Don’t Judge

•September 7, 2011 • Leave a Comment

How easy it is sometimes to make snap judgement – especially about other people’s behaviour.

These adverts give a humorous look at why we shouldn’t judge others quickly
The Romans were clearly having problems with judgement – people deciding what others should or shouldn’t be doing.
They each felt they knew the ideal for how faith should be lived out, and couldn’t understand why everyone else wasn’t living the same way.

The saying goes,

Never criticize a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.
How true that is.  We do not know what someone else’s life is like.  We cannot assume it is as it looks to us.  And we certainly cannot sit in judgement on any decisions they make, because we are not making them from where they are.
And we would expect the same for us from others.
Paul tells the Romans not to judge, for which of us can stand in judgement of those around us?  Have we really got things so right ourselves??  Each of us is going to have to give an account of ourselves to God, and that should be enough to keep our minds and hearts occupied, without worrying about other people and what they are doing.  We should leave that for God to sort out.

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Forgiveness in Action

•September 6, 2011 • Leave a Comment

I’m sure many of us are familiar with the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (No idea why it uses that spelling of colour, but there you go!).  Many of us have probably sung it in some form or other – we used to sing it in music lessons at school.

The musical ends at the point of Joseph’s joyful reunion with his father, Jacob

(and who can ever resist some Donny Osmond!)

But this weeks Old Testament passage picks up after that, after Jacob has died:

Genesis 50:15-21

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

 15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

 18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

 19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

The brothers are worried that now their father has died, Joseph will get his own back on them for all the terrible things they did to him, and so they beg him to forgive them.

I’m not sure I could have been so generous, but Joseph sees the bigger picture, and he sees the God who holds it.  He is able to see how God has worked, despite what has happened to him.

He realises that he is no one to judge them.  Perhaps he remembers the things he has got wrong in his own life…

He lives out the forgiveness that he knows in his own life by letting go of those things that his brothers have done wrong against him.

Can we?

By the Providence Lithograph Company (http://thebiblerevival.com/clipart/1907/gen45.jpg) [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons”]

Lord,

help me to let go

of all those wrongs

I feel have been done to me.

Help me to see you,

and feel your forgiveness in my life,

and live out that forgiveness

towards others

Posted in forgiveness, God, Lectionary
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How Many?!

•September 5, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Last weeks lectionary Gospel reading was about finding fault with people, and what you do about it.

This week’sis about moving on from that, and finding a way to live in forgiveness and reconciliation.

Peter wants to know what the limits of forgiveness are.  If someone keeps doing something wrong to him, how many times should he forgive them?  Seven seems a very generous offer for someone who keeps doing the same thing and isn’t learning, doesn’t it?

Not so, says Jesus – seventy-seven is more like it!

I’m sure Jesus doesn’t mean to prescribe a fixed number of times forgiveness should be offered, what he’s trying to get across is that it’s a number higher than you could easily keep count of – it should be limitless.

Jesus doesn’t want us to be mean with our forgiving, but generous.

Why?

Well, as the story he goes on to tell about the forgiven, yet unforgiving servant shows, God has for forgiven us so much – perhaps we should be showing that same level of forgiveness to those we feel have wronged us.

Wow!  That is a tall order.  Even to someone who keeps repeating their wrongs, we are called to go on forgiving…

But God has cancelled all I owe him for the wrongs I have done – surely I owe the same to others?

By Rebecca Kennison (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5) , via Wikimedia Commons”]

Thank you Lord

for the forgiveness you offer to me,

for the love that keeps on loving,

picks me up, dusts me off,

and sets me straight again.

Lord,

I pray,

that I may have that same love and forgiveness for others,

that I will give them another chance,

and another…

as you give to me.

Give me that love and strength

I pray,

that your forgiveness

may be seen,

and known.

Posted in forgiveness, God, Jesus, Lectionary
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