctioned, but that nevertheless serve only ourselves and leave others broken. It is easy to conduct ourselves as citizens of the world in ways that are lawful, but that bring great harm to people in other parts of the world – or even our own neighbourhood. Christ’s challenge is to refuse to allow ourselves to live only according to the low standard of law, but to go beyond it to living from the heart – serving, seeking justice, offering welcome and compassion, protecting the vulnerable and preserving our rich ecological heritage on the planet. There is no question, though, that to adopt Christ’s heart-driven life is going to be painful and difficult. It will also open the doors to life for us and others, though.

LOCAL APPLICATION: It is all too easy to build our lives and our churches on programs – easy sets of rules and laws that guide what we do, but that have little connection with our real, heart-felt, lives or what’s going on in the world around us. It is easy to go to church on Sunday and sing songs and pray prayers. It is easy to not steal, not kill, not commit adultery. But, simply obeying these laws do not bring life to us or to those around us. It is when we allow God to capture our hearts with the truth of the Gospel, when we allow God to continually and disturbingly challenge and grow our hearts, when we live from the inside out, ensuring that our hearts are filled with Christ’s love and are right with God and others, and allow that to guide our speech and actions – then we become those who make a healing, restoring impact on the world around us, and who both find, and bring to others, fullness of life. This living from the heart takes far more work, and far more awareness than legalism. It requires us to allow God to constantly challenge our attitudes and convictions, to constantly transform our feelings and reactions and to constantly call us to a higher standard. In this way of living we cannot rest in a future guarantee of heaven after we die. We are called to work to be citizens of heaven now, and to actively bring heaven into our world and our lives through submitting to God’s gracious transforming guidance. But one thing is sure. If we are courageous enough to embark on the journey of heart-driven living, we will discover a richness and a fullness to life, a deeper connectedness and a more gracious way of relating and living together. In this sense the Old Testament writers are correct – following God’s ways does guarantee life for us.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Inside Out
By Heart
Law And Love

Hymn Suggestions:
O For A Heart To Praise My God
Be Thou My Vision
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Jesus Calls Us! O’er The Tumult
Dear Jesus In Whose Life I See
Let Me Shine: Chord Chart; Mp3 Preview (Scroll down for links in both cases)
What Can I Do (Link to YouTube video)
Love Enough (Link to YouTube video)
With Kindness (Press the play button in the media player to hear the song)
In My Generation (I Want To Serve The Purpose) (There’s a video of someone singing this song unaccompanied on YouTube if you want to get a sense of how this song goes. Check it out here)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy of Compassion

Video Suggestions:
After The Heart
Servant’s Heart

There is a lovely progression in these first few weeks of Ordinary Time. Two weeks ago we faced a challenge to prioritise God’s strength and grace, and to reject the idea that mission and justice oriented faith leans only on human resources and abilities. Last week we were reminded of God’s call to be forgiven and to forgive. In the face of the world’s challenges and the work of justice, forgiveness is the Gospel response. This week the call to grace continues with a challenge to define good and evil not according to law, but in the light of God’s grace and liberation.

May we embrace a marriage of grace and justice, of inclusion and of confrontation with legalism and exclusivity as we worship this week, and may our experience of grace deepen as we do.

READINGS:
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a: God instructs Elijah to go to Mount Sinai, and comes to him there. At Elijah’s cave he experiences wind, earthquake and fire, but God’s voice is only heard in the whisper that follows. In spite of his fear at the threats against his life, God leads him back into ministry.
OR Isaiah 65:1-9: A prophecy of judgment against the wickedness of God’s people, with the promise of a remnant who will be saved.

Psalm 42 & 43: A song of lament, with a commitment to praise God in the face of persecution of suffering.
OR Psalm 22:19-28: A prayer for God’s help in the midst of persecution and a commitment to worship and stay faithful to God.

Galatians 3:23-29: Now that the way of faith in Christ has come, the law is no longer needed. Those who trust in Christ are God’s children, and we are all equal in God’s family.

Luke 8:26-39: Jesus liberates the Gerasene demonaic, who begs to go with Jesus once he has been healed. But Jesus sends him home to tell of what God did for him.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The reality of evil and the destruction it brings is brought into sharp focus in this week’s readings. The threat that the forces of darkness pose to justice and to those who work for it is shown by Elijah’s isolation in the face of Jezebel’s threat, in the cries of the psalmists facing persecution, and in the diseased mind and body of the Gerasene demoniac. The hope of God’s people, though, is that evil does not have the last word. God’s presence and help is assured for those in need, God comes to strengthen and guide Elijah, Christ frees the demonised man, and Paul assures us of our place of belonging in Christ’s family, in which there is no privilege based on gender, social status, race or anything else. In Christ the divisive tools of evil are removed, and the power of evil is neutralised. Now, we who follow Christ are called, like Elijah, as prophets who live according to a different order, a different set of values, and who invite others into the freedom that Christ offers. This is an appropriate next step after the call to trust in God’s Spirit and the invitation to forgiveness that we have explored in the last two weeks.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: As we engage, as Church, with the big issues in our world, it is disturbing to see how the “big issues” are sometimes defined. Are issues of sexuality and the exclusivity of Christ really the main issues of good and evil in our time? Or does the Gospel call us to define global evil differently – using this weeks’ readings of God’s grace, protection of the threatened, and liberation as a basis? Could it be that any economic or political policies that deprive the poor of the opportunity to support themselves is evil? Could it be that ignoring the damage that our greed and exploitation of natural resources does to our planet is evil (especially in the light of the Deepwater oil spill crisis)? Could it be that any faith that leads us to justify violent conflict with people who are different from us, or who believe differently from us, is evil? And could it be that using “the law” – whether human or ‘divine’ – to justify these evils is equally evil? How would we stand against evil if we used God’s grace, protection and liberation as the lens through which we looked at the world? What good might we celebrate and embrace if we used these lenses? What role would we seek to play in the policy-making, opinion-forming, global-crisis-addressing work that goes on in our world. In reality, it is easier to defend law, and condemn law-breakers, than it is to offer grace and stand against those who deny grace to others. But, the work of the Gospel was never about what is easy.

LOCAL APPLICATION: As we seek to resist the work of evil in our churches and communities, it is important that we  are careful in what we identify as evil. Jesus correctly recognises the forces at work within the demoniac, but does not label the person as evil. In contrast, Elijah, finds himself in confrontation with people who have given themselves over to evil purposes and actions. As Paul points out, it is tempting to use the law as the basis for deciding what is good or what is bad, and obedience to the law as the basis for deciding who is good and who isn’t. But, from the basis of grace, and of Christ’s inclusive invitation, good and evil look very different. Anything that would persecute another (as the Psalmists experienced), anything that would oppress another (like the demoniac) or anything that would deny grace to another (as Paul teaches) violates God’s grace and love, and brings division and destruction. As we seek to stand for God’s justice, it is important that we keep God’s grace and love in mind, and that we rightly choose what to oppose and what to embrace.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
The Goodness of Grace
Give Us Your Grace

Hymn Suggestions:
It Is Well With My Soul
Blessed Assurance
If Thou But Suffer God To Guide Thee
We’ll Understand It Better By And By
Sing Praise To God Who Reigns Above
Song We The King Who Is Coming To Reign
Above All (Link to YouTube video)
God Of Justice (Link to YouTube video)
How Long: Mp3 Download (Amazon Mp3); Chord Chart
Hear Our Praises (Link to YouTube video)
I, The Lord Of Sea And Sky (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy For The Foretaste Of The Heavenly Banquet

Video Suggestions:
Jew Nor Greek
Amazing Grace
Spoken Word – His Grace

Image Suggestions:
Cross Shadow
Love

In conversations around justice and the Church, or justice and worship, the idea of forgiveness, it seems to me, is often absent. Perhaps in reaction to hyper-evangelical, “pray the prayer and you’re saved” theologies, we have moved into a place where we prefer to speak of actions that bring justice and wholeness, rather than attitudes. Perhaps we struggle with forgiveness because it could lead to letting perpetrators “off the hook”, or because those who regularly speak about forgiveness seem to use it as a way to avoid engagement with social justice issues, preferring to speak about the transformation of the heart alone.

However, the Gospel message of forgiveness cannot be avoided, and when we embrace it, we discover that it is central to any real work of justice and peace-making. May our ability to receive and give forgiveness be strengthened and expanded as we worship this week.

READINGS:
1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a: Jezebel and Ahab conspire to lay claim to Naboth’s vineyard. After Naboth has been falsely accused and executed, Elijah confronts Ahab with his sin and prophesies his death.
OR 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15: The prophet Nathan confronts David after he arranges for Uriah to die so that he can marry Bathsheba.

Psalm 5:1-8: A cry for help and guidance, and a recognition that God takes no delight in wickedness.
OR Psalm 32: David’s song of joy and thanksgiving for God’s forgiveness.

Galatians 2:15-21: It is not the law that can make us right with God, but only God’s grace which comes to us through Christ. We can only believe, die to the law, and live our lives in Christ.

Luke 7:36-8:3: Jesus is anointed in the home of Simon the Pharisee by an immoral woman. He confronts Simon’s hypocrisy and forgives her.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
There is no way to avoid it. This week, the readings are all about forgiveness – especially forgiveness that is undeserved, and that comes through confession, brokenness and repentance.The difference between Ahab and David is this broken repentance. The psalmists cry is of confession and a plea for forgiveness. Paul makes it clear that we are made right not by our own efforts and obeying the law, but through the grace of Christ. Jesus confronts the religious elite who make the law a gatekeeper to God, and offers forgiveness and restoration to a broken and penitent woman. The power of this undeserved forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian experience and allows us to live “in Christ” – or live as those in whom Christ lives, as Paul puts it.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: Let’s dream a little: what might a world look like in which forgiveness was our culture rather than retribution and retaliation? In what ways is the prophetic ministry of Elijah and Nathan an example to us of how to confront those who abuse their power, while still offering grace and forgiveness? In what ways can we work to make forgiveness a serious consideration in our policies (especially with regard to corrections, law enforcement, social services, immigration, health care, education and foreign policy)? Is all this just a bit too idealistic for the real world? Or is there truth in the idea that a world without forgiveness must ultimately destroy itself? If the Gospel has anything to say to the big issues of our time, the gift of forgiveness must have a place in this conversation. Perhaps it’s time for the Church to call both oppressed and oppressor to forgiveness, both perpetrator and victim to forgiveness, both aggressor and defender to forgiveness. Perhaps, if the Church’s public discourse was more biased toward repentance for our own failings (think of the sex scandals currently rocking many churches) and forgiveness toward those who have hurt or opposed us, people would be more isnterested in listening to us. And perhaps, we would have the kind of gracious, Christ-reflecting influence on the world that we hope to have.

LOCAL APPLICATION: Often when conversation about forgiveness come up, it is common to speak about repentance as the requirement for forgiveness. And so, as Church, we have rejected and judged others on the basis of their perceived lack of repentance. However, for Jesus, it seems, repentance is a response to forgiveness, not a pre-requisite for it. On the cross Jesus says “It is finished” without waiting for the world to queue up to repent. In his dealings with this woman, she comes to him in love and brokenness, but Jesus indicates that her love flows from her being forgiven much, not that her love is the requirement which “earns” her forgiveness. For Jesus, it appears, forgiveness is contingent on nothing. He chooses to forgive whether the other person repents/changes or not. Forgiveness is the mark of those who follow Christ, and it is in the reckless freedom in which this forgiveness is offered that part of the scandal of the Gospel lies. Forgiveness which is based upon a legalistic need for evidence of repentance first is what both Jesus and Paul reject. Both appear to believe implictly in the power of the experience of being forgiven to change people. Perhaps part of our struggle to reach the world in Christ’s name, and to really influence the culture of our world, lies in our determined clinging to “repentance first, forgiveness second”. How many hurting and broken people might find healing, justice and an ability to contribute to others if they were just assured of God’s forgiveness up front, and if we trusted God’s grace to be strong enough to reall make a difference? Is this not a significant work of justice in itself?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
The Tyranny Of Vengeance
Skeletons
Grace And Forgiveness

Hymn Suggestions:
And Can It Be
Amazing Grace
Let Us Plead For Faith Alone
There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Jesus Messiah
Shout To The North And The South
Hallelujah, What A Saviour
Freely, Freely (God Forgave My Sin)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy For The Agape

Video Suggestions:
Anointed By A Sinner

Image Suggestions:
Church Power Point – Pentecost 3: Page 1 & Page 2
Light In The Dark