Don’t be a Pharisee …

The Legend of the Stones

Two women approached a wise man and asked for instruction. One of them regarded herself as a terrible sinner. In her youth, she had deceived her husband, and she tortured herself constantly with the memory of her infidelity.

The second, on the other hand, had lived her entire life within the law and by the rules. She wasn’t conscious of any serious sin, had nothing much to reproach herself with and felt quite pleased with herself.

The wise man asked both women about their life. The first went as she confessed her great sin. She felt her sin had been so great that she had no right to expect forgiveness. The second said that she had not committed any particular sins.

The wise man said to the first woman, ‘Go, daughter of God, and look for the heaviest boulder you can find – one that you can barely manage to carry – and bring it to me.’

‘And you,’ he said to the second woman, who could not recall any serious sin, ‘go and bring me as many stones as you can carry, but they must all be small ones.’

The women went off to do as the wise man had told them. The first brought a huge boulder; the second brought a whole sackful of small pebbles.

The wise man examined the stones and said, ‘Now do as follows. Take the stones back and replace each one of them exactly where you picked it up, and when you have put them all back where you found them, come back to me.’

The women went off again to carry out the wise man’s instructions. The first very easily found the place from where she had taken the huge boulder, and she replaced it where it had been. But the second had no idea where she had picked up all her little pebbles, and had to return to the wise man without having carried out his instruction.

‘You see,’ said the wise man, ‘that’s how it is with our sins. It was easy to take the big, heavy boulder back to its place because you knew exactly where you first found it. But it was impossible to remember where all those little pebbles came from.’

And to the first woman, he said, ‘You are very conscious of your sin. You carry in your heart the reproach of your husband and of your conscience; you have learned humility, and in this way you have been freed of your wrongdoing. You, however,’ he said to the second woman, who had come back still carrying her sack of little pebbles, ‘you, who have sinned in many small ways, do not know any more when and how you did wrong; you are not able to repent. You have grown accustomed to a life of little sins, to passing judgement on the sins of others while becoming more deeply entangled in your own. It has become impossible to free yourself of them.’
A story by Leo Tolstoy retold by Margaret Silf

To paraphrase from part of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18: The Pharisee thanks God that he is not like other people. He details his religious practices and self perceived righteousness and considers himself more virtuous and superior to others.

The tax collector feels unworthy and simply asks God to have mercy on him, a sinner.

Jesus states it is the tax collector and not the Pharisee who went home justified by God. God values the tax collector’s humility, not the Pharisee’s self-righteousness.

Jesus told this parable to warn those who trusted in themselves but who treated others with contempt. He warns them against spiritual pride and calls for us to have humility in prayer and in life. Our justification comes solely from God’s grace and mercy and not from our own achievements.

Humility is essential for a right relationship with God whilst spiritual pride leads to self-righteousness and being rejected by God.

It is easy to fall into the trap of behaving like the Pharisee. I know someone who, on a regular basis, beats their chest and says “I thank God I am not like other men”.

Modern day Pharisees are not all as obvious as this but are characterised by their self-righteousness, a tendency to burden others with strict rules whilst not following them themselves and a focus on power and control of over serving.

They may appear religious whilst lacking genuine faith whilst adhering to certain rules or attending church yet without a corresponding difference in their daily life. They may focus on strict adherence to rules and traditions, creating heavy burdens for others yet ignoring the spirit of the law. They judge and condemn others, even misrepresenting their motives whilst projecting their own shortcomings onto them.

They believe they are more righteous than others but are unwilling to admit to their own sins or weaknesses.

They are more concerned about other’s opinion of them and how they are seen than they are about having a genuine relationship with God.

But, even for Pharisees, there is hope.

To not be a Pharisee, hear the words of Jesus. Jesus is the Light of the world, whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.

Don’t ignore the content of what Jesus says, or you’ll miss out. Hear Jesus’s word and His message. Actively listen to Him by reading and paying attention to Scripture. If you ignore Scripture, if you ignore the Bible, if it just sits on a shelf gathering dust, then you are ignoring the word of Jesus.

Regardless of how busy we are, we make time for what matters most. Nobody is too busy to hear Jesus’s word.

Hearing Jesus’s word – reading the Bible is non-negotiable for both first-time faith and for growing faith. You can’t believe in and become like Jesus without His word. Hear His word.

See Jesus’s light. Light is a big metaphor. Jesus is an exposing light, an illuminating light, and a welcoming light.

He exposes what is hidden, calls out sin, and banishes darkness. He illuminates, revealing or making known the way, shining out in the darkness and showing us what we need to see. He is a welcoming light guiding us and inviting us home.

See the light, put your faith in Jesus, and be welcomed home. Follow Jesus’s path. Jesus’s promises of light and life are only for those who follow Him. Truly believe and truly follow Jesus.

This doesn’t mean just recognising that Jesus was a real person – and there is historical evidence of this – it means seeing and listening to Jesus, going wherever He leads and doing what He says. Literally following Him. Not just being a Christian but being a Christ-Follower. True believing where your highest allegiance is to Jesus; whatever He wants, that’s what you want.

Don’t be a Pharisee.
Hear Jesus’s word.
See Jesus’s light.
Follow Jesus’s path.
Be humble.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, all sinners.

How can I pray?

Do you think everyone else knows how to pray? You are not alone if you think this. Prayer is something we are often not taught. How often do we sit and kneel in church looking at other people and wondering what it is they are doing in their silent prayers? They always look so holy and yet here we are, trying to say something to God …

Do you feel like giving up? Don’t! Prayer is like every human skill. It is something that we need to learn how to do. We can use books, or ask a friend, or seek the guidance of a priest. But, in many ways, prayer is something that we do have to find out about for ourselves. God has made us all different, and so we will all pray differently. We will also pray differently in different situations.

What is prayer? Prayer is the way in which we keep in touch with God. Many people think that they can change God: ‘If I ask really nicely, then God will do what I want.’ For others, prayer is a form of magic: ‘If I say it in the right way then God will answer.’ Neither of these is true. Prayer is the way in which we open up to God, so that God can work in us. And God does always answer, although not always in the way that we want.

What is prayer like? If you love someone, you keep in touch. Prayer is the same. If we love God, we stay in touch. We talk to God and we listen to God. It’s a conversation!

How do we get in touch with God? To begin our conversation with God we need to get ready: to come consciously into God’s presence, to sit or kneel in a way that is comfortable and attentive. Then we need to calm down. Normally, our minds are full of distractions; thoughts just keep happening. One way of calming down is to listen to our breathing, the regular pattern of it. Another way is to repeat over and over, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ After a while we settle down, our minds are less full, and then we are ready to pray.

When we are calm, then we can start to pray. Sometimes, this just means continuing to listen, just letting the awareness of God enfold us, like loving arms – we don’t need to say anything else, the contact is enough. At other times we need to say something, This can be anything: ‘Dear Father…’ or ‘Hello God…’ If you are going to say something (whether aloud or silently), then just say what you want to say. God doesn’t stand on ceremony.

We need to take time to say what we want: ‘Thank you.’ ‘Sorry.’ ‘Guess what?’ ‘I love you.’ Take time to listen – to your breathing, to your thoughts and feelings. Be aware of yourself and don’t push it. Give God time to speak to you. Conversations take time … and patience.

Traditionally, Christians pray every morning and evening. The more we are in touch, the better it gets. The more time we take, the more rewarding it can be. As we pray regularly, the more natural prayer becomes.

‘What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit!
O what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

The Lord’s Prayer:
Though there are many versions and interpretations of the Bible, the Lord’s Prayer remains much the same and sets a pattern for our own prayers. Speaking to our Father in Heaven should be much like speaking to someone in the room, as He is there in spirit. It should be personal, intimate and all disclosing of the thoughts in our minds and the feelings in our hearts.

From the King James Bible, Matthew 6:9-13, these are the words of the Lord’s Prayer:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

If we break this down we can see the pattern more clearly:

After this manner therefore pray ye: This discloses that this is the pattern or way we are to pray, not by rote, by following these guidelines.

Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name: We should begin our prayer by acknowledging that God is our Father in heaven and that we honour him. This is an important step in humbling yourself before him and telling him that he is our God and we trust in his words and wisdom.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven: We let God know that we understand he is still in charge, that his kingdom will roll forth and that it is his will and not our own that we are to listen and obey. It is that same authority that was, and is, used to govern his home in heaven. At this point we should acknowledge all that he has done for us, all the bounteous blessings he has provided for our good, all the trials that he has blessed us with in order for us to learn what we need to learn, and every good thing in our lives.

Give us this day our daily bread: We petition God for our needs and the righteous desires of our hearts, not our whims or worldly desires. Our daily bread could include harmony in our homes. Patience, more holiness in speech and actions, the ability to support ourselves and our families, all the things that are daily necessities for our growth and salvation.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: We should lay before God our sins and transgressions asking for forgiveness and for the strength to forgive everyone who has wronged us. This could also be financial debts, but includes so much more. This is our opportunity to repent for our weakness, our thoughtlessness, and our disobedience.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: We pray to God fervently for guidance in our walk and the power to overcome the evils that impede our paths. We pray that our self-mastery will be enough to conquer the adversary and keep us out of hot water!

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen: We close our prayer by, once again, acknowledging that this is God’s kingdom and that he has all the power. The glory of what we do belongs to him for all that he provides for us. We should close in the holy name of Jesus Christ, our saviour and redeemer, and the only way back to our Father.

We are so blessed to know the goodness of God and the way he has prepared for us to return to him. Prayer is an essential part of that plan. Daily honest communication with our Heavenly Father keeps us in tune to the spirit, forces us to be honest with ourselves about our shortcomings, allows us to repent for them, blesses us with an accounting and acknowledgement of our many blessings which is particularly important on days when we think we have nothing and bonds us with deity.

So have:

Conversation with God.
Become familiar with prayer as conversation that involves a delightful rhythm of asking God questions and waiting on God for responses.

Pray with authenticity.
Understand that praying authentically involves expressing doubts and fears as well as truth, believing God can give strength and grace.

Make requests of God in terms of God’s concerns, not just our own.

Listen to God in prayer.
To bring our questions to God, being open to God’s answers and obeying what we hear.

Pray for others as Jesus did.
To make intercession by praying for others’ oneness with God, not ‘patching up’ folks or getting them to do what we think they should do.

Practice God’s presence.
Practice prayer that infuses all of life as we practice the presence of God.

Gratitude

The passage from Luke 17:11-19 about the ten lepers clearly corresponds with the passage from 2 Kings in which Naaman the Syrian is healed of leprosy through Elisha the Prophet.

Leprosy in Jesus’s time was a deadly skin disease. Anyone who caught it had to live away from the healthy people and had to keep a distance away. Most would join a group of other lepers and be part of a leper colony.

When the lepers call out to Jesus, they call him “Master” – just like the disciples do.

In a similar way to other instances of lepers cleansing or healing, Jesus sent the lepers to the priests to confirm the healing.

The law was that if a leper was cured, they had to go to the priest to be inspected, and if they were healed (clean), the priest would give them a certificate. Only when they have the certificate would they be allowed back into society.

Jesus sent these ten lepers to the priest before the healing took place. They were required to obey and step out in faith to be healed; and they were healed whilst on their way to the priests.

God is at work when Jesus notices and heals hurts and brokenness that are not noticed by others.

Those living on the edges of our community, who are treated as invisible because of how they look, who they are, or where they come from. Jesus notices them and loves them and calls us to do the same.

But Jesus also notices the parts of ourselves that we hide, and he heals our hidden brokenness.

Jesus cares for the marginalised. In this example of the ten lepers, at least one of them was not a Jew.

After the ten lepers were healed, and once they had their certificates from the priests, they were free to go their own way, even to rejoin their families.

Ten were healed, and one returns full of gratitude and thanksgiving. That one, as it turned out, was a Samaritan, and Jesus said to them, “Your faith has made you well (saved you).”

Jesus’s life is full of people glorifying God – from the shepherds at his birth to the centurion at his death. Here, as in many other instances, it is as a result of Jesus’s work of healing and restoration.

The right response to Jesus is to praise and glorify God.

The Samaritan recognised God at work. He understood that to thank Jesus is to glorify God. He gave the response of faithful recognition and gratitude.

All ten lepers were willing to go to the priest in faith, but only one was filled with true praise and thanksgiving.

Jesus noticed that nine of the lepers did not return to give thanks. He notices our ingratitude.

There is no reason to assume that the other nine lepers were not grateful: they may have just been too wrapped up in their relief and amazement to even think of returning to give thanks to Jesus.

But one did return to Jesus. He recognised his gratitude and returned to say thank you and to form a relationship with Jesus.

It is one thing to offer words of thanks or feel thankful, but gratitude is a state of mind which transforms us.

The leper was transformed physically, emotionally, and socially. Jesus wants to physically, emotionally, and socially transform us too.

Ingratitude is a horrible thing. It is the enemy of the soul.

St. Paul tells us we should give thanks in all circumstances. Part of the vocation of any Christian is to give thanks and praise.

We can always find reasons for gratitude before God.

The nine lepers who leave without acknowledging Jesus highlight how blessings can be missed when gratitude is absent.

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. The boy recognised his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how they should be able to see…

When life is full of difficulty it can be hard to be full of gratitude. When things are going well we take it for granted.

Gratitude is a habit; a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with appreciation regardless of whether we are going through the good times or the bad.

Gratitude is a heart-centred approach to being at peace with yourself, others, what you have, and the world around you.

We need to practice gratitude and give thanks and praise to God in all we do, and think and say.

Calling Levi

In chapter 9 of Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew recounts his own call from Jesus to become a disciple. Matthew was the name Jesus gave him. Until he became one of Jesus’s disciples, he was called Levi. And he was at his place of work in the tax office. The Jewish people did not like those among their number who became tax collectors. They viewed these people as sinners and collaborators with the Romans against their own people. Tax collectors had the force of the Roman soldiers behind them to force the people to pay the taxes, but not only that, they were considered to be extortioners because they were allowed to keep any money they over-collected. Consequently, most if not all tax collectors over-charged on purpose to line their own pockets.

The call from Jesus gave Levi Matthew the opportunity to literally turn his life around. When he was a tax collector he was busy taking but Jesus was calling him to a work that was essentially giving.

Jesus said to him “Follow Me” and he did. He left his desk, taking nothing but his pen. Jesus called him and the only thing he took from his trade was the pen this trade had taught him to use; a skill he then used to compose his Gospel of Jesus’s teachings.

There is archaeological evidence that fish taken from the Sea of Galilee were taxed. So Jesus took as His disciple the taxman that may have taken money from Peter, James, and John and the other fishermen among the disciples. Certainly, initially, it would have been difficult for them to accept each other. Yet, in one way, Levi made more of a sacrifice than some of the other disciples. Peter, James, and John could easily go back to their fishing business, but it would be practically impossible for Levi to go back to tax collecting.

Jesus sat at the table in the house, and many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him. This context suggests that this was a gathering of Matthew’s friends and former business associates. Possibly, Jesus took advantage of Matthew’s decision to also reach those whom he knew.

And so the disciples were asked, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The answer to this question was simple, because Jesus is the friend of sinners. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

We are fortunate that God calls sinners and not just saintly people. Jesus came to benefit those who understood their inherent need for Him. Yet the proud who see no need for Jesus do not benefit.

Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”. In Hosea’s day, God’s people were still good at bringing sacrifice, but they had abandoned mercy because they gave up the knowledge of God and truth. God would rather have right hearts, full of truth and mercy than sacrifice.

These words are more striking when we remember that they were addressed to the teachers of men. This rebuke showed that they did not know God, and Jesus bade them go and learn the meaning of their own Scriptures. These “teachers of men” thought they knew everything already, and the rebuke made them angry.

This event illustrates Jesus’s mission to seek and save the lost, calling them to repentance and a new life.

Tell Us Who You Are

The Jews asked Jesus whether He was the promised one from God.

In his writings, John has told us that this event took place during the Jewish Festival of Dedication. This festival is also called Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights; and it takes place in remembrance of the purification, or cleansing, of the Temple, in 164 BC, after the desecration committed by a king of Syria called Antiochus Epiphanes in 170 BC.

During this Festival of Lights there would be great illuminations in the Temple and in every Jesish home as a reminder of the light of freedom coming back to Israel – the freedom won to worship God. It is significant that Jesus chose this time to say “I am the light of the world, I alone can light men into the knowledge and presence of God”.

The location of this event was Solomon’s Porch. Now the first court in the Temple precincts was the Court of the Gentiles and along two sides ran the Royal Porch and Solomon’s Porch. These were rows of magnificent pillars, almost 40 feet high and roofed, where people walked to pray and meditate. Rabbis walked there teaching their students the doctrines of faith.

This was where the Jews chose to ask Jesus whether He was the one promised from God.

Some of those asking would have been genuinely wanting to know but others were trying to trap Jesus. Jesus did not fall into the trap, simply saying He had already told them who He was.

There is a saying that actions speak louder than words.

Every miracle performed by Jesus testified that the Messiah had come.

Jesus’s words, the authority with which He spoke, the way He explained the scriptures and put His teaching in their place, showed that God was speaking in Him.Both the words and deeds of Jesus were a continuous claim to be the anointed one of God.

The sheep of a shepherd knows his call.

Jesus is the good shepherd.

He knows His sheep, who follow Him when He calls.

And, to those who accept Jesus, He promises eternal life that would know no end and that is secure.

Jesus promised that for those who accept Him as Lord and Master and become members of His flock, the littleness of earthly life would be gone and His flock will know the splendour and magnificence of the life of God. Jesus promised that death would not be the end but the beginning with the glory of indestructible life.

And security. Jesus promised that nothing can snatch His sheep from His hand.

This does not mean that there would be no sorrow or suffering but that in sorrow and at the darkest hour they would still be conscious of the everlasting arms underneath and about them.

Even in a world crashing to disaster they would know the serenity of God.

God’s promise is true. His arms are around us, embracing us in His love. I say this from my own experience of feeling God’s loving arms when times are tough.

It is God who gave Jesus the sheep. Both Jesus and His sheep are in the Father’s hand. We are secure in God’s power.

The bond of unity is love. Proof of love is obedience. We are one with one another if we are bound in Christ obeying the words of Christ and following His example. Jesus was one with God because He loved and obeyed Him perfectly and He came to this world to make us what He is – one with God.

He Is Risen!

Listening to the readings again on Easter Sunday with the women going to the tomb to prepare Jesus’s body reminds me of something I read recently about Mary – Jesus’s mother.

It is interesting, is it not, that Jesus’s mother – arguably His greatest disciple, a woman of tremendous faith, who stayed by Him to the bitter end, is not listed amongst the women going to attend to Jesus’s body.

And this poses the theory that the first person Jesus appeared to may well have been His mother and that this is why she was not among those going to the tomb at dawn. Such an appearance would be part of completing her participation in the essential parts of the paschal mystery.

Mary suffered above all others in the suffering and death of her son. Christ kept the commandments. He honoured His heavenly Father, His earthly father and His mother, so it makes sense that he’d visit her first.

If a son lived far away and his mother was told he’d died but he was actually alive and healthy and he returned to the area, it would highlight that he was not a good son if he visited his friends first and his mother last.

Jesus was the perfect son. So, why would He not visit His mother first. There’s also her faith, which, despite the apostles losing theirs at Jesus’s passion, Mary had in abundance. Scripture tells us that the Lord shows Himself to those who have faith in Him. And, of course, she loved her son so much and scripture tells us that those who love Him will be visited by Him.

How joyful she must have felt at seeing her son alive once more.

There is a special kind of joy at Easter. It’s not just the spring flowers springing up into life or the longer days. What it is is a deep, radiant joy born from our Lord’s victory over sin and death so that we might have eternal life with Him.

Jesus leaves the darkness and rises to new life. Through God’s grace, this gives us the gift that, no matter what our past was, we have permission to leave it behind and embrace the hope and joy of new lives in Christ. His sacrifice and act of intermediary reconciliation grants us forgiveness of our past sins, our present sins and our future sins.

A cross in a sunny field of flowers. Easter Joy.

Advent Is For Life Not Just For Christmas

Our reading from Luke (Luke 21:25-36) today is part of a longer apocalyptic teaching. So, why are we starting Advent with these warnings instead of with the message that a baby will be born?

Well, Advent doesn’t just precede Christmas when we remember the birth of Jesus. Advent is that time of waiting, of preparation, of making sure we are ready. It is about preparing our hearts and opening our minds.

But we are not just ensuring we are ready for baby Jesus. We also need to be ready for when Jesus comes again.

Advent is for life, not just for Christmas!

It is about being ready for Jesus, for watching and waiting and preparing for Him to come, both as a baby and when He comes again in glory. We must be alert, ready for the coming of the end. Not caught up in the commercialisation, the excess and the worries of the day but remaining ever watchful, confident and eager for the events Jesus tells us of – the signs that our deliverance is nigh. That He IS come again.

We all know what waiting is like. In smaller concepts there’s waiting for a bus, waiting for an appointment, waiting for the right vicars to be called to Sheppey. Sometimes the wait seems interminably long…

… and yet it does come to an end with fulfilment as that bus, appointment, those vicars, anything else we’re waiting for … Ashley’s Amazon parcels, the shopping, all arrive.

And they don’t always arrive when we expect them – sometimes the waiting is dragged out and they are a bit (at least in our eyes) late.

But then they arrive and that moment of waiting, that moment of expectation, changes into certainty, realisation and fulfilment of what we have received. No one waits without good reason. How long we wait is determined by the reward at the end. And Jesus is the greatest reward!

So we wait, patiently, trusting in God as we wait.

Waiting faithfully and being prepared, for our Lord will come again – but only God knows the exact day and time. We wait patiently through suffering for the wait is worth it.

Often people fill the waiting with distractions and keep busy to avoid the waiting. How easy it is to miss the very thing we are waiting for if we do that; because we are paying attention to the distractions instead of watching and waiting.

Advent is taking time, slowing down, opening our minds, being prepared to change.

It is the chance to wait and change our lives. Don’t miss that by running around. Instead get our hearts ready for Jesus to be in our lives more fully that ever before.

We must trust and be prepared to trust.

We must trust God in both the good and the bad times.

Take a step back, let God into every situation, listen to His guidance, pray on it, trust and wait.

We know God’s promise will be fulfilled. We must trust in His promise with faith and prayer.

We must be ready as we wait.

If Jesus returned tomorrow, or even this afternoon, are we prepared? Do we put enough planning and preparation into being ready for Him?

Make time for God. Live how Jesus wants us to live. Ask yourself what would Jesus do? Are our hearts and minds focussed on Him? Are we ready?

Tradition is actually the passing on of belief – despite the vernacular it isn’t staying the same or doing things this way because that’s how they were done 20 or 30 years ago. No! It’s actual meaning is the passing on of belief. If we are not ready we could miss out. Pass on the belief so all God’s children can be ready. Keep an open mind. Think and be prepared.

Faith is about going deeper in our personal journey with Christ. Know Jesus and be open to Jesus.

Ensure we have what we need to be prepared so that, no matter what day or hour He returns, we are ready. Don’t be complacent.

Keep relationship with God, and work on it doing God’s will every day.

Advent is a time when we have to look at our lives. Do we accept forgiveness and follow Him?

Humans are very good at procrastination.

Procrastination is very different to waiting.

So, humans procrastinate, run out of time and think I’ll do it tomorrow. But tomorrow might not come, the chance might never come again.

We must respond to God immediately when He calls us.

We must NOT be resistant to change or let rituals become idols.

Don’t procrastinate. Prepare now and keep the preparation ongoing.

Be ready and continue to be ready.

For God’s time is not our time but His promises are always kept. Jesus came, Jesus IS coming again!

So again I say, Advent is for life not just for Christmas!

God is Love

God is Love, let heaven adore him;
God is Love, let earth rejoice;
Let creation sing before him
And exalt him with one voice [.]
God is Love, eternal Love.

God is Love; and love enfolds us,
All the world in one embrace:
With unfailing grasp God hold us,
Every child of every race [.]

God is Love; and though with blindness
Sin afflicts all human life,
God’s eternal loving kindness
Guides us through our earthly strife.
Sin and death and hell shall never
Over us final triumph gain;
God is Love, so Love for ever
Over the universe must reign.
Taken from God is Love by Timothy Rees

Today is, nowadays, known as Christ the King Sunday. If we looked at Christianity on a timeline, it is a fairly recent feast day. It was introduced by the Pope around 1925 due to the aftermath of the First World War to remind people of their allegiance to God.

So, why did I start by quoting parts of a hymn called “God is Love”?

The other week I was part of an interfaith panel answering questions about faith. One of the questions was about whether we can love certain groups of people and my answer – which is one I firmly believe and say a lot is, “God is Love and we should love others as God does”.

Let us recollect for a moment the events of Jesus’s lifetime and His teachings. He did not come to be served but to serve. He did not come to overthrow the Roman Government or depose Caesar. He became human, to find out what it was like to be human, to experience every range of humanity, to show us the way, the truth and the life and ultimately to sacrifice himself for the sins of all so that we might be forgiven and reconciled with God.

Where in all that does Jesus call Himself a king? Even when He is questioned at His trials before His crucifixion Jesus does not actually call Himself a king – instead His reply when asked if He is King of the Jews was “You say I am”.

Jesus was fully human as well as being fully divine. But we tend to give human imperialistic titles to Jesus’s divinity. Sometimes we forget that He was also a great human.

Remembering that Jesus was also a human does not diminish his power or significance.

Sometimes, however, we fall into the trap of thinking of Jesus as being up there and us as being down here. By doing this we separate us and Jesus; we separate us from God.

Jesus is with us, He walks with us, He carries us – think of those footsteps in the sand. He has not and does not abandon us.

God made us in His own image. That does not mean that we all look the same visually – like a colony of clones in a sci-fi drama. It means that humans are in the image of God in their spiritual nature. We are God’s masterpieces and have the potential to become that again.

We are not worthless! We are loved by God!

God is love and compassion and Jesus showed us this when He came to earth. He showed us our capacities: for God, for compassion, for empathy, for courage, for seeing possibilities even when there seem to be none, for resilience, for imagination, for heroism, tenderness, healing and transformation. He showed us that we do have the capacity to change the world.

Jesus is real – there is historical evidence of His existence. He was and is one of us. He is our hope and hope is that God is with us.

In God’s eyes we are all of equal value and we all matter. To go back to the Gospel, the lesson is simply that God will judge us on our reaction to human need; on the help that we have given. It also teaches us about the type of help we must give.

The type of help we must give is not complicated. It is simply doing what we can for those in need without having to think about it first, without calculating what is in it for us if we help, without helping for recognition or glory.

It is simply giving someone who is hungry something to eat, welcoming a stranger, giving comfort to someone in distress, visiting the sick, visiting prisoners, giving a smile or a wave or a hello or asking how someone is.

It is pure and simple. It is giving simple help to those we meet, pass, see everyday. But it is to give that help without any thought of self. It is to be the natural, instinctive reaction of a loving heart. The help that is given freely for the sake of helping, out of love, with no expectation of reward.

Francis of Assisi found blessings in this parable. He was high-born, high-spirited and wealthy but he was very unhappy. One day he was out riding and saw a very disfigured leper. Something made Francis stop and jump off his horse. He went over to the leper and hugged him. Whilst in his arms, Francis saw the face of the leper change to the face of Christ.

Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier and Christian. One cold day as he was entering a city a beggar asked him for alms. Martin of Tours had no money but the beggar was freezing and shivering. He took off his soldier’s cloak, cut it in two and gave half to the beggar man. That night he had a dream where he saw Jesus surrounded by angels wearing half a Roman soldier’s cloak. One of the angels asked Jesus “Master why are you wearing that old cloak? Who gave it to you?” Jesus answered, “My servant Martin gave it to me”.

The generosity of helping in the simplest of things from the heart without calculated thinking gives us the joy of helping Jesus. It helps us make a difference and it changes the world.

God is love. He loves us. And just as He loves us let us go out into the world loving Him and our fellow humans.