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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Mercy, not (empty) sacrifice

God prefers compassionate action over vain worship (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13).

Context

• This week, particularly here in Normandy, many have remembered D-Day.
• Being the change we want to see.
• It’s not just in warfare that people risk their lives for others.
• Love in the workplace?

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• If there are people in the church community who have risked their lives in service to others – in whatever capacity or for whatever reasons – ask if they would be willing to share that experience. Ask questions such as: How long did they reflect before acting? Were they afraid? What enabled them to handle their fear? What motivated their actions?
• In a materialist world, love makes no sense. IF we are simply biological organisms functioning in an environment, love is completely unnecessary – even surplus to requirement. Why should or do two people make vows of love, stating that they will remain together ‘for better or worse’? After mating, why should human beings remain together? Yet, in 1 John we read that God is love. And love makes us act in ways that mere biological organisms would not behave, such as staying with a terminally ill partner; running into a burning house to save a child; volunteering in a soup kitchen and so much more.

 

Questions for discussion

• Do we love others out of fear of God/punishment or because we are commanded to love? Aren’t we created in the image of God whose very nature is love? Hasn’t Jesus taught us that perfect love casts out fear? Why and how could a loving God coerce or bully us into loving?!
• Think of one or two of the most loving acts you have personally experienced. What effects did they make on your life? How do you regard the persons who treated you with love? Did they sow loving actions in your life?
• In June 1944 why did tens of thousands of men travel hundreds, or even thousands, of miles to help liberate people they didn’t know? What did they value—or even love—more than life itself?

Revd Dr Jack Lawson is a free-lance writer and novelist: Doing Time, No Good Deed, Criminal Justice, The Woods and Dirty Business. His newest novel, Joab, (Wipf & Stock) is based on the life of King David.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

‘In a world where you can be anything, be kind.’ This meme was posted on Instagram by the late TV presenter Caroline Flack in February 2020. Three years on, have we learnt anything more about not judging and trolling celebrities?

This can be really challenging when we are faced with news articles and information on social media surrounding celebrities and indeed people who we know too. So how then do we show love instead? How can we choose to be kind, over anything else? How is it possible to love people who we believe to have sinned, repeatedly?

Matthew, perceived by society to be a sinner due to his role as a tax collector, may have asked the same question. How did Jesus find it possible to love him? How was it that this man could sit and eat with sinners?

Well firstly Jesus was no ordinary man - he was God incarnate. Secondly, he came to forgive ALL of our sins - the sins we read upon the news, and the ones we do each and every day.

Perhaps you think it was easier for Jesus to forgive than it is for us? Easier for him to make a stand? But God calls us to become more Christ-like, which isn’t always easy!

This week as you scroll through social media and the news channels, challenge yourself to be more Christ like in your thinking. It is not up to us to judge, but it is up to us to pray! Pray for the injustices you see, pray for changing of hearts, and pray that the light will shine through over any darkness.

Natasia Bullock is director of Christian theatre company The B Tales.

 

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