Pandemic Parables 6: Whether or not we're indoors . . .

Jesus also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” 

This is perhaps the most encouraging of parables for the church in a pandemic.  The list of what can be done in building relationships for the Kingdom is very much shorter.  The possibilities for the winter ahead are filled with uncertainties, and even next summer is tough to plan towards.  Whilst some expressions of Christianity are more content with a low-key private or contemplative approach, Baptist and Evangelical Christians have always viewed life as seizing opportunities and working for them when they are missing.  More like Jesus' Galilean ministry than his earlier Nazareth days of carpentry.

Another parable I cited was about the sower sowing the seed.  It reflected different kinds of soil productivity.  This little parable from Mark's Gospel is about providence.  The farmer must do something - sow the seed - but then cannot really do anything.  Whether locked down (asleep) or up and busy, the soil produces the grain.

This does not entirely reflect modern agriculture - but it brilliantly reflects 2020 church work.  Thank you, Jesus!

Holiday Pics 5: Beautiful Redundancy

Spread along the coast of West Wales are the remains of seaside mills.  The corn was brought from the nearby farms and the many tiny harbours, in the manner of Cornwall, provided an efficient sea route out for the milled grain.

Today they provide great photo opportunities.  I doubt that they will ever be called into action again, but they tell a story of times gone by.

This particular mill was on the bay near the village we stayed in.  In the village itself were two other buildings that were no longer in use - a Baptist Chapel and a Methodist Chapel.  There were no places of worship, as there were no mills, that were still in use.

So do redundant chapels also reflect changing times and times gone by?

Well, no.  Whereas the products of farms nearby have new and better methods of refinement, transportation and therefore business, the redundant chapels tell another story.  The village has just as many souls in as ever it had, God is still the God who the villagers once worshipped, Jesus story of salvation is still the same, the 21st century souls in the village are all, like their forebears, going to pass into judgment and eternity.

There is nothing improving or efficient about redundant chapels.  They are just a community's death-mark.

Holiday Pics - No 6 Contentment

The weather was good apart from one day.  That's the kind of thing we all say about a British vacation (except the one may be up to seven!).  Cornwall, once a poor faraway mining and fishing area, is now quite a slick kind of place and it doesn't take an expert to work out that much of the money in Cornwall has been gained elsewhere and brought here as to nature's playground for some fun in old age or earlier.

I wonder whether this makes for more contented people though?  Or were the miners that crowded the Methodist chapels to sing their praise to God as happy in their limited expanses as the people popping down in the Porsche to the Michelin starred seafood restaurant?  I cannot say.

I know this cow was content though.  Just some grass will do.  I think I'll try and learn a lesson from the cow.