New World

We live in a troubled World where the big hand seems to be ticking ever closer to Midnight. We can let our fears overtake us.

And yet Hope comes knocking every morning : ) Unless you are deaf and blind you can at least do one of watching the sunrise and listening to the birds singing.

Lamentations 3
22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

These words were written 1000's of years ago by someone in great anguish because of the suffering in their country and they remain true to this day. So take a moment at the start of the day to take it all in. That's how a New World begins!

The Tricolour Communion

6 months ago I invited my French friends to dinner on Pentecost Sunday, May 24th 2015. I knew it would be a holiday the following day in France and I would make all the arrangements. I told them I was turning 50 this year and Pentecost signifies 50 days after Easter Sunday so it would be a good time to get together!

Of course, the time together would be brief and then perhaps I wouldn't see them for some time after that. In the gap in between, I began to think about how I could make that moment memorable for them, but nothing came. 

In the plane going over I was practicing by watching French movies when I happened to watch a trilogy of movies called Bleu, Blanc and Rouge. They were very good... At the end of the first movie, the passage from 1 Corinthians 13 is sung which concludes with the 3 things that remain - faith, hope and love.

As it turned out, the apartment I booked was in the capital of Brittany, Rennes, for the nights of 22nd to 24th and on the Friday not Sunday my friend Galeb cooked us a French meal, Magret de Canard, much better than anything I could have done : )

Before we ate, I read the 1 Corinthians passage to my friends and told them that because of these 3 things, we never needed to be sad with moments that pass into memory so quickly. It was a very good moment which will not be forgotten!

On the night before Jesus died, he shared the Passover meal with his friends as all of Israel was doing. He had made all the arrangements in advance and no doubt spent some time thinking about what to say to his friends knowing that he was about to die. Something that they would never forget. 

We don't know how much of what Jesus said to them was planned in advance or inspired but in that moment, the regular Passover meal was transformed into something much greater to represent Jesus death on our behalf. And he told them to Remember him with this meal until he would came again. All of these 3 ingredients of faith, hope and love are in this meal we now share together. Incredibly, we and all other Christians do this to this day, proving the truth of 1 Corinthians 13:13 : )