Clearing the Clutter
From Bishop Martin...
A little while ago someone gave me a book on improving the efficiency of one’s life style. I think they were trying to tell me something. The first chapter was devoted to “Clearing the Clutter” and I confess that I didn’t get past the first few pages.
“Clearing the Clutter” is what Bishop Paul will be doing over the next few weeks as he prepares for his move to London and his forthcoming retirement. His Farewell Service will be at 6.00 p.m. on Sunday 25th October, at the Cathedral. I hope we will be joined by the clergy and people of the parishes of the Diocese to offer our gratitude to God for Bishop Paul’s ministry amongst us over the last eleven years. All are welcome. No tickets are required.
Thinking about “clutter” I am becoming more aware of how, not just my house, my office and my garage, but my whole life has through the years become overloaded with it. Not only have I probably amassed too many possessions, too much paper certainly, but there may also have been too much activity – far too much of the Martha, and not enough of the Mary.
The approaching years is a gruelling reminder of this. And my battle with clutter brings home the fact that the whole pattern of our lives should involve a readiness more and more to let go of what is not essential. Life inevitably reduces us in the fullness of time to the essential simplicity of children. One day we shall have to let go of everything…
In good times we are reminded of the folly of building barns and clinging on to material benefits that in the end don’t matter. If in our earlier years we are challenged to live life to the full, gradually as time goes by we become clearer about the ultimate value of emptying ourselves and being content with the only thing that is necessary.
Whilst this is a personal challenge, I also become more conscious of how the Church over the centuries has to learn a similar lesson. It’s a tantalising thought to consider
how the twelve apostles would fit into the rather cluttered life of the modern church. This isn’t to devalue the importance of this growth of tradition, but at least to challenge us to always keep in mind what is truly basic.
When I was a member of the staff of a theological college, training further priests, I remember an old parish priest telling me “You know, I spent years learning the answers to all sorts of complicated questions and for forty years now I have been looking for someone with the questions to which I have the answers.”
The prayer of St. Richard of Chichester reminds us that the touchstone for each of us in evaluating our own lives as well as the church’s teaching and practice is simply: “May we know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly day by day.”
A simple, but necessary step in creating a better world for ourselves and for others, is for each of us to tackle the clutter which all too easily encumbers us. And there’s no better time to start than today.
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