The crossing

Haiku for a remarkable escape.

The just-freed people

head south-east out of Egypt,

with God in cloud, fire.

The army follows,

Pharaoh’s horses, chariots;

there to take them back.

Moses stretched his hand

over the sea; a strong wind

from God drove it back.

Sea becomes dry land,

(according to the story);

the people pass through.

Egypt’s army came

after Israel. Panic

as their wheels get bogged..

God instructs Moses:

Stretch out your hand, that the sea

returns to its depth.

Israel is saved,

Egypt’s army’s swept away.

So the story ends.

The people feared God

and God’s servant, Moses; glad

God was on their side.

Again, the winners

get to rejoice, the losers

must lament and mourn.

© Ken Rookes 2023

All crosses are the same?

Tom protested that all crosses looked much of a muchness. Then he remembered  the variety he had seen and he began to think that perhaps the detective was right. There are dozens of different shaped crosses. There are even names for different crosses. The one we are most familiar with is called a Latin cross. Because we are so familiar with it, we may assume that it is the right shape for the cross on which Jesus died. However, nobody knows exactly what that one looked like. We only presume that this shape is a stylised version of what it actually looked like. The Greek cross is similar to the Latin cross but has four arms of equal length.  They each have a trefoil, to remind people of the Trinity.

Part of our responsibility as the Church is to encourage you to think ecumenically, to remember that you are part of a world-wide church that has many different forms of expression. This can be seen in the multiplicity of shapes for crosses which mean so much to so many people.  The detective was not far from the truth when he said that all crosses are different.

It is not just crosses that vary throughout the world.

Those of us who live together in the church will be familiar with the way we see the varying streams of faith and their practices. When we see the differences in the way people worship God, we may feel judged by each other, whether we literally are of not. Or we may well judge others according to how similar their expression of Christianity is to ours.  
Rev Julianne Parker
See sermons page for full sermon