thoughts on balance

I got a bit excited on Sunday... (in the sermon that is)...
"Balance. The Giver of Life calls us to a life of faith as a response to all that is given – balance.
I will be your God – and you will be my people. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” [Deuteronomy 6:4-5] Balance – I and Thou. And, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” [Leviticus 19:18] – more balance.

We also have a sense that we creatures are to live in balance with the creation – there has to be some balance in how we live so that this earth can continue to sustain us.
There are many signs that we have are not living in a balanced way.
We pollute the air and are seriously undermining the delegate structure of the earth’s atmosphere.
We take from the land more than we give back to it.
We seek short term profit at the expense of sustainable living, and we expect others to have less so that we can have more.
Love your neighbour as yourself is a call to balance.
And God balances things… w
here we are cautious God is reckless
– a party thrown for a lost sheep,
a boy welcomed home,
a party and people invited from the edges of the town…
a woman allowed to pour precious oil on his feet as she wipes them with her hair.

Where we offer a half-measure, God counters with cup running over.
Where we say no to people God says yes.
Where we are half-hearted God counters with total self-giving.
Where we say ‘I will love you if…’ God says ‘I love you anyway!’

The unforgiveable is forgiven,
the betrayer is kissed,
the weak are held up and the strong have a few truths pointed out.
Balance.

Not blandness, not mediocrity, not the soft-option
– but an extravagant counterculture of grace.
That’s God’s way – that’s the way that the church,
called into being by Jesus, is to live – extravagant grace.