Today’s gospel
shows us a heart and mind expanding vision of God shown in the glorious transforming
ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherever he went…they laid the sick in the
market places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his
cloak; and all who touched it were healed. Mark 6:56
The main issue for
the church today is – how much of a vision of God do we have?
How magnificent is
God to us, or more exactly to you or I?
How big is your God?
How real?
You can be sure of
this – however magnificent and real he is to you today there’ll be a greater
magnificence and reality in store for you!
On a few occasions in my ministry I have been on the scene
when the glory of Jesus evidently illuminated someone.
I think of Bernard who came stumbling around to the Clergy
House of my Curacy beaming all over his face.
Was he drunk? I thought. No. Jesus had come real to him. The Holy Spirit
had opened his inner eyes.
I think of an older man to whose troubled deathbed I’d been
summoned. As I read the 23rd Psalm deep peace descended upon
him. It was as if Jesus appeared and
just took him away. He died joyfully as I prayed.
Or some time back when a young man called James described to
me how for several months he had helped his wife cope with a spiritual problem,
Jesus made himself known. James started a confirmation course. A short meeting
opened my eyes with his to God’s wonder and magnificence
Here at St Giles over my six years I have seen eyes opening
to the heart and mind expanding vision of God that’s at the heart of this
eucharist, people testifying to transformation of their lives in some degree or
other.
What a difference it makes to someone when they see
Jesus! They see glory – glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
To see Jesus is to
catch hold of a radiant beauty quite out of this world, a beauty that is
compelling and extraordinary in its attractiveness.
Could we wish anything more wonderful for anyone than
a personal revelation of the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
It can be ours this morning at the Eucharist. With St John
we are to call out: Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God, the Almighty; he was, he is and he is to come.
In this celebration earth is joined to heaven. There steals on the ear the distant triumph song
as our words of praise find echo and amplification from angels and archangels,
St Giles and all the company of heaven.
God grant us a vision of himself more to his dimension and
less to ours as we come before him this morning to thank him for his joyful
goodness!
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