Sunday, December 16, 2007

Trust

Wonderful occasional joy and mirth is caused by misprints or misalignment of projector and screen. Today a sudden alteration to the aspect ratio meant we lost the left hand letter of every word in our liturgy. There was much to enjoy but above all else there was this, a new Yorkshire prayer of humble access:

e do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord
rusting in our own righteousness

Indeed we don't. As my old school song used to say, 'Die of service not of rust.'

3 comments:

Peter Wood said...

I was thinking of blogging about this before you'd even pointed it out in the service. Glad I'm not the only one who is amused and inspired to reflect by such things.

In what way is self righteousness like being rusty? Have to think about that...

One other link on the internet http://www.forums.ukgovernors.org.uk/showthread.php?t=343

Steve Tilley said...

The link shows we are not the first people to have made this mistake (and probably won't be the last).

Rusting is something that happens unless you prevent it. Trusting is something that doesn't happen unless you do it.

Or something?

Peter Wood said...

Something becomes rusty when you:
- don't use it
- don't clean it

Rusty things are:
- difficult to move
- unsightly

Rusting is a two way process. Soaking a rusty nail in oil can reverse the rust, clean it off.

So maybe if I'm rusting in my own righteousness I find it difficult to move and be agile or become ineffective and act in unrighteous ways, rather than trusting in God's righteousness, putting it on, allowing Him to clean me. Maybe like oil running down Aarons beard it brings unity, too.