Today’s is probably the last bloggage of the week as I am heading overseas (well, Northern Ireland) to take part in a wedding service for one of our members and her fiance. It is possible that I will find the time to do some mobile blogging, but please don’t take this as a threat or a promise.

It seems that yesterday God did a repeat of Joshua 10:13 and made time stand still for a while. I managed to prepare almost everything I need for Sunday’s services when I was fully anticipating that by today I would only be about halfway through the preparation. I am incredibly grateful to him for that as it takes the pressure off me today.

I have wondered how God managed it – in Joshua’s day and mine. My experience is probably more to do with feeling his inspiration, but how could God put the cosmos on pause without wrecking gravity, planetary orbits, seasons and the like? It seems unlikely, but then so does feeding 5000 people with a handful of rolls and a couple of sardines.

I suspect a lot of people have tried to rationalise the miracles in the Bible and I can sympathise with a desire to make sense of it all. But while my brain can’t cope with the how, my faith allows me to believe that the One who set the laws of physics that govern our Universe is quite capable of bending or suspending them.

I wrote this poem a while ago to express this, but you need to read it ironically… it got banned from a church news sheet once because the minister was worried that people would think it was serious. Hmmm.

Moses lit the burning bush

by using ‘firelights’.

Joshua flattened Jericho

with the help of dynamite.

Israel crossed the Red Sea

in inflatable rubber boats.

And Joseph’s dazzling jacket

was an army surplus coat.

 

 Elijah beat the prophets of Baal

with petrol and a match

‘Jonah and the whale’ concerns

a massive fishing catch.

The skyscraper of Babel

was built by chain gangs.

Manna was not from heaven but

was ready-mix meringue.

 

Solomon wasn’t really wise he’d

an encyclopaedia

David’s bashing of Goliath was

invented by the media!

The prophecies are all a hoax

they’ve been written ‘post hoc’.

And there was interior plumbing

when Moses hit the rock.

 

The feeding of the 5,000

was done by outside caterers,

Galilee was frozen over, so

Jesus was a skater-er.

Raising Jesus from the dead

was all special effects.

Any fool can tell you that

no-one resurrects!

 

© 1987 Nick Lear