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God’s Lavish Love

On Thursday night the new President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Rev. David Nixon was installed at our annual conference. His theme for the year is "God’s Lavish Love" based on the parable of the Father and his Two Sons, often referred to as the parable of the prodigal son, referring at one point (as appears to be mandatory these days - we all do it) to Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son".  His superb sermon was full of the humble, gentle, gracious vulnerability and good humour that all who know him have come to expect of David. But off the back of it I wrote this piece reflecting on whom God's lavish love is for...

For the manifestly unrighteous,
and seemingly self-righteous...
For those who come to themselves,
And those who have come to the end of their rope...
For those who at last have come home,
and those who will not come in...
For those who rehearse their repentance,
And those who rehearse their resentment...
For those who took liberty for license,
And those who turned devotion into drudgery...
For those who serve in pig pens,
And those who slave in their mind's eye...
For those who know where they went wrong,
And those who know where others went wrong...
For those who were lost and have been found,
And those who don’t know that they’re lost...
For those who were dead and are alive again,
And those who have not yet learned what life is...

Selah
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