Dear friends,

As I hope most of you will know by now, I have a sense of humour!  In fact I think it is vitally important to have a sense of humour these days.  I like the subtlety of those jokes which make you think, and those that are based on generalisations.  Two of my favourites are:

"How do you know when a politician is lying?"
"You see his lips moving!"

"How do you know when it's Summer in England?"
"The rain is warmer!"

Generalisations, stereotypes, assumptions, are all good for creating a laugh.  Our country has a reputation abroad for being a land where it always rains.  Sadly, politicians - particularly recently - have created an environment in which public trust has been seriously damaged.

The danger, on the other hand, is that everything gets tarred with the same brush.  We see this quite often in society.  One teacher mistreats a child and suddenly all teachers are under suspicion.  One clergyman does something wrong and suddenly the whole Church is brought into disrepute.  And on an individual level, once someone has done something wrong there is the assumption that that person will always do wrong things.

From God's perspective things are very much the same.  If God were in the business of telling jokes, it might go something like this:

"How do you know when a human being is lying?"
"You see his lips moving."

"How do you know when a human being is in need of forgiveness?"
"He's being human."

It's not an assumption but it's a fact that human beings err.  As a species we stray away from the truth, from right, from honesty and we get things wrong time after time.  That's why God continually offers us forgiveness and the opportunity to start again.  The cross of Christ is not an assumption but a fact that Christ died and rose again, it is a fact that Jesus overcame sin and even death, it is a fact that however much we get it wrong in this life, a new life awaits us where everything will be right, where everything will be perfect.  In God's heavenly kingdom there will be peace, joy, light and life in all its fullness.  It's a fact that God has the last laugh.

Give thanks for God's unquenchable love.
Remember… to forgive is holy, to err is human…

This event has been cancelled Ed