The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 32; 1 Tim 1-2; Psalm 123-125

The reading from Deuteronomy is a song of Moses – its basic theme is that we have forgotten whose children we are.

God is ‘without deceit’ – ‘yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him’

In other words, we do not reflect the image of the one who created us.

But . . . that said, God in Christ has renewed that image in humankind. Thus in Him we once more reflect the Image of God. This is the meaning of St John’s words ‘to all who believe in his name he gave the right to become children born of God.

All too often we hear of the work of the cross in terms of a mechanism for dealing with sin – which at a very basic level it is. But the reason for the Cross is not primarly sin, but the renewal of the divine image. That is the goal of the cross and that is why John in his gospel will speak of the cross in terms of Glory – a term associated with the Life of God, a Life which is restored in those who abide in Christ, those in whom Christ abides.