It is difficult to compare a Pharisee with a tax collector in any unbiased manner. They are both characters who are loaded with meaning in their context. One is the very representation of righteousness and the other the ikon of sin and betrayal.

However, Jesus (as is his custom) has this capacity to reinterpret these two figures in a very different manner. Rather than simply reinforcing the predominant stereotypes, Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter.

It is not how the community views a person that determines how God views them. It is the honesty with which a person sees themselves that opens the way for a good relationship with God.

How honest with yourself are you when you stand before God?

What do you hope for?

How deep does your hope go?

What actions are you taking toward the realisation of your hope?

Are there actions that flow from you almost beyond your own deliberations because your hope is so strong?

Can you imagine the power of a hope that overcomes the lulling pull of simply giving up in the face of frustration and disappointment?

A hope so strong within you, that you cannot help but keep giving yourself to that hope until it finds a way through to fulfilment.

This is the power of kingdom hope.

It is not about getting what we want. It is about giving ourselves to the much larger purpose and finding ourselves in the kingdom.

In a day of fragile self-esteem and uncertain identity, we have become loath to speak of people using the category of sin.

Paul shows no hesitation in that regard - least of all in reference to himself! He claims top spot among sinners.

Paul does so to make clear that there is no one beyond the reach of the grace of God. If even he, the chief of sinners, can become the recipient of this life-altering divine love, then there is no one who can possibly be outside God’s reach.

In the perfect patience of God’s eternal view, the end game is the inclusion of every last person who is willing to join in the life of the kingdom of God.

Most of the choices we make in life are not binary. Life is full of nuance and alternate options.

Yet, there are key moments when the choice before us represents a choice between self-interest or self-giving. We can stay with the established supports and comforts that we have grown accustomed to. Or we can follow the way of Christ - that continually calls us beyond these bounds.

This is a crucially important decision. A decision that sets the course of a person’s life. It is not one that should be made half heartedly or with inadequate consideration. Neither is it a decision that should be avoided simply because it seems too hard to make.

In life, something will have a primary hold on us. We can find our security in the default ways of our world. Or we can decide there is more life to found in following the way of Jesus and being held in the security of God’s way of self-giving love.

What are you choosing?

If Jesus came to our church and healed someone, I don’t think the first thing we would react to would be whether he did it at the right time in the service.

This tells us something of the difference between the religious environment we live in, and the one that existed in first century Palestine.

Why were the religious authorities of that time so caught up with keeping their own rules? And why was Jesus so unconcerned (at times) by the thought of transgressing them?

What are the rules about and what purpose are they meant to serve anyway?

There is something about the Good News of Jesus that is profoundly subversive to the status quo. In allowing himself to be lynched by his community, Jesus focuses a penetrating light on the systems of justice, judgement and righteousness. It becomes inescapably clear that when humans pronounce judgement (claiming it to be the justice of God no less!) it might just as easily be the arbitrary victimisation of the innocent!

What happens to the pillars of society when that which we have self-assuredly believed to be absolute is revealed to be arbitrary? If what has passed for our knowledge of good and evil ends in the murder of God, what are we to do instead?

And what are the consequences of this leaven of the Gospel in every society it touches?

This little prayer might be one of the best known in all of history. It is not surprising. Jesus offers it as a model when his disciples specifically ask for his help.

What does this prayer model for us?

What are the areas Jesus felt were most important in prayer?

Everyone likes to get the good part, right? We will take everything from a free upgrade to first class to the choices bit of the Sunday roast.

But what if we have been mistaken about what the good part is?!

What if our desire has been so shaped by what everyone else around us is desiring, that we have never worked out for ourselves what is genuinely good?

Jesus’ encounter with Martha and Mary as a guest in their home reveals how easily we can adopt the assumptions of our culture and miss out on the really good part.

Casting out demons sounds a bit like a carnival sideshow act these days. Yet, the level of deep internal torment in the lives of many in our community suggests there is an ongoing need for deliverance.

The Spirit world has no doubt regarding the authority of Jesus. Grace, truth and peace always trump judgement, lies and torment.

When Jesus delivers the man tormented by the legion of demons this is no play acting. There is a move from one realm of power to another. The man moves into Jesus’ realm - and the demons lose their power over him.

The same dynamic remain true and operable today. Worship Jesus and all other claims on your allegiance will fall away.

Discipleship has always been challenging. We are prone to attempt to take the call to follow Jesus on our own terms. This is the very thing Jesus rules out in the sayings we are considering today.

Here we have a series of encounters with people who appear to have very reasonable excuses for why they cannot drop everything and follow Jesus.

Jesus’ direct challenge in response to each of these objections reveals the stark nature of his call. This is not about adding a religious veneer to your established life-style and priorities. This call goes fair against the grain and challenges us to consider what is, for us, most important.