The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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Joined to something solid Listening each day to news of the worsening financial crisis that engulfs us all can be a sobering business. We are worried about its impact on ourselves, our families and on the security and stability of not just banks and investments but also society. In June a news report spoke of a crime wave on, of all places, people’s allotments. It blamed this on the credit crunch, which both encouraged some to grow their own produce to cut the weekly shopping bill and as others to cash in on this by stealing the crops and selling them on. So where do we turn for our security now? In a recent Thought for the Day broadcast on BBC Radio 4 the Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks told a story of the Jewish festival of tabernacles. This festival reminds the Jewish people of their ancestors’ wandering in the wilderness, a time of massive insecurity. They do this by living for eight days in makeshift huts, thatched with leaves. Dr Sacks recalled how his own rather ramshackle hut survived a storm that destroyed a friend’s more substantial shelter. It did so because Dr Sacks had attached one of the hut’s uprights to the house with a single nail. Seeing this, the friend commented 'Now I know that you can build the most elaborate structure, but if it's freestanding, winds will come and blow it down. But if you're joined at one point to something solid, immovable, you'll stay standing throughout the storm.' Then he added: 'The name of that nail is faith.' Jesus told a similar story of two builders. The house built on rock withstood the storm, the one built on sand did not. (Matthew 7.24.27) As we face stormy times may we discover the deep security that comes from being joined, by faith, to God.
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