We are Londoners

I continue to be struck by the fact that the world seems to know more about the Gospel than the church to whom God entrusted custody care and control of it.   This past Bank Holiday, Hayley & I were pleased to be able to join with some friends at The Notting Hill Carnival. One of our girlfriends owns an apartment on the carnival route.  Its one of those chic West London apartments complete with its own balcony affording us the perfect vantage point to view the carnival floats.   Two things really spoke to me as we wiled away the afternoon:

1:  There was a pennant hung on one of the lamposts from the Mayor s office which read We are Londoners.  

2: The eclectic nature of the carnival parade.  So many nations we represented; from the Caribbean, to South America, to Africa, to the Far East, to Europe. It was a breadth-taking spectacle; a universal street party.

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How things had moved on from the first Notting Hill carnival that I ever attended back in 1976.  In those days the carnival was an entirely parochial affair. A celebration of West Indian independence; thirty years later it was a completely cosmopolitan event; a celebration of interdependence.  

What I saw was a great commentary to the church.  We are one a timely message for we have all but lost the any sense of the catholicity of the Gospel.   The very nature of the mystery of the New Covenant is that He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Eph 2:14-16 

The Gospel is the proclamation of the Good new of Jesus Christ for all men, not just for some men.  There is one celebration one divine carnival parade and it includes us all. There we can dance on the streets paved with gold regardless of where we are from; the invitation is open to all on the basis of grace and not race.  Remember in the eyes of God we are his signs and wonders.  "For He is the Saviour of all men, especially those who believe." 1 Tim 5:17 

Agape 

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