Forgiveness – Day 23

•December 23, 2012 • 1 Comment

Forgiveness.

Probably one of the hardest things.

If someone has caused you pain, anguish and hurt, to be able to let it go…

Forgiveness.

When you know you have got something very wrong, and caused pain to another. To know that we have failed them, not been what they needed.

To be able to forgive ourselves…

Henri Nouwen reminds us that to be forgiven, we put ourselves in a vulnerable position.  In one way we are dependent on being forgiven by the one we have wronged.  But we are also dependent on God,

God can you forgive me?

Of course God has so much more to forgive us for.  All the wrongs we do effect him.

But can I be open to his forgiveness?  Or would I rather keep beating myself for the things I’ve got wrong?

Jesus came into the world to live our very human lives, and ultimately to pay the cost of all that humans, each one of us, have got wrong. We don’t need to carry that burden, he has already taken it.  But we have to receive the gift of forgiveness.  We can carry our guilt and shame to punish ourselves, because we think we deserve to feel bad, we can hang on to it because we don’t think we are worthy of forgiveness, or we can wear it like a barrier to protect our vulnerability. But God says,

I forgive you

This Advent and Christmas, will we receive that gift from him?

Before the final rush, spend some time today with God, allow him to reach you, receive his forgiveness – and forgive yourself.

3 So be careful what you do.

Correct any followers of mine who sin, and forgive the ones who say they are sorry. 4 Even if one of them mistreats you seven times in one day and says, “I am sorry,” you should still forgive that person.

And the prayer from the book:

Lord of mercy,

you are in each

and in all of us.

Help us

to understand and acknowledge

that this is why we must

forgive and ask forgiveness.

Let us see your face shine out

of the countenances of all people

This year for Advent, some friends and I are using Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen.   You’re welcome to join us on this journey.  Feel free to comment here, or on Twitter using #adventbookclub

Also blogging on the #adventbookclub are:

http://www.likeasthehart.me.uk/

http://drbexl.co.uk/

http://clairemaxim1.wordpress.com/

http://runninglife.wordpress.com/

http://dorothy726blog.wordpress.com/

Posted in Advent, Advent Book Club, faith, forgiveness, God, Religion, theology
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Centre of The Community – Day 22

•December 22, 2012 • 2 Comments

Everybody needs good neighbours…

When looking at houses to buy, one of the suggested questions to ask is,

What are the neighbours like?

I’m never sure how helpful a question is, because if you’re trying to sell a house, you’re hardly likely to say they’re a nightmare are you?!  But the fact that the question is seen as worth asking, shows how important it is to us to live among people who will not cause us any trouble.  We all want a harmonious home life.

But neighbours and community extend beyond those we live around.

Today, Henri Nouwen, takes us right to the heart of living as community.  He quotes Parker Palmer, who says,

Community is the place where the person you least want to live with also lives

Well, there’s a thought.  Just as you can’t change your neighbours in your neighbourhood, and have to learn to co-exist, so the same is true of those we work with, share facilities with, worship with, and share the world with.

True community is not a collection of like-minded people.  To be authentic it needs a whole collection of different opinions and outlooks – and that may well include those we wouldn’t choose to be alongside.  Why? Because we all need to have our pre-suppositions challenged, our opinions stretched, our understanding enhanced.  No one of us holds the full truth or the whole picture.  We need to share insights and hear other people’s  ideas to get a more rounded view.

Community is also where we get to learn to love.  It is easy to love those who are similar to us, who are no challenge to us.  It is in learning to love those we would not choose to be with, that we get chance to see and live through the eyes of love, and to experience loving through God’s love.

So, as we find ourselves rubbing shoulders with those who we might least want to, how do we respond?  Do we run and hide?  Or do we see God in them, the best in them?  Do we welcome their ideas, and be grateful for the new insights and depth of understanding they offer us?

 

Matthew 10:1-4

 

Jesus Chooses His Twelve Apostles

10 Jesus called together his twelve disciples. He gave them the power to force out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and sickness. 2 The first of the twelve apostles was Simon, better known as Peter. His brother Andrew was an apostle, and so were James and John, the two sons of Zebedee. 3 Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus were also apostles. 4 The others were Simon, known as the Eager One,and Judas Iscariot,who later betrayed Jesus.

Jesus chose Twelve different people.  We know they didn’t all get on, there was jostling over who was the best, moments of sheer brilliance and clarity of understanding, times when they got things very wrong, and one who thought he knew better than even Jesus.  But they were the ones that Jesus called, not just to him, but to each other. They were there to learn together – and to support each other when he was no longer with them in body.

I can think of no better prayer today than the one from the book:

Let us understand

our gatherings in church, family and neighbourhood

as a way to find you

in the midst of imperfections

and humanness

– especially our own

This year for Advent, some friends and I are using Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen.   You’re welcome to join us on this journey.  Feel free to comment here, or on Twitter using #adventbookclub

Also blogging on the #adventbookclub are:

http://www.likeasthehart.me.uk/

http://drbexl.co.uk/

http://clairemaxim1.wordpress.com/

http://runninglife.wordpress.com/

http://dorothy726blog.wordpress.com/

Posted in Advent, Advent Book Club, faith, God, Religion, theology
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Seeing Through the Eyes of Love – Day 21

•December 21, 2012 • 1 Comment

 

Who Is the Greatest?

33 Jesus and his disciples went to his home in Capernaum. After they were inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about along the way?” 34 They had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest, and so they did not answer.

35 After Jesus sat down and told the twelve disciples to gather around him, he said, “If you want the place of honor, you must become a slave and serve others!”

Last Sunday in the UK, we had the Sports Personality of the Year Awards.  In a year of extraordinary sporting excellence, one person was chosen above all the others.  Tomorrow the Strictly Come Dancing winner will be chosen.  All have worked so hard and been very entertaining, it seems so hard to choose.

Society in general seems fixated by results.  For schools, for companies, and now even operation success rates. All supposedly tell us who are the best – but don’t always tell us all the facts for you to judge the “success” or otherwise.  We can all have apparently successful results if we never take any risks or take on challenges…

If you are going to decide who is “the best”, you are by definition also deciding who is not the best.  Fortunately for us, that is not how God works.  Just as God welcomes, accepts and loves me, so he does with every other person in the world – regardless of how much they might annoy me!

For God, there is no best, no winner.  Or rather there is – but it is each and every one of us.

We are all, each and every one of us, you and me beloved of God.

And if that has meaning for me, then it has meaning for how I see others too.  As much as I am known and deeply loved by God, they are too – and we should treat them as such.  In God’s eyes I am the best – and everyone else is too.

How would our lives work out if we treated every person we encountered, and those we never meet, as the best person in the world?  Because that’s how God sees them.  How would that change their lives, and their behaviour?  As well as ours?  Surely that is on sure-fire way to make the world a better place.

Lord,

in knowing how much I am loved by you

may I discover the belovedness of others.

May I see in them how special they are,

loved and known by you.

When I am grumpy

and quick to judge,

help me to remember

that in my encounters each day,

and the people I will never meet,

each and every person is special

– and may I treat them as such.

May I not push others aside,

or ignore them,

with my need to be special.

May I see everyone

through your eyes of love

This year for Advent, some friends and I are using Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen.   You’re welcome to join us on this journey.  Feel free to comment here, or on Twitter using #adventbookclub

Also blogging on the #adventbookclub are:

http://www.likeasthehart.me.uk/

http://drbexl.co.uk/

http://clairemaxim1.wordpress.com/

http://runninglife.wordpress.com/

http://dorothy726blog.wordpress.com/

Posted in Advent, Advent Book Club, faith, God, Religion, theology
Tags: , , , , ,

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