Sunday 20th February 2000
Education Sunday
Theme: Jesus - bringer of freedom, the one who forgives sin
A reading from the Prophet Isaiah 43: 18 - 19, 21 - 22, 24 - 25
The Jewish exiles in Babylon can come home. God is good, God will perform this deed, but not because the unfaithful people are deserving. God will make the road clear through the wilderness, and forgetting the sins of the past, God will now lead them to freedom.
Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 1: 18 - 22
With some people there is a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ about the relationship, but with God it is all ‘yes’. Paul and his fellow workers in the gospel, despite the hardships and suffering they encountered, are buoyed up with enthusiasm, and filled with the Spirit of God.
The Gospel according to Mark 2: 1 - 12
The event in this passage concentrates our minds upon the authority of Jesus, and the conflict with the religious authorities of his day. Great numbers of people come to hear the preaching of Jesus, to bring the sick to be healed. Jesus uses the occasion of the paralytic let down through the roof by his companions, to demonstrate God’s power over both sickness and sin, in human lives. Breaking the human rules about the Sabbath is less important than bringing health and freedom from sin to some poor person. Mind you, this doesn’t please the religious leaders who saw these actions as a threat to their own position, and no doubt, as a threat to the gold in their pockets, and to the important position they held in Jewish society of the day. Do we put Jesus , and the things of God, first?
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