One Song.

In his sermon, Revd Richard took us through our history from the first human descendents 1,000,000 years ago, to first language, to first abstract thought, to man creating gods like powerful versions of themselves controlling what man could not control, to One God, to Jesus teaching of a God of Love. The gaps between revolutions in thought get shorter and shorter. And the next revolution he said is to see all as one. One God: One Everything. One Universe - One Song.

The bible in five words

Revd Richard said that if the rest of the bible was lost that and these couple of verses were kept it would still be complete. And that he could end his sermon right at the beginning without saying any more because it has all been said in the few words of a couple of famous verses. Summed up those verses are... 'Love God. Everything else follows.'

Lost and Found

I lost my faith when I was 18, probably mostly because I wanted to do my own thing without the conflict that you have when trying to live up to a religious faith. Some people have a real Christian Glow. I don't think I ever glowed. I never got faith back easily. But then again I am lost without some sense of spiritual meaning so keep on searching.

They prayed for me

I was walking across the Market Place - busy ....

Then was stopped by the people who pray for people to get healing. They prayed some nice things for me. As somebody who never expects miracles nice things are enough.

O for a closer walk with God

We sang a hymn today with words by William Cowper called 'O for a closer walk with God' It was old fashioned and more poem than hymn and very personal and I like that ....

Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

....

Baptism and Dedication not so onerous

This morning there was not only a baby baptism but also a baby dedication.

Baptism is a more a Methodist thing, and dedication is more of a United Reformed thing. And since Trinity is both...

One seemed more appropriate to one baby and one more to the other, and so that is what was done. In the dedication all the family gathered round, and a blessing was given by placing a hand on the baby's head. The commitments were not so onerous.

Tolerance

Revd Richard said it took a long time before tribes with their own gods came together and realised there was One God. Such a realisation should have been the start of greater tolerance. But it hasn't always worked like that. Moslems worship the one God and Christians too, but still they often look with intolerance on each other. We can be humbled by the faith of many Moslems and how they express it in their whole life. Even within Christianity there is intolerance between groups. It is not God that is separate but its our way of thinking, our way of creating hierarchies. We can only address our own intolerance as we find it.