This morning one of the readings at Morning Prayer was Ezekiel 33.1-20, which tells Ezekiel that he is to warn people of what God tells him to, and that if he doesn’t then on his head be it (I paraphrase).

This passage set me thinking as it can be used to justify telling all sorts of people that what they are doing is sinful – often done in an unhelpful way.  But, if we are called to tell people then don’t we have to do this?

My thinking led me to two places; not everyone is called to be a sentinel – God calls prophets and God gives them the message to be passed on.  Most prophets are unsure of their calling (eg Jeremiah) and are careful to pass on God’s word.

Secondly, the sentinel is called to give a warning; we can speak the truth and not communicate.  The words which communicated a long time ago do not necessarily communicate today.  Attacking people, insulting people, abusing people does not communicate.  If we are called to warn people then we are called to do so in ways in which they can understand.

An example, many years ago I worked in a team where we enjoyed winding each other up.  One day the main culprit was out at lunch when his wife phoned saying she had locked her key in the house, please would he come and let her in.  We gave him the message, but while we did so everyone else was smirking.  He refused to believe us and wouldn’t go home, even when we stopped messing around.

So the questions for people called to this ministry are:

• Are you sure God has called you to this ministry?
• Are you communicating God’s message in a way that it can be heard?

Yesterday’s reading, of the feeding of the 5,000 includes:

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

Which is very reminiscent of the Eucharist, where we take bread, bless it, break it and give it.  It is also very reminiscent of the christian life where God takes our life, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to others.

The breaks sounds perhaps a bit worrying, but our lives, when we first encounter God, are often clenched tight, and need breaking open to allow God’s love in.

I was talking with someone last night and we got onto the question of what is at the core of Christianity.  A few months ago I blogged on the principle behind the answer to this question, but looking back discover that I didn’t answer what is there for me (or at least not in that post).

For me the foundations of Christianity are:

He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’

and

Whoever serves me must follow me

and

God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.
New Patterns of Worship H6

If we do this then we won’t go far wrong.

You may notice that these involve how we behave, and not what we believe – although of course if you do not believe that these are the right things to do you won’t do them!  Of course there are doctrines of the church, but I think that the best way into them is through behaviour, not in the sense that you have to adhere to all the rules before you can belong, but in the sense that without some experience of God it is difficult to make sense of the doctrines or demands of the christian life.