‘Don’t worry at all then about tomorrow. Tomorrow can take care of itself! One day’s trouble is enough for one day, said Jesus’ (Matthew 6. 34. J.B. Phillips’ translation).
‘Sounds like good advice,’ says Humpty. ‘I don’t think it’s any help to live in fear of tomorrow. It’s just as bad as pretending we can live in the past. When I fell off the wall and got re-assembled, I realised we have to get on with the day’s business as best we can.’ I noticed Humpty had a paint-brush in his hand as he said this.
It made me think how the Harmsworths revolutionised the newspaper industry. They brought out the Daily Mail in 1896. It was a new-style newspaper, readable, zippy and entertaining. Newspapers would never be the same again. It was also in touch. One day on the Thames Embankment the brothers encountered a down-and-out – and asked him a question. ‘There’s only one prize I want – a pound a week for life,’ he said. The Harmsworths ran a competition. Entrants had to guess the amount of gold coins in the Bank of England at the close of business on 4 December 1889. They received 718,218 postcards. The winner received a pound a week for eight years, then he died. There’s mass market for you. A steady guaranteed income for life is a hands-down winner.
So, is Humpty right when he says that what Jesus had to say is good sound common sense.? I suppose we can agree that more can be said. Jesus also told us to pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ Even if nobody is quite sure what the word translated as ‘daily’ means, the import is clear. We trust in God’s providential care to see what we do not go hungry.
Humpty might well point out that we are also urged to count the cost before we start building a tower. Paul is clear that we should pay our way and earn our living. In fact, as with all maxims we have to consider how we apply it This is for the general run of us. It is not for those instances where a mother, for example, is looking after her desperately ill child. It is not for a family facing eviction. It is not for the newly bankrupt. We can perhaps say that Jesus is speaking slightly tongue-in-cheek. What he is getting at is our priorities. Just before this saying we have him saying God’s kingdom comes first. Aim to extend the rule of Christ, we are told, and everything else will fall into place.
Jesus gives us no incentive to be carefree or reckless. The Christian faith is not a free pass to idleness and luxury.
Meanwhile Humpty was intent on his painting. He’s not a great one for theory. He’s getting on with what needs to be done today. Good old Humpty!
CLUBMOOR FRONT-LINE
Front-line key workers in the NHS and elsewhere have a page on the website of St Andrew’s, Clubmoor, Liverpool, to make their needs known. From the air the St Andrew’s garden church looks a winner – one long trestle table packed with goodies. The Vicar is James Green.
JOB-SHARE
Simon and Louise Moore share the team rectorship of Sutton parish church, Liverpool. Alpha and Exploring the Faith figure strongly in the programme of the three churches.
TOTTON VIDEOS
Excellent videos introduce a visitor to St Wins church, Totton, Southampton. A team from St Mary’s, Southampton joined the congregation under the leadership of Ali Hill, Senior leader/Vicar and the 1937 church is getting a make-over. Worship takes place in Testwood school. Is it the only welcoming video featuring a baptism in the sea?
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