fidzbit

We are getting used to seeing the statistics. Of the people who get ill most will have relatively mild symptoms, some worse, a few will need to go to hospital. It will only prove to be fatal for a minority most of whom will have an underlying vulnerability because of age or pre-existing health conditions. There are, however, a number of young, fit, seemingly healthy people who have succumbed to the disease without being in any of the high-risk categories. So is it all just a roll of the dice? Is it a game of Russian roulette - every time you go to the shops to buy milk you take the chance, not knowing if, perhaps, there is a viral bullet in the chamber. In a sense, this is all that the theory of evolution offers people - survival of the fittest with the odd chance that sometimes the fittest will die too. In stark contrast, according to the Bible, life is not a game of odds. Rather, it is a gift from God: “God himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. A...

Jesus is a spiritual big brother for every Christian. Having suffered in  every way  like us He is able to sympathetically come alongside us with grace to help (Hebrews 2:17, 4:15-16). As Jesus approached the city of Nain he met a funeral procession. A crowd of people were following the bier but that was little comfort to the woman at the centre of the scene. Already a widow, she was about to bury her only son. This probably carried  a significant social stigma - she must have done something really bad to deserve this! I wonder if the mourners crowded about her or if they followed at a safe distance? Either way, she was now all alone in the world. I don’t know if anyone reading this can relate to this widow? Quarantine regulations mean that many people are experiencing painful isolation. Perhaps you have been recently bereaved and must attend the funeral alone because other family members are not allowed to travel. Perhaps it is the anniversary of an earlier berea...

Jesus is a spiritual big brother for every Christian. Having suffered in  every way  like us He is able to sympathetically come alongside us with grace to help (Hebrews 2:17, 4:15-16). This photograph appeared on the 5th April Telegraph  article reporting that “Covid-19 has killed more than 90 priests as well as dozens of missionaries, monks and nuns” in Italy. In contrast to the regular stories of power abuses by members of the Catholic clergy, this conjures up a much more positive image of the priesthood - identifying with the sick and vulnerable in order to pray with them even at great risk to their own lives. It also reminds me of some verses in the book of Hebrews: “For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed  to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.” (Heb. 5:1-2). ‭‭ However, the tragic re...

On the 12th April the Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that the UK coronavirus death toll has reached 10,000, calling it a ‘somber day’.  The great biblical leader and prophet Moses had his own ‘somber day’. Nearing the end of Israel’s 40 year journey he learned  that he would die out in the wilderness and not enter God’s Promised Land. By that point Israel’s death toll was nearly 2.5 million - most of the people who left Egypt were dead and buried. That is a large number of funerals! It was probably around that time when Moses wrote Psalm 90. This ancient song expresses the confusion and disappointment God’s people experience in the face of death, when we are confronted with the brevity of life, and our failure to realise God’s promises in the way that we had hoped - things many of us may be feeling now . Lord, you have been our dwelling place  in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth,      or ever you had formed th...

There was a tragically sad photograph on a news report yesterday. It showed forty or more simple wooden coffins being buried in a mass grave, somewhere in New York State, which currently has an extremely high number of coronavirus cases. They contained the remains of people who were either too poor to afford a funeral or who had dropped out of regular society, losing their formal identities somewhere along the way. By the end of the first ‘Good Friday’, Jesus too was dead and buried. The soldiers made certain by piercing his side with a spear, rupturing His heart, though it had already stopped beating. Jesus was too poor to afford a grave. He had died alongside two men whose crimes were so socially and politically unacceptable, that their ‘identities’ were being permanently wiped out. His body was eventually taken and laid in a tomb owned by a generous donor. The tomb was sealed with a large stone and a team of Roman soldiers put in place to guard the body. His burial was an impriso...

We are familiar with the idea of a hero giving their life to win freedom for other people. Giving up your freedom to save lives - as we are being asked to do as we voluntarily stay inside during this coronavirus lockdown - is a much more counter-intuitive idea. One dimension of the Christian message which we reflect on at Easter is the way in which Jesus voluntarily gave up His freedoms in order to save lives. If there had been any other way, He would have chosen to avoid the pain and suffering of that first ‘Good Friday’. But there was no other way and He had wrestled the issue through before God in agonising prayer the night before: “ Not My will but Yours be done !” He was committed to being “ obedient unto death - even death on a cross”. Jesus was, if you like, voluntarily ‘imprisoned’ by the will of God. Within the restraints and constraints of the divine purpose Jesus found Himself literally imprisoned. He was betrayed by His disciple Judas, arrested by a team of soldiers,...

Do you remember Sundays before they changed the trading laws? I have a vivid childhood memory of how quiet Sunday mornings were then. The only people up and about were those on their way to church. There was very little man made noise. For just a few hours the city paused. It was restful. We live on a main road linking the edge of town with the city centre. It has lots of shops and regular buses. In normal times it never sleeps! But this morning it is quiet. The last few days it has been quiet. It reminds me of those Sundays. It is peaceful. It rarely happens anymore. The normal bustle of life has become wearisome because it is so relentless. It is why many of us put such value in going somewhere more remote for our holidays. Perhaps, like me, you enjoy going to the mountains or the coast to get away - where the only noise is that of the birds, the wind, or the sea. We struggle to rest without peace.  God knows this. He built this need in to us. He set the example, afte...

The fourth verse of the twenty third Psalm says: Even though I walk  through  the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,      for you are with me; your rod and your staff,      they comfort me. The image is something like this. A Middle Eastern shepherd is leading his sheep through the wilderness in search of green pastures. Their route must take them through a wadi: a dry river valley, quite narrow, and deep enough that it is in continuous shadow. An ideal place for hungry predators to set an ambush! This is the Valley of the Shadow or Death! In the Psalm, the sheep know they are safe. The  shepherd goes in first, with his club and staff. If there is a hungry lion hiding there it will have to face the shepherd before it can sink it’s teeth into any lamb steaks! The shepherd is effectively saying “Over my dead body” to any hostile creature that might attack his flock. Jesus once said “ I am ...