Thought for the Week from the Rev David Jones

We turn our clocks back an hour next weekend as winter time begins.

 

A member of our congregation stood outside the chapel wondering where everyone was last time the clocks went back, while it’s a regular occurrence when they go forward that some puzzled faces appear at the chapel door wondering why on earth we’re singing the last hymn!

It was in 1963 we first heard Bob Dylan’s ‘Times they are a changing’ . Those were the days of the civil rights movement and the cold war; it was also the year when President Kennedy was assassinated.

Listening to it on the radio after hearing the news of Colonel Gadaffi’s death it was a reminder that our world is still unchanged – conflict, arrogance and insatiable greed are still with us. It’s not, of course, all doom and gloom and there’s much that’s good and there are many people who work tirelessly to try and end conflicts and war.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s eightieth birthday last month reminds us of a man who like many others continue to work for reconciliation where it is needed most. .

As we saw last week tyrants rise and fall and millions suffer as a consequence of their cruelty and madness. Will it ever end? It certainly will!

In the book of Revelation the Apostle John sees a day when evil in all its forms will come under the judgment of God who will keep safe those who have trusted in the redeeming love of the Cross.

That’s why the Gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth, so that knowing peace with God through Jesus Christ we live in peace and acceptance of one another and then times will have changed for good and forever.