Thursday, April 06, 2006

the kingdom of heaven is like a chandelier

We've just been doing a Lent group at our church in Bristol and it's been great to share stories and have deeper spiritual discussions than the usual post-service 'coffee and fellowship' (?!) time allows. We spent some time talking about some of Luke's stories (prodigal son, great banquet, good samaritan) and we watched a clip from Only Fools and Horses when Rodney and Delboy offer to fix a chandelier. Naturally, all goes wrong and it ends up totally shattered on the floor. I was trying to point out that the kingdom is a restoration of our alienation from God, others and ourselves. Just as the crystal, glass and frame had to be re-connected to each other and then re-fitted to the ceiling in order to function, so the work of the kingdom is to reverses the effects of our alienation and restores us to God, others and ourselves.

You made find some flaws in my theory but I hope it is of some relevance!

We were also struck by a quote from David Thomson, author of 'Lent with Luke' who said: 'One of the saddest things is that one generation's prodigal sons so easily become the next generation's elder brothers.

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