Legalism wrenches the joy of the Lord from the Christian believer, and with the joy of the Lord goes the power for vital worship and vibrant service.
Nothing is left but cramped, somber, dull and listless profession. The truth is betrayed, and the glorious name of the Lord becomes a synonym for a gloomy kill-joy. The Christian under law is a miserable parody of the real thing.
- S. Lewis Johnson
(How to respect the law without becoming a “gloomy kill-joy?”)
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Phil 3:3-8a; Ps 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Lk 15:1-10
The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So Jesus addressed this parable to them.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the
lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who
repents.”
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
The story in today’s gospel of the woman who has ten coins and loses one
resonated with me. She lights the lamp and sweeps the house as she searches carefully. As I contemplate the scene in her home I am overcome with her quiet determination and sense of hope that she will find the lost coin. Once she finds the coin she calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate. Luke tells us the angels of God celebrate the same way over one sinner who repents.
This story which Jesus uses to explain to the Pharisees why he welcomes sinners and eats with them fills me with a sense of hope and possibility. When I sin I am not outcast forever but embraced with love. The angels celebrate when I repent. This image gives me freedom to learn from my mistakes and to strive to do better. And rather than waiting until I completely pull myself together before I feel worthy of God’s love, I know that God loves me at all
times and I can always rely on that love.
It is very humbling to know that God loves me when I gossip, when I forget to put God at the center of my life, when I serve my own needs and ignore the needs of others, when I focus on achievement at work at the expense of others, when I worry about money. This list goes on and on. Yet I do not want to invite a sense of despair.
Repentance means reflecting upon ones actions and striving to do better.
- by Mary Lee Brock
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 28
“Each brotherly compassion that man hath on his
fellow Christians, with charity, it is Christ in him” And then I saw that each kind compassion that man hath on his even-Christians with charity, it is Christ in him.
That same noughting that was shewed in His Passion, it was shewed again here in this Compassion. Wherein were two manner of understandings in our Lord’s meaning. The one was the bliss that we are brought to, wherein He willeth that we rejoice. The other is for comfort in our pain: for He willeth that we perceive that it shall all be turned to worship and profit by virtue of His passion, that we perceive that we suffer not alone but with Him, and see Him to be our Ground,
and that we see His pains and His noughting passeth so far all that we may suffer, that it may not be fully thought.
The beholding of this will save us from murmuring and despair in the feeling of our pains. And if we see soothly that our sin deserveth it, yet His love excuseth us, and of His great courtesy He doeth
away all our blame, and beholdeth us with ruth and pity as children innocent and unloathful. |
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