A Whole Load Ruined

•October 28, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Have you ever managed to do a white wash and got something of a different colour in it?  However small, that one thing manages to colour the rest of the load – everything with it is tainted by it.

Isaiah 1:10-18 (CEV)

Justice, Not Sacrifices

10 You are no better
    than the leaders and people
of Sodom and Gomorrah!
    So listen to the Lord God:
11 “Your sacrifices
    mean nothing to me.
I am sick of your offerings
    of rams and choice cattle;
I don’t like the blood
    of bulls or lambs or goats.

12 “Who asked you to bring all this
when you come to worship me?
    Stay out of my temple!
13 Your sacrifices are worthless,
    and incense is disgusting.
I can’t stand the evil you do
    on your New Moon Festivals
or on your Sabbaths
    and other times of worship.
14 I hate your New Moon Festivals
    and all others as well.
They are a heavy burden
    I am tired of carrying.

15 “No matter how much you pray,
I won’t listen.
    You are too violent.
16 Wash yourselves clean!
I am disgusted
    with your filthy deeds.
Stop doing wrong
17     and learn to live right.
See that justice is done.
Defend widows and orphans
    and help those in need.”

An Invitation from the Lord

18 I, the Lord, invite you
    to come and talk it over.
Your sins are scarlet red,
but they will be whiter
    than snow or wool.

The people thought that they had got things right.  They thought they were doing all the right things, making the right sacrifices in the right way – and they believed that meant they were doing what God asked of them.

What they totally overlooked was the way they behaved the rest of their lives away from the temple.  Their behaviour elsewhere is condemned as nothing short of evil – so whatever they did in the Temple was meaningless, it was not their true selves.  It doesn’t matter how awesome and holy the sacrifice looks, if the rest of life is not right.  Their behaviour in bringing sacrifices did not effect the rest of their lives; rather their everyday behaviour tainted their apparently pious offerings to God, making them unworthy and unacceptable.  If only they cared as much about justice as they did about looking good!

The powerful bit comes in verse 18.  Wow! an invitation from God – Having got things so wrong is not the end of the story.  God invites the people to come and talk it over.  Nothing is too bad, beyond redemption or too far gone.  God invites us to come to him, and what seems scarlet, can become whiter than ever.

To return to the laundry, I don’t know how successful it is, but you can buy a product that “turns back the clock on most colour run disasters”.  That is what God offers to each one of us for our lives.

However bad the stain, it can be sorted out.  Whatever we have done, God invites us to come and let him remove the stains.  We need not despair.

I don’t know about you, but I need that in my life.  As I think back over things I have ruined, people I have hurt, things that have gone wrong by my interference…

By God’s invitation there can be a clean start.

Wash Me Lord

Oh Lord,
there is so much I have got wrong,
so many ways I have lived my life
so differently to how I might present it,
my offerings have been meaningless,
or a cover for how I really am.

Wash me Lord
I pray.
Where my everyday actions
have tainted the whole of my life,
wash me clean,
restore the whiteness in me.
I come at your invitation,
and accept your cleansing.

Posted in bible, faith, forgiveness, God, hope, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Loneliness

•October 27, 2013 • 4 Comments

This is written in response to the BBC focus on Loneliness, as part of their Faith in the World Week.  This is not to denigrate the experience of those who live alone, but to explore a different aspect of loneliness – that of the chronically ill.

Loneliness, Hans Thoma

You go out.
I stay home.

You go to exciting places,
and meet interesting people.
I go for medical appointments.

You make spontaneous trips,
meet up for lunch,
go for drinks.
I’m home alone
with the tv and books for company.

You do the things I love,
the things I was actually quite good at,
I’m glad for you,
but also a bit jealous.
I used to do that,
that was my life.
And now I sit and watch.

You have every right to your life,
to enjoy the pleasures,
to do what you are good at,
what you are called to.
But sitting and watching
others live their life
is a lonely place to be.

There is no option to “get yourself out there”,
to decide to go and see
what is happening in the world,
to go and find other people.
Caught in a world of frustration,
of isolation,
of broken dreams
– trying not to become bitter
angry
and resentful.

It’s a lonely world
when you’re not really in it.
To not be able to take part,
or join in,
to have to watch from the sidelines,
or hear about it second-hand.
Longing,
desperately longing
to be a part.
When everyone else has somewhere else to be,
and you don’t have the strength
or energy.
Trying to take interest,
trying not to wallow in self-pity,
trying to make the best..

…but lonely,
so lonely.

Posted in faith, life, Rants and Ramblings
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If Only Everyone Were Like Me

•October 24, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Luke 18:9-14 (CEV)

A Pharisee and a Tax Collector

9 Jesus told a story to some people who thought they were better than others and who looked down on everyone else:

10 Two men went into the temple to pray.  One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood over by himself and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not greedy, dishonest, and unfaithful in marriage like other people. And I am really glad that I am not like that tax collector over there. 12 I go without eating for two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all I earn.”

13 The tax collector stood off at a distance and did not think he was good enough even to look up toward heaven. He was so sorry for what he had done that he pounded his chest and prayed, “God, have pity on me! I am such a sinner.”

14 Then Jesus said, “When the two men went home, it was the tax collector and not the Pharisee who was pleasing to God. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.”

Don’t look at him God, look at me.

Look at all I do for you, all I give, how I live.  I do all the right things, live a moral and upright life, I am perfect.  I am so pleased with myself.

He however!  Well his life is nothing to look at is it?  A tax collector, the lowest of the low.  I’m surprised you can bear to have him in your sight – I’m not sure I can.  I am so pure and holy, his very presence might soil me.  Really Lord, if only everyone were like me, how much better the world would be.

Oh Lord, don’t look at me.  I know I’m not worthy, not fit to be here.

I have got so many things wrong, failed miserably at so much, my life is such a mess. I am not good enough even to be in your presence.  Yet, I come Lord, because I know that only you can help me.  Have pity on me.  I plead for your mercy, because I know my actions aren’t enough.

Who had the right attitude about themselves?  Which man was allowing God into their lives to change them and make a difference?  Which one could God help?

When the two men went home, it was the tax collector and not the Pharisee who was pleasing to God. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honoured.

Lord,
I come to you
knowing that I have not got everything right in my life,
but knowing that only you can help me,
knowing that you accept me no matter what,
and welcome me to help me.

Forgive me Lord
the times when I’ve thought my ways were good,
that I have nothing to be sorry for,
when I am full of myself
and take pride in that.

So Lord,
I come to you,
I need you,
I pray for you to change me

(for those on email subscription, who it appears haven’t been getting the video on the bottom of posts, you can view it here)

Posted in bible, faith, forgiveness, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, response, theology
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