THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY brought two extra-ordinary gifts to St Michael & All Angels, Bramhall. Last Sunday the Reverend Geoffrey Clarke, Minister of Trinity Methodist/URC Church in Cheadle preached for us with passion and compassion. Gospel imperatives come alive in Geoffrey’s hands. Haiti came “nearer to us than when we first believed.” And this morning Margaret Dexter-Brown from Bramhall United Reformed Church brought us a “journalist’s account” of the sabbath morning when Jesus took up the Scroll in the synagogue and read from the prophecy of Isaiah …
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
“Oh, that voice! Beautifully read. Beautifully spoken. You could have sat there and listened to him all day”. A journalist’s account of a man who looked like he himself was about to bring good news to the poor. And then it began to dawn on our newspaperman that this isn’t just about a bloke called Isaiah bringing some good news; not just about a fabulously well-spoken teacher called Jesus bringing some gospel either. The word here is “me”. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. Gospel imperatives came alive in Margaret’s hands, too. And in her journalist’s.
All mindful today of God’s people in Haiti … and of his children in and around Doncaster … and of those in prison … and the millions to whom the Fount and Source of Life wishes to proclaim favour … the question that Geoffrey and Margaret have left in the air and in the heart of Bramhall Parish Church is this:
Does the Gospel imperative of an all inclusive, all embracing, all-compassionate LOVE come alive in our hands? In our churches?
God help us to make it so. For the world-changing Love of the God who anointed us to proclaim it, borne along with the cash we’ve popped into envelopes for the the Haiti Appeals, and the prayers we’ve spoken for little ones born into a fragile society, and the hopes we’ve expressed for the marginalised and the broken, could change life for God’s people in Haiti forever. And ours. (Lord, have mercy). And ours …
