…having had the demoniac run towards him Jesus now sends him away with a new mission. No longer is he to be the one of whom his friends and family are frightened and perhaps even ashamed, but instead he is to:
‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you’.
You will succeed best when you put the restless, anxious side of affairs out of mind, and allow the restful side to live in your thoughts.
If you are going to make your present happiness depend on incalculable elements, you might as well be happy as miserable.
Look straight into the Light, and you will always have the shadows behind.
Some of your griefs you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of pain you endured,
From evils that never arrived.
What does your anxiety do? It does not empty to-morrow, brother, of its sorrow; but ah ! it empties to-day of its strength.
Pity may rightfully be exercised in any direction save one: toward self.
And others, even if they are not in the best places for hearing, give themselves up to the music in sheer enthusiasm – which is the way to the stars, if not to the boxes.
Proclaiming that the Holy Trinity is ‘Equal and Diverse’ demands that we be an equal and diverse church. This is as much a Creed as the lengthy doctrinal statement composed by St Athanasius which, as faithful members of this Church of England, we will (of course) read before we lay ourselves to rest this night on this Fatherless Father’s Day…
There is no use arguing with the inevitable; the only argument with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
Suffolk Vicar 