URC Daily Devotion Thursday 19 December 2024

St Luke 6: 37 – 42

Jesus said ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;  give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?  A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.  Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s  eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend] let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

Reflection

These immensely powerful words of Jesus – so influential down the centuries – have never felt more significant and relevant than they do today. The rancorous nature of political debate and public discourse seem beset with vicious name calling and uncaring, inflexible judgement.  

Jesus’ message cuts right through this corrosive culture of blame and division. In reading today’s verses anew, what strikes me is that the whole business of judgement and forgiveness is portrayed as a collaborative enterprise. It is not just that we should not be hasty to judge, else we might find ourselves poorly judged in turn by God, but also that as Christians we are part of a fellowship with God where we lovingly exercise judgement and forgiveness in partnership with him.  

This brings to mind a wonderfully gentle poem on “Forgiveness” by George MacDonald, who greatly influenced the faith journey of CS Lewis. In this poem he portrays God’s appraisal of the totality of our lives not as a stern imperious judge but as a benevolent parent making the judgement with us, alongside us:

God gives his child upon his slate a sum –
To find eternity in hours and years;
With both sides covered, back the child doth come,
His dim eyes swollen with shed and unshed tears;
God smiles, wipes clean the upper side and nether,
And says, ‘Now, dear, we’ll do the sum together!’

There is a sense that life’s end is a returning home to the benevolent succour of God’s embrace, and it is perhaps this yearning for home with God that marks out the Christian life. MacDonald also wrote possibly the shortest poem ever written entitled “The Shortest and Sweetest of Songs.” It is just two words:

Come
Home.

There is a sense of longing behind these two words, of the gulf between the first and last words of the poem; a feeling of something not being right, suggested by the near-rhyme (and near-miss) of ‘Come’ and ‘Home’. 
It is for this we now pray.

Prayer

As we live our lives
yearning for home:
May we learn to
be at one with you
in how we come
to judge and forgive
others and ourselves.
Till we come home,
Amen.