Sermon Detour

On Sunday I am preaching again (that's rare nowadays). I have mentioned before my dread about being one of those old boys whose preaching has passed its sell-by date. Carol always promised she would let me know and I know she wouldn't hesitate. Of course, I shall now need to be extra sensitive myself and read the room!

Anyway I have two pieces of advice in mind as I prepare. One came from my own pastor when he gave me Psalm 148 as the chosen text. He wrote how I needed to help the congregation reflect on the beauty and majesty of God the Creator of all good things and to marvel how powerfully creation sings yet without for words (Ps.19). And he said that I should encourage hearers to SLOW DOWN these next summer weeks whether on holiday, walking around, or enjoying a picnic. Slow down in order to praise God for his wonderful creation. And this is a great psalm for that.

As a teenager living in Gloucester there was a place you could drive to up a steep hill, Birdlip Hill, up onto the scarp edge of the Cotswolds. A wide grassy area opened up on the edge of a sharp drop. Beneath lay a glorious  landscape stretching across the vale of Gloucester, and far beyond. A rolling landscape with hills, fields of all shapes, sizes  and colours, trees clustered. The city in the distance, Roads criss-crossing. Somehow everything working together beautifully, somehow in harmony.  On a clear Summer evening you could see for miles and it took your breath away. You just had to slow down and marvel.. And as a famous viewpoint in good weather there would be a crowd on blankets with picnics. Drinking in a glorious sight. And on this one Sunday evening, my father who was pastor of the church had organized the church youth group to go there after the evening service. With instruments - I had a piano accordian. We stood off to one side of the crowd and my Dad threw his voice to greet them on this glorious evening and say we were going to sing some hymns, songs to God about his wonderful world.  I wish I could remember. what we sang: There was an old hymn at the time:

Summer suns are glowing, over land and sea 

Happy light is flowing bountiful and free.

Everything rejoices in the mellow rays, 

All earth’s thousand voices swell the psalm of praise.

That would have fitted the scene well. But I must make it clear. I know what a privilege it is when we can share scenes like this. So many in our world cannot. I have a prayer card on my desk with a picture of Elyanour and her children in Gaza. Her story is so different. Fear and destruction is all around. On the card are prayer requests from the Baptist Missionary Society and the Bethlehem Bible College. How much of our beautiful world is in ruins.