It’s posh togs time tonight. We (Sally and I) are going to the Mayor’s May Dinner in Colchester. The Mayor, Henry Spyvee, is a member of our church and it has been great to see how he and his wife Vivien have been mayoring around the town and encouraging people by their presence and support for different events and causes. Kind of like a Royal Visit toned down a bit. It seems to me that our church has gained a little reflective glory from Henry’s mayorship because of the way he has conducted his mayoral duties. (Henry and Vivien are on the right in this picture).

I’ve been preparing a sermon on Ephesians 6 for Sunday morning and noted Paul’s comment that he is an “ambassador in chains” for the Christian gospel. Henry has been an ambassador in chains too, but those chains are his mayoral bling. Not the same as Paul’s chains, of course!

I wonder if Paul saw the irony of describing himself in that way? Ambassadors normally have diplomatic immunity but Paul was in prison because of who he was representing. Very few of us will experience being a chained-up ambassador (and few of us will experience being a mayor) but all followers of Jesus represent him wherever we go and whatever we do – shopping, driving, working, playing sport, watching TV, writing blogs, surfing the internet, telling jokes, performing magic tricks, whatever…

Disclaimer: The following mayor-related joke is nothing to do with Henry!

A seedy-looking man was sitting in the first row at a town meeting, heckling the mayor as he delivered a lengthy speech.

Finally the mayor pointed to the heckler and said, “Will that gentleman who differs with me please stand up and tell the audience what he has ever done for the good of the city?”

“Well, Mr. Mayor,” the man said in a firm voice. “I voted against you in the last election.”

and a wider political joke:

A man assumes room temperature and finds himself at the Pearly Gates. He is taken inside Heaven by St. Peter and given a guided tour. He’s led into one huge room that is full of millions of clocks, and he notices a clock with his name on it that has stopped.

St. Peter explains that everyone has a clock that counts down the seconds of their life, and when someone dies, their clock stops. All this fascinates the man but when he examines all of the other clocks, he notices that some of the clocks’ second hands are moving faster than others.

St. Peter explains that every time someone tells a lie, which is a sin, they lose part of their life, so their clock’s second hand ends up moving faster.

The man looks around but doesn’t see any clocks for politicians, so he asks St. Peter where they are.

“Oh,” answers St. Peter, “we use them as ceiling fans.”