Getting it wrong…
… and Jesus putting it right
Whenever I try and write something out by hand, it reminds me how much easier it is to type it on the computer. Any mistakes rather than being crossed out, overwritten, or just having to throw the page away and start again; just need the pressing of the delete key and they are gone and no one need ever know they were there. And that’s certainly all much easier than the palaver it was to correct things when I first learnt to type when Noah was a lad!
Anyway, this Sunday’s readings from Acts 3:12-19; 1 John 3:1-7; and Luke 24:36b-48 show us how that can happen in our lives. We’re still in the resurrection appearances, and as Jesus appears again to the disciples, and brings his peace, he reminds them of the message of repentance and forgiveness – and that it must be preached. He knows that they know they’d done things wrong, and the beginning of peace is knowing that Jesus forgives those wrong moves, and replaces them with a new right task.
In Acts Peter reminds the people that they had killed the one who leads to life, at the same time as letting a murderer go loose! – but God had raised him from death. They had got something very wrong – God had made it right. If they turned to him, he would forgive them. And in 1 John, God’s love for us is so great that we are called his children – and Jesus came to take away the wrong things and their rule in our lives.
So the message for us? We may have got things wrong – maybe stupendously, hiddeously wrong – but God can and will put them right if we give him a chance – and replace guilt and despair, pain and frustration, fear and hate – with his great peace, love and hope.
Pam's Perambulation 