Rediscovering The Awe And Wonder - Proper 22 - Year B

In the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Gospel today is certainly a fiery one, how do you preach on a subject such as divorce, where there are so many issues about what can bring about a divorce in present day society.

However, as I sat contemplating the words of the Gospel, something else struck me, and that was the way that not only the Pharisees, but also the disciples were entrenched in their ways. They had not yet come to a point of understanding that Jesus gives us new ways of doings things. The name he gives to this is grace.

Grace is that underserved gift of love that is given to us freely, if only we will accept it.

As we get older, we learn how to act, what we should and shouldn’t do. Sometimes we get stuck in one way of acting, in essence, we lose the ability to be childlike. However, this is completely different to being childish. One is the ability to look at our lives with awe, enabling us to wonder at the amazing gifts we are given, the other is the complete opposite.

Christ is reminding us here that we should be childlike, open to the blessings that we receive, and to each other, so that we may receive the Kingdom of God.

We can all see childlike awe in the children we know, I enjoy seeing it when I go into our schools, or our nephews and nieces, and I’m sure those of you who have been blessed with children, would recognise it more easily.

However, there is another trait that children show an immense amount of, and that’s Love, which is as we all know also one of the most important aspects of our faith.

If I were to ask anyone here today, I am sure they would be able to recite the greatest commandments, Love of God and Love for our neighbour.

It all sounds so simple, but in real terms what does this really mean to each of us?

Christian love is about learning to treat everyone that we meet in the same way that God treats us.

For Christians, this forms part of the first tenet of our faith. It shapes who we are as children of God, how we treat others, and it shapes our actions and reactions to what happens to us, and around us.

There are people that we will usually love without question, our family, our friends, the ones that we allow into our lives. But what about those who we are not drawn to, love is more difficult and we have to choose to love them.

It has to be a conscious act of our will, we each have to say to ourselves, I will be kind to them, patient with them, and the more we choose to love others, then the more our own emotions begin to change.

This also impacts on the way we worship, because as we continue to grow and work together we learn more about each other, and the worship that we share as the family of God in these three churches, whether apart or together at benefice services, is heightened and becomes even more meaningful.

We continue to move away from the notion that we are simply individual, separate congregations, and know more deeply what it means to be part of the one body, working alongside each other to not only build up the individual churches, but also to work together to build up the church, the one body of God in Littleborough.

Six years ago, I’m sure many were thinking well that’s easier said than done, but look at how much we have already achieved, and what we are currently doing.

Yes there have been be times of sacrifice, but there have also been times of blessing, but as we continue to strengthen the bonds that join us all as members of the household of faith, we can also recall that the greatest sacrifice ever made, was the one that was made by Christ on the cross of Calvary, so that we could all have life in and through him.

On the face of it, Christ was rebuking people in the Gospel this morning, but it wasn’t without reason, he wanted to enable them to be open to new possibilities, it’s a message of hope and encouragement to all Christians, that whatever we experience in our lives, if we are faithful to Christ, then we will be blessed and know the love of God, through our walk with Christ, and the relationships we have with others.

Powerful words which hold a powerful message and they are part of the promise that we have as Christians.

They are ours to take, if we can step out in faith and trust in Him who can do more than we can do on our own.