Faith Daily | 10 March 2021

PRAYER of the WEEK Lent Three

Lord God, our Redeemer,

who heard the cry of your people

and sent your servant Moses to lead them out of slavery:

free us from the tyranny of sin and death

and, by the leading of your Spirit,

bring us to our promised land;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen APBA p486

GOSPEL for the Day: Matthew 5: 17-19

217 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by Rev'd Jan

Jesus is on the mountain; he is preaching. These words are part of the now famous “Sermon on the Mount”. Jesus has just delivered the most radical “new laws” in history…. Blessed are the poor in spirit,

Blessed are those who mourn,

Blessed are the meek…………………. Etc

These are the keynote principles of the ‘new age’ Jesus is announcing. Those living as his teaching calls, become God’s blessings in the world.

But it’s not like a cult that divorces itself from the world, and makes up its own life rules and guidelines. Jesus is saying that those who want to live in ‘God’s rule’, do so in the world they are already part of. And he, Jesus, has not come to replace any of the existing law, or the teaching of the prophets. No, rather, he has come to fulfil them.

In other words his mission is to reveal God in a completely different way, from our existing platform of life. It is new birth; it is a total shift in the perception of the heart. You can’t earn God’s grace; but you can live in it.

.

FINAL PRAYER: “Australian Anglicans Remember”, Charles Sherlock

You become God’s blessing in the world when you are…

brave, eccentric, kind;

when you are sad for the right reasons

and joyful for all reasons;

when you do something about

the plastic in the ocean choking fish,

the child without shoes in the cold,

the shouting of the powerful over reason.

You are God’s blessing in the world when ….

you belong to Jesus Christ

and you are proud to tell – the world!

Amen