You're here at last!
   So glad you've come
   We've waited for so long
Branches wave and
   Knees bend low, while
   We sing out the song
Not quite the way we 
   Pictured you...
   No army in your wake
Seems you've not come
   To overthrow
   There must be some mistake.

Here you are... and with us
   Sitting down
   The select few
How great is this?
   How great are we?
   You say we have no clue.
Then bending down
   And stripping off
   You wipe away our mess
And order us
   To do the same...
   We could not get it less.

Now here we are
   Long after dark
   You take some time alone
We sit and wonder
   What comes next?
   And drift off, one-by-one.
Then suddenly, you're here
   And all around
   We see our foes.
We strike. You step in. 
   Stop the blood.
   Surrender... as we run.

Now there you are
   Suspended in the sky
   For all to see.
Naked and
   In agony, and
   Hanging from a tree.
This is the end.
   It has to be!
   There is no coming back.
And one-by-one
   We turn away.
   There is no coming back.

But here you are!
   Before our eyes
   How can all this be true?!?
We saw you die...
   But here you are!
   We still don't have a clue.
This had to happen
   All along, you say
   And just as soon
As we believe our eyes
   And ears and hearts
   Again you're gone.

Yet here you are!
   Still with us, even when
   Our eyes don't see
And there you are
   Far off ahead
   As we follow your lead
And here too we 
   Meet with you in
   The eyes of every face
And here we help them 
   See you too
   When we extend your grace.

​In addition, here is a link to our Stations of the Cross video, featuring the paintings of Fr. Sieger Köder:

Scripture Readings: Exodus 12:1–14 | Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 | 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 | John 13:1–17, 31b–35

​“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
 
This is the commandment of our Lord, and it is exactly what our world needs right now: a community of people who love one another the way that Jesus loves.
 
Of course this sounds great at first glance… but time and again we tend to shrink back when it comes down to putting His kind of love into practice. Then suddenly, love doesn’t seem quite so easy… or so appealing.
 
That’s because, as we know, love is messy. Love is challenging. Love is vulnerable. Love means getting close to folks, not just when they’re at they’re best… but even when it’s incredibly uncomfortable.
 
And love means letting others get close to us as well… and not just when we’re at our best… it means taking the risk that our masks might slip… that they might see through our careful defenses… a whole other level of discomfort!
This kind of love looks a lot like faith… taking the risk to entrust ourselves… our real selves, warts and all, to each other. Taking the risk to try our best to be trustworthy too… to do what we can to be there for one another… to have grace and patience with one another… to challenge and forgive one another… to offer to each other all that Christ Jesus our Lord has offered to us.
 
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
 
Love is exactly what we need. What our neighbours need. What the world around us needs. But will we be willing to share it?
 
Our Lord pulls no punches in His high expectations for His people. And to make it clear what this love looks like, He humbly assumes the role of a servant… a slave… and one-by-one, the High King of Heaven stoops down to clean His disciple’s disgusting feet.
 
Imagine their discomfort… their confusion, their dismay… as their Master, the One they thought was about to bring God’s Good Kingdom to earth in triumphant glory, kneels down in front of them… wiping away the grit and grime from their road-weary toes… and arches, and heels… not just as a symbolic gesture, but as an act of deep compassion… of kindness… of attentiveness… of willingness to deal with they’re mess, right up close… reaching out in love to make them clean.
 
This is an almost unthinkable level of care and intimacy… inviting us to let down our guards… to allow ourselves to be exposed, cared for, and cleansed… first of all, by our Lord Jesus Christ, through the cross He endured to deal with all our messes… cleansing us by His precious blood. But then Jesus empowers us to share His love with one another… to put it into action in our lives. To let His love lead the way.  
 
Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. This is what we need… as messy, and as uncomfortable, and as strange as it feels… this is what we all need: to share with one another what Jesus Christ our Lord first shared with us: God’s love.
 
And this is exactly what our world needs today… in the face of the ongoing devastation from the brutal conflicts in Gaza… Ukraine… Haiti… Myanmar… Sudan… and more… where armies not only destroy another other, but the lives of so many civilians… regular people, all made in God’s image, swept away by waves of violence.
 
And in the face of all the social divisions and hatred that keeps tearing our communities apart… fueling mistrust… fear… prejudice… and turning our human family against one another.
 
In the face of our world’s indifference to the poor… to the sick… to the elderly, the vulnerable… the environment… turning our backs on our responsibility to care for one another, and all of God’s creation… content to leave it to others to do the hard work of cleaning up the messes we have all made.
 
Our world needs us to be a people… a community who are willing to do the uncomfortable work of sharing God’s love with His messed up world.
 
Tonight we remember that Christ Jesus our Lord stepped into the mess we have made of God’s world… and stooped down to cleans it, one foot… one life at a time… and now He calls us to follow His example.
 
Tonight we remember that His life was broken and His blood shed to put our world back together… bound together by the forgiveness, mercy, and grace of the Living God, offered to us all in Jesus’ name.
 
Tonight we remember His commandment: to love one another as He has first loved us. And that this is how the world will come to know God’s rescuing love… when we His people take the first step of faith, and strive to love one another.
 
In a moment, I will offer us all an invitation in Jesus’ name to come forward and have our foot washed… as an uncomfortable, but powerful way to say yes to Christ’s gift of compassionate, cleansing love… and as a commitment to obey His command to share this love with one another… and with God’s world.
 
Whether we come forward, or stay in our seats tonight, may the Holy Spirit of God graciously work in all our hearts and minds to cleanse us from everything that keeps us from loving one another as Christ Himself loves us. Amen.

​And our Songs can be found here:

The Crucifixion accounts are central to each of the four Gospels, as the Apostles see the cross as key to understanding the Good News of what Jesus Christ has done for us all. 

Here is an excellent video from the Bible Project exploring the Gospel of Mark as a whole, which will help us understand the context for our Gospel readings this week:

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 31:31–34 | Psalm 51:1–12 | Hebrews 5:5–10 | ​John 12:20–33

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24).
 
Happy St. Patrick’s day!
 
Quick question: How many of us here today have some Irish ancestry?
 
I’ve been able to trace members of my family back to Ireland in the 1800’s, but according to one of those genetic tests that are now available, I’ve only inherited about 1% of Irish genes. The Montgomery clan after all, were Scots who arrived in Northern Ireland, before eventually moving on to settle in Canada. Even so, I appreciate and treasure these small Irish connections… especially this time of year.
 
And I have some good news for everyone else here today who might like to be a bit more Irish than we are: we’re in pretty good company.
 
As some of us may know, St. Patrick himself wasn’t Irish! He was born in Britain, a province of the Roman Empire, on the frontier of their vast European territory, at around the time the Roman armies were retreating from this region, around the turn of the 5th Century.
 
So how then did Patrick become so connected to Ireland, and how did he come to be a seen as a Saint?
 
The earliest source of information we have about St. Patrick comes from his own hand, an autobiographical account of his story called the Confession of St. Patrick. He doesn’t spend much time at all in this account discussing his upbringing, or background, but he begins with a few simple words about himself and his most recent ancestors: “My name is Patrick.” He begins, “I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. I am looked down upon by many. My father was Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest”.[1]

But simply being raised in a family of Christian leaders didn’t seem to endear young Patrick to the faith. He mentions not really knowing the True God in his younger days, which is not the start many might have imagined for one of the most well-known saints of all time. But as we know, hearts and lives can change in all sorts of ways.
 
Which leads us to how Patrick first came into contact with Ireland: as a victim of human trafficking. Along with many others, Patrick was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery. He had his old life stolen from him, and was made to serve strangers, in a strange land.
 
According to his account, it was during his time of captivity and slavery that he began to reach out to God, and found as he did so that the Lord was reaching out to him with His divine mercy and grace. This newfound faith didn’t solve all of his troubles… but it did change Patrick’s own heart, and turn around his life in ways that he could never have dreamed possible.
 
After some time passed, Patrick recounts how the Lord eventually led him to freedom… aiding his escape across the wilds, and even providing him with a way off the island… guiding him to sailors who were willing to help this escaped slave return to Britain. All told it’s an amazing story, that we don’t have time to fully explore this morning, but I encourage you to look up St. Patrick’s Confession sometime soon, and give it a read.
 
Keeping things brief: Patrick returned to his old life, a freed man. And that’s where his story could have ended. But something significant had changed in Patrick’s life: his new awareness of God’s grace, God’s rescuing love, which found him when he was completely helpless and hopeless, had turned Patrick’s life around… and placed him on a new path.
 
Soon Patrick left Britain for what is now France, and prepared to become a priest, devoted to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Lord’s rescuing love with those in the world who, like his younger self, didn’t yet know the True God.
 
And again, the Lord reached out to Patrick… not this time to bring him freedom, but to work through Patrick to bring God’s freedom to others… specifically, to his old captors.
  
Patrick recounts how he has a vision, in which a man, representing his old Irish oppressors, begs him to return and live among them again. He took this as a call from God to go share the Good News of Jesus with the people of Ireland… asking Patrick to set aside all the plans he had made for his life, in order to share God’s rescuing love with those who he could easily had written off as enemies.
 
And so, choosing to follow the call of His Lord, Patrick goes back, and spends the rest of his days serving in Ireland… convincing their chiefs to give their allegiance to the High King of Heaven, Jesus the Risen Lord, and planting the seeds of faith to set their whole society on the path of the One True God.
 
Patrick would served there as a missionary and bishop, and though he faced opposition at times, he has been embraced by the people of Ireland as their patron saint for centuries… recognized as someone who followed the way of Jesus, and freely gave his life to share God’s saving love with them.
 
Of course, St. Patrick’s life is not just a good story, or a history lesson… it’s an example of the Good News of Jesus at work in our world… a work that is still ongoing, and which we all are invited to share in as well.
 
God’s work of transforming hearts and lives… of turning whole communities towards His holy ways… of drawing close all those who do not yet know His divine forgiveness and grace, and mercy, and rescuing love… of helping us die to ourselves, so that we can share the gift of God’s abundant and unending life in Christ.
 
We see this work unfolding in our first reading from Jeremiah, as God addresses His unfaithful people who had repeatedly broken their covenant with the Lord, and who were now headed for disaster and the horrors of Exile. But even this hopeless situation was not going to be the end of their story, because in mercy and grace the Living God promises to transform the hearts of His stubborn people, pointing forward to a day when they would be truly turned around and find new life in Him.
 
Jeremiah 31:33-34, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”.
 
God promises them a new covenant… a whole new way of life with Him, not written on stone, but on their hearts… that is, transforming their very desires and understanding… realigning them inside and out by God’s own rescuing love, and setting them free by His forgiveness.
 
This is the hope that Israel’s prophets bore witness to… a hope that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that continues to shape the lives of those who will trust and follow Him.
 
In our Gospel reading this morning, St. John shows us something remarkable: after spending His life bearing witness to the children of Israel, now Greek Gentiles were beginning to seek out Jesus as well. Gentiles, members of the various nations all around Israel, who did not yet know the Living God… who didn’t have a covenant with Him, or follow His holy ways… the nations who had repeatedly oppressed and offended Israel, God’s chosen people… now even they were coming to Jesus, and begging for Him to meet with them.
 
The disciples don’t quite seem to know what to do. This wasn’t really a part of their plans. But by His response, we know that Jesus knows what it will take for the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike, to meet with Him:
 
John 12:23–28, Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
 
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”
 
In order to bring to fulfillment His mission to rescue and reconcile the whole world to God, Jesus knew it would cost Him everything. He would have to die. To give up His life, like a seed buried in the ground, so that through His death we all might come to taste and be transformed by God’s New Life. So that our hearts might be changed for good. So that our own desires and understandings might be shaped, not by selfishness, but by God’s self-giving love… so that
we too might be set free from our own slavery to sin and shame, and instead to find true forgiveness and peace… not just with God, but with one another… as Christ gave His body to be broken at the cross to put our whole human family back together again… reconciling estranged communities, and even enemies, through His blood shed for all.
 
What Jesus accomplished at the cross, once and for all, has changed and will continue to change the world… and He’s calling you and me to take part in this… to truly be His people, now set apart to share in this new covenant, this new way of life made possible by His blood, shed not just for some, but for all the families of the earth.
 
And as our Lord said, if we are to serve Him, we must actually follow Him… not just to our ultimate destination, sharing in the joys of His everlasting Kingdom… but also following Him to the cross… sharing in His suffering here in this life… dying to ourselves, in all sorts of ways… through transformed behaviours, through faithful choices, through selfless sacrifice… and for some, even literal suffering for the sake of Jesus… all so that God’s Holy Spirit can bear His good fruit in and through us, to bring God’s rescuing love to our world.
 
St. Patrick’s story is one of God’s grace and mercy at work in surprising ways, bringing forgiveness, freedom, and new life to the people of Ireland centuries ago… all possible because God’s love had truly changed Patrick’s life, and God’s holy ways were now written on Patrick’s heart… and so he could follow his Master, die to his old life, and bear the fruit of faithfulness.
 
What about our story? Each of us here have our own journey… our own path where God’s love has reached out to us, and now calls to us to take up our part in making this rescuing love known to, and in, our world.
​
And together as a Parish family, we have a shared path to take… and important choices to make, about how to answer the call of God to share the Good News of Jesus with those in our community. We may feel ill equipped at times… or too small, too simple, too insignificant to make much of a difference. But as St. Patrick’s story reminds us, God loves to work with those who seem hopeless and helpless, to make His surprising grace, and mercy, and forgiveness known to all who will trust in Jesus… transforming even our hearts and lives to share His love with everyone.
 
So like Patrick, may we entrust our hearts and lives to the Good News of Jesus Christ our Saviour. May we be willing to follow Him wherever He might lead us. May we be open to sharing His forgiveness and love, even with those who have hurt or wronged us. And may we die to all that keeps us from bearing the fruit that will last for God’s eternal Kingdom. Amen.   


[1] Confession of St. Patrick. Quote cited from the website St. Patrick’s Confessio: https://www.confessio.ie/etexts/confessio_english#

And our Songs this week can be found here:

​For those who want to explore this theme a bit more in depth, check out their 7 Episode Podcast series discussing questions raised by these videos on the books of the Torah, found here:

​And our Songs this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Exodus 20:1–17 | Psalm 19 | 1 Corinthians 1:18–25 | ​John 2:13–22

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’” (John 2:19).
 
Love knows when to say no.
 
Our first reading today dives right into the heart of God’s Covenant partnership with Israel, formalized at Mt. Sinai. After centuries of slavery in Egypt, with bodies, minds, and hearts shaped by unending hours of hard labour, and the cruelty of their oppressors, we meet Israel gathered in the wilderness, and on the cusp of a brand new way of life: graciously chosen by the Creator of All to be a set-apart people, dedicated to His divine ways, Israel was about to learn what it means for them to become God’s people together… to learn how they are to reflect His goodness, His character… His image in their lives, in all they say and do, so that all the earth might come to know the life-giving love of the Lord as well.
 
And the Ten Commandments, which we read this morning, form a key component in this covenant partnership…  laying down clear expectations of what it means to join God in this unique relationship.

Note that these commandments don’t just fall out of the sky. They are given within the context of a story. Not the story so many of us buy into… the story of: “if you prove that you’re good enough, then I’ll accept you.”
 
No, the Ten Commandments are a part of the story of God’s rescuing love already at work in the world… setting free the captives, lifting up the heads of the hopeless, and bringing new life into being. Long before they arrived at Mt. Sinai, God had already rescued Israel from Egypt. The Lord had already shown Himself to be their gracious Saviour, and revealed His compassion, faithfulness, and power, again and again.
 
No, the Commandments were never about winning God’s favour. They were a gift to His beloved children. An invitation to share in God’s own life in a whole new way… a gift that the people eagerly said yes too… at least initially. These Laws were a way for God to say: “This is the way you are to live as my already rescued people in this world… this is the way you are to treat one another.” This is the way the Lord was teaching His children how to love.
 
But why did they need to be taught how to love? Doesn’t love just come naturally?
 
Of course, people everywhere understand affection.  We experience longing for others, and some sense of loyalty to those closest to us. But even so, this doesn’t seem to stop us from setting our devotions aside to do whatever seems right to us in the moment.
 
And what’s more, there’s also the danger of letting our sense of devotion to those closest to us distort our responsibilities to everyone else… leading to what’s known as tribalism… the whole “us vs. them” way of seeing the world… and all the deep divisions we see at work all around us today.
 
This was all just as true back in Israel’s early days, but the LORD had other plans in mind, for them and for the world… longing to put His Good creation back on track. And so at Sinai, Israel would learn that to live God’s way it would required a commitment, not just to our own interests, or to our family and friends… but first of all, to the One Creator and Saviour of All, the Living God… and also a commitment to the wellbeing of the wider society: In other words, they were called to love God, and to love their neighbours too.
 
What does that look like? As a place to start, we have these Ten Commandments… Laws outlining the broad vision of what life looks like when we live it God’s way.
 
And interestingly, in order to make clear what it means to live and love God’s way, we’re basically told what we’re not to do…
 
You shall have no other gods before Yahweh, the LORD.
You shall not make idols, or bow down to worship them.
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD.
You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy by not doing any work on it.
You shall not murder.
You shall not steal.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not give false testimony.
You shall not covet anything belonging to your neighbour.

For something as supremely good as God’s holy laws to teach His people how to love and live together… the shape of life that He intends for His people and His world… that’s a whole lot of No’s. The only commandment in the list without a ‘No’ or ‘Not’ in it is number five: Honour your Father and Mother.
 
But as any good Father or Mother knows… a big part of learning to love, and teaching someone else to love, means knowing when to say no… clarifying the boundaries between what is good and life-giving on the one hand, and what is destructive on the other.
 
God’s love for Israel led Him to say No to them in very clear and intentional ways… not because He didn’t want them to enjoy life in all its fullness. Exactly the opposite! God knows that to fully enjoy the fullness of life means living in certain ways… and setting other ways aside… as individuals and as a wider community, it means being shaped first of all by His love.
 
A love that knows how to say no to envy and self-centredness… and that preserves integrity… a love that does not seize what belongs to others… that honours the bonds of marriage… and knows how to restrain violence… a love that lifts up those who have come before us, and have raised us up… a love that sets aside sacred time for everyone, regardless of wealth or status, to rest and be restored in body, mind, and heart… a love that seeks to rightly honour the reputation of the Holy One… that refuses to give our hearts and devotion to empty objects, but only to the Source of all that is good… a love that remembers the compassion, and faithfulness, and saving power of the Living God, and that prioritizes this relationship above all else, so that all else finds its proper place.
 
The Ten Commandments taught Israel, and teach us all, about the boundaries of love… what not to do, so that love  can flourish as it’s supposed to… so that we, both as individuals and as a part of a wider community, can put God’s love into practice, and have our lives transformed as a result.
 
Sadly, the story of Scriptures tells us that, even when given these good boundaries… these life-giving Laws of God… Israel kept on refusing to stay inside the lines. Over and over again, they broke the commandments, and stopped letting God’s love lead the way.
 
This leads us to our Gospel reading this morning, where we witness Jesus saying No to God’s people in a clear and dramatic way. Arriving at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during the time of the Passover, the sacred commemoration of God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt long ago, St. John tells us that Jesus of Nazareth, who we know to be God’s Son, does something quite shocking and unexpected: He makes a whip and begins driving away those who were doing business… selling animals to be sacrificed within the sacred Temple courts.
 
Why does He do this? Why was Jesus so passionate and angry about people buying and selling animals in the Temple?  
 
Well, the Temple in Jerusalem was the one place in all the earth set aside for humans to approach the holy presence of the Living God. It was the one place where devotion to the LORD was most clearly expressed, where forgiveness of sins and reconciliation was pronounced over those who drew near. The place for all God’s people together to practice loving the LORD God with all their heart, and soul, and mind, and strength… to remember His holy ways, and reaffirm their commitment to the whole Covenant relationship…
 
And they had turned it into a market. A place more devoted to profits and convenience than to the Creator and gracious Saviour of all… commercializing the sacred covenant God had invited His people to share in… turning that sacred place meant to help Israel experience God’s saving love in their lives… and to make this love known to the nations… into a business... revealing where their devotion truly rested: in merely their own interests.
 
Has the Church gone down the same route? Sadly yes. Many times, and in many ways, we Christians have also forgotten what it means to love the LORD before all else… setting aside the things that lead us to life, and instead getting caught up in all sorts of self-centred priorities that keep us and those around us from drawing near to the Living God. Following the example of Israel before us, we too forget the good limits that God has placed on the lives of those who are devoted to Him.
 
Where do we need to hear God tell us No again today?
 
Back in John’s Gospel, we see Jesus is passionate, zealous for God’s ways to be embraced… for people, back then and today, to experience the truly life-giving love that God created us to share in, and share with our neighbours. And so, in the Temple, we see Him willing to stand up and say no to all that keeps us from this saving love.
 
And much more than that… we’ll soon see that He’s willing to lay down His life to offer this love to us, and to all.
 
In response to Jesus’ passionate display, those present in the Temple demand that Jesus give good reason for His disruption… they ask for a sign to prove that He has the authority to completely mess with their way of doing things. Essentially they say to Him: ‘What gives you the right???’
 
John 2:19-22, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”
 
The sign of Jesus’ right to say No to the self-centeredness and sin of His people… the grounds for claiming the right to reorganize their whole community’s patterns of devotion, and their lives… is the sign of the cross… the destruction of the Temple of Jesus’ body, where Heaven and Earth are truly united as One in the flesh of God’s Son… a union which cannot be overcome, even by death… rising again on the third day.
 
With Heavenly authority, Jesus came to put God’s compassion, faithfulness, and power to work again to rescue us from ourselves… to break the power selfishness and sin held over us, and set us free to live another way… God’s way… for good.
 
With passion for God’s house… for the sacred ways we fragile humans were invited to draw near to our Creator and Savior, Jesus knows that sometimes love means saying no… and He knows that we humans can’t seem to stop saying no to God’s ways… turning away again and again to pursue our own self-centred desires.
 
And so Jesus, the true Son of God, who lived in complete devotion to the Father, wholeheartedly sharing His love, as the very embodiment of God’s holy Law in the flesh… He took up our place on the cross… bearing the full weight of the guilt and shame of the whole world on His shoulders…  receiving our just condemnation… and dying in agony to set us free.
 
The cross is the result of our rejection of God and God’s good ways… it’s our ultimate No to our Creator and Saviour, nailing His Son to the tree once and for all.
 
At the same time, the cross is God’s ultimate No to all of the ways that we refuse to live by His holy love… it’s God’s utter determination not to allow our self-destructive impulses to have the last say, and instead, to end them. Not by rejecting us in return, which is what we deserve. Not by seeking to crush us, or cow us with threats, or with reminders of our unworthiness.
 
But in self-giving love… a love that is able to say no to itself for the sake of others… Jesus offered up His life at the cross, once and for all… so that we all can receive true forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace through through His precious blood shed for us… and begin to say Yes to the New Life of God through His Spirit at work in us.
 
In many ways, the season of Lent invites us to place our trust in Jesus, and learn to say No to ourselves… which can be a struggle. But we do so for a good reason: to learn together to live God’s way. To love God’s way. The way that Jesus our Saviour does, who laid down His life to rescue us while we were still sinners… dying to liberates us when we were still slaves to our sin and fears and self-centeredness… offering His body to be broken on our behalf… letting His blood be spilled to atone for all our failures… and rising again from the dead to share His new life with us and with our world.
 
If we are to follow Jesus to the cross, and receive there from Him the new life that God has in store for us… what might you and I need to say No to today?
 
Not to earn God’s favour, or to ruin our fun, but to put into practice the freedom to flourish that Jesus Christ has already won for us?
 
These things might be easy for some of us to identify. God’s Spirit might already be prompting us to let go of some things that are keeping us from fully sharing in the freedom of God’s holy love.
 
But if we’re not sure, a good place to spend some time in prayerful reflection might be the Ten Commandments… and also look at how Jesus Himself sheds light on their true meaning in the Sermon on the Mount, found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5-7.
 
As Holy Week draws closer, and we reflect on all that Jesus our Saviour has accomplished for us at the cross, let us remember that God’s limits are a gift to us… helping us learn when to say No to ourselves, so that we can say Yes to the life and love of God, and share it with everyone.
 
I’ll end now with these words from our Psalm today:

The law of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the innocent.
The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever;
the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold,
sweeter far than honey, than honey in the comb.
By them also is your servant enlightened,
and in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can tell how often he offends?
cleanse me from my secret faults.
Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins;
let them not get dominion over me;
then shall I be whole and sound, and innocent of a great offense.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
Amen.

​For those who want to explore this theme a bit more in depth, check out their 7 Episode Podcast series discussing questions raised by these videos on the books of the Torah, found here:

​And our Songs this week can be found here: