Rambling for Kirwan Uniting Church Keep in Touch pewsheet 15 March 2020


Reading around the Bible for passages to complement Matthew’s and Luke’s “Give us today (or give us each day) our daily bread”, I couldn’t miss Exodus 16 and the institution of manna, or daily bread, for the wandering Children of Israel. Moses kicks off his explanation to the moaning Israelites that OK, God will provide food at both ends of the day:
‘In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord’.

I love this congregation, and Leisa and I like Townsville more and more as time passes and our familiarity with all that it has to offer, grows. But one thing I miss from a country town is taking the ANZAC Day services, the Dawn Service and the later Parade Service. It was a great privilege for a pom soldier to be able to honour Australian and New Zealand sailors, soldiers and airmen. A piper’s lament followed by the bugle’s haunting Last Post sends shivers down my spine. And then, after a silence of sadness, comes ebullient, joyful Reveille. For a moment we grieve death, and then the bugle sounds again. To the victories commemorated on battle ensigns, is added the final victory over what St Paul calls the Last Enemy. 1 Corinthians 15: ”Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O Death, is your victory?”

Oh yes, why have I rambled from Exodus’ desert to a country town’s ANZAC Day? Pope John XXIII said that death is the Last Post of this life and Reveille of the next. Or, ‘In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord’.

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