There is a particular bumper sticker that was doing the rounds a number of years ago, which I just don’t like. It reads "Christians are not perfect - just forgiven". It is not that I think that it is theologically incorrect, it is just that more often than not I see it as an excuse for less than Christian behaviour by those claiming to belong to Christ. It seems that there is a tendency, at least among some believers, to overly spiritualise their faith. Taking on the air of Christianity in words but in reality, their life gives a different story.

Now I am not saying that any of us are perfect, for I have been in churches too long to believe that, but conceptually at least our perfection is goal to which we are aiming. Although Christ accepts each of us in our imperfection, nevertheless his desire is that we find perfection and it is the Holy Spirit's job to work on us to get there. It is not enough for us to proudly proclaim imperfection, but rather to point to the perfection in Jesus.

Perhaps this is just the way I look at things, but from where I am, its members do the most damage to the church's credibility. Often those who profess the highest of faiths are the ones who are the worst offenders. You see the world is wise in its own way and is quick to see the diversity between the claimed belief and actual action. What it is that we do cannot be at odds with the faith that we profess. This is why the misdemeanours of clergy are seen as so much worse than the identical sin in the general population

But in a town the size of Cressy not only are the clergy under this type of scrutiny, but every one who regularly attends. We can be the greatest asset or biggest obstacle to others around us in their journey of faith. This is not something that is new. James in the first century, wrote these words:

It is a huge danger for each and every Christian that they may fail to put action behind their words. This is the journey of Christian faith. For many reasons it happens, not in the least that we are targets for the devil who seek to bring us undone. But we can rest on our laurels and fail to take our faith to the fullest extent. This is not just taking our faith for granted, but fail to work through our faith.

This is the reason, why we do not just gather to have a good time. The meeting of Christians is not just a getting together, but a requires us to engage with God, and in his wisdom the Scriptures are provide for us to do this. The Scriptures are the mirror into which we may look to see ourselves in the light of God's word.

In the Anglican thinking, we systematically work through the Scriptures in the pattern of the lectionary to ensure that we do not get caught into only reading those passages that we can agree with. As a preacher, I am forced to confront different passages each week, and not just those passages, which suit my prejudices. And so is each one of us.

If your faith and mine is serious, we will find parts of God's word that are hard. Last week in Johns Gospel, the hard words were the ones that drove away the disciples who were wavering. It is easy for us to follow Jesus while the demands are small and when the perceived rewards are great but what of the Rich young ruler. "Sell all", said Jesus, "and follow me" and he could not. Now would be easy for him to have rested on the laurels - "I have obeyed all the commandments since my youth" but Jesus challenged him to grow and when he could not he had to turn away. He could have pretended that this event had not happened, or reinterpreted what Jesus meant into his own framework to satisfy himself.

But this was the sin of the Pharisees - I am the standard - they said and condemned those who could not reach it, but they used human precepts and not the word of God, or should I say the WORD of God - Jesus as the measure.

At the moment, I am reading the Biography of Sheila Cassidy - Audacity to Believe. She was in Chile as and ex-patriot doctor at the time of Pinochet and became herself a victim of this evil totalitarian state - (Which was covertly and overtly supported by the nation that claims itself as the greatest Christian democracy in the world.) At the part where I am at the moment, she is describing her faith journey and the challenge of the lives of the priests and nuns who identified with the poor. She had faith, but as she read the word of God in the Scriptures and in the lives of his people, she could not refuse to go deeper. And this was at a time when her faith had taken her far further than any of us here have gone.

Each of us must take care to be looking in the mirror, and more. You and I must be prepared to respond to what it is that we see. To act on the word of God and continue on the journey of faith.

This is individual and personal. Even as your priest, I do not presume the responsibility to identify your short-comings - rather to create an atmosphere where you and I can be confronted by God.

I am so convinced about this, that I prepared to say that if we are not currently confronting a behaviour or an attitude or unforgiveness and have not done so recently, that I believe that we are not serious about our faith. Let us not be like the Pharisees who concentrated on the failings of others but never looked at themselves. Sometimes the faults of others may be obvious to everyone else, but God may have other business to do. We must give God the space to deal with the other in his own time and own way.

But we are responsible for ourselves. Let us have courage to deeply in the mirror and then act.