Dear Friends
These emails started during March and barring problems with distribution have been arriving (wanted or unwanted) in your inbox every weekday since.  I am going on holiday at the end of July so it seems a sensible place to draw a line.  Therefore, this will be the last week of emails!  I have been really touched with the way so many of you have engaged with my musings either to concur or to argue a different angle but always with a seeming enjoyment of engaging with scripture and an attempt at finding meaning in modern life, which was the point of what I was trying to achieve.  When I return in mid August, I’d be happy to start a weekly email if enough people think that would be a good idea.  Please let me know your views.
For today, another parable.
Mark 4:  21 – 25
 
21Jesus said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ 24And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…. .  this is another little parable with hidden depths.  On the face of it it seems quite simple.  Let your light shine with all sorts of good works and you’ll be shining with the light of Christ.  I do it with Year 3 at school each Advent when we are making Christingles and I get them to write down the ways in which they think they shine.  If you hide your talents, you’re not using your God given gifts.  Simples!!
But especially in Mark and Luke’s Gospels there seems to be more to it.  Else, what does Jesus mean when he follows it with, 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light.’?  It’s almost as if he is saying, ‘The truth will come out anyway, so you’d do better to live a life of integrity now.  Shed some light on the situation’
And who is carrying the lamp when it is brought in ‘to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand’?  Because I rather think Jesus might be talking about himself, rather than giving directions to his individual followers.  He is the light.  Don’t hide him!  But of course we are the body of Christ, so it would be fair to think that we can interpret this as meaning that the Church has an important role in shedding light on life, so people can see Jesus in the midst of their own situation.
So what should the Church be saying about the global pandemic?  Where is the light here?  Where is Jesus in the midst of it all?  I’m quite sure he is with the person on the respirator in hospital and the family grieving over their recent bereavement.  There’s the identification with the cross.  Jesus understands suffering.  And I’m quite sure he was with the people handing out food parcels to those who’ve lost jobs because of lockdown and collecting prescriptions for those who have been isolating for weeks.  Every time you do it for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it for me.
You will also know that I also believe that there is a bit of a warning in the pandemic and that it wouldn’t be happening like this if human beings had a more wholesome attitude to the creation of which we are part.  If we insist on using the world’s resources so selfishly rather than living in harmony with it, is it surprising that the virus spread as quickly as it has?  In fact although it is Covid 19 which is focussing people’s minds at the moment, it is the much more serious challenges which are already having an identifiable effect on the way we live, climate change and overpopulation.  If you think that this is some light shed on the situation, then please don’t hide it under a bushel but put it on the lampstand.  For if it is, as Jesus says, the truth will out and ‘there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light’.  How are you going to manage to do that?
A prayer
Lord Jesus, light of the world,
come and shine on us
and help us to shine with your light..
Amen
Listen to the wonderful hymn ‘Thou whose almighty Word’
If you would like to join us for Evening Prayer today (Monday) it is at 4.30pm

The link is:
Topic: Evenong Prayer on Zoom Monday
Time: Jul 27, 2020 04:30 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 850 2681 1997
Passcode: 575609
The times for Evening Prayer on Zoom for the rest of the week are as follows:
Tuesday 4.30pm
Wednesday 5.00pm
Thursday 4.30pm
Friday 5.00pm
Saturday 5.00pm
Sunday worship:   Parish Communion at 9am in church, Zoom Worship at 10.30am and  Sunday Evening Prayer is at 6pm on Zoom
We hold Morning Prayer and some Evening Prayer in church nearly every day (see the pew leaflet for details).  You are welcome to join us.
Every blessing
Andrew