Dear Friends
A special welcome to Rev. Rennie Mannie from Kensington Methodist Church. In turn I am preaching at Kensington this morning. Rennie be at home—you are among family!
This past week I watched two documentaries—the first was “Joan and Verne’s Wedding”. A documentary about a Lesbian couples Jewish wedding by an amazing Cape Town Rabbi.
The second documentary is the Oscar nominated “The Most Dangerous Man in America”. It is a story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider Daniel Ellsberg, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file full of classified documents, decides to challenge an “Imperial” Presidency-answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people in order to help end the Vietnam War. In 1971, Ellsberg smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times that showed how five Presidents consistently lied to the American people about the Vietnam War. Ensuing events surrounding the so-called Pentagon Papers led directly to Watergate and the downfall of President Nixon.
Both documentaries celebrated the courage of people who dared to follow their conscience even though to do so was to go against entrenched social, religious and political norms. They risked rejection, condemnation and even prison for the sake of love and truth. There is something very Christ-like in this. Ordinary people living openly and truthfully is the way in which we give God our lives as a living sacrifice for the transformation of the world. May the Spirit sharpen our conscience! Alan.
Sunday 31st October 2010
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