Skip to main content

Applauding the NHS Workers

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ (http://www.biblegateway.com 1 Samuel 16.7)
On Thursday night at 8pm Helen said, 'Shall we go outside then and applaud the NHS workers?' I peered through the window and could see no visible signs of activity but we ventured to the door. 'We'll have to go to the gate,' I said, because we have quite a big turning circle in front of our house.
Once we were on the roadside we found there were quite a lot of people gathered in small knots outside their homes. Our neighbours were making their way up the garden path. And then the applause began. Leeds Road is wide, and usually busy. It's normally hard to make much impact in such a big space, so I wasn't sure many people would have taken the trouble to express their solidarity and gratitude in this way, but the noise was suprisingly loud. Some of the cars passing sounded their horns and were greeted with whoops. Suddenly it all seemed very moving.
Unless they're wearing their uniform it's hard to tell who's an NHS worker, or a care worker, or someone doing an essential job. Fortunately, 'The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.' He knows who's doing their bit for their neighbours and fellow citizens and who's letting them down by thoughtless or selfish behaviour. This is a God-given opportunity for us all to rise to the occasion and allow ourselves to be anointed by God's Spirit of compassion and concern for one another, and to become people whose hearts are acceptable to God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I don't believe in an interventionist God

Matthew 28.1-10, 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 I like Nick Cave’s song because of its audacious first line: ‘I don’t believe in an interventionist God’. What an unlikely way to begin a love song! He once explained that he wrote the song while sitting at the back of an Anglican church where he had gone with his wife Susie, who presumably does believe in an interventionist God - at least that’s what the song says. Actually Cave has always been very interested in religion. Sometimes he calls himself a Christian, sometimes he doesn’t, depending on how the mood takes him. He once said, ‘I believe in God in spite of religion, not because of it.’ But his lyrics often include religious themes and he has also said that any true love song is a song for God. So maybe it’s no coincidence that he began this song in such an unlikely way, although he says the inspiration came to him during the sermon. The vicar was droning on about something when the first line of the song just popped into his ...
14 comments
Read more

Luther and Loyola

James 1:17-27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Within Christianity there has always been a tension between two poles. At one end of the spectrum stands Martin Luther, who said that Christian faith is about trusting in God to put us right - or make us righteous - through the saving death of Jesus. Luther came to this conclusion when he was a professor of New Testament studies in a little town in Germany called Wittenberg. One year he decided to teach his students about Paul’s letter to the Romans and that’s when it suddenly dawned upon him that Christian faith is all about trust. At the other end of the spectrum , stands someone like Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Society of Jesus. He spent a lot of his later life in crisis, first struggling to overcome severe wounds that he had suffered when he was a soldier and then during two short periods locked up in a cell by the Spanish Inquisition. He came to believe that the Christian life is a similar sort of struggle, a lifelon...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sharing the Good News With People of Other Faiths

Together with other local Christians, clergy and lay people, I find myself – from time to time – giving thought to how we share our Christian faith with people from other religious backgrounds. It is a ticklish issue, because converting from one faith to another is a huge decision to make and it may not be appropriate for everyone. Becoming a Christian is always a life changing event, but for someone from another faith background it can sometimes cause immense dislocation and hardship, including estrangement from family members and friends who cannot accept their decision. It may even cut a person off from their entire cultural heritage, so it is not something that we can expect people to enter into lightly or thoughtlessly. Nor is it likely to be easy for them to make a gradual progression or pilgrimage to Christian faith. At some point they may have to choose whether or not to make a radical break with their past, unless they decide to be secret or closet believers. And they may deci...
2 comments
Read more