I’m pleased to have started the C25K – couch to 5k – a programme to take me from having little cardio exercise during the last four months, to being able to run continuously for 30 minutes.
The podcast that I listened to today on my run was an interview with Sam Wells. Sam is vicar of St Martin in the Fields Church in London. There’s so much in what I’ve heard today, I’m not sure where to start. This will be a brief post, just aiming to make one simple, but important assertion. More to follow another day.
I think the best starting point is to note that we often function as though we live in a world of scarcity. Not enough resources. We’re always fighting a losing battle. But if we set against that the world view of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament we find that they affirm the opposite. God has given us all that we need. We do, in fact, live in a world of plenty, a world of abundance.
I’ll come back to the way Sam Wells argues this on a later post, but for now I’ll just offer a thought from my Bible reading today. As so often happens, I find that things come together in ways I could not have planned. After my run I read John chapter 2, and the account of Jesus turning water into wine.
If you don’t know the story, you can read it here
I’ve read this passage often, and preached on it more than a few times, and I always see something fresh. Today, it’s the way this gospel passage seems to be saying exactly what Sam Wells was talking about. In the story, the wine at a wedding has run out, and Jesus turns over 120 gallons of water into wine. That should be enough!
In 11 verses, we get something that should be foundational to faith. God is a God of plenty, not scarcity.
Of course that raises all sorts of questions about what we see around us, with people living in poverty and so on. There is more to say that sheds light on this, but I’ll have to leave it it until next time.
Grace and peace
Five Short Words 