The Reflectionary

This is certainly the most unusual photo I’ve posted here. Brightly coloured but yukky!

The tale of a bog-standard home emergency… when that precious convenience of indoor plumbing goes wrong. Nothing prepares you for that moment when the most essential mechanism stops working- and your body doesn’t stop working. Unflushed, to be precise: yet that yumacious dinner is being processed internally and wants to join the party ‘cos we’re having a good time! Awkward!

Toilet troubles… not much in Scripture about such basic functions, is there? Not many sermons preached on “Regular Quiet Times in the Tiny Tabernacle.”

King David does mention the time when Saul was down in the dumps- David uses a Hebrew idiom, but we all get what was happening in Saul’s embarrassingly unprivate moment. Elijah taunts the prophets of Baal whose unresponsive “god” is, perhaps, on the toilet and can’t spare the time to help…

Mostly, though, we keep our spirituality and Bible study on higher things. (Now I can’t help myself… you might ask if we are just going through the motions……. Sorry!)

Anyway, the wretched loo broke down and needed a plumber pronto.

Why am I inflicting this on your delicate sensibilities? Because we all share in these unpleasant experiences when either our body misbehaves or the throneroom is unavailable: and there is a lesson here. To be brutally honest, we’d had warnings that the cistern was suffering hurt feelings. Waggling the lever often enough sorted it out -ish. I could have called the plumber a while back and the drama would have been avoided. My responsibility is clear- I ignored clear warnings.

Life has its down-to-earth bits where the mucky waste has to be removed or it will cause disease or the breakdown of society as we know it. Imagine if the water supply failed. Or electricity revolted. If the sanitation workers stopped. All for the want of efficient responsible conduct. Or sin and unholy habits build up unchallenged, unconfessed, and unforgiven. Mucky, mucky, mucky.

How many times has God warned human beings about attitudes and actions? How many times must we get it wrong because we ignore the warning signs? We can’t plead ignorance. Neither can we simply blame politicians (as venal and blameworthy as some have proven to be). When the proverbial hits the fan, it’s OUR response for which we are accountable.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6 v8

Imagine a world where everybody from the highest to the humblest actually lived in harmony with Micah’s clear message. OR where we actually listened to the words of Jesus- and put them into practice. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful world?

That vision is, of course, the fulfilment of the long-promised Kingdom of God.

When that Kingdom has fully come, will we be flushed with embarrassment? Or flushed with success?