The passion of God!
So, I’ve just watched myself lead worship, which was quite odd. Then I joined Storyhouse live…Great job Dave and Lizzie, thank you! There’s more inspiring worship and prayer resources out there too. So although we can’t gather, we are worshipping together. I know that even Malcolm joined us from Birch Ward in Broadgreen hospital! Thank you to all the 100+ people who gathered online as St Luke’s this morning. Keep an eye on the website for information about next Sunday, 5th April.
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, which makes today Passion Sunday. Passion is a word that simply refers to the strength of feeling someone has about something or someone. We generally use it to refer to a grand love, but it doesn’t have to be about love. Someone could, equally, have a passionate hatred for something. God’s passion lived out by Jesus, though, is one of love beyond measure.
God’s passion is his great, infinite and immeasurable love for us, humankind. A love that drove him to give up glory and majesty and god-head to become human, as Jesus. His sacrifice as God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of the Son to humankind is something we can’t begin to understand. I believe that it was a huge sacrifice for the God-head – the interplay of body and spirit is beyond me, but the incarnation of God the Son as Jesus the human being, and the bearing of his eventual death, was, I believe, a sacrifice beyond understanding. It’s a passion of awesome, wonder-ful, almost incredible proportions.
As we journey through the week to come, with its horror story of illness and death (which is going to get worse before it gets better), let’s keep turning back to God to remember and ponder that depth of passion. Let’s remember that God’s own passion for humankind is of a kind never humanly encountered before or since. Let’s remember that our God of passion is the author of creation and the creator of all life. Let’s remember that God created out of and for love, that He is love. Let’s remember that we are his and he is ours and that whatever happens nothing, but nothing, can separate us from his love (Romans 8.31-39).