Some words have magic embedded in them. Not in any way a spell or incantation that changes anything external, but words that change something internal. That's real magic and all you need to do that are some ancient words that have been invested with promise and hope. Speak them loud. Place them in the centre of the community. Affirm them. Believe them. And they change people.
A lot of words have been spoken in the name of the Gospel. A lot of them have probably been unnecessary, if not all of them. Many have been long winded, procrastinations and a bit self-indulgent. We've even got screeds of the bible that are kind of dull in their length. Personally I think a lot of Paul is like that (I know they are letters and we've only one side etc). Even some of the ways Jesus words have been recorded are like that, particularly John 14 and following (and of course Chocolate Teapots is not exempt either).
But here is Jesus, standing up, finding a half-dozen lines that need to be said. He says them. Believes them. Affirms them, and sits down. These are the magic words that ignite or re-ignite in people that latent promise and hope, that dormant strand of faith that insists God is alive because over the centuries of searching they have been overloaded with longing and hope. And in hearing them, they do something that moves folk into ready belief again. Even as this story has folk turn on Jesus in the echo of this incantation of heaven perhaps that shows us the power of these words.
Dare you repeat only these for Sunday!
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