Bits and bobs

After a sermon this morning that you could only hear in a Methodist Church, I thought it about time to sort out a few domestics. I have a job that is reasonably secure. I have a house in which I live with a good friend. I don't need to worry where the next meal will come from, or where I will spend the next night. So the least I could do seemed to be to keep what I have in good order. Then I'm in a postion to share what I have with people who ask. I tidied out the spare seat in my car too - so that it is available to give people a lift if they are travelling in the same direction as me.

Most Methodist preachers aren't ordained folk, but people with normal jobs outside of the church. This morning I listened to John Sawkins, who blended his working thoughts seamlessly with the Gospel.

This is not the first time that the world has been through economicaly sticky times. There are plenty of periods described in the Bible when times were similarly hard. We read about one of them today. And then we read how Jesus would have us respond to such times:

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

When money is tight, sometimes it is easier to hoard all the more. But the most human response is to be more glad for what you have, and to seek to share that joy through giving more. I loved reading a book by Shane Claiborne that I first picked up about this time last year. This part of it chimes with what I have just written- and the simple beauty of the scene blows me away avery time:

"People who experiment in sharing may begin out of burden of guilt. What delight it is to see others receive the gifts of God, especially when they have been deprived of them for too long. One of the beggars of Calcutta approached me one day, and I had no money on me, but I felt a piece of Gum in my pocket, so I handed it too her. I have no idea how long it had been since she had chewed gum, or if she had ever even had the chance. She looked at it and smiled with delight. Then she tore it into three pieces and handed one to me and one to my friend so we could share the excitement. When those who have gone without life's simple pleasures are given a gift, they are so overjoyed that their instinct is often to share rather than hoard."