Tabula Rase

Great news everybody. God offers every sinner a clean slate each time they repent.

It's great because we're all sinners, each and every one of us. Gathered in the room tonight we had examples of adultery, theft, bearing false witness, tempting others and potential animal abuse.

(Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little - but we were still a bunch of sinners).

What does the clean slate mean in real every day terms?

It means we can live without fearing death, because what comes after death is going to be brilliant. It means that we don't have to live our lives feeling guilty, because we are truly, totally forgiven. All good so far, but - it means that we're often still missing the point...

What is the point? The point is we're all forgiven, even the people who make us angry. So God has forgiven them, but we might still bear a grudge.

Do we have the right to be angry at someone that god has absolved (someone who may well have that clean slate, that polished, shiny, spotless soul)? There's a name for people like that, and it's not a nice one. Hypocrite.

Crumbs, we're washed clean by christ, and then we go and mucky ourselves up again with hypocrisy. What a mixed up world.

Here's something you might want to try though, it's a little prayer that you might have heard before. It's commonly called the Lord's Prayer. Actually it's one part of the prayer:

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Easter is fast becoming my favourite Christian holiday. Which may sound a little strange to those who love Christmas trees, Santa Claus, presnts and snow. Or even those who like to know exactly when their holidays are - after all Easter is a little odd in the way it floats around the calendar.



The reason that I'm Easter is taking the lead on best festival is because it's really two amazing things in one weekend: while Christmas is all about Jesus' birth, Easter is all about his death and then all about his resurrection.



For anyone who's 18 and over there's a film by Mel Gibson called "The Passion of the Christ", passion in this sense actually means suffering, and we know that Christ is Greek for anointed or chosen one. So this film (doing exactly what it says on the tin) shows us the suffering of God's chosen one.



It's pretty grim viewing in parts, which is why it's an 18, for example the scene where Jesus is whipped thirty-nine times by Roman soldiers takes almost ten minutes; after which there is hardly an inch of skin that isn't torn and bleeding; and the crucifixion itself is truly horrific as a mortally wounded man is tormented by those around him, punished unnecessarily and finally dies.



It may not compare well to some of the modern day horror films like "Saw" or "Hostel", films that are more than willing to go to extremes to make you scream, but "The Passion of the Christ" is far more important, because it isn't just about gore. It's about a man who died a terrifying death for us, who died so that we wouldn't have to live in fear. It's a film that doesn't make me jump out of my seat (much), but does make me cry.

Good evening folks,


Tonight's session focussed on two passages from the Bible: Matthew 22.34-40 which says (in the New Living Translation)

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”



And 1 Corinthians 13.1

13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

In the first passage we see the Pharisees trying to trick Jesus into saying something that would land him in a whole lot of trouble. For instance, if he'd answered that the greatest commandment was to have no other gods but the one true God, the Pharisees could have accused him of condoning (or supporting) murder and stealing as crimes.

But Jesus has an important advantage over the Pharisees: He is God.

This means that he knows the scriptures well -- he ought to, he inspired the writers, he wrote the scriptures himself through men like Moses -- it also means that he understands what the scriptures actually mean. Unlike the religious leaders of the time who have obviously become confused over time.

The first part of the Greatest Commandment, as it is known, comes from Deuteronomy 6.5 and the second part comes from Leviticus 19.18. so why these two?

The answer comes in the word that links the two passages -- Love.

This is then clarified, or strengthened, by Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth. What Paul is saying essentially, is that everything we do in life should be driven by love. If we do things (no matter how wonderful) without love being the driving force we are missing the point.

As Trevor pointed out tonight, that is one bold statement. Even more so in the Message translation:

No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Wow. That is a truly challenging viewpoint.

So here's the thing... how much are we driven by love?

How much are you driven by love? And how can you tell?