   
 This weekend’s Gospel focusses on the story of Jesus at Mary and Martha’s home (Luke 11:38-42). The dynamics of the relationships between the two sisters and between them and Jesus is brilliantly opened up in The Fount Children’s Bible by Andrew Knowles, which I plan to have read as a dramatic reading by four readers at the Friday service. Here’s a little extract: Jesus laid a hand gently on Martha’s arm. “You are being wonderfully kind. The food looks lovely. You must have worked very hard. But look,” he nodded at Mary, “your sister’s a thoughtful girl, and she doesn’t often get a chance to talk. She’s much better off sitting thinking about God than getting hot and bothered over the food.”
One of the themes appropriate for the summer Ramadan season is that we should give ourselves time not so much to do, but to be, to think and reflect to listen to God’s word and to those who through their writing help a deeper understanding of the world and people.
My reading this summer has included a number of books by Ian MacEwan, an author whose books I haven’t explored. He is perhaps best known by Atonement. The four I’ve read this summer (pictured above) are beautifully written and therefore very readable, but each of them in different ways reflects the dark side of human nature and the sadness of life. |
