Sorry - the hardest word?

So … it seems Lord Rennard is finding it hard to say “sorry”. On the other hand, should he be apologising for something he claims he has not done? What do you think?

 

If someone says you have upset them, even if it relates to something you consider completely innocuous, should you be willing to say sorry? Will it make the other person feel better? Will your friends and family think better of you or will it mean you owning up to something you feel you’re not guilty of?

 

Of course, the Lord Rennard debacle is taking place in the full glare of the media so everyone is able to offer an opinion on the situation and the only people to really gain are the press barons and the solicitors.

 

Jesus faced trial by public opinion. Even though he only ever helped and healed he was falsely accused and sentenced to death by a mob baying for his blood. He was hung out naked to be gawped at by the ignorant and hypocritical.

 

People like me and you. People who find “sorry” a really hard word to say. Usually because we think it is someone else’s fault; someone else who deserves the blame. Well, they say no one’s perfect.

 

Except one person was. And the reason he died was the reason SORRY really is the hardest word. It costs a great deal. A very great deal. The life blood of God’s own son to be exact. Think about that the next time you get the opportunity to say that hard, hard word.

Wet, wet, wet!

Are you beginning to feel a little damp? I mean, even just gazing out of the window at the incessant downpour makes me feel moist. It just goes on and on doesn’t it? And the numerous buckets we have under the hole in our church roof that keep needing emptying … that is becoming somewhat tedious too!

 

Mind you, I don’t know what I have to complain about. I am blessed to live in a house on high ground (or as close to high as you can get in South Essex!) so no danger of floods or ruined possessions. Not like the poor people facing ruin in other parts of the country or those living on the west coasts facing danger to life and limb just going out of their front door!

 

I was changing a tyre wearing my cassock at the crematorium the other day (don’t ask!) and the kind mourner who was helping me despite the pelting rain asked me, as he gazed skywards: “can’t you ask Him to let up for a bit?”

 

I should have told him about Noah. Now there was a guy who knew something about rain! Just him and his family of seven plus an assorted menagerie David Attenborough would have been proud of, in a large wooden boat sailing through forty days of non-stop deluge. Rain enough to sink the world!

 

The important thing is that God said He would never do it again. No matter how much rain He sent in future days, God promised to never flood the earth again. And he arranged a rainbow in the sky to remind us of that promise.

 

So if you’re mildly inconvenienced or desperately distressed by rain and wind and flood, why not take the opportunity to thank the Creator that, however it may seem, He is still in charge and He can still be trusted.

 

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea …from Psalm 46