Doing the right thing...

One and a half weeks ago I think we were all shocked to hear about a man in London who was rammed by a car before being hacked to death by two men who were angry about the activity of British troops in Afghanistan. I was shocked at the brutality of the action and the lack of remorse demonstrated by the men. I was shocked at the twisted version of Islamic teaching that was used to justify the atrocity. And I was shocked that while the murderers boasted about their action a crowd of people gathered to watch, film and take photographs. Why did people take photographs of this tragedy, and post them on their Facebook pages to prove that they were watching? I don’t think I’m looking for a testosterone charged Bruce Willis character to come rolling out from behind a car and take the bad guys down. And I don’t think I’m hoping for an extraordinary martial artist who could have disarmed and disabled both of these men. But I guess I do hope for people to do more than pull out their i-phone to take a photo! As it turned out there were three people who demonstrated extraordinary courage and they were not SAS operatives. Amanda (44) stopped her car and sat beside the murdered man to pray with him, while her daughter Gemini (20) talked with one of the killers. Not far away, Ingrid (48), got off a bus and engaged the other killer in conversation to distract him from perpetrating further violence on the many people who stood near-by. These three women have been dubbed by the media ‘the angels of Woolwich’, and have been rightly praised for their courage. May we also have courage in our living… to love justice, practice kindness and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). A prayer for the week: Loving God, we ask you to help us do what is right, even when that means standing out from the crowd. When there is unkindness, we ask you to help us be kind; when there is injustice we ask you to help us speak truth and work for change; and when there is the need for love give us the courage to reach out our hand and recognise you with us in the midst of that relationship. We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Notices: Reconciliation Service: Tonight our Parish looks forward to welcoming friends from different churches and different communities in an ecumenical Reconciliation Service. The service begins at 7pm and it would be wonderful to have as many people as possible from our church community present to pray for reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of Australia. We will give thanks for the fruit of the journey so far, and recommit our lives to the journey yet to be travelled.