Status is irrelevant in God’s kingdom...

In a world that is often so competitive, our God is refreshingly different. The desire to be dominant or a leader burns bright in many people, and often their desire overwhelms others.  We all know the ones who might not be the CEO or the boss of our institution or organisation, but they are the boss. Everyone defers to them in some way, whether reluctantly or not.  They maybe hold the keys to that special cupboard, run the kitchen or canteen with an iron fist or simply know everything and use that as capital.  At the other end of the scale they might be Sir Alan Sugar types with the power to say you are fired.

Yet God operates in such a different way. Holy Week is our yearly reminder, our focal point if you wish, on this.  This week we are reminded that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  We are reminded that we for life to happen, death must occur.  And that death isn’t of just anybody, but of God’s Son.

God was willing to give his very own Son, not only to live our lives but to die in such shaming conditions because he loves us.  Greater love has no man than he lay down his lives for his friends.  Jesus gave his life so that we might all live.  The prophet Isaiah wrote in the readings we had on Tuesday night of Holy Week:

It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
    to restore the tribes of Jacob
    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’

For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

We know that this week, the events tomorrow in particular should inspire awe within us, overwhelm us with the magnitude of God’s love for us, and bring us to our knees in repentance, turning away from all that is not of God.   The events of this week should give us such a spiritual high, we don’t come back down til Pentecost, when we get another influx of God’s spirit, and we truly burst with energy.

But somehow that doesn’t happen.  God invites us to join him as he watches his Son take this journey to cross, and it begins with an invitation to allow Jesus to wash your feet.  We often talk of inviting Jesus into your heart, when actually what he wants to do is wash your feet.

Take a moment and cast your eyes down to your feet.  Don’t worry you don’t have to take your socks and shoes off yet.  Imagine if you will for a moment, that Jesus is before you and he wants to wash your feet.  The Son of God kneels before you with a towel around his waist, a basin in front of him, and goes to lift your foot into the water…

What do you do?  How do you react?
For some you will embrace the moment, such is your relationship with Jesus.
Others will pull back with embarrassment and suddenly Peter’s reaction makes perfect sense.
Others of you are struggling to even imagine Jesus kneeling in front of you.  Perhaps because you know him only a little but wish to know him more. Perhaps because Jesus is still a concept to you and not a reality.  Perhaps because imagining things is not your forte.

Jesus invites us to follow in his footsteps, but the path doesn’t start at the cross, it starts with servanthood.  And it isn’t about being a servant or slave to God, it is about being a servant with God.  Jesus shows us that he doesn’t expect us to be something he isn’t willing to be.  He washes their feet and then serves at the table.  To host the Passover was a honour, a privilege and so Jesus moves from a position of servant, and a footwashing servant was right down at the bottom of servant positions, to hosting the meal, albeit in a guest room.

God has the right to sit at the top of the table and the bottom of the table.  But once again he invites us all to sit at the table with him, and he serves them all, even Judas who he knows will betray him.

Whether we are CEOs or big shot lawyers, whether we are community workers or picking up the litter, whether we are caregivers or unemployed, whether we are super educated or barely literate, we are called to be servants and we are called to share at the Masters table.  There is no status in God’s kingdom – even for God’s Son.

As we move forward towards Good Friday with its darkness and light, sorrow and joy, hope and despair, we see it through resurrection eyes.  But remember, as Paul said we preach a crucified Christ and Jesus told us we must pick up our cross and follow him.  We cannot avoid Good Friday, but we can know God’s presence and invitation to be a part of Holy Week, the week that changed the world.  You, whoever you are, are important enough to God that he was willing to die for you.  And in doing so, created all of us equal in the sight of God.  Amen and thanks be to God.

Readings: Exodus 12:1-14

Psalm 116:1,10-19

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 

A Different Corner

My close companions abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me.  Job 19:19

The song lyric: “Turn a different corner and we never would have met” is like an ear worm to me (and sorry if I just made it yours and to save you googling it, it’s from George Michael, A Different Corner).  I am a great believer in God-incidences, and being in the right place at the right time.  Life is full of what if moments, and for some the concept of parallel universes is a genuine possibility.  What if I walked rather than take the car?  What if I had been accepted at Glasgow University?  Where would I be today?

Today we read of the encounter between Jesus and Judas where it is blatantly obvious to Jesus what Judas will do.  The others seem somewhat ignorant of it and quite surprised in the end, so Judas wasn’t one to wear his heart on his sleeve.   And it is easy to hate Judas here but let’s just pause for a moment.  Rewind the conversation and ponder.

If we had been Jesus would we not have been tempted to change course?  Would we have not at least attempted to persuade Judas not to do it?  Would we have taken evasive action or arranged a relocation of Judas in some way?  Turn a different corner and Judas might have ended up converted rather than dead by his own hand.

There are times when we don’t agree with the path we are on. Sometimes we have ended up on it by our own hand, but often we are influenced, shaped, directed by forces outwith our control.  Sometimes God calls us to people and places that make us uncomfortable, that unsettle us in some way, outside our comfort zone.  We are called to work with a new minister or colleague, welcome a new member of the family through marriage, take on a new role or support another rather than lead, through circumstances not ours to control. What do we do in those circumstances?  What is your reaction?  Look for a different corner or embrace it?

Jesus knew what Judas was about to do and did nothing to stop it.  Yet, Jesus could have and we know from the temptations in the wilderness, to his grief in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus could have stepped away.  But he doesn’t because he knows that ultimately God has a plan and that plan will be worth the hardship, the shame, the betrayal, the pain and even death itself.

The author of Hebrews sums it up wonderfully, and you can apply this to Christ as well as to us when he writes:  So let us run the race that is before us and never give up.  

Jesus knew the joy of God, and that joy of God is something that can help us run the race, get through the darkest moments and look beyond the here and now to the eternal future.  “Think about Jesus’ example.  He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him.  So do not get tired and stop trying.”

Often we are not called to turn a different corner, no matter how we much pray for that to happen. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, we are called to embrace the track we are on and run the race without giving up.  And that is hard, because we’d rather believe the grass is greener on the other side, that this route cannot be for us.

Imagine if Jesus had turned a different corner – our faith would be very different.  As we go through Holy Week, and draw ever closer to Good Friday, let’s thank the Lord that he ran the race and did not quit.

For ourselves, has looking for a different path, a different race track, meant that you haven’t ran well the race that is yours?  Is time for you to have God help you run your race, even if it includes sorrow, suffering and hardship?  Remember with God none of these will have the last word, even if we cannot comprehend it or make sense of it now.  And the finish line will be a celebration moment for us all, ultimately because Jesus didn’t quit.

‘We are surrounded by a great cloud of people who lives tell us what faith means.’ 
Remember them.  Remember Him.  Don’t quit.
God bless.



Collect: Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ withdrew to the quietness of Bethany to prepare himself for his passion.  In the fellowship of his suffering, strengthen us to be more than conquerors in our trials and temptations, that whether betrayed by friends or hurt by enemies, we may remain steadfast in our faith unto the end through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32

Tuesday: We Need Death

The word of God is alive and active.  It cuts more keenly than any two edged sword.  Hebrews 4:12

So often in Holy Week we hurry to the resurrection, and yet in order to truly greet the risen Christ, we must first embrace death.  In part, yes our physical death, in that we should not fear it for we are eternal people.  Apparently more people are scared of spiders than of death, but perhaps that speaks more to our human sense of immortality until the moment our mortality is made real to us.  But in Holy Week there is no escaping death.  Without death there is no life.  Without sorrow there is no joy to follow in the morning.  We live in a world where we attempt to avoid decay and death, just ask the plastic surgeons or the medical charlatans who are as real today as those who peddled elixirs in the wild west.

Jesus speaks openly of his death on numerous occasions, and relates it in today’s reading to the grain of wheat that falls, in order that many seeds can be made.  If the grain of wheat doesn’t die, then life cannot come.  Jesus’ death enables all people to come to him, and through him, the way, the truth and the life to the Father, Mother, God of us all.  And yet it goes against anything we can truly comprehend, except if we have ever been in the situation of giving up our life for another.  Paul knows this and reminds the people in Corinth and us today that we preach a crucified Christ which causes Jews to stumble and is foolishness to non-Jews.

Notice what he says – we preach a crucified Christ.  Not we preach a risen Christ or resurrected Christ but a crucified Christ.

Death plays a central role in Holy Week and to circumvent by moving from the celebration and expectations of Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without stopping at Good Friday is to lose something so significant, that words can’t express it fully.  Absolutely, we are people of the resurrection, but to be resurrected we need to die first.  Not literally of course, but as Jesus said:  we need to pick up our cross and follow him.

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be a light for all nations to show people all over the world the way to be saved.  For Jesus, it was in the moment of death, lifted up on the cross that he brought about life for all people, Jew and Gentile, for you and me.  Absolutely, we need the resurrection, but we also need to bow at the foot of the cross, and recognise that it is in his death there is life.

Remember this, especially when it does feel dark and dangerous,
‘The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.’ John 1:5

What are your thoughts, fears and hopes when it comes to death?  How does knowing that in death is life encourage or inspire you?  How might that help you truly welcome the risen Christ?

Collect/Prayer:  Almighty God, you Son Jesus Christ taught the people the way of righteousness and judgement.  Grant us a ready mind and willing spirit to learn from him all that you would teach us, and keep us watchful for his coming and diligent in his work; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-14
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36

Monday: Are you like Judas or Mary?

One thing I ask of the Lord, it is the one thing I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4

There is such a clash of old and new in the story that we share from the Gospels today, a clash made obvious in the reading from Hebrews.  At first we can easily see the human perspective.  Whatever Judas’ motives, or rather regardless of how pure they might have been, he said what many of us would say today.  Especially those from a ‘waste not, want not generation’ or even a social gospel context.  In the Church, many of us are more worried about keeping money safe, than spending it generously.  We are saving for a rainy day and missing the fact that the rains have been and gone and we are in drought, indeed facing a famine.  We might not want to align ourselves with Judas (who does?) but perhaps, this Holy Monday, we need to ask ourselves are we more in tune with him than with Mary?

Mary’s actions are extravagant – most certainly.  And in our ‘britishness’ we might struggle to comprehend these actions. They are intimate yet public, they are sensual yet humility driven.  She takes her nard, worth a small fortune, and pours it on the feet of Jesus, wiping his feet with her hair.  It is an outpouring of worship, of love, and for Jesus – recognition. Jesus defends her actions wholeheartedly, not because he doesn’t care for the poor.  Rather her actions are pure, motivated by love and a sense of perspective that there is more to this life than what we see.

The author of Hebrews speaks of the old covenant and the new covenant, and this new covenant opens up such blessings for us.  And we are loved by God, whose generosity knows no bounds.  Surely, this should motivate us, like Mary, to give, but not to save or help, but to worship God.  To thank him, to anoint him, to praise him for his generosity and love towards us.  Yes those gifts may be used by others to build his kingdom, to share his mercy, to help those in need.  But first and foremost, our giving should be about worshipping, thanking, praising God.  When our perspective changes from what we give to God as if having a debt to pay, to worshipping God, suddenly we are free to be generous.  Our hearts are bigger, and we know what is to be truly blessed.

For this reason Christ brings a new agreement from God to his people.  Those who are called by God can now receive the blessings he has promised, blessings that will last forever.  They can have those things because Christ died…

Holy Monday – let’s consider who we worship and how we worship him?  What motivates us?  Jesus died for you – why?  What does Scripture say to you about his why and how does that challenge you as a disciple of Christ?


Collect/Prayer:
Almighty and ever-living God,
In tender love for all our human race, you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take our flesh and suffer death upon a cross.  Grant that we might follow the example of his great humility, and share in the glory of his resurrection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings:   Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 36:5-11
Hebrews 9:11-15
John 12:1-11

Breaking the Silence

If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. 
I love Jesus’ response here.  The idea that should the people be silenced in their worship of God, the very stones would cry out.  Imagine that for a moment.  It’s kinda hard really.  Stones can be many things:
Used and shaped into buildings, statues, painted to look like cats, to wedge open doors or crack skulls, or for hot stone therapy but as a general rule they are not known for singing, praising or shouting.

Yet, should the people be silenced, the stones would cry out.  Interestingly that isn’t challenged though I have no doubt, something amazing would have happened.

We live in a world where often we are silenced.
There is much we want to say or sing, but we are silenced.
We are silenced by our fears.
We are silenced by the worry of inappropriateness.
We are silenced by our Britishness.
We are silenced by our politicians or leaders.
We are silenced by our inadequacies.
We are silenced by our family and friends.
We are silenced by embarrassment.
We are silenced.

The people didn’t fully understand who Jesus was or indeed what would happen next.  But they were excited to see him, and they welcomed him.  Great celebrations, a party mood, full of expectation and hope.  The disciples sing praises and worship, grateful for all that they had seen.  This would have been more people than the 12 disciples, for though they had seen the most, they weren’t the only ones who had witnessed miracles.  For John who records 7 miracles, plenty people had witnessed the majority of them, and those who believed sang praises.  Remember at this point they have no Good Friday/Easter Sunday - they only have Palm Sunday, that moment.  

It is not the donkey that causes the Pharisees to have issues, or indeed the hero’s welcome although that wouldn’t have helped.

It is making Jesus the King that gives them issues.  To make Jesus – King – would have upset the status quo.  Everything was ticking along nicely, even if it was making the most of a bad situation.  And Jesus was upsetting this, and risking everything.  The status quo is often misaligned with what is needed, but often it is safer, it is predictable, it is manageable.  Until someone upsets it and changes it…then everything gets somewhat uncomfortable.

Jesus is still upsetting the status quo today.
People today still resist him coming into their lives.
Yet it is not the donkey and the humble lifestyle they resist.
It’s not loving our neighbours, and many can accept even if they can’t do loving our enemies.
It’s not even miracles or worship.

It’s making Jesus King of our lives that gives people issues both in and out of the Church.

Putting him first, making him King.  And King of all, not just the bits we think he wants.  But King over all.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

And if we are honest, this is when we are silent too. Making him King makes him our leader, the one we worship, the one who carries the past, the present and the future.  And that often means breaking the status quo.  Read the Gospels – Jesus does it all the time and he still does it today.

But if we are silent, the stones will cry out.

Let us silence the voices in our heads, our hearts, our souls that rebuke us for making Jesus our King.
Let us silence the voices in our culture that attempt to make others king of our lives.
Let us silence the voices that rebuke us for our faith, for our way of life, for our worship and remind them that if we are silent, the stones would cry out.

Instead, let us, in loud voices praise our God, welcome our King and walk towards the Cross and the Resurrection with heads held high, knowing that our God is the One and Only God, in him we can have faith, hope and eternity.

You are my God, and I will praise you;
    you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever. Psalm 118:29

Make this Holy Week count – praise God in a loud voice, even if you are rebuked.  Live your faith humbly but with strength.  Be joyful, even in sorrow.  Be hopeful, even in darkness.  Trust that the Lord will come through for you.  For when the people are threatened by ‘other powers’, God would not let it be.

If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

God always finds a way!  Amen.

Spending Time with Children

I have been really struck in my readings and experience about the value of spending time with God.  Of course, you say.  Surely that is a given - especially for a minister! But time is so precious, and if like me you are a busy person, wearing multiple hats, sometimes time is a commodity you appear to have very little of.

As a working mum, who happens to work mostly from home, the school holidays can become a bit of a challenge, especially for the youngest. These past couple of days I have been working away at my desk, balancing the random requests for food, mostly sweets, and the “I’m bored” comments into my day.  However, a promise of a shared activity gave me another hour of peace for work, and then it was off to the kitchen to make custard creams.  Today was a walk to the post office to drop off mail, and deliver some Easter cards for the Church, with the promise of a slushy for the wee lass.  Both events, lasting no more than an hour each, were opportunities for bonding, conversation, learning, shared tasks and comfortable silence.

It strikes me as I read through Jeremiah (a tough read), the Psalms, and John’s Gospel in particular, that spending time with God isn’t just about worship and church services.  It’s about that relationship with God that includes the highs and the lows, that recognises our humanity and his divinity, and that welcoming embrace when we need it most.  My child learns from my experience in the kitchen, but has a go herself.  My child shares her learning with me with pride, even if I already know it, and explains how they do maths now (which proves to me that I have no chance understanding it when she goes to high school). We are children of God, and God invites us to learn from his experience, to take time to bond with him in the garden, over the sink washing the dishes, sharing in his mission of love and life for all, or just enjoying comfortable silence in his loving presence.

Rather than make God-time a task of the day, why not make a conscious decision to share the day with God?  Kind of like having the children home on a working day, complete with interruptions and requests, let God interrupt your day, and for sure, interrupt his.  As Holy Week approaches, how might God become not an add-on or a task, but a relationship that you nurture?  Then when we consider how Jesus died and rose for you, for me, suddenly we are not talking about an abstract person, but someone very real to us, like my daughter holding my hand and bouncing up and down with excitement.

“I am a God who is near,” says the Lord.
    “I am also a God who is far away.
24 No one can hide
    where I cannot see him,” says the Lord.
    “I fill all of heaven and earth,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:23-24 NCV)

God is with us - always.  Sometimes, we just need to look up from our busy lives, and accept the invitation to lay down our busyness and make cakes or go for a walk.  As Lent draws to a close, take time to lay down the busyness, and enjoy being with God, not just in the formal times, but even more so through the informal times. 

God bless. 

rEVOLution - God loves you but what is that all about?

This is an edited version of today’s theme in worship.  We spent the earlier part of the service considering our love is statements.  Love is...family, friends, being owned by a beagle, being wakened by a cup of tea and so many more which will being going up as part of our valentines display.  My current favourite though was:  Love is growing old together disgracefully! Photos of our display will appear shortly!

However, us spiritual types like to talk about God-incidences.  As we considered with the young people present how much God loves us we heard the passage from Romans 8, and this afternoon as I did my QT, the page of my journal which is a book I have been using for a very long time and isn’t dated had the verse from Romans 8:39 - Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God and my reflective writers were both about love - one about love is a risk and the other about being love like Christ, so that people see Christ before they see you!  God loves you - what does that mean for you?  As one person said in Church today, knowing that God loves you means ‘You are the apple of his eye.’.

Continue below for an edited version of the sermon...

God bless you, and know that God loves you, as you are, where you are.
Love Sarah x

Sunday 3rd Feb 2019
Theme:  Redeemed/Rejoicing/Reunion/Revolution/Reborn
When we say that God is love, or God loves you what do we mean by that? We were reflecting on that a little with the young people. And there are so many statements we can come up with, but what do we actually believe?  If our most basic statement of faith is that God loves us then how can we put the rest of our faith into that context.

We all have experiences of love although it is often tarnished because of our imperfections.  Some are heard to say, especially to children - I have to love you but I don’t have to like you.
Continuing to explore this concept of love for a moment – the tarnished variety.  Many people justify their grudges, saying that an individual has hurt them so much that they cannot bring themselves to value or love that person.  Now I know that for many there are a lifetime of hurts that make it difficult to love someone. Yet we are loved by the Holy One, who we have hurt on numerous occasions.  We let God down constantly, we hurt him with our rejection of his grace, mercy, gifts, blessings, discipline and more.  Our relationships with him or his people are often superficial and lacking any real effort in the busyness of the modern world.  Many of us know more about our favourite sports or tv show than we do about God or the Bible.  Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

Yet we expect to be loved by God, even on our worst day.  And he does love us.

What is this love of God?  How does understanding it help us to grow in our faith and challenge our behaviour?  Let’s look at three love is… statements.

Love is taking a risk:  Risking a commitment of love to another human being whether it be a life partner, a child given or adopted, the friend of all friends, a new church family – love means taking a risk.  A risk that we might get hurt, or let down or betrayed or abandoned. I have lost dear friends over the years both through death and through breakdown of relationships.

Love is taking a risk and we see that in the story today, highlighted in the vulnerability of Jesus’ early days on earth.  (Read Luke2:20-40) Once the period of time of purification was up, then Mary and Joseph could go and present an offering.  And it is in this wee story that we pick up another risk that God took.  Jesus was born into a poor family, and the offering of two doves or pigeons proves it.

So the risk that God takes is to allow his child to be carried by Mary, born in less than sanitary surroundings but in a place accessible to all, and then looked after by a couple with barely two brass farthings to their name.  But this risk is important. If God is for the people, then he needs to be with the people.  And the majority of the people in Jesus’ time and indeed ours are not the ones with money to burn or ivory towers to reside in.  He has to take a risk that ordinary people will be able to raise his son.

Sometimes we too are called to take a risk.  In fact, in faith, we are often called to take a risk, which goes against our heavily risk-averse world.  Not just in our everyday relationships, but in those that are yet to be established.  We must risk ridicule if we are to truly love, just as Mary and Joseph did over being pregnant outside marriage.  We must risk loss of status just as Jesus did by leaving all his glory behind and being born as a baby.  In fact, love often entails us swallowing our pride and being humble – or as Paul puts – love doesn’t boast, it isn’t proud.  We risk it all and trust that God will provide.  A common criticism of faith is that we preach a God who provides but then take no risks, and have become boring.  Why is Church so boring?  And by extension, why is our faith more concerned with buildings than mission, with the faithful than those with no faith?  Because we are no longer risk takers, yet love demands we take risks.

Let’s try another one:

Love is without boundaries.  Sometimes we say love is unconditional, but in a way I like the idea that it is without boundaries.  We live in a world just now that seems to care rather too much about boundaries.  Might be walls in the states, or hard line borders in Ireland or EU/UK lines in the sand, or indeed in the Church of Scotland, parish boundaries.  So love is without boundaries. It supersedes them – whether it is a Protestant and a Catholic getting married, or children of all races playing together in the park, love doesn’t have boundaries.

And when God sent Jesus, he sent him for the whole world.  John, in that now famous verse, says – For God so loved the world he sent his one and only Son.  Simeon meeting Jesus in the temple speaks of his arrival as salvation for the world, a light for the Gentiles, redeemer of Israel.  Throughout the Old Testament the focus is on the Israelites but with the Messiah promises there are hints and more that God cares not just for one group of people but for all.  Simeon and Anna are people of deep deep faith, very pious and both live in hope, in faith of the promised redemption.  And both, moved by the Spirit, meet baby Jesus in the temple which was a huge place, and know that he is the one.  Their response is to praise God.  Love without boundaries overcomes fear and doubt, and they celebrate the fulfilment of the promises made.

God has done away with boundaries.  There is no more jew or gentile, male or female, slave or free – God has no boundaries on his love.  Even on the cross, Jesus forgave the robber.

What boundaries have we imposed on God’s love?  Deliberately or accidentally?  We naturally want to protect God and we can be heard to try and limit his love.  We don’t want him to be taken advantage of and somehow think that the Church should act as a buffer between God and people.  We should be anything but a buffer.  We must point people to the God who loves them, through our welcome, through our hospitality, through our willingness to step back to let another step up, through laying down our traditions and needs to make faith accessible to all, through love, compassion, generosity, living and loving through the fruit of the Spirit.  The more we love, the more we trust God’s love, the more we let God love us – the more love there will be.  Love will never run out.

 Love is eternal – love cannot be held back by death or time.  God is love and God is eternal.  And it is in that love that we find salvation or forgiveness.  We have the gift of hindsight, and know that the love of Christ which culminated in his death on the cross, brought us salvation and life.  Love could not be defeated, even by death.  Therefore love is eternal.

What we know of love, as Paul would say, is like looking in a mirror.  We know love, we experience love but it is not the full thing.  Yet we can nurture love in our hearts and in our lives, in the same way that we can nurture bitterness or envy or greed.  John says that we love because God loved us first.  God is the source of our love, but we have to choose how we will love him or not as the case might be.  Simeon might not know the details of what will happen to Jesus, but he knows it will be tough.  That people will reject him and that Mary his mother will have her heart pierced by a sword.  And it won’t be a wee sword, the word used is one for a large sword.  

To love anyone isn’t any guarantee of being loved in return.  But as disciples of Jesus we are called to love everybody always.  Faith, hope and love will remain but the greatest of these is love.  Perhaps if we put more effort into loving we might actually start a revolution.  A love revolution.

Actually, that’s wrong. The love revolution has already begun – its leader is Jesus Christ, and we are his body.  Perhaps we need to join the revolution. Whose signing up today? Amen!