Summary

Goodbye to all that Word on the Week 12th October 2024.
Falling leaf and fading tree,
Lines of white in a sullen sea,
Shadows rising on you and me;
Shadows rising on you and me;
The swallows are making them ready to fly,
Wheeling out on a windy sky.
Goodbye Summer! Goodbye! Goodbye!
These somewhat melancholy words were written by George John Whyte-Melville around 200 years ago, turned into a tenor aria and have a contemporary flavour today. Except, perhaps we did not have much of a summer to bid ‘goodbye’ to!
‘Shadows rising on you and me’ could be taken to refer to the aging process which society at large does so much to defeat. Chief perhaps among the other moans is the loss of morals. This leads on to lawlessness.

The government’s answer to this is more laws! But you cannot legislate the human heart. Without the tutor of Scripture, you find yourself saying “Why were the old days better than these?” which is prohibited by Ecclesiastes 7 verse 10! We say ‘goodbye to all that’. We live in the present!

In the category of sins against the person we seem to have reached nemesis when it comes to child abuse. The Sinn Fein this week have found this to their cost. It is a red line which, if crossed, is not easily remedied not even by resignations. Jesus had a different view of little children.

"People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for seeking salvation. the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." (Mark 10 verses 13-15).

It’s important that children are taught the love of Jesus for them to counteract the current curriculum that makes them the playthings of our current ideology.

Using the theme of the little child to instruct adults he likens their dependency to be essential when seeking salvation. It’s the antithesis of Frank Sinatra’s song ‘I did it my way’.
At the time of Matthew 18 the disciples were looking for personal power. Rather like Trump today they wanted to be the ‘greatest’! Jesus deflated their egotism (and yours and mine) when he replied, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18 verses 1 to 5).