The Rectory is filling with boxes: boxes to move to our new home, boxes for charity, boxes for the tip.  Some boxes still show their original contents, others bear testimony to many moves, some are fresh from the manufacturer.

Soon, or so it seems, our whole life will be boxed, labelled and standing ready to move on.  Don’t stand still too long or you could find yourself packed as well.

Anyone who has ever moved house will know that, when the move is over, there will be a few boxes that remain sealed for years.  Some possessions are never missed; others are too painful to open, yet too precious to let go; others just wait for someone to get that useful tool: a round-tuit.

It’s not only our possessions we box; we like putting people there too.  Say ‘Pharisee’ and we immediately know (or think we know) we are looking at someone with a rigid, inflexible attitude to the letter of the law, come back and be healed tomorrow – today is the Sabbath (eg Mark Ch 2 & Chapter 3).  Contemporary debates around, for example, migration; the place of religious faith in public life; health and welfare are often full of boxes.  How much easier life is when we can put people in boxes.  How much easier to stick a label on them and then, like the box at the back of the cupboard, pack them away and ignore them.

But if they are to serve a useful purpose, these packing boxes will need to be unpacked once more.  What is inside must come out, find its rightful place and be used once more.  Items left sealed away in a box are wasted; even more so are people.  As we prepare to move I wonder:  is there someone I have boxed away today, and what might I do to set them free once more?

Rev Philip Payne                                              The Notice Sheet for 9 Jun 24 can be found here