Thoughts for Monday 18th May, 2020

Psalm 93; Genesis 9:8-17; Acts 27:39-44

 Monday 18 May - Rev. Jerry Eve

 It’s always nice when we can make a personal connection with a Bible passage, and today – for me – I enjoy reading the story of Paul’s shipwreck because, for two years of my childhood, I lived on Malta. As a family we used to visit St Paul’s Bay. And if you’d like to read on a little bit into the next chapter, you’ll notice that the natives were friendly there, and made Paul and his companions welcome.

 This was very much my experience also; that Maltese people are friendly and welcoming. I was there at the time when they all celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Siege of Malta when the island managed to successfully repel an invasion by the Ottoman Empire; and I remember the fun my brother and I had taking part in the mock battle on Sliema Beach – with cardboard armour and wooden swords that we’d made ourselves in school.

 I remember seeing the bomb that had pierced the dome of a church in Mosta during World War Two. It had fallen during a service, and had failed to go off. My Dad worked in Fort St Angelo, so I can remember the prison there that the great artist Caravaggio had once managed to escape from. How he did it remains a mystery. He just disappeared from the island altogether with next to no trace. Thankfully, though, he did leave behind his wonderful – if grizzly – painting, The Beheading of John the Baptist, which is the only painting of his he ever signed, and that with St John’s blood!

 The lesson for today, I think: if we are able, as the Book of Acts does, to speak highly of a people (such as the Maltese), rather than be critical of them, then I do think this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy making it difficult for people who then have a reputation for kindness to be anything but.

 And maybe this is what is happening with the story of Noah. Theologians have tended to focus on the regret God felt at having made human beings in the first place (see Genesis 6:6). But here in chapter 8, I think we have an even greater sense of God’s remorse at all the destruction that’s been wrought. It seems to me that that bow in the sky is actually God’s way of saying, ‘Sorry! Forgive me! From now on I’m going to try to be wholly positive about the human race instead.’

 Let us pray:

A Rainbow Prayer

Red is the colour of bravery: pray for or think about those people who are having to be brave at the moment

Orange is the colour of waiting: pray or think about having to be patient and wait for things to get back to normal

Yellow is the colour of sunshine: be thankful for some good things in your life

Green is the colour of growth: pray or think about the people who are growing and producing our food

Blue is a peaceful colour: pray for or think about people who are anxious at this time, that they would find peace

Indigo is a sad colour: pray for or think about those who are sad or lonely

Violet is a royal colour, the colour of leaders: pray for or think about the people in our government, that they will make wise decisions

 Amen (St Peter's Church of England Aided Junior School, Farnborough).

 

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