Dull, Dull, Dull
Alec Shuttleworth
August 13, 2017
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Matthew 14: 22-33
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’
28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29 He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’
Samuel Pepys was a Member of Pariliament, a civil servant, (he is to be thanked for turning the Royal Navy into the force it was to become during the later wars with France) a scholar, a party animal and most famously a diarist who lived through the Restoration, the Great Plague and the Fire of London.
One of the Sanctuary First themes is Writing in the Dust, Everyday Life in Extraordinary Times. You would not think that Samuel Pepys, perhaps the most famous diarist of all would qualify as living just an everyday life. And yet the first diary entry of his I read was for Sunday 6th of January 1667: “Up pretty well in the morning, and then to church, where a dull doctor, a stranger, made a dull sermon…” Who knows what the subject or the text of that sermon was, my question would still be, how hard do you have to work to make the Gospel dull?
Today you may well have heard or preached on Jesus walking in the water. Did you allow yourself at any point to think, 'WOW'? Or did you, like Pepys, come away thinking “Dull, dull, dull,”?
Excite us Lord
Thrill us.
Take us and shake us
Make us read again, see again, first time eyes!
Strip away the interpreters’ varnish
Thrill us with the vibrant colours of the Gospel
And in the howl of wind and crash of waves
Let us hear an authentic voice
Today.
Read Albert Bogle's blog post and prayer in response to recent global events, as the world's eyes are drawn once more to the Korean peninsula.
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