Nice walk along the Trail this morning. Just glimpses of the tops of cumulonimbus capillatus incus above the lower clouds. Intense but short-lived pulses of graupel traced out the path in white…
Next Sunday’s Lectionary…
There are some nuggets here, like the last verse of the Matthew reading, immortalised by Jimmy Cliff. …or like the distillation of all choosing in Deuteronomy 30:19, “Choose life”. Every choice is in some way a choice between life and death – of course we don’t think about every small thing that way, or life would be intolerable. But there aspects of every choice which are like this … like what to eat – is it healthy or not for me? How much harm was done to the atmosphere in transporting it to the shop or in farming it? Are the words I say going to drive someone closer to the edge? …or draw them back? There are ghosts of that choice ‘choose life’ in every decision, small or large. In Deuteronomy, choosing life means loving, obeying and being faithful to God. And the choice is spun as a matter of self-interest – choose right and you will prosper (as a people presumably). Maybe my motivation is different – wanting right to prosper, or God’s kingdom to prosper, or simply wanting to have some integrity. Anyways – ‘choose life’ – that’s it.
And ‘let your yes and your no be no’ -it’s not about foul language but about bringing the troops in on your side. What you say isn’t made any truer by claiming God’s support. Also, be discriminating when you listen. Are you really convinced when someone says “I swear to God I didn’t do it”? No? Then you should also be sceptical when someone claims God is on their side. And of course that applies to my utterances too. Remember Alan Bennett* playing a paedophile teacher saying “that doesn’t apply to me”? Sorry, couldn’t find that on Google.
Once again, Jesus is setting the bar high: maybe impossibly so. More on that later.
- It may have been someone else – like Peter Cook
We worship you God,
you alone.
Fame,
we can ignore it.
Vast wealth,
we can do without it.
Power,
we can let it go.
For we worship you, God.
You made the universe,
set it all in motion,
and presided over its development.
You made the rocks and sun and moon and stars,
and you give life.
And we praise and thank you God.
You made the furthest away thing,
millions of years away,
and yet you are close to us.
You came into our world in Jesus,
to give us a new start when we went wrong.
And we praise you and thank you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord…