27 Sept 2015 Coleshill United Church

"Staying salty together"

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Bible readings: Psalm 19; Mark 9:38-50

What does it mean if people who have always exercised power over us ask for our forgiveness? Is it possible to  forgive people for what their predecessors did to ours? But if we cannot forgive are we not allowing ourselves to be trapped in our history and our past? Yet if we do forgive what happens to our own sense of identity which we so often define in terms of who and what we are against, and according to attitudes about others that we have inherited? Jesus told us not to ignore or prevent people from working for God's kingdom simply because they did not belong to 'our gang' or would not do what we tell them. We should be worried about our own holiness, not that of others. Otherwise we cease to be salt that seasons the world.