Thank you for all the great choices of Proverbs. If you are engaging with this theme of wisdom, I would love to hear from you before Sunday via the comments section. The whole exercise of putting out this challenge has really got me thinking about preaching! I was genuinely expecting a much greater level of response. Perhaps folk are meditating on the various verses and there is going to be a rush of comments towards the end of the week.Perhaps most people had moved on to something else in their minds by the time coffee was over on Sunday!Perhaps like many aspects in life, you need to persevere with an approach like this over a period of time. Baby steps forward are normally the best way of progress. I'm now working on a sermon from Proverbs 31 for Sunday. In the course of my research, the anarchic Lark News made me smile!
Quality not quantity Duncan! Anyway, this post reminded me of a poem by one of my favourite poets, D S Thomas. He was an Anglican priest in rural Wales for over 40 years and his poems are full of religous and faith imagery. The poem is titled Island and my favourite lines are thus:
ReplyDelete.....And its walls shall be hard as
Their hearts, and its windows let in the light
Grudgingly, as their minds do...
The whole poem is included below. It's a bit bleak but its a cry from the soul.
Island
And God said, I will build a church here
And cause this people to worship me,
And afflict them with poverty and sickness
In return for centuries of hard work
And patience.
And its walls shall be hard as
Their hearts, and its windows let in the light
Grudgingly, as their minds do, and the priest’s words be drowned
By the wind’s caterwauling. All this I will do,
Said God, and watch the bitterness in their eyes
Grow, and their lips suppurate with
Their prayers. And their women shall bring forth
On my altar, and I will choose the best
Of them to be thrown back into the sea.
And that was only on one island.