I was wondering what to write today - quite often I know early in the week and spend several days reflecting on the reflection, as it were.
The leader at today's church service (what a blessing it is that our church does a livestream for a number of the congregation who, like me, can't get to the services) is a man who has spent a lot of time studying what life was life in Biblical times, and how the words in the written scriptures were interpreted in those days.
He says that Biblical Hebrew has only about 7,000 words, compared to the 100,000 plus words in modern English, so the Hebrew words had many meanings.
So the word for 'hear', also means to listen, and to obey.
This brings a whole new dimension to what Jesus means whenever he is says 'he who has ears to hear, let him hear' .
The familiar phrases and stories suddenly take on a new urgency - it is not enough to let the words flow through the air, towards our ears, but we need to act upon what we hear.
I've joined in the international movement to stop and pray for a minute, every day, for peace, an end to all conflicts, for people to turn to God. The time for the UK is 8pm. It's a drop in the ocean. It's a start, a step.
(I haven't worked out if it will still be 8pm when the clocks change - I'm guessing it will!)
More reflections over at Tracing Rainbows
How easy it is to 'hear' something, but not listen properly or act on the words spoken. We had a much lower 'in person' attendance this morning, as a number of people have tested +ve for covid. But it was good to see their faces on the screen beforehand as they joined us on Zoom. Technology can be a true blessing sometimes
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