In Sunday’s Lectionary passage from Romans, my favourite word is ‘therefore’, in the first verse. Paul has gone on at great length about what Jesus has done. ‘Therefore’ connects all that to the next part of the letter, what we must do… Although good behaviour does not buy us a seat in heaven, it is a necessary and human response to what God has done for us. (Also Paul is concerned with the togetherness of the Christian community).
It is great to live with that sense of gratitude, but it isn’t always easy – there are two obvious reasons that it’s hard sometimes. One is that it is sometimes far from obvious that God has been good to us – whatever Paul says about God’s penal and accounting system, simple observation of a world of disease, disasters and personal tragedy suggests that for all its wonder and goodness, the world also sucks sometimes. There is no answer to this, only our solidarity and the solidarity of the crucified Christ. The other problem with the calculus of “God has done this for us, therefore…” is that God’s side of this has often been colonised by the institutional church, which sometimes, very humanly, falls into the habit of laying unnecessary obligations on us. The character Amy Farrar Fowler in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is rightly bemused by the notion of a deity who ticks attendance. Of course, the church has practical needs, but at all times it needs to approach people with God’s gracious love, unending mercy, and unsilenced call for justice.
Blustery walk this morning. Yesterday was lovely and I had an extra walk because Janet dropped me off again on the way somewhere. This time I walked part of the Transpennine Trail on the Upper Don (Yorkshire) side. It had been years since I last went that way, and the surface is now excellent, and there’s lots of public art and a children’s play wood and all sorts of good things … and in yesterday’s sunshine it was well used, with plenty of young families, and pensioners on electric bikes…. and plenty of width to pass safely. 21 miles all in all yesterday, so a bit less walking today I think. Some of yesterday’s pictures should help me add to Prayers for Places.
