Scripture:Then Peter came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven’. (Matthew 18.21-22)Reflection:Rabbinic teaching stated that a man had a duty to forgive three times, but no more - as in the Three Strikes of American Law. Peter thought he was being very generous in suggesting forgiving somebody seven times, and must have felt rather deflated by Jesus’s answer. Obviously Jesus doesn’t mean keep count of the times people have offended you and give up after 490! He is saying that our whole lives must be lived in a spirit of forgiveness, modelling the loving forgiveness of God. It’s helpful to remember that just before Peter’s question Jesus had been speaking about dealing with grudges by talking to the person who has offended you and seeking a peaceful solution. Forget about the 490, or even the seven, and commit to putting things right as you go along. It calls for patience and humility and won’t always be easy. But this is what, as Christians, we must aspire to.Revd Rosemary
Scripture:‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. (Matthew 18 15 & 1Reflection:How do you normally deal with conflict? We all have different ways of handling this - some of us resort to retaliation, some use the vehicle of social media, others through gossiping - each one of these methods invariably causes more harm than good. In this passage, Jesus gives us a blueprint for how we should deal with someone when they have ‘sinned against us’.If someone hurts you, angers you, saddens you, or does you wrong in any way…you go and talk to them about it directly, one on one. Not only does this way of working out difficulties lead to forgiveness, it also does so in a graceful way. The offended party isn’t dragging the offender through the mud. If it gets worked out here, no one else needs to know.Forgiveness is available without fear of embarrassment & it can be done quietly. Lovingly. Gracefully. If this does not resolve the issue - only then should you employ the assistance of others - remembering to do so in the spirit of love and forgiveness. Lyn Hayes ALM
Scripture:‘You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked’.’ (Revelation 4.17-18)Reflection:When things are reaching a crunch point in our lives, it is often prudent to ‘say it as it is’ - not to sugar coat our words. The above verse comes in the last book of the Bible - some would say the Book of Revelation is a foretaste of what lies ahead of us. This verse says it as it is - a warning to people who are ‘comfortable’. The problem with being ‘comfortable’ is that we live on the ‘surface’, seeing no need to plumb the depths and ask the big questions of life. We are in danger of missing the bigger picture. Often it is only at ‘crunch points’ that we look deeper and try to figure things out. There is a common quote in faith circles that says ‘It is only when God is all we have left, that we realise that God is all we need’. Don’t wait until life becomes uncomfortable to seek God - see the bigger picture. Read on in the chapter above and you will find this verse. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.’ God desires to be in every moment of everyday with us, not someone we turn to at the crunch points, and turn away from when we are comfortable. Vicki Young
Scripture:“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6.8)Reflection:Justice? In a world where so much seems unfair, where people do terrible things? We all seem to be born with an inbuilt moral sense of what is fair, of the way in which others ought to behave towards us. How should we deal with those who break the code? Low-level infringements may be cleared up with apologies and simple reparations, but at the other extreme some offences seem unforgiveable. The prophet Micah gets to the heart of the message of the Bible, and Jesus dramatically lived it out – kindness, mercy, love go hand-in-hand with justice. Justice may require punishment, but we will fail ourselves, our principles and our God if we cannot combine that with compassion. David Harmsworth
