St John, Burgess Hill & St Richard, Haywards Heath Wed 5 Jan 2021

The Son of God became Son of Man so children of men can become children of God through his lowering a ladder from heaven.

We read about that ladder in today’s Gospel from John 1:43-51 where the context is the drawing of Andrew and Peter, then Philip and Nathanael to the Lord. Philip's confidence in Jesus shared with Nathanael - known to us as St Bartholomew - paves the way for his encounter with the Lord.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, "There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit!" 48 “How do you know me?” said Nathanael. “Before Philip came to call you,” said Jesus " I saw you under the fig tree. 49 Nathanael answered, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

To understand this encounter we need to go back to Genesis 28 and the story of Jacob. Nathanael ‘incapable of deceit’ is contrasted with Jacob who deceived Isaac his blind father. The contrast continues in v51 of John Chapter 1 where the vision Jacob was granted of angels ascending to heaven on a ladder on one occasion is contrasted with the ultimate vision promised to Nathanael and all Christian believers.

What impresses Nathanael and brings him to faith is Our Lord's 'gift of knowledge'.  Jesus refers to some incident in Nathanael's life 'under a fig tree' known to Nathanael alone.  The sharing of this information establishes Jesus wisdom and trustworthiness so Nathanael is drawn to confess those great words: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

Our Lord deals with us as he did with Nathanael as individuals. Though we gather together at this eucharist we worship and do business with him also as individuals. The Lord wishes the objective love and truth that he is to become subjectively real to us and in us, challenging our fear of change, reluctance to accept suffering or let go of resentments. In this way the grand aims of Christianity get tighter hold on our flesh and blood and heart and mind. One of the most common sicknesses of the soul is disbelief in the love of God though that’s as real as 2+2 makes 4 or the irrefutable law of gravity: what goes up must come down!

50 Jesus replied, "You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that." 51 And then he added, "I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open, and, above the Son of Man,  the angels of God ascending and descending" .

These words echo the Pauline promise in 2 Corinthians 3:18 'And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit'. 

Coming back to the parallel with Jacob's ladder in Genesis that vision came after the experience of Jacob wrestling with an angel. So it is with us, our struggles with God in our individual circumstances are heartened by glimpses of where those struggles will lead.

'No ladder now', writes Archbishop William Temple in his commentary on this verse, contrasting it with Genesis 28. 'No ladder now; the Messiah Himself is the meeting point of human need and divine blessing or judgement.'

'Christian Healing is Jesus Christ meeting us at our point of need' (Morris Maddocks). Nathanael is promised no ladder to heaven but One who himself 'opens wide the gate of heaven to man below'. Jesus is the Mediator. He is the One who draws heaven to earth and human beings to God. 

Our Lord is the meeting point of human need and divine blessing. For some of us, some of the time, that meeting will bring forgiveness from sin or physical healing from sickness or breaking an emotional bondage or an opening up of the eye of faith. Sometimes such a meeting comes through meeting a priest one to one for counsel or confession and we priests are here for that above all things.

At this eucharist we meet Jesus Christ in word and sacrament. How about our points of need?  Are we bringing them to him expecting healing and transformation? If we are not sure of our needs are we asking to be shown them? Blest are those who know their need of God!

I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open, and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending" .

Intercessions

Blest are those who know their need of God! We seek that blessing, Lord, at this eucharist. Show us our exact needs as we begin this New Year and help us to put more faith in you to supply them by your grace. Lord hear us

‘You will see heaven laid open, and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending’. We pray, Lord, for Christian leaders that they better help your people look to heaven to receive the healing and transformation they need in preparation for full union with you. Lord hear us

We thank you, Lord, for all who seek and all who provide the ministries of confession, healing and spiritual direction. May these ministries be more available in the wake of the COVID epidemic Bless each and everyone who enters this Church regularly or occasionally. Lord hear us 

St Richard, Haywards Heath Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 8.12.21

 

As Christmas approaches the sombreness of Advent season breaks today to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Feast of her sinless Conception. 

December 8th is a day of joy marking the choice of Mary to be worthy Mother of the eternal Son of God. In the ancient Greek title given her by the Church Council of Ephesus in 431 AD she is theotokos, the God-bearer. In the Western Church this was translated Mother of God, a source of confusion to some. 

How much we owe to Mary! We owe the formation of the Saviour, no less, and not just in his nine month dwelling within her. With Joseph her spouse Mary brought Jesus up. It is an astonishing thought that she would teach him, the Son of God, to pray – Mary a mortal being inviting God’s Son to pray to his true Father!

I like to think of Mary as a woman of great devotion. This devotion is hinted at in her greeting from the Archangel Gabriel in today’s Gospel from the start of St. Luke’s Gospel: Mary, do not be afraid, you have won God’s favour. Listen, you are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.

You have indeed won God’s favour, Blessed Mother – and through you we have all won that favour, the favour of Jesus.

We best serve God and others with a loving discernment that starts from a determination to listen to God with you. By listening to God and then secondly to ourselves with you at hand. You, Blessed Mother, encourage us towards a positive self-regard. The Almighty has done great things for me. Take stock of all that Jesus is doing in your life and rejoice is your invitation! Take stock also of the ingrained selfishness so you can give it to God in confession. Take stock, Mary invites, of how you and I at times put the work of the Lord before the Lord of the work. It’s when we get too busy in the Lord’s work that thoughtlessness can subtract from our good deeds.

Listen to God, listen to yourself, Mary invites, sift and purify your agenda, then listen to those God puts your way who need your ears! As we listen to others in these coming days with our outer ears, let’s keep two inner ears listening to God and to our own reaction to what we hear lest it get in the way.  Like Mary let’s be there for people without getting in their way. Being surrendered ourselves, as at this Mass, to whatever God wants of us, being made a Christ-bearer under the watchful care of the Mother of believers. Jesus who was first carried by Mary at Bethlehem, who is carried to us in Bread this evening, waits to be carried by you and I under the patronage of Mary to a waiting world!

St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Trinity 17 (26B) 26.9.21

‘Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them’ Numbers 11:29

I remember a cheeky church growth metaphor of a bottle with a cork on it. The cork is labelled ‘Vicar’ with the implication that priests keep the fizz down in churches and the importance for church growth of getting loosened from clericalism.

There’s always a fizz about St John’s but I don’t think it's because you’re Vicar-less! Maybe it's because the Holy Spirit is at work as described in today’s scripture. 

In the passage we heard from Numbers Chapter 11 Moses appointed seventy elders to help him lead God’s people in the wilderness and God gave them some of the Spirit put into Moses. There was a manifestation of prophecy demonstrating the Spirit coming on the seventy just like at Pentecost. This stopped and then two people, Eldad and Medad got the Spirit and prophesied though not members of the seventy Moses had chosen. An overzealous young man tried to get Moses to stop this ‘illegitimate’ manifestation of the Spirit. Moses refused saying what was prophetic in a wider sense, my text which points to Pentecost: ‘Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them’.

‘Does God confine the gift of his Spirit to authorised channels?’ is the question, and it comes up again in the Gospel - indeed the Numbers passage was chosen for today to illuminate Mark 9 verses 38. We read there how Our Lord’s disciples tried to stop someone casting out demons in his name because he was not an obvious, or should we say ‘legitimate’ follower of Jesus. ‘But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me’.

Both Our Lord in the Gospel and Moses in the first reading disown clerical arrogance which sees the Holy Spirit just flowing through the channels they have authorised. God is bigger than the institutions he sets up to help his people function right. God is bigger than the church and can make exceptions we should go along with, but - and it's a contentious ‘but’ - we are bound as a rule to expect the Holy Spirit to flow primarily through the channels he authorises. For us Anglicans the Holy Spirit is known as God’s grace and comes primarily through the church. ‘In what ways do you receive… God’s grace?’ Our Catechism asks and it gives this reply. ‘I receive… grace within the fellowship of the Church, when I worship and pray, when I read the Bible, when I receive the Sacraments, and as I live my daily life to his glory’.

Without bishops and priests we cannot have sacramental grace as the Churchwardens know to their cost, working against the odds sometimes to bring priests in to preach and celebrate the eucharist for us in our vacancy - God shorten that and bring us one after his own heart to serve here as our parish priest!

The second reading from James 5 is as ever independent of the other two readings. It provides us with the origin of the Sacraments of Anointing and Confession. Though described in the catechism as lesser sacraments the Church of England reserves these healing sacraments to those ordained in apostolic orders, namely bishops and priests. ‘Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed’ (James 5:13-16a). The confessing of sin to one another became historically confession to a priest, for practical reasons and linked also to Our Lord’s gift of authority to forgive sins to his apostles and by implication to their successors in John’s Gospel Chapter 20.

Returning to our thinking about the working of the Holy Spirit from the other two readings, we see in the instruction of the apostle James the sacramental role of the elder or priest in ministering healing to the sick: ‘call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord’. That we do - and even in a vacancy church members should know it can be made available after any eucharist - but this sacrament is allied to the prayer of church members. God authorises sacramental channels like the eucharist, confession and anointing which are available to all through bishops and priests. At the same time Our Lord commends intercessory prayer in his name by church members alone or in twos or threes as a powerful vehicle of the Holy Spirit as in John 16:23, ‘if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you’ or in Matthew 18:19, ‘if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven’. This morning we are agreeing together for God to heal those on our sick list and those on it are assembled by church members. As a priest I see people healed again and again when they receive the sacrament of anointing. Sometimes that healing is a death at peace with God. A couple of weeks ago I was called to a dying priest wanting to make his confession. Within hours of the sacrament being administered he passed peacefully to God. Yet I can relate as many of you can relate how God in his faithfulness answers prayers of both the ordained and non-ordained for their needs and for those in their circle. How important such prayer is in our lives!

Our Lord shares authority with the apostles and their successors, just as Moses shared with the Seventy, to bring God’s care further across the world. At the same time today’s scripture is a powerful reminder that, important as apostolic order is, it is inseparable from apostolic vitality in the sense of all Christians being open to being agents of the Holy Spirit through care and through prayer. ‘Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them.’ Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love! 

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Epiphany 2020

 

God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b)

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and energises the will.

Just as dynamite contains within itself potential energy that can be released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so it is with Jesus Our Lord.

Epiphany is the origin of this forward movement in the church calendar which today commemorates the first manifestation of Christ to the nations in the person of the Gentile kings.

Christianity goes forward today by radiant energy as we come again and again before Jesus in word and sacrament and in the hearts of his faithful to see minds and hearts and wills irradiated.

As Fr. Bull, one of the great Mirfield Fathers put it, the glad tidings of Christianity are in what Jesus Christ did for men and in the abiding energy of that work.

We gather at the eucharist this morning to be caught up afresh into the radiant energy of Jesus which so shines from today’s scripture. Arise, shine for your light has come says Isaiah you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice. 

As we start a New Year this great Feast of the Epiphany invites us to seek a fresh illumination from the truth that is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21), a fresh warming of our hearts by the Sacred Heart and a fresh energising for active service from the working of his great power (Ephesians 1:19b).

All of this will flow from the radiance of Jesus, what the Apostle calls the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b). 

As dynamite is ignited to release its potential energy into light, heat and momentum so our faith ignites the radiance of Jesus to light up our lives and through us light up a world desperately in need of that irradiation.

I want to suggest that this ignition process has three dimensions – intellectual, devotional and practical. 

As we start a New Year there is an intellectual challenge to lay hold afresh on Christian basics so we better answer for our faith. I wonder when you last read a book about the Christian Faith.  Or even the Bible itself? If someone asked you why you thought Christianity was true would you be able to argue for the truth of the resurrection? 

Just a few questions to get us thinking about what’s called apologetics - not apologising but working at thinking through our faith so as to be able to give a better ‘apologia’ or reasonable defence for believing as Christians.

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind. It also warms the heart to an overflow of love.

A radiant Christian is more than someone buzzing with ideas about Christ. There’s something out of this world streaming through them. To gain the radiance of Jesus we need to be exposed to his radiant love. Christian friends, holy priests all of these help – but nothing can replace our own individual business with God. Welcoming the radiance of Jesus into our hearts is a life-long struggle because of our fallen nature. We need a regular time of prayer, a discipline of self-examination and confession, a resolve to intercede for others, to give a proportion of our income to God’s work and so on. You have a chance to review and renew your devotion as a New Year unfolds. Going on a retreat once the COVID restrictions lift – ask one of our priests if you want to know how you can arrange one. 

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and then, lastly, it energises the will.

Where would our study and prayer be if it never led us into action, to be part of what Fr. Bull called the abiding energy of the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ?  We are here at the eucharist to gain that energy. 

To go back to the physics analogy, just as the potential energy in an explosive is released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so all Jesus attained through his life, death and resurrection is given to be celebrated and released so as to give power and direction to our lives. Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise.

How have we acted to transform our environment to be more as Christ would want it since last we met at the altar? How have we acted in recent weeks to change the world around us for Christ? Inasmuch as the radiant energy of Jesus is in us, we find ourselves raiding the kingdom of fear with love, encouraging those who are down, forgiving those who come against us harshly and providing for those in need from our own resources. This energy carries our lives forward to work for the kingdom of this world (to) become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Rev 11:15). 

For such energising of will, warming of heart and illumination of mind we lift our hearts to the Father in this Epiphany Eucharist. 

Advent 4 24th December 2017

How does Jesus come into our lives?

He comes by the Holy Spirit.

He comes by the Sacraments.

He comes by the Word of God.

He comes by holy people as they rub off on us.

He comes by circumstances – which links to a second question:

Why does Jesus come into our lives?

He comes to bring us into his life, death and resurrection – and here’s the rub.

Look, as the Church invites us to do so today, at his Mother.  She was first to welcome Jesus into her life – and where did it lead her?  She was led into hardship, led to a shaming pregnancy and a Cross of sorrows before taking the shine of glory.

I want Jesus in my life.  I want the shine of glory – but, if I am honest, I don’t want hardships!  

This is where Jesus sorts us out because it's by endurance of hardship that salvation is forged.

The great Christian writers speak of the need to gratefully accept most of what comes our way, including suffering and hardship.

Sharing life with Jesus means self-sacrifice.  

Mary gives us the clue.  I am the Lord's servant, she says in today’s Gospel, let it be for me according to the Lord's will and not my own.

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, the sacraments and scripture.

He also gives us hardships but we have to decide whether to endure them or quit.

In that decision we bring Jesus closer or we push him further away.

Over the last four months it’s been a privilege to come alongside St Bart’s as part of the team of priests serving our pastoral vacancy. The lay leadership here is impressive in its fortitude.

As someone privileged to minister to the scores who enter our doors day by day I engage with folk enduring hardships directly or alongside a loved one. In listening to and talking with them I’m many a time left feeling I’m a fair weather Christian!

The means by which we grow in holiness aren’t necessarily sermons or books or forms of prayer, the right sort of retreat or spiritual guide.

The means of our sanctification, of our cleansing from sin, healing from hurt and so on lies in the day to day circumstances of our life as we welcome them as the Lord’s gift.

As we read in Psalm 112:6,7 the righteous will not be overthrown by evil circumstances...he does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For he is settled in his mind that the Lord will take care of him.

The spiritual writer De Caussade in his book Self-abandonment to Divine Providence emphasises how our welcoming of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament Sunday by Sunday focuses the welcoming of the Lord in every circumstance that comes our way.

Jesus is as ready to meet us in the circumstances of our life as he is to meet us in the Sacrament of Bread and Wine.

To be glad deep down in your heart in every situation is a grace given by God, a grace we have to seek - just as Mary sought divine help to brave her expressed fear: How can this be?

If we aren't glad at heart it may be because we’re not fully submitted to God’s will revealed in the circumstances of our life. This leads me into a reminder. By a long standing tradition here at St Bart’s priests make themselves available for confession before the Feast of Christmas. You have a last chance to catch one of us over coffee if you desire to welcome from Our Lord the grace of absolution before Christmas Communion.

Jesus comes into our lives – by the Spirit, Sacrament, Scripture or by circumstances - to bring us into his own life, death and resurrection.

He is ready to help us face discomfort so that his resurrection life may grow in us by the Spirit and our old proud and sinful nature is further humiliated and put down.

As we prepare for Christmas may we have our spiritual ears open to hear God speaking into our lives so that we might decrease in self orientation and gain within us the love of Christ that will never fail.

Palm Sunday 24th March 2013: I believe in the forgiveness of sins

Like Muslims it could be said that Christians have five pillars that support their faith: The Bible, The Creed, The Sacraments, The Commandments and The Lord’s Prayer. During Lent we’ve been refreshing our grasp of one of these pillars - The Apostles Creed during the renewal of baptismal vows. Though it has twelve articles of belief we’ve split it into five. 

On the first three Sundays of Lent we looked at belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Church. Next Sunday we’ll look appropriately at the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. This morning’s article is the forgiveness of sins so I want us to consider these four questions: What is sin? What is forgiveness? Why do we believe in the forgiveness of sins? How do we receive the forgiveness of sins?

What is sin?

·         Something young people do not know or care about (Survey of the beliefs of "generation Y" (15-to-25-year-olds)) shows they don't have any real sense of sin.

·         Sin is as alien to the contemporary mind as fetching water from a well or darning your socks  (Guardian)

·         Alas so is the sense of a personal God which defines sin – a failure in our relationship with God. A culture that doesn't even care about sin has truly cut itself off from God's grace and is therefore sinful in the most profound sense.

·         Sin, as defined in the Bible, means "to miss the mark." The mark, in this case, is the standard of perfection established by God and evidenced by Jesus. Viewed in that light, it is clear that we are all sinners. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 

·         PALE gas is a mnemonic for the seven deadly sins – pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice, sloth which miss the mark of seven God-like qualities: humility, patience, chastity, love, temperance, generosity, diligence.

·         In his Divine Comedy Dante ranks sins that damage the community such as pride, violence and fraud as more damaging than sins of the flesh.

·         Culpability for sin links to how seriously an action was intended

What is forgiveness 
Letting go of the need for revenge and releasing negative thoughts of bitterness and resentment. 

In January of 1990 after the fall of the Berlin wall Erich Honecker, the brutal and hated dictator of East Germany, found himself sick and homeless. So despised was he that no one could be found to provide him shelter. They contacted Pastor Uwe Holmer who directed a church-run convalescent center in the village of Lobetal. Pastor Holmer had bitter memories of Honecker and his regime. Honecker had personally presided over the building of the wall, the wall that separated Holmer's family and kept him from attending his own father's funeral. He had even greater reason to resent Honecker's wife, who ran the East German ministry of education. Holmer's ten children had been denied admission to any university because of their faith. It would be easy for Pastor Holmer to turn Honecker away because the church's retirement home was full and had a long waiting list. But because Honecker's need was urgent, Pastor Holmer decided he had no choice but to shelter the couple under his own roof! Pastor Holmer's charity was not shared by the rest of the country. Hate mail poured in. Some members of his own church threatened to leave or cut back their giving. Pastor Holmer defended his actions in a letter to the newspaper. "In Lobetal," he wrote, "there is a sculpture of Jesus inviting people to himself and crying out, 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' We have been commanded by our Lord Jesus to follow him and to receive all those who are weary and heavy laden, in spirit and in body, but especially the homeless… What Jesus asked his disciples to do is equally binding on us."

 Why do Christians believe in the forgiveness of sins?

·         To believe in Christianity is to believe in new starts.  The Resurrection of Jesus is the greatest new start ever given to humanity and the forgiveness of sins flows from this.  

·         The interpretation in scripture of Christ’s death and resurrection: If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1.9 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2.38

·         The Apostle's Creed associates faith in the forgiveness of sins with faith in the Holy Spirit, the Church and in the communion of saints. This is because Our Lord gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles it came with authority to forgive sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

·         Is God fair to forgive? People can react very unfavourably to talk of Christian forgiveness, especially in the case of very hurtful sin.  The God and Father of Jesus has holiness that is affronted by wrong. That holiness which is above us is coupled to a love that is beyond us. Jesus came to give us what we need before he came to give us what we deserve.  If God is fair He goes beyond fairness. He treats us as really much better than we are.  His holiness and mercy came together on the Cross of Jesus.                       

How do Christians receive the forgiveness of sins?

·         By facing up to and not excusing our sins. C.S. Lewis: The trouble is that what we call "asking God's forgiveness" very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some "extenuating circumstances." We are so very anxious to point these things out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the very important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which excuses don't cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable.. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting our time talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a Dr. you show him the bit of you that is wrong - say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and throat and eyes are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really right, the doctor will know that.

·         Christianity is not guilt-ridden because it encourages people to do something about sin. It is in fact guilt-ridding! 

·         Through the church Christ offers forgiveness. The church does this supremely in baptism and then through prayer, scripture promises and sacramental ministry. 

·         In sacramental confession the priest acts for Christ in welcoming sinners who wish to confess aloud.  This rite echoes Christ’s story of the prodigal son who returned to his father’s embrace. The whole point of sacraments is to give outward and visible signs of inward and invisible gifts from God. The inward gift of forgiveness is brought with visible assurance for many by their coming to the priest, as God’s representative, to receive an individual word of forgiveness. For other Christians it is more a matter of taking God at his word in scripture. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins (1 John 1v9).

There is a condition for being granted forgiveness: penitence, being truly sorry for your sins.  You cannot be truly sorry without resolving to put right the damage you’ve done as far as it can be put right.  There is one other condition for receiving forgiveness: the readiness to forgive others.

·     
 To believe in the forgiveness of sins is to believe in a God who is more ready to give us what we need than he is to give us what we deserve. He treats us as really much better than we are and challenges us to do the same by being ourselves generous to those who are in our debt.