.

A few years ago a friend asked me: “John, you know the problem with the Church?”

I could have named one or two things but I was more interested in what he might suggest so I responded by asking him what he was thinking of.

He suggested that when he went to Mass as he did most Sundays, that there were not enough sinners there.

I knew what he was saying.

Of course the Church on any Sunday is full of sinners – but as my friend was suggesting our sin is not evident, it’s hidden, not public, respectably discreet.

And church-going Christians are most often thought to be good people. Polite people. And (God help us) nice people.

I fear that people who really know and feel their sin and who have picked up from Church sound-bytes that their sin somehow places them on the periphery of Church life, these people tragically don’t feel at home in Church gatherings.

That is an ultimate tragedy since, as Jesus, in response to the accusation of spending too much time eating and drinking with sinners, reminds us in today’s Gospel passage:

It is not those who are well
who need the doctor,
but the sick.

The problem is that most of us much of the time see ourselves as imperfect, sinners yes, needing divine help when we call. BUT we don’t feel the kind of desperate need which was the starting point for those who in the gospels became the intimate friends of Jesus.

I think of the first AA step, the starting point for maturation of Christian faith: “We admitted we were powerless...”

Now there’s a great Lenten prayer – the AA First Step Prayer:

Dear Lord,
I admit that I am powerless
I admit that my life is unmanageable when I try to control it.
Help me this day to understand
The true meaning of powerlessness.

Amen

CAFE GATHERINGS

Send your date and time to add to the list, and just turn up at at one of the advertised gatherings, just one hour, focussing on where we are encountering Christ.

10.00am Wednesday 13 March. Invitation from Joan
Stumble Inn 200 Mangorei Road New Plymouth

7.00am Thursday 14 March Invitation from Kate
St Mary’s Church, Whanganui.