kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth

Open our eyes to your wonders

The world we live in is amazing. We don’t have to look too far before we can see some aspect of the beauty and wonder of our planet.

A vote was taken last year to see what were considered to be the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Millions of people voted in this poll, organized by a little known Swiss film maker and businessman, Bernard Weber. He said he wanted to invite the people of the world to take part in selecting the world’s greatest wonders. Organizers estimate that some 90 million people voted.

The winners were:

1. The Great Wall of China
2. Jordan’s ancient rock city Petra
3. Brazil’s Statue of Christ the Redeemer
4. The hilltop city of Machu Picchu in Peru
5. Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid
6. The Colosseum in Rome
7. India’s Taj Mahal

In addition, the Great Pyramid of Ghiza, the only one of the original list of seven wonders compiled by Greek scholar Antipater of Sidon more than 2,100 years ago that is still standing, was made an eighth “honorary wonder”.

We don’t need to go to quite such exotic places to be able to appreciate the wonder of God’s world. The photograph at the top of the post is one of my favourite images from the middle of Cambridge, the back of Kings College Chapel, just about twenty miles away. Stonehenge is a pretty stunning place, within relatively easy travelling distance for me. And there are so many other images I could have chosen.

But our world, our world full of God’s wonders, is a fragile place. We need to work at trying to keep it the place of beauty and wonder it is. And that’s going to take effort from all of us. We each of us need to continue to do “our bit” — as small as that “bit” seems sometimes. Every little bit will help!

Lord of creation,
whose glory is around and within us:
open our eyes to your wonders,
that we may serve you with reverence
and know your peace at our lives’ end,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Your wounds declare your love for the world

The crucifixion of Jesus was a horrific event. When I first started thinking about what I might write in this posting, I thought I might include a graphic description of what happens to the human body when it is crucified. But I changed my mind. And decided that it might be better to just link to such a description; and so allow people to choose more easily if they want to read about such a horrific event. There are numerous such pages to link to on the internet, but many of them seem to be condensed from “The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ” by C. Truman Davis, M.S. March, 1965. Click on this link if you want to read one such page; but please heed the warning at the top of that page: “This may disturb you, so don’t read it if you don’t want to; it’s pretty horrific…”

But what crucifixion was makes the whole event even more remarkable. Jesus would have known all about the horrors of crucifixion. It was something the Romans had been doing all too frequently for a number of years, and others before them too. Jesus and his disciples would have seen many people hanging from crosses as they journeyed around the Holy Land. He would have known the agonies and horrors the victims of crucifixion suffered. He would have seen it with his own eyes, and heard it with his own ears.

And yet, knowing what he would face, he still went to Jerusalem. He could have gone anywhere, he could have avoided what was to happen. But he didn’t. He willingly gave himself up knowing full well what it would mean.

Why? Why would any man do that? And the answer is “Love”. Love for the world; Love for those around him; and Love for each and every one of us. He opened wide his arms on the cross for us, because he loves us. His wounds, what he suffered on the cross, are proof of that love for the world — his wounds declare his love for the world.

Jesus loves each and every one of us so much, that he was willing to die an agonizing death on the cross for us. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends…” (John 15:13-14a).

We are his friends, and he laid down his life for us; because he loves us.

Risen Christ,
your wounds declare your love for the world
and the wonder of your risen life:
give us compassion and courage
to risk ourselves for those we serve,
to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday of Easter
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council