Dear Friends,

As we contemplate the things going on in the world, and especially as depicted by the TV channels and the social media videos,  and indeed in my own small community at the moment, we might well have our times of doubt as to whether things both near and far are not, as we might put it, “running completely out of control”. In fact I would be surprised if a single person reading this letter has not expressed privately or publicly such thoughts. 

As the biblical prophet Habakkuk once said, 

How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Well, the Collect for next Sunday may certainly challenge us to put all this into a helpful perspective.

The Collect for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity is 

O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect assures us that the “never-failing providence” of God “ordereth all things” throughout the whole of heaven and earth. This of course may not be easy to accept. Clearly it cannot mean that we immediately find everything that we experience to be good and seemingly well-ordered. The truth-telling biblical prophets certainly didn’t!  Mourning a severe loss for instance can involve in someone serious anger with people and even with God Himself. 

But we remember the Beatitude “Blessed are those who mourn; for they shall be comforted.” God sees a future that we cannot see. There are all sorts of losses we may “mourn”, such as a country’s or a person’s innocence. In such times although we may be inclined to turn to anger or grief, it is better to turn to God. This is the way of faith “through Jesus Christ our Lord” that the words of the Collect depict. In such circumstances it is the way of faith to “humbly beseech" the Lord to “put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us.” Through such faith, God’s ordering of "all things" will again begin to become apparent to us. As people of the Lord Jesus, we remember, we are called to that special “extra dimension” of a walk by faith rather than exclusively by sight, as St.Paul said.

For directions about the services this Sunday the 7th August 2022, the 8th Sunday after Trinity, please see the website www.TruthWithLanguage.com .

In faith in the holy Name of our Lord Jesus, who will continue to provide guidance and joy by the Holy Spirit to all His people.

+ Nicholas