Real Hope - Real Jesus

It’s rare for a church sermon to make the front page of a newspaper, but the message from Bishop Curry made world news, as his royal wedding message got people talking.

Unlike the typecast, pompous wedding preacher, he enthusiastically addressed the billions of people who tuned in for the occasion.

It was refreshing to hear a royal wedding sermon speak about Jesus and his death on the cross with such gusto.

Sadly, many wedding sermons seem to forget they’re in a church, and they end up rolling out the kind of worldly wisdom you’d expect to hear from Oprah or Dr. Phil.

But Bishop Curry brought the focus of the event to the love of God shown at the cross of Christ.

I’m delighted that people are talking about Jesus and his death, but, sadly, Bishop Curry missed the most important point about the cross of Christ.

Whilst it is true that Jesus showed his love for dying for us on the cross, it was not so that he could solely be an example of true love.

If all we’ve got from the cross of Christ is an example we can try to follow, then Jesus has done nothing to help us with our sin and guilt for disobeying God’s rule.

No, the most important thing about the cross is that Jesus died as a sacrifice, taking the punishment we deserve for our sins, in our place, so that we might be forgiven by God.

As we read in 1 John chapter 4: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

It was good for the royal couple to hear that Jesus died on the cross: but it’s much better news for them to know that Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for sin.

JODIE MCNEILL

CREDIT: Abdulsalam Haykal via Flickr.

This week Ramadan began for the followers of Islam, a month of fasting and prayer.

For those who keep this practise it shows a level of extreme devotion to their religion.

Millions of people across the globe will spend their daylight hours without any food or water in order to serve their god.

An interview with an Islamic academic from the University of Wollongong put a different spin on it.

Five sessions of prayer were explained as 5 sessions of mindfulness, a way to centre one’s life during the day.

Fasting was explained as a process of discipline and exercising self control.

In our anxious, busy and often unrestrained society this practise seemed like a good idea.

I found my self nodding along until I realised what was going on here.

Any idea of extreme devotion to a god was downplayed.

It was a clever interview, because it took ideas that were foreign to Australians (like set prayers and fasting) and explained them in terms that are now readily acceptable.

This is exactly what our society wants from adherents to religion: moderate ideas that can be explained in social terms.

This is why liberal Christianity has flourished in western society, where the Bible has been interpreted though the lens of our world.

This kind of God leads to a nice and moderate religion that rocks no boats, and one our society is happy with, because they created it.

The pressure to fit in is intense but we must remember that there is nothing wrong with being extreme itself. The question is for what cause it is, and how do you implement it.

Christians are called to give up our lives for our God.

We do so for he is the the one who gave his life for us, And so the way we do this is in love and service of others.

Simon Chaplin

Are you the kind of person who would be acceptable to Jesus?

In Luke chapter 7, we read about a dinner that Jesus attended at the house of some very religious people.

While they’re having dinner, a woman comes into the room, and starts washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, kissing his feet, and pouring perfume over his feet.

But there was something even stranger about it, and that was the kind of woman this woman was.

One religious man said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

This woman was a public sinner, maybe a prostitute, and this religious guy thought that Jesus must have been clueless to have anything to do with him.

Because if Jesus was really a prophet of God, then he wouldn’t have had anything to do with such a godless woman, and what’s more, he’d have the supernatural powers to know that she’s the kind of woman who religious people stay right away from.

But Jesus is more than a prophet: he is God, himself, and he knows everything, including how sinful she really was.

And yet, she came to Jesus, showed her love and adoration to him, and he totally forgave her.

And so Jesus said to the religious man:

“I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven… Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Jesus didn’t just know that her sins were forgiven, he did the forgiving himself.

All she did was come to Jesus and seek his forgiveness.

And so, if Jesus will forgive this sinful woman, he offers to forgive anyone like you and me.

Jodie McNeill