Reflection: Sunday 29th May and for the week ahead:

Scripture:

'A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.' (Ezekiel 36:26-28)

Reflection:

A heart of stone. An evocative picture, explaining in a few words a condition from which many suffer; a lack of empathy and love. A lack of care. It also sounds jolly uncomfortable.

God promises to remove this our heart of stone and replace it with a real, living heart, beating and bleeding, full of feeling. This can be no less uncomfortable, but it will be discomfort for a purpose, like when one goes through pain to give birth to children. When God gets to work on us, we feel the constant pressure of our heart expanding to encompass ever more of the world’s needs, of others’ pain, of care for the whole of creation. But it mustn’t end there.

God’s Spirit compels us to act, to be hands, feet and heart for ‘the Living One’, reaching out to others on God’s behalf. When we do, we will be ‘God’s people’ and at home with the Lord, just like our Queen is and always has been. We praise God for her and give thanks for the example of service she has set throughout her reign!

Revd Ylva