Smashing time

It’s true: leaders have far more fun than congregations. Just spent a happy and therapeutic half hour purging the kitchen of chipped crockery and smashing it ready for our theme of ‘peacemakers’ tomorrow (turning the pieces into a mosaic cross, if you’re interested). Lakeland bags are ideal for the task as they’re very tough, and once I’d managed to convince the dog that there was nothing edible in the bag and to stand back and cover her ears, it was immensely satisfying to hurl it into the air and let the whole thing crash on to the concrete. Shame our church kitchen is so well-regulated that we have few non-matching items of crockery that I could have redeemed thus. (There was one plate shaped like a cabbage leaf for some reason, but it could be too easily identified, even when broken, so I left it intact.)
Beauty out of brokenness. Looking at our sheet of peacemakers, it is remarkable how many really suffered to keep or make the peace over the years. Yes, broken crockery is dangerous and needs handling with care, but it does echo the danger of advocating Jesus’ teaching: who knows what danger we are inviting our congregations to walk into as they stand up for peace and justice? Much more than a cut finger for Bonhoeffer, Mandela, Romero and other heroes of peace.