When we read the Good News Bible – and it has much to commend it – we encounter the fact that the Sermon on the Mount starts with what it is to be happy. It ends with what it means to enjoy security. Beginnings and endings are always important. The Sermon on the Mount is no exception.
And Francis Drake knew all about this. At least he knew about its implications for a soldier. His dispatch was turned into a classic prayer. It includes the words ‘… it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory…’
It so happens that every piece of literature has a beginning, an ending and a middle. If the author gets the beginning right, he will grip the interest of the reader. If he gets the end right (which is more difficult), he will ensure that the reader gets up and away with a sense of something accomplished, something well done.
Alistair Maclean knew what he was about when he wrote the introductory paragraphs of ‘When Eight Bells Toll’. George Orwell successfully rounded off ‘Animal Farm’ with a sentence that could hardly be bettered.
By this test the Sermon on the Mount is a classic. And we should not make the mistake of thinking that this kind of thing happens by chance. Somebody has given prolonged thought to what needs to be done. Somebody has produced a work of high imagination and achieved a perfection of form which is nothing short of stupendous. The Sermon is in addition a manifesto. Like the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels, the Sermon has the energy of a programme ready to be put into practice. Like that work, the Sermon makes sense to people who are conscious of their needs and are looking for a way of dealing with them.
BRUNSWICK PHASES
Christ Church, Brunswick, Manchester has not let the lockdown arrest its phased refurbishment and improvement of its modern building. This will make it more effective as a community hub – plus a new feature altogether, a community garden. It has a lively congregation and a first-class gallery of pictures. The pace slowed but the refurbishment project is now accelerating. This inner-city parish has a ministry team led by Simon Gatenby.
EVERY DAY IN GORLESTON
Brian Hall, Vicar of St Andrew’s, Gorleston, Norfolk, offers a thought for the day on video every weekday. The church publishes a community magazine with 36 pages of Gorleston life. It is an ambitious product with colour, full-page ads. and gets the church and its message noticed.
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