This picture, of the longest escalator I had ever seen, it is in Prague. Being a sad person, I timed how long it took to travel on, it was over 2.5 minutes. I further went on to calculate that if we used it every day between our hostel and the place of meeting for our conference we will spend 35 minutes of our weekend going up and down these stairs. Of course you can speed this up by walking up or down to double the speed, although it was already travelling fairly quickly.

I have spent the evening writing a sermon for Sunday, it is about travelling, but there is the sense of waiting for the right time to move off, God’s time, not ours, in the meantime, according to Joshua 3 we should consecrate ourselves, dedicate our whole-selves to his purposes. Then, tomorrow God can do amazing things among us. Until then, it is waiting and travelling with God, it may take some time!

Today at our church we did not sing, in fact we had nothing formal, but we did eat, drink coffee and discuss what is our purpose?

This is a topic that many struggle with, not least because we often have poor self worth, a sense of not being messed up and doubt we really do have a purpose. I do wonder if we miss the whole point, As a Christian our purpose is to live dangerously for God in our whole lives, not to have some fine ultimate goal, but allowing God to be a part of our everyday lives, and through us, make a difference in a confusing world.

I look at the gate on the picture above, a photo I took on a visit to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and I wonder;

- What would happen if I left the gate open, would an animal go through it?
- Was there ever a fence up to this gate?
- Why is it there?
- Does it serve any purpose?
- Who put it there?

The truth is, it looks out of place, funny, pointless. I was tempted to open it, just to see what would happen..
So often the church is seeming like this gate, unconnected, irrelevant, with rules that make no sense, in the wrong place. The church could be described as a gate, a way in to meeting with Jesus, but not in the way we often see it, that you must come through our doors to meet him. We are to give openings to all people to meet with Jesus in different ways. First the church needs to come out of its isolationist place, ditch most of its rules, and become connected with the community so at least it will start to make sense. Otherwise we are as useful as this gate with no fence. The church needs to dodifferent. The church needs to get connected.