Thought for the Week

We were staying with our friends on Mull while I had the privilege of leading worship at Tobermory and Dervaig. They had just returned from America where Johnny had been invited to preach at one of the big churches in North Carolina. There was a congregation of 1,500 and the service was streamed ‘live’ to 20,000 people. However, outside the church there was an armed police officer in a police car, and inside the church was an armed plain clothed police officer. The reason for this is that, as the potential audience is massive, any shooting opportunity would be sensational. If someone shot the minister this would be streamed to thousands and give the assassin great notoriety. What a strange world we live in. As the minister is preaching the gospel, a gospel about all inclusive love, it is awful to think that an act which is totally contrary to that love, would make headline news. It is strange, is it not, that a shooting would be more sensational than the gospel? Surely nothing can be more sensational than the good news of Jesus Christ and his love? I cannot imagine worshiping in a congregation which included sitting beside someone with a gun by their side. Strangely enough it was an extremely decorated American war hero, General Omar Bradley, who said this: ‘Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. ‘We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.’ With this in mind maybe we could think of streaming the gospel of love and peace so that no congregation need ever have an armed police officer in their midst.