The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John,

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)

Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  (John 12:1-8 )

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Jack was a brusque sort of  guy. He worked at the steel mill. He worked hard. When he came home he wanted his dinner, and a cold beer, and to sit and watch television for a while, especially if there was a game on.

Jack and Brenda married in the fifties, when most wives were stay at home wives, and  Brenda didn’t seem to mind the way Jack was.

That was Jack.

She kept a nice clean home, made great meals, did a great job looking after the kids, and Jack liked the way she was.  It suited him fine, and it seemed to suit Brenda too.

When the children were in bed, and Jack was watching the game, she would spend time with her journal. Her journal was something that Jack teased her about.

“Why can’t I see what you are writing?” he would ask, “Do you have something to hide?”  He didn’t really care. He was just teasing.

She knew he was teasing, and she only pretended to be offended,

“This is my private life, Jack Brison, and you are never to see what is in here.”

”Women and their secret thoughts, “ he would sigh to himself, then turn back to the television set.

Life went on that way for some time.  Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and months into years. The boys grew up. John went to the mill with his father, and Eddie went to university.

Then one day Jack came home from work to find Brenda lying down on the sofa, and looking definitely unwell. “Hey, honey, what’s wrong?”

“Oh I don’t know,” she whispered. “ I just feel so tired. And I have this pain.”

Over the next few weeks, Brenda saw four doctors. The final word was that she had a few months to live.

It turned out to be a few weeks. And Brenda was gone.

Jack was broken-hearted. He was off work for some time. He just couldn’t seem to let her go. Until finally, six months after Brenda had passed away, he began to go through her things. 

He gathered up her clothes to send to the Second Time Around store. He got her small amount of jewelry  together. And he found her journal.

Feeling guilty at first, at opening up Brenda’s secret thoughts, he began to read. And what he read wrenched at his heart.

He could clearly see that she had loved him. She wrote such complimentary things about him. But he also  began to see the extent of her loneliness.

He couldn’t believe it at first. How could she be lonely, with a husband and two fine boys and lots of things to keep her busy? But reading on, he began to understand how she had longed for him to take her in his arms and say, “I love you.”

How she longed for him to say, “Let’s go away for a week-end, just you and me, and relive our younger days.”

How she had suffered an intense loneliness as he, absorbed in his work, and his sports, had not shown the slightest sign of affection to her for the past twenty years,

She had died broken-hearted.

Jack remembered that he hadn’t even kissed her or said he loved her, as she lay dying.

And now it was too late.

Oh he had loved her. He had enjoyed her company. He had always appreciated how she had looked after him and their children.

But he had never taken time to say so.

And now he couldn’t.

Mary, one of Lazarus’s two sisters in the house where Jesus was staying before going into Jerusalem for the Passover, loved Jesus.

You may remember that  her sister Martha had always been the one who showed her love by preparing food, and keeping the home clean and inviting, for guests. Mary was the passionate one. She had sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to him as he talked with the disciples and other guests.

This time, she brings out a jar of costly perfume, the sort that was most commonly used to anoint the body of someone who had died, and pours it on Jesus’ feet.

Not only that, but she loosens her hair and wipes the feet of Jesus.

The house was filled with the scent of the perfume.

She knows Jesus is the Messiah. She knows he is a wanted man. She may not be able to do anything else for him before he dies. So in this act of loving extravagance she anoints his body – symbolically – in advance of his death, as it were.

Some of his disciples, Judas chief among them are outraged at this – to them –wasteful act. Shouldn’t something more appropriate have been done with the ointment. Like sell it and use the money to feed the poor.

They don’t yet understand that Jesus is going to die. He has told them but they can’t see it. They think he will be with them for ever.

Mary knows differently. And Jesus sees the love that is inherent in this act of humility.

Anointing was usually done by pouring oil on the head. That is an act that exalts the person doing the anointing, even as it honours the person being anointed.

But Mary couldn’t  exalt herself, so she humbly anoints Jesus’ feet.

This story is also told, with some differences, in the other Gospels. Mark for example has it taking place after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. John places the story earlier, as Jesus and his friends take shelter in Bethany. 

John wants us to see that the cross looms large even now. Even now, before Jesus triumphantly, and courageously, enters Jerusalem – where those in authority are plotting to kill him.

There is something else of note in this story.  Mary understands that the words, “extravagance,” and “ waste” are irrelevant where Christian love is concerned, because the death of Jesus was no waste. She knows that true love never counts the cost, or keeps a balance sheet. True love just gives.

She understands also, perhaps better than her sister, that when Jesus of Nazareth is visiting their home, every possible moment must be spent in his presence.

And she realizes  while Jesus is with them for the very last time, in the days before his passion, that nothing could be less wasteful than offering him a token – a sacramental token – of loyalty, understanding, and devotion.

And Jesus commends her for her loving insight. [1]

Yes, the everyday loving and caring, for the poor and the sick and the lost will continue, but for now, time has been taken out to recognise and accept the wonderful gift of life that Jesus will make, and does make, for the good of mankind.

The meaning of what Mary has done won’t be recognised by the disciples until after his death and resurrection.

I was brought up to be a penny-pincher. I am a Yorkshireman, and it’s said about Yorkshiremen that they are slightly less generous than Scotsmen.

And I can count on one hand, perhaps not more than three or four fingers when I have done an extravagant act. 

Once in Montreal Susan and I  were going into St. Joseph’s Oratory, and on the steps, a man in workman’s clothes asked me for money. I wanted to help him but I was on holiday and had a lot of cash in my wallet. It didn’t seem like a wise thing to do to open my wallet in front of a stranger.

So I said ‘No.”

As soon as we went inside I regretted it and took a twenty out of my wallet to put into my pocket to give him when we left .

Too late.

He was gone.

I have always regretted that.

When I have given help, it has always felt good. I don’t know why I don’t do it more often.

Contrary to what my upbringing taught me, I didn’t sink into financial ruin because of any acts of extreme generosity.

To my shame, I have been the recipient of many more acts of generosity than I have given.

I once tried to count all the blessings in my life. I fell asleep long before I was finished.

We are not to be wasteful with what we have. We are not to be foolish with what we have been given.

But recognizing what Jesus did for us, can’t we, just once, just once, stop counting, and lash out with generosity, with extravagance, in His Name, and for His Kingdom?

And soon?

Who knows, if we hang around, instead of doing it, we might just miss the chance.

The real tragedy in that story of Jack and Brenda, is not only that Brenda didn’t experience evidence of generous love from Jack, during her lifetime, but that Jack  himself missed out so much on the joy he would have found from giving. And their relationship suffered because of it.

The poor will always be with you, Jesus said.

Ordinary daily demands will always be with us.

Most things we can do any time we want – go to work, out to dinner, to the movies, visit friends – but there are some things we will never do unless we grasp the chance when it comes.

We may want to do something big and fine and generous. We may want to act differently this time, but we put it off.

Maybe tomorrow.

And it never gets done.

We are moved by some act of goodness toward us, and we want to offer our thanks, but the time just doesn’t seem right  and it is left unsaid. 

Let’s remember to do the important things now, when we have the chance.   

It’s never the wrong time to say, ‘sorry’ or ‘forgive me’ or  ‘I love you’ or to reach out to someone.

Amen.  

---

[1] See R,V,Tasker’s The Gospel According to John, The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids Michigan, 1988.

                

      The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So Jesus told them this parable:
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.
He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”‘
So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe–the best one–and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in.
His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’
Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'”(Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)
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On television, some time ago, I saw a commercial about an upcoming documentary.

The commercial showed a woman whose story and the stories of others would be told in the documentary. In the commercial this woman told of her experience when she became pregnant at the age of fifteen.

The documentary dealt with what happened to her and to hundreds of other young girls who became pregnant at a similarly young age.

She said that their priest said she had sinned and had to be punished, and when the time came for her to give birth, she was taken to the hospital, where her baby was born.

However, during the delivery she had been sedated, and continued to be sedated for three days.

When she finally regained awareness, she learned her baby had been given for adoption and she never saw her child. Not once. Not ever.

Now we are talking about something that happened fifty or so years ago.

Times have changed, but we could do well to think about such attitudes, and similar attitudes which are prevalent today.

The Pharisees and scribes criticized Jesus for consorting with sinners, with thieves, with so-called fallen women, tax gatherers and other outcasts.

He even ate with them. Shared meals with them.

Jesus was going against the rules as they knew them. And it was risky to do so.

We have to have rules so that we know what is acceptable, and what isn’t. And that’s fine but there are times when rules should come second, and the heart should rule.

A friend of mine, a former colleague, wanted to marry his fiancée. He had been a Roman Catholic, as most people in Quebec were, at one time, but he had been disappointed with the Catholic Church so he went to a nearby Anglican church and asked the priest if he would marry him and his fiancée.

The priest said he would but they would have to attend the church for six months first.

Did my friend do that?

He didn’t like to be coerced.

So they were married in the Palais de Justice – City Hall instead.

A year later I took them through a marriage ceremony in the church I was serving at the time.
Then twenty five years later Susan and I went to Quebec and in a lovely little Anglican church they attended, I officiated as they renewed their marriage vows.

Marrying a couple requires some counseling beforehand, and allows for the building of a relationship.

And an opportunity to live the Gospel.

I know that some couples want to be married in a church, because a church is a great backdrop, for a wedding. And they don’t often come back.

So that first rector may have thought that my friend’s request was for a similar reason.

What if the rector had just said OK? Would my friend and his wife then have begun to attend the church after being married there ?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But by saying yes, the rector missed the opportunity to act out of love.

And risk breaking the rules.

The rabbis and the Pharisees and the scribes were scrupulous about obeying the law – the rules!

They didn’t have to think about how to act in any situation, because in fact The Law covered almost any situation, and if it didn’t there was always someone who could find a way to make it fit.

A young woman and her mother came to my office, and asked if I would baptize her children. I said, ” Yes.”

They weren’t members of this church. I didn’t know if they were Anglicans.

I baptized their twin boys, and at the back of the church on most following Sundays, before Covid, you would see and hear those two lovely boys, with their mother, and their grandmother and their aunt, actually enjoying worship, and bringing smiles to the faces of all around. Praise God!

You know, no-one ever came to my office and asked to be told about Jesus.

People have come and asked me to marry them.

People have come and asked me to minister to a sick relative.

People have come and asked me to talk to a son or daughter.

People have come to me and asked me to do a funeral for a loved one,

People have come and asked me to baptize their child.

That’s how God provides opportunities for us to show what being Christian is really about.

And sometimes we just don’t see it.

We don’t recognize when there is an opportunity.

Jesus went to those who needed him. He reached out, especially, to those in need.

It was against the rules for man to talk with a woman, alone. It was against the rules for a Jew to consort with Samaritans. But Jesus spoke to a woman at the well, a Samaritan woman at that, and she believed.

In today’s Gospel where Jesus is being criticized by those law- abiding people, he tells the story of the prodigal son. It is a story we are all familiar with, isn’t it, and it tells us of the reaction of the older son when the younger one returns.

I wonder if the Pharisees saw themselves in that story.

The younger son had asked for his inheritance, went off with it, and spent it living a riotous life.

Having a good time. As many young men do, and finished up broke.

No job. No money. No family. Living in a strange country looking after pigs, and you know what Jews thought about pigs.

He eventually realized where he had gone wrong and after a lot of soul searching, and swallowing his pride, he decided to go home.

He did, and you know the story. He was welcomed home by his father who loved him and forgave him.

And threw a party for him.

To celebrate his return.

The other son, the elder, who had worked diligently for the father, and who would inherit the farm and what was left of the money, was upset.

And why not?

Who wouldn’t be?

Here was his father, whom, he felt, had never actually shown any appreciation for his hard work, welcoming back the wastrel, as if nothing had happened.

In a situation like that, where is the justice?

It’s not what you are supposed to do, it it?

Rewarding irresponsible behavior?

That’s what he thought, and you can’t blame him, can you?

For the father, though, a lost son had been found.

He who had been thought dead, was alive.

And had come home!

If the elder brother could get over the way his brother had behaved, and allow brotherly love to come to the fore, then perhaps he could have shared his father’s happiness.

Loving his brother didn’t mean that he had to share his own inheritance with him. . It didn’t mean he had to embrace him . It didn’t mean that he himself had been downgraded in his father’s love.
It didn’t mean endorsing how his brother had lived.

It just called for him to be forgiving. To be generous of spirit.

There was no reason, really for him not to forgive his brother.

To be forgiven, we must genuinely regret what we have done.

We must try to make amends for what we have done.

We have to change our ways.

And that is what is necessary for forgiveness.

The younger brother had done all this, hadn’t he?

He had realized his mistake. He had shown remorse. He resolved to go home to his father and ask forgiveness, and was willing to work for nothing, if he could be taken back.

What is not to forgive?

The phrases that comes to mind are: Once bitten twice shy. Once a thief always a thief.

And so on.

Sometimes we attach labels like that, and sometimes they stick – for life!

And who does that?

Who attaches labels to people?

Who makes sure that when you slip it is never forgotten?

Have you experienced that yourself? Being labelled?

Usually it comes from the person who has not yet been caught doing the same things.

We learn every day about people in positions of trust; people who have sat in judgment: people who have damned (labeled) others, but who themselves have done worse. And caused irreparable harm.

Modern day Pharisees?

Hypocrites?

Being judgmental. Having an attitude of disdain for others because of their situation, has resulted in sorrow and heartbreak for many, when with just a little love and understanding, lives could have been lit up with joy.

It’s all about caring for people, not damning them.

And it might mean taking a risk.

Some years ago, there was a shipwreck off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. A crowd of fishermen from a nearby village gathered to watch the ship as it was being smashed on the rocks.

A lifeboat was sent to the rescue. And after a terrific battle against waves and wind, the rescuers came back with all the shipwrecked sailors but one.

There was no room for that one man, who had been left behind, and who had been told that someone would be back for him.

So there was a call for someone willing to go out a second time, and a young man called Jim shouted, ” I will go. Who will go with me?”

His mother pleaded with him, ” Jim, please let someone else go. Your father was lost at sea, and your brother William is missing. If you are lost I will have no one.”

“I have to go mother. There is a man needing rescue,’ he replied.

So he and some others took the lifeboat back, struggling against the waves, and wind, and eventually trying to steady the little boat against the sinking ship’s heaving hull, they got their man.

And then turn the boat back toward shore.

The little shell was tossed about, up and down and sideways, and it seemed that it too might be wrecked. But slowly it made its way back.

When it was near enough, someone shouted to them,” Did you get him Jim ?”

“Yes” Jim shouted back, ” And tell mum its William!! “

Don’t they say, ” Love conquers all?,”
.
And if our faith is about love before rules, then it will conquer all.

Amen.

On television, some time ago, I saw a commercial about an upcoming documentary.

The commercial showed  a woman whose story and the stories of others would be told in the documentary. In the commercial this woman told of her  experience when she became pregnant at the age of fifteen.

The documentary dealt  with what happened to her and to hundreds of other young girls who became pregnant at a similarly young age.

She said that their priest said she had sinned and had to be punished, and when the time came for her to give birth, she was taken to the hospital, where her baby was born.

However, during the delivery she had been sedated, and continued to be sedated for three days.

When she finally regained awareness, she learned her baby had been given for adoption and she never saw her child.  Not once.  Not ever.

Now we are talking about something that happened fifty or so years ago.

Times have changed, but we could do well to think about such attitudes, and similar attitudes which are prevalent today.

The Pharisees and scribes criticized Jesus for consorting with sinners, with thieves, with so-called fallen women, tax gatherers and other outcasts.

He even ate with them. Shared meals with them.

Jesus was going against the rules as they knew them. And it was risky to do so.

We have to have rules so that we know what is acceptable, and what isn’t. And that’s fine but there are times when rules should come second, and the heart should rule.

A friend of mine, a former colleague, wanted to marry his fiancée. He  had been a Roman Catholic, as most people in Quebec were, at one time, but he had been disappointed with the Catholic Church so he went to a nearby Anglican church and asked the priest if he would marry him and his fiancée.

The priest said he would but they would have to attend the church for six months first.

Did my friend do that?

He didn’t like to be coerced.

So they were married in the  Palais de Justice – City Hall instead.

A year later I took them through a marriage ceremony in the church I was serving at the time. 

Then twenty five years later Susan and I went to Quebec and in a lovely little Anglican church they attended, I officiated as they renewed their marriage vows.

Marrying a couple requires some counseling beforehand, and allows for the building of a relationship.

And an opportunity to live the Gospel.

I know that some couples want to be married in a church, because a church is a great backdrop, for a wedding.  And they don’t often come back. 

So that first rector may have thought that my friend’s request was for a similar reason.

What if the rector had  just said OK?  Would my friend and his wife then have begun  to attend the church after being married there ?  

Maybe. Maybe not.  

But by saying yes, the rector missed the opportunity to act out of love. 

And risk breaking the rules. 

The rabbis and the Pharisees and the scribes were scrupulous about obeying the law – the rules!

They didn’t have to think about  how to act in any situation,  because in fact The Law covered almost  any situation, and if it didn’t there was always someone who could find a way to make it fit.

A young woman and her mother came to my office, and asked if  I would  baptize her children. I said, ” Yes.”

They weren’t members of this church. I didn’t know if they were Anglicans.

I baptized their twin boys, and at the back of the church on most following Sundays, before Covid,  you would see and hear those two lovely boys,  with their mother, and their grandmother and their aunt, actually enjoying worship, and bringing smiles to the faces of all  around. Praise God!

You know,  no-one ever came to my office and asked to be told about Jesus.

People have come and asked me to marry them.

People have come and asked me to minister to a sick relative.

People have come and asked me to talk to a son or daughter.

People have come to me and asked me to do a funeral for a loved one, 

People have come and asked me to baptize their child.

That’s how God  provides opportunities for us to show what being Christian is really about.   

And sometimes we just don’t see it.

We don’t recognize when there is an opportunity.

Jesus went to those who needed him. He reached out, especially, to those in need.

It was against the rules for  man to talk with a woman, alone. It was against the rules for a Jew to consort with Samaritans. But Jesus spoke to a woman at the well, a Samaritan woman at that,  and she believed.

In  today’s Gospel  where Jesus is being criticized by those law- abiding people, he tells the story of the prodigal son. It is a story we are all familiar with, isn’t it, and it tells us of the reaction of the older son  when the younger one returns.

I wonder if the Pharisees saw themselves in that story.

The younger son had asked for his inheritance, went off with it,  and spent it living a riotous life.

Having a good time. As many young men do,  and finished up  broke.

No job. No money. No family. Living  in a strange country looking after pigs, and you know what Jews thought about pigs. 

He eventually realized where he had gone wrong and after a lot of soul searching, and swallowing his pride, he decided to go home.

He did, and you know the story. He was welcomed home by his father who loved him and forgave him.

And threw a party for him. 

To celebrate his return.

The other son, the elder, who had worked diligently for the father, and who would inherit the farm and what was left of the money, was upset.

And why not?

Who wouldn’t be?

Here was his father, whom, he felt,  had never actually shown any appreciation  for his hard work,  welcoming back the wastrel, as if nothing had happened.

In a situation like that, where is the justice?

It’s not what you are supposed to do, it it?

Rewarding  irresponsible behavior?  

That’s what he thought, and you can’t blame him, can you?

For the father, though, a lost son had been found.

He who had  been thought dead, was  alive.

And had come home!

If the elder brother could get over the way his brother had behaved, and allow brotherly love to come to the fore, then perhaps he could have shared his father’s happiness.

Loving his brother didn’t mean that he had to share his own inheritance with him. . It didn’t mean he had to embrace him . It didn’t mean that he himself had been downgraded in his father’s love.

It didn’t mean endorsing how his brother had lived.

It just called for him to be forgiving. To be generous of spirit.

There was no reason, really for him not to forgive his brother.

To be forgiven, we must genuinely regret what we have done.

We must try to make amends for what we have done.

We have to change our ways.

And that is what is necessary for forgiveness.

The younger brother  had done all this, hadn’t he?

He had realized his mistake. He had shown remorse.  He resolved to go home to his father and ask forgiveness, and was willing to work for nothing, if he could be taken back.

What is not to forgive?

The phrases that comes to mind are:  Once bitten twice  shy. Once a thief always a thief.

And so on.  

Sometimes we attach labels like that, and sometimes they stick – for life!

And who does that?

Who attaches labels to people?

Who makes sure that when you slip it is never forgotten?

Have you experienced that yourself?  Being labelled?

Usually  it comes from the person who has not yet  been caught  doing the same things.

We learn every day about people in positions of trust; people who have sat in judgment: people who have damned (labeled) others, but who themselves have done worse. And caused irreparable  harm.

 Modern day Pharisees?

Hypocrites?

Being judgmental. Having an attitude of disdain for others because of their situation, has resulted in  sorrow and  heartbreak for many,  when with just a little love and understanding, lives could have been lit up with joy.

It’s all about caring for people, not damning them.

And it might mean taking a risk. 

Some years ago, there was a shipwreck off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. A crowd of fishermen from a nearby village gathered to watch the ship as it was being smashed on the rocks.

A lifeboat was sent to the rescue. And after a terrific battle against waves and wind, the rescuers came back with all the shipwrecked sailors but one.

There was no room for that one man, who had been left  behind, and who had been told that someone would be back for him. 

So there was a call for someone willing to go out a second time, and a young man called Jim shouted,  ” I will go. Who will go with me?”
His mother pleaded with him, ” Jim, please let someone else go. Your father was lost at sea, and your brother William is missing. If you are lost I will have no one.”

“I have to go mother. There is a man needing rescue,’ he replied.

So he and some others took the lifeboat  back, struggling against the waves, and  wind, and eventually trying to steady the little boat against the sinking ship’s heaving hull, they got their man.

And then turn the boat back toward shore.

The little shell was tossed about, up and down and sideways, and it seemed that it too might be wrecked.  But slowly it made its way back.

When it was near enough, someone  shouted to them,” Did you get him Jim ?”

“Yes” Jim shouted back, ” And tell mum its William!! “

Don’t they say,  ” Love conquers all?,” 

.And if our faith is about love before rules, then it will conquer all. 

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke.

At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them–do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”(Luke 13:1-9)

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In light of what has been happening in the Ukraine, this past three or so years, with bombing of homes, hospitals, schools, and so on and hearing the horrific death toll, we  have to wonder who do people have to die like that? Where is God at a time like this?

Men, women, children. Dying in horrifying bombardments, people who were just sheltering in certain buildings they thought would be safe havens.

 Why?

Why do people have to die like that? 

That same question, was being answered by Jesus in the account we have just heard, from Luke’s gospel, as the disciples wrestled with that ” Why?”

Pilate was always alert to any sign of insurrection arising from the Jews, so on one occasion when protests seemed imminent,  he had his soldiers hide their uniforms under civilian clothing and carry cudgels instead of swords, and they were to mingle among the people protesting.

They were to then throw off their disguises and beat those who were protesting.

Some people died.

Were they killed because they were sinners?

And what about those who were crushed when the  tower at Siloam fell?

Were they sinners too?

If they had been ‘good’ then would they have been spared?

“No,” Jesus says. We are all sinners.

“They didn’t die because of their sins.” But if you don’t repent, then you will surely die like them – not in the same way – but  suddenly, without the opportunity to repent.

Saying that God didn’t punish those people for their sins, is not to say that we don’t eventually have to face some hard questioning,   but that God is patient. He wants his children to come back to Him, to turn their lives around. And He will wait for us.

Jesus uses a story of a fig farmer to explain this. The owner of the vineyard sees the tree which hasn’t borne fruit in three years and orders it cut down. The gardener asks for more time.

“I will fertilize it. I will water it. Give it a chance. If it is still barren next year, then we will cut it down.”

God has always called his children to repentance. “Come back to me,” he calls to us. “Come back.” If you are thirsty, or hungry, and don’t have any money, then come back anyway. I will receive you, and feed and water you.

If you are a sinner, and have nothing to show for your life. And you are in need of love and forgiveness and tenderness, and need to belong once more, then that’s alright.

Come back and be welcomed.

This last sentiment is from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, of course, our first reading today. God, through Isaiah is calling the children of Israel to return to him, and he will take them back to their own land, where they will experience his wonderful generosity again.

William Lamartine Thomson must have had those verses of Isaiah in mind when he wrote that wonderful old hymn, ‘Softly and Tenderly’, over a hundred years ago.  It’s a song we often sing during services in retirement homes. Here is one verse:

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?

That is straightforward enough isn’t it?

 Why wait around?

Why put off coming to Jesus?

You know what you have to do.

You know how much you need to turn it around.

So why wait?

The Emperor Constantine didn’t want to be baptised as a Christian until he had had enough of a good time. He didn’t want to respond too soon, when the pleasures of this world were still attractive to him.

He had the idea that to accept Christ you had to obey a set of rules.

He didn’t yet know the joy which comes from just knowing Jesus, and which is a joy  far superior to what the world has to offer.

The next verse of that hymn is a bit more direct, however. I always thought it was too bleak to sing at a retirement home, and I thought we should omit it, but I always remembered too late.  It goes: –

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me

Deathbeds are coming!!

What a ghoulish thought.

Deathbeds are coming!!!

When I was a new rector, I went to Maplecrest  Lodge in Grimsby, to do a service, and  I was introduced to Owen Patterson, a retired minister of Trinity United Church.

Owen was old, and sitting in a wheelchair.

Now Owen had a wicked sense of humour.

Too wicked if you ask me.

He looked at me with a wicked smile, and said, “You are looking at what you will become.”

Holy Moley!

Just what I didn’t want to hear.

I had already wondered if age is  contagious. Like if you mixed with old people, you caught it, and became old yourself. 

And it’s true!!

I started out young, and after visiting retirement homes where old people hang out, I have gotten older.

But when the retirees sang that verse –  ‘shadows are gathering, deathbeds  are coming,’  it didn’t faze them, they just sang those words as lustily as they did all the words.

Remembering those tragedies, in the Ukraine,  and elsewhere,  and the two tragedies noted in the Gospel story told today, we should be aware that deathbeds can come for us at any age.

Suddenly!

If we don’t know that today, then we will never know it.

But I am not expecting a rush today, or any day this week, of people wanting to talk to me about turning their lives around.  I don’t suppose there will be a rush to lawyers of people suddenly anxious to get their wills done.

And anyway, that’s not what it is about.

We are not talking about taking out insurance against going to the wrong place, here.

We are talking about realising that God loves us, and wants us back with him. Not out of fear. Not out of panic.

I don’t even believe he wants us back out of regret.

You will remember in Jesus’  parable of the prodigal,  how the son, having spent all his money and living in absolute poverty on a pig farm, decides to go home.

He regrets what he has done, and he doesn’t think he can ever be forgiven. He just figures that maybe he can get a better job as a hired hand on his dad’s farm, and be content with that.

What he doesn’t know. And perhaps this is the tragedy of that story – what he doesn’t know – is the sheer depth of his father’s love for him.

There is no talk of him being a hired hand. No recrimination. No judgment. Simply out of his father’s love for him, he is welcomed, and in the joy his father has in just having him home, his wrongs are forgotten. 

I wonder how many of us never realised the extent of our parents’ love for us until we looked back years later and saw as clear as day what we had never seen up close. 

I wonder how many of us haven’t realised how much we have loved someone until we have lost them.

The people of Jesus’ time had  no idea  of the depth or the breadth or height of the love of God. They thought that people were punished for their wrongs by a vengeful God.

A person to whom good things happened was automatically considered to be blessed by God, and a person to whom bad things happened was automatically considered to be punished by God.

Sounds logical doesn’t it?

How often have you heard someone who has problems say, “I don’t know what I did to deserve this? “

And this, even after Jesus has explained about the unconditional love of the Father.

Even when Jesus showed that love in healing the sick.

Even when he hung on that cross .

People still didn’t make the connection.

He wants us to come back out of a realisation of  how much He loves us.

Some people are shocked to hear that.

But maybe we need to be shocked into realising the depth and beauty of God’s love for us.

You know, there are mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters who have a depth and a beauty of love for us, but which sometimes, we just don’t see.

How much harder is it for us to recognise such love in a far away God?

But God understands.

He tells us, ‘My thoughts and my ways are not like yours.  Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.’

And Jesus brings that love right up front and centre for us.  He brings it down here to earth for us all to see and to marvel at.

To marvel at the depth of it.

Because otherwise we would have no idea, would we?

What is so mind boggling, is that  even after his death on that cross, even after that sacrifice, that horrible display of how low we humans can sink, He still wants us to follow him.

How could that possibly be?  Well composer Thomson has no doubts.

O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.

Come home. Come home.

Aren’t those words, ‘Come home,’ the most beautiful words in the English language?

I once read the obituary of the man responsible, during World War Two,  for setting up the radio beacon to which weary pilots, some flying alone, would tune their radios, to guide them home..

How good they must have felt to hear that tone, bringing them safely home.

Earnestly Tenderly, Jesus is calling.

          Calling O sinner, come home.

It has to feel good to respond to such an appeal, hasn’t it?

And really, how much more could He do?

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke.

Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Luke 13:31-35)

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So not all Pharisees were bad!

Some warn Jesus that Herod is on the look out for him.

The king who killed John the Baptist  wants to kill him, but Jesus just continues doing what he is doing.  He is fulfilling what His Father has given him to do.  His  greater concern is that the Jews have rejected his message. 

His own people rejected him and knew him not.

But he persists.

This perseverance that Jesus exhibits isn’t the blind blundering into the future of the stubborn idealist.

It isn’t the ruthless charging ahead that brooks nothing in its path.

I remember reading about a man on a journey in Mexico. He was traveling on his mule and in unfamiliar territory.  As he journeyed on, the road became narrower. It finally was reduced to a simple path that skirted the edge of a mountain.

It became narrower still, but the mule was sure-footed and able to travel the path.  The precipitous drop to one side was frightening, and yet the man and his mount carried on.

Until they came to a break in the path. Now the way was only inches wide. The  mule stopped. There was no way the animal could go forward and no way it could turn around. The rider dismounted carefully, moving to the rear of the animal, and then pushed it off the path and into the void below.

Then continued on.

That wasn’t the way Jesus persevered.  He didn’t foolishly go ahead when there was no way ahead.

He knew where he was going, and how he was going to get there.

He would go about the task that His Father had given Him, knowing that ultimately, it would lead to his death. But he did what he had been called to do, obediently, confidently, quietly, and with love and compassion for those he had been sent to save, even those who refused to listen.

 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Killer of the prophets. Stoner of those who were sent to you. How often I wanted to gather together your children as a hen gathers her children under her wings – and you would not. “

As disappointed as he is, and we can hear the disappointment in those words, Jesus will continue reaching out –  healing, casting out demons, preaching, and teaching his apostles. Preparing them to change the world.

Paul writes from prison to the church in Philippi. He reminds the congregation there to keep their eye on the goal. To travel through this world but not to become besotted with the things of the world.

There are some in Philippi who believe that since we are saved by  the freely given grace of God, and since that grace is unlimited, then one can sin and sin, and always be forgiven. That since God loves to forgive a sinner, the more that  one sins, the more God is pleased.

Some said that in Christianity all law is gone, so a Christian can do what she likes. They turned Christian liberty into Christian license.

But Paul says, “ Remember that you are citizens of Heaven.”

Citizens of Heaven!

This was something the people there could understand. Philippi was a Roman colony. These colonies were set down at strategic centers, and settled with retired Roman soldiers who had served their twenty-one years in the army and had been given their full Roman citizenship.

Paul is saying, “Just as the Roman colonists never forget that they belong to Rome, you must never forget that you are citizens of Heaven. Let your conduct match your citizenship.”

I guess when you are younger, life seems to stretch out so far ahead of you. It is easy to be drawn into being a part of the world – wanting what the world has to offer. Wanting what the ads and commercials say you ought to have; turning you into a full-blown citizen of this world, with all its so-called pleasures.

And it’s no use anyone telling you that the world’s pleasures always fall short of what they are touted to be. You have to find out for yourself.

But as we get older we realize how short life is. Your sight may be dim but your perspective is awfully clear.

We may have pushed a few donkeys off the path on our way through life, and now we come face to face with our mortality.

Did we make the right choices along the way?  Did we follow the right example?

Did we follow the example of Jesus?

We heard last week how he resisted the temptation to take the world’s way. How he rejected earthly power, and the worship of Satan – which means worshipping the world’s pleasures – and now he is threatened with death by Herod – and still he continues steadily on the task he has been set.

Paul in his letter to the Philippians (3:17-4:1)   says, “I want you to follow my example.”  That sounds a bit self-righteous, doesn’t it?  Preachers are more likely to say, ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ But Paul can say that because he strives to imitate Christ.

He is really saying,  “Be like me in imitating Jesus, if you want to know how to live.”

Shake free of the world’s grasp, and live as you know you have to live. Working your way through life, with love and compassion. And purpose.

The world tempts us to be greedy doesn’t it?

A few years ago, Martha Stewart risked everything she had worked for  – for what was it – an illegal $50.000?  Over what for her was just peanuts, really. What a pity!

How do you explain managers of companies who are personally worth hundreds of millions of dollars, wanting more, and cheating and lying to get more?

One executive of a corporation that made the news some time ago, was charged with his sons on having looted their company. He was over seventy years old!!!

Was he worried that he wouldn’t  have enough to last him until he died?  Or that somehow the richer he was the longer he would live? 

Really, what’s the point?  

Paul tells us that when we die we will leave this old arthritic, worn out body behind and be given a new spiritual body. 

Surgical scars, wrinkled skin, thin gray hair,  weak wobbly legs, triple chins, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bad memory, loose dentures, and constipation – the whole sorry lot – will be left behind and replaced by a  lovely new streamlined, healthy, body  – fitted – made  to measure.

A new spiritual body.

Money can’t buy that.  It will be  freely given to those who have followed the Christ.

Jesus rejects money, power, influence, even worry about his own well-being as he goes about healing sick bodies and minds, and telling people how to get in touch with God – how to be one with God again.

He taught that God wasn’t so far away that he couldn’t be reached. He is only a prayer away. You can almost reach out and touch him.

Captain Scott of the Antarctic was a man who loved to journey. He had to go to the most difficult places.  Like the South Pole.  On his last fateful journey, he kept his diary as always. And he wrote letters that he hoped would be delivered sometime.

One such letter reached Dr. J. M. Barrie, of St. Andrews University, who in his rectorial address read those immortal words, written by Scott when the chill of death was already on his expedition, as Dr. Barclay reports:

“We are in a desperate strait – feet frozen etc. no fuel, and a long way from food, but it would do your heart good to be in our tent and to hear our songs and our cheery conversation.”

Barclay says. ‘The secret is this: that happiness depends not on things, or on places, but always on persons. If we are with the right person, nothing else matters; and if we are not with the right person nothing can make up for that absence.

‘The Christian is with the Lord, the greatest of all friends. Nothing can separate the Christian from his presence and so nothing can take away his joy.’

We can be, assured, and comforted, and safe on our journey. For he is traveling with us, all the way. Right to the end!

As threats and troubles beset us, we can press on, refusing to be drawn away from our task – which is to witness to his love – and to live joyously in that love.

Living a life which imitates Christ .

And persevering in it.