A vicar's musings

Ever since the Sherborne St John village vicar wrote sexist claptrap in one of his columns and provoked rage among villagers, he has tried to adopt a lower profile, I've noticed.

The only problem is that it makes his writing boring. Here is this month's attempt to link something mundane to the sublime. (He starts out a bit tentative with the thing he wants to link to God, as if he's not sure it's going to work. He puts a few sentences out there and edges closer and closer to drawing a lesson for us out of it. Then when he makes the link -- "But there is one who can" -- he is so happy; you can feel the style of the writing change as he gallops towards the final Bible verse and the point has been made.)


"The problem is that we all keep too much stuff. And the reason we do that - or at any rate why I do that - is that every time we throw something out a decision is involved. It’s much easier to just keep it - that involves no decision at all. But to throw something away you have to get over the “it might just be useful” barrier.

Actually, for me, it’s a matter of moving into “chuck it” mentality (“If in doubt, chuck it out”) - and then you do start getting rid of stuff.

And it is incredibly liberating and satisfactory to do so. Every time you fill a wheelie-bin or you go to the dump or you give something away (if it still has a use) you have done something positive in terms of clearing out the clutter.

There is of course a parallel with our lives. For let us be honest, they too tend to be full of clutter. Who can deal with that? Who can take away from us the accumulated rubbish of the years? Unlike the junk in my study we cannot touch one moment of our past lives. We cannot get rid of that thing we said or did that was selfish and wrong. We cannot deal with our past sins. We cannot expunge that sense of guilt that creeps up upon us unexpectedly in those occasional unoccupied moments.

But there is one who can. God offers forgiveness through his Son Jesus Christ to all who believe. At the cross he bore the sin of the world. As has been said, when he died all the dustbins of all the sins of all the world were poured out on him. His death is sufficient to deal with our sin and guilt. And the experience of forgiveness is a wonderful thing, as King David says:

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit."