Pilgrim

What we you mean when you think of a harvest. What image forms in your mind. Today as we celebrate the annual Harvest Festival in the Christian Calendar, we have behind me a veritable selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, vines, hops etc. The reading today is taken though from Mark 9: 38-48 which on first glance doesn't have much to say about a Harvest. Or does it? Whenever we read the Gospels we need to take ourselves outside of our 21 st Century selves and try and put ourselves in the position of a 1 st Century Jewish person. That can be quite a task as I think you would agree. The other point we need to keep in mind is that the Gospel writers didn’t tell their story in order of time.   They chose events and ordered them so that the reader would get the message that this person Jesus was indeed the long waited for Messiah.   If we have any concerns about what Mark’s intentions are in writing the Gospel, we need only to go the very first sentence;...

The overriding theme for today is Love and reconciliation.   When we think of this, often in churches we focus on sin, and then think that there are different types of sinning, with a range of effects.   Sometimes that can lead to exclusion of people from the Kingdom of God by our misunderstanding and brings God’s name into disrepute. Looking at the three scriptures we have listened to today, it’s worth looking behind the scenes a bit and try and discern what the authors are trying to convey. The excerpt from psalm 51 is sometimes to thought to relate to David’s adultery with Bethsheba, however it was probably written in the post exilic period and rather than talking specifically about an individual’s sin is actually focussing on the sin of the entire society.   The psalmist makes the point that the punishment of sin is alienation from God. “So what”, you say, we know that already. He is trying to get across that being in the presence of God, ano...