Easy

Which is easier (2:9)

At school I was told that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. I was even told that this definition stems from Euclid, who wrote that a straight line is the "breadthless length which lies evenly with the points on itself". I was surprisingly pleased to discover in Geography that the shortest distance between two points on Earth is not marked on a map by a straight line but by a curved one (technically the arc of a great circle). This meant that my flight to Chicago crossed the frozen wastes of northern Canada, which was also exciting.

The phrase 'which is easier' can equally have a double meaning. It is easier to say 'your sins are forgiven' because no one will know if they're not, yet for all save God it is impossible to do. It is harder to say 'get up and walk' as failure is a bit obvious, yet it is easier to do, for today a simple hip operation can get you back on your feet. However, like my straight line and my great circle, both lead us the same way. Healing with words is revealing the Word. And, oddly, healing is one of the two miraculous gifts Christ bestows on his disciples. Maybe such healing may still do much revealing.



Comments

  1. Julie S5 December 2020 at 01:43

    I wonder if we heal the troubled minds of our little people with our words?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Silence

Image
They remained silent (3:3) In London, a young curate wrote a very ill-considered tweet. It appeared to be an attack on the nation's favourite son, Captain Tom, and drew vicious and malicious criticism. Read with a little more care, it was more an attack on the way such figures as Captain Tom can be used to bolster a very one-sided view of English culture. Indeed it was rather endearing about Captain Tom himself, though, being a tweet, it was distinctly lacking in the necessary nuance such a comment requires.  It received a stinging and public rebuke from his pastoral overseers, which lacked the nuance essential to bringing calm and left him entirely exposed to the trolls, both public and private. While his friends rallied round, it has left others of us gasping as to what to do. Do we speak or do we remain silent? To speak is to risk exposure to the worst elements of our culture, as well as putting us on the wrong side of our own legitimate authority figures. But to remain silent l
Read more

Together

Image
Carried by four of them (2:3) The proverb, it takes a village to raise a child, is thought to originate in Nigeria. It refers to the idea that children acquire a rounded personality from safe interaction with lots of different people, and not just their parents. Bertrand Russell went one step further, suggesting to one correspondent that her biological parents were the worst people to bring her up as they would share her innate prejudices rather than lead her to question them. As a child my parents took me on Christian holidays on which they led. They were always busy and left me to my own devices, allowing me to get to know lots of very different people, all in an entirely safe environment. It was a taste of heaven that has never left me. It took four men to carry the paralysed man to Jesus, maybe because they had only a sheet on which to bear him, but he had many more companions on the journey. It seems it takes a whole village to bring someone to Jesus so they can be made whole. Now
Read more

First

Image
He appointed Simon (3:16) Tuariki Delamere invented the front-flip long jump. There is only one grainy video of him performing the jump at a regional competition. It was immediately banned as too dangerous and no one has heard of him. Dick Fosbury invented the back-flip high jump. His technique is used by every top high jumper at every significant event. He won an Olympic gold medal and his name is written into history as the Fosbury flop. The difference? Not risk. The actual risk of a broken neck is probably higher in a back-flip than a front-flip. No. Timing! Delamere revealed his at a small local competition so it could easily be banned. Fosbury revealed his at the Olympics. If Delamere had done the same he would be an Olympic gold medalist and everyone would be doing a front-flip long jump, the Delamere roll. Peter is first in the list of apostles because he became the leader of the first church. He seems to have been appointed as such by Jesus. Why? Well I suppose you could say ti
Read more