Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave this sermon at the General Synod of the Church of England which is meeting in London. This paragraph caught my eye.
Devotion to principle in itself is not an excuse for tearing up relationships any more than exact keeping of the law is an excuse for not giving your heart to God. Jesus, in other words is not going to make things easy for us and that is no surprise and entirely in character. We’re reminded of just how easily all of us fall off that particular narrow point of balance on which, it seems, Jesus alone stands with complete confidence. That point where he stands making of his whole being in every relationship, in every particular a peacemaking gift to God in life and death, serving his Father in small particulars. Well, we are going to fall off; we are going to get this wrong; we are not going, of ourselves, to make a perfect offering acceptable to the Father, whether by attention to large hearted generous devotion or attention to particulars. But we are called to stand for a bit here, where Jesus stands; to stand in his company at his table and to keep our eyes on him sufficiently, for just a bit, not to fall off. We come to the Holy Communion so that he can look us in the eye and hold us steady, just for a moment; steady with his steadiness, that steadiness which makes of his being a complete offering to his Father.