he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood (Hebrews 9:12)

One of the things people often ask me, as a teacher, is whether kids are much worse behaved these days than they were in the past. Honestly, there’s not much difference. Some folk like to look back to some fabled time when a teacher could instil perfect behaviour in his charges by judicious wielding of a lochgelly but I’m not old enough to remember such days. Honestly. I think, on the whole, kids are kids. Sometimes they’re saints and sometimes they’re sinners. Much like the rest of us. 

Which is why the passage we had from Psalms this morning pulls me up short. “Happy are those whose way is blameless”. Blameless? Really? “Happy are those who do no wrong?” No wrong? None at all? I’d like to suggest that anyone who is completely and utterly blameless and does absolutely no wrong must be some kind of saint. Except, in the Catholic Church there’s a position known as “Devil’s Advocate” whose job it is to check out candidates for sainthood for any moral failings, but not even they demand the level of perfection the psalm seems to be indicating. 

The Old Testament recognises how fallible people really are in this regard. That’s why books like Leviticus have lists of sacrifices that should be made when people committed sins; when they fell short of the demands that God made of them in the commandments. Someone who was ‘blameless’ in these terms had, so they believed, been put right with God through making the appropriate sacrifice - a calf or a goat, perhaps.

Even then, though, the Old Testament recognised that people didn’t always spot that they have done wrong. That’s why, every day, the High Priest in Jerusalem carried out sacrifices for the people of Israel - and that’s what the reference in Hebrews is getting at. For the writer of Hebrews Jesus took the role of a great High Priest whose sacrifice of himself put the people of the new Israel - Christians - right with God.

Which is just as well. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not sure I could describe myself as entirely blameless or that I’d never done anything wrong. And I’m fresh out of goats. And if everyone is like me - and I may not be perfect, but I’m not Vlad The Impaler either - then I’m not sure there’s enough goats in the world to make up for everyone’s failings.

Especially when you consider the standard we’re supposed to be aiming at. Consider Jesus’s words about the greatest commandment. “Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.” and “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” The scribe then goes on to say that these are way more important than burnt offerings or sacrifices. There aren’t enough goats in the world to put you right with God of you aim for those standards.

There’s nothing new in Jesus’s teaching here. The first bit is a quote from Deuteronomy. The second is in Leviticus. The same Leviticus that prescribes daily sacrifices for the people of Israel because they’re going to fail - probably every day - to meet those standards. Maybe that’s why, for some of them, following the rules was so important. Maybe that’s why Jesus has a go at the Pharisees sometimes. They kept the rules but weren’t necessarily so good at keeping their spirit. Some of them might be good neighbours in some ways - if you lent them your lawnmower you’d be sure to get it back - but wouldn’t necessarily help out if you lost your job - especially if you were a Gentile.

But then, are we always so much better? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.” Do we do that? Really? Sure, the very fact that we’re here this morning means that we do God. I daresay we all love God. But with all our hearts? All our souls? All our minds? All our strength? Or do we sometimes get distracted? Do we sometimes have other priorities in our lives? Do we sometimes forget God is there? If that’s the standard we’re aiming for, there aren’t enough goats in the world.

“Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” Do we do that? Really? I’m sure we’re all decent people and we look after others when they’re going through hard times. But when we remember that Jesus’s idea of ‘our neighbour’ isn’t just the group of folk we live among: our friends and colleagues, but anyone who’s in need even if they are our enemy or the folk we’re taught to despise, do we always care for them as much as we care for ourselves? If that’s the standard we’re aiming for there aren’t enough goats in the world.

That’s why the Cross of Jesus Christ is so important. And why sacrifices of goats and calves aren’t. We all of us fall short of what we are meant to be in life. We all fall short of what God wants us to be - the light of the world and the salt of the earth. For all of us it’s less than obvious, sometimes, that we are children of God, made in the image of God. There are times, for all of us, when we yield to temptation or are just too tired, too cross, too scunnered to care as we should for one another.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, though, is that we are put right with God through his death and resurrection. If we’ve messed up, that’s done and dusted and forgotten. If we’ve done stuff - or not done stuff - and regret it, that’s done and dusted and forgotten. If we’ve been less than we’re meant to be, if we’ve said things, thought things, done things that are unworthy of ourselves or God then that is done and dusted and forgotten. Just as, with the sacrifice carried out by the High Priest in Jerusalem, people were held to be washed clean of their faults at the beginning and ending of each day, we too are washed clean by the blood of Christ.

We can begin each new day with the chance to try again to be the people we are meant to be; to try to love God with all our hearts and all  our souls and all our minds and all our strength. To try to love our neighbour as we love ourselves secure in the knowledge that even if we fail - and, chances are, we will - nothing can separate us from the love of God. And that means we can keep trying.

We can begin each day with a chance to show the people we meet what the love of God is about by being there for them when they need us. By being that neighbour they can rely on to put the kettle on and listen to them as they pour out their troubles. By being the friend who will sit with the phone to our ears because someone just needs someone to talk to. 

We can begin each day with a chance to do what is right - even if it’s inconvenient. By being a voice for those who are easily forgotten in this world. By standing beside those who are bullied and mistreated. By proclaiming the love of God and speaking up for peace when the world cries war or embracing the outcast and the refugee.

Maybe we take those chances. Maybe we don’t. And maybe there aren’t enough goats in the world to make up for the times we don’t. But through the Cross of Jesus Christ we aren’t bound by them. We can face each new day in the hope that today we will shine as the light of the world; that we will live as children of God.

Lord we thank you for the Gospel - for the promise that, through the death of your Son and through his resurrection we have a chance, each new day, our previous failings set aside, to try again to live as your children and in the hope of eternal life.

Preached at Gretna Old parish church