Exodus
32: 7-14. Moses
haggling with God, imploring him not to destroy the Jewish people for building
and worshipping an idol might lead some people to say that this was God before
He became a Christian! Joking aside, at a deeper level, it is a warning against
a religion that demands that the divine is always immediate, visible and
accessible and one that sets store on a patient waiting on God
1 Timothy
1: 12-17. You can
sense the intense gratitude Paul feels, that a sinner as great as himself could
be so freely forgiven his past, so his life is set free to do the work God
commissions him to do. It is this central fact of forgiveness that is available
to all Christians when they fall and fail. To get up, dust yourself off and
start all over again on a different path.
Luke 15:
1-10. Paul’s
experience is pre-figured here in a couple of parables that tell of the joy God
feels in finding something (someone) who is lost. For us as God’s agents on
earth, finding such people, you have given them the gift of Life itself and we
can share in that joy.
We have a
gift for everyone we meet.
A complaint
you sometimes hear from people is that the church is always making demands on
people whether that be their time or their money.
But
actually, we come bearing the greatest gift that anyone could possibly receive
– the gift of forgiveness and life in all its fullness.
Paul, who we
hear today fair bubbling over with excitement and joy described being joined to
Jesus Christ as Freedom to rest in God’s Grace in Galatians 5:1.
If I were to
describe what “Life in all its fullness” consisted of I’d boil it down to these
essentials;
Firstly,
your life has intrinsic worth, because you are created and loved by God. This
means that your worth isn’t dependent on what other people or society itself
thinks about you. For tech-savvy people it doesn’t depend on how many “likes”
your social media post gets. We have an innate dignity, an innate worth that is
independent of how other people rate us.
Secondly,
you are a child of God. People have a tendency to think in terms of identity
politics nowadays, defining ourselves by race, gender, sexuality, disability,
class or social status. But as Christians we have an identity that supersedes
and subsumes all those small subdivisions. We are a child of God. That is our identity.
We pray to God as our Father, with Jesus as our brother, saviour and friend.
Thirdly, you
have the basis of Paul’s gratitude in this extract today. Forgiveness and the
ability to make a fresh start in a new direction after we foul up, fall, fail,
make bad decisions, do things we are ashamed of. We are forgiven because of
what Jesus did for us on the cross.
Lastly, we
have the assurance of eternal life, because of the resurrection of Jesus. Death
and suffering were borne but overcome. Eternal life, in John’s gospel also
translates as a quality of life to be enjoyed now but is synonymous with and
based on the vision of a new heaven and a new earth, where all pain, suffering
and death are no more.
Innate
worth, a child of God, Forgiveness and eternal life. These are the gifts that
the Christian faith gives freely to all who accept that Jesus is the true Son
of God.
These are
the gifts that allow us to flourish in our lives.
These are
the gifts that enable you to live life without fear and sets you free to fulfil
your potential.
These are
the gifts that propelled Paul on his missionary journeys and saw him through
thick and thin. These are the gifts that propel every modern-day missionary and
evangelist. They form the basis for every loving action and loving word of
every Christian.
So you see,
we come bearing Gifts. Free gifts.
We need to
remember what we offer people as well as the demands we sometimes make.
Sacrifices of time and money, and any other sacrifice we have to make are made
in gratitude for what we have received, so that the church can continue to tell
people what God has done for them in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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