"You shall not murder.”
Out of God’s ten famous instructions, this is probably the easiest for the majority of us to read. Most people have never murdered anyone, nor even come near to doing so. So we can give ourselves a satisfied pat of the back…at least until we start reading the New Testament.
Jesus launched a concerted campaign to stop religious people from administering satisfied pats to their own backs. Armed with a strong understanding of God’s forgiveness, Jesus made it his business to cast each and every one of us in the role of “sinner”. He said, “You’ve heard it said from way back, ‘Don’t murder’ … But I say to you: anyone who makes their brother/sister angry is liable to judgement.”
We human beings have a natural instinct to self justification. Without pausing for thought, we cover over our failures, make up excuses and point the finger of blame at other people. It’s not pretty, but we all do it.
When we consider God’s 10 instructions our natural instinct is to justify ourselves, attempting to tick as many boxes as possible to reassure ourselves that we are good people.
Jesus’ advice is: don’t bother! He wanted every person listening to his Sermon of the Mount to walk back down the hill understanding themselves as a sinner in need of forgiveness. OK, you may never have murdered anyone, but you have annoyed plenty of people, and insulted them, and spoken ill of them behind their backs. That hurts God too.
God did not give us those 10 simple instructions with the expectation that we would all live faultless lives. That was never likely to happen. God gave us 10 simple measures to help us understand how far short we consistently fall. He is not inviting us to justify ourselves, he is inviting us to turn to him for forgiveness.
Showing posts with label excuses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label excuses. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 October 2018
Thursday, 22 March 2018
Good Instincts
We all know the experience of going about our business - coping with the familiar stresses and strains of life - when something unexpected happens, which pressurises and challenges us. At moments like that we tend to reveal our true colours. The usual internal mechanisms that strive to project a positive image to the world do not have the chance to adapt. Caught off balance, our deeper instincts take over, and the world gets a glimpse of what we are really like under the surface.
This happened to Jesus one day when he was travelling with his followers. Unexpectedly, a man with leprosy came right up to him and begged him to make him better.
In those days leprosy was thought to be highly contagious; it was also understood to be a divine punishment for sin. Someone who had leprosy was not permitted to enter a town or village for fear of physical contact. Anyone who touched someone with leprosy immediately became ritually unclean, and could not return to normal life until they had performed a complex set of religious cleansing rituals. No wonder leprosy was greatly feared!
Most people, guided by social convention, would have backed off from the infected man. They would do so to protect themselves, claiming - in their defence - that they were following the requirements of law and custom. Jesus was not that sort of a person.
In that off-guard moment when Jesus reacted on instinct, his instinct was to reach out and to care. He touched the untouchable man. That’s the kind of person Jesus was. His impulse was not directed by personal fear, social habit or religious law, but by pity (arguably even anger) for the wretched circumstance that society had put the man in.
In the 21st century we also have our own social conventions that make us shy away from people in real need. We easily justify our lack of compassion citing something that we have seen on television, or been told by some expert of the other.
Jesus demonstrates that humanity can be better than that. We can become people whose primary instinct - like his - is to care and to help.
This happened to Jesus one day when he was travelling with his followers. Unexpectedly, a man with leprosy came right up to him and begged him to make him better.
In those days leprosy was thought to be highly contagious; it was also understood to be a divine punishment for sin. Someone who had leprosy was not permitted to enter a town or village for fear of physical contact. Anyone who touched someone with leprosy immediately became ritually unclean, and could not return to normal life until they had performed a complex set of religious cleansing rituals. No wonder leprosy was greatly feared!
Most people, guided by social convention, would have backed off from the infected man. They would do so to protect themselves, claiming - in their defence - that they were following the requirements of law and custom. Jesus was not that sort of a person.
In that off-guard moment when Jesus reacted on instinct, his instinct was to reach out and to care. He touched the untouchable man. That’s the kind of person Jesus was. His impulse was not directed by personal fear, social habit or religious law, but by pity (arguably even anger) for the wretched circumstance that society had put the man in.
In the 21st century we also have our own social conventions that make us shy away from people in real need. We easily justify our lack of compassion citing something that we have seen on television, or been told by some expert of the other.
Jesus demonstrates that humanity can be better than that. We can become people whose primary instinct - like his - is to care and to help.
Monday, 20 February 2017
Excuses Excuses! - Sunday 19th February 2017
In the long history of the human species, God has heard a lot of excuses: Moses claimed he was too 'slow of speech'; Isaiah described himself as someone of ‘unclean lips’ - perhaps too quick to speak; David was ignored for being only a shepherd; Gideon excused himself for being too weak and unimportant; Peter ruled himself out for being a sinner; Esther was afraid of the consequences; Abraham and Zechariah both insisted they were too old for the task in question; and Jeremiah said he was too young.
In each case God dismissed the excuse. To Jeremiah he replied, ‘Don't say, “I'm only a boy” … Don't be afraid, for I am with you.’
It shouldn’t surprise us to realise that God sees us quite differently from how we see ourselves. Our own sense of what we can achieve is narrowed by our assumptions and aspirations, and limited by our fears and insecurities. Moses was running away from Egypt; Gideon didn't want to risk standing out from the crowd; Abraham was resigned to being childless; and Jeremiah was only a boy. But God could see beyond these limitations.
All of us are called to be prophets to some extent, to express the purposes and priorities of God as we understand them. But almost all of us excuse ourselves with convincing reasons why it is best for us to do nothing, or say nothing, and leave God’s work to someone else.
What's your excuse? Don’t expect God to agree.
God knows what you are capable of, and you will be surprised. It isn’t always easy or comfortable to follow God’s calling. Jeremiah knew that better than anyone. But don’t stand motionless on the starting line, paralysed by the limitations that you, or other people, have placed on your life. If God says ‘Don’t be afraid, for I am with you’, you can do it.
In each case God dismissed the excuse. To Jeremiah he replied, ‘Don't say, “I'm only a boy” … Don't be afraid, for I am with you.’
It shouldn’t surprise us to realise that God sees us quite differently from how we see ourselves. Our own sense of what we can achieve is narrowed by our assumptions and aspirations, and limited by our fears and insecurities. Moses was running away from Egypt; Gideon didn't want to risk standing out from the crowd; Abraham was resigned to being childless; and Jeremiah was only a boy. But God could see beyond these limitations.
All of us are called to be prophets to some extent, to express the purposes and priorities of God as we understand them. But almost all of us excuse ourselves with convincing reasons why it is best for us to do nothing, or say nothing, and leave God’s work to someone else.
What's your excuse? Don’t expect God to agree.
God knows what you are capable of, and you will be surprised. It isn’t always easy or comfortable to follow God’s calling. Jeremiah knew that better than anyone. But don’t stand motionless on the starting line, paralysed by the limitations that you, or other people, have placed on your life. If God says ‘Don’t be afraid, for I am with you’, you can do it.
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