And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Readings this week : Numbers 21 : 4 - 9; Ephesians 2 : 1 - 10; John 3 : 14 - 21
Thought for this week
Mothering Sunday is about love. Those who have been our mothers who have shown us love. Those who have shown us love in a motherly way. And the ways in which we have been able to show love as mothers and parents.
It is significant that it always falls during Lent. A more than helpful reminder that Lent, and indeed Holy Week and Easter, are all about love. Love that has no boundaries. No limits. No second thoughts. Love that is boundless. Love that stays. That listens, and comes with the right questions. Love that wipes up life’s messes. That is true, Life – giving, always accepting and welcoming. Love that involves sacrifice.
This love is true for all of us, in Jesus. This love is hard to find in this world, yet we have it plentifully, graciously, boundlessly from the heart of Jesus. It is love that leads us to the Cross of Jesus. The hardest path and the roughest road. Yet love does not hold back, but takes that road, for us.
Mothering Sunday marks the turning point in Lent towards the Cross and Jesus’ sacrifice. So we prepare to take the difficult road of love, that cost Jesus everything. Love poured out for us. Love that calls us to respond, to receive, to give thanks always.
Rev Paul
A Prayer for this week Based on John 3 : 15 - 16
You have to look your evil in the face to be healed.
The snakes that plagued the Hebrews in the desert
were their betrayal come back to bite them,
their being Eden's serpent.
The cure was to gaze at their sin.
So we gaze upon the Crucified One, our victim,
and look our awfulness in the eye
and only there grasp forgiveness,
and only then become truly alive.
On the cross is lifted up
our racism, our violence, our materialism,
our deep seated me-first-ism.
Posted there is our last text to God,
“I'll let you know when I need you.”
We look at it, look at it hard,
to get free of the lie that we're just fine,
the lie that keeps us from knowing
how deeply we are forgiven,
how vastly we are blessed,
how infinitely we are loved.
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes on Unfolding Light https://www.unfoldinglight.net/