Nope. This is not about whether people should get married, or who should be allowed to get married.
Though that might be worth a post. This is about us, the community of faith (here at St Paul’s and in our wider life as God’s people) and how we keep learning how to live well together.

These last few weeks we have been reading the letter to the Ephesians. The writer is full of joy about what we have learned about God through Jesus Christ. But he doesn’t let us float around on this cloud of joy. In Chapter 4, he makes it very clear that the forgiving grace of God for us immediately has implications for how we live with one another. The big discovery is that that grace includes both Jews and Gentiles. People like us and people definitely not like us.

The writer knows as well as we do that it is not easy getting on! Not always even with the people we are closest to. He knows we get angry, that we can be judgemental, that we can be manipulative, that we are sometimes too ready to gossip and sometimes too fearful to tell our own truth. But he doesn’t leave us high and dry. He reminds us that the very thing that has drawn us together – the love of God as revealed in Jesus – is what enables us to get past our fears and failings to live in love and forgiveness with one another. And he gives practical, if difficult advice, on how to do that.

I came upon an article recently called ’15 things you should give up in order to be happy’ I wondered if some of these things, such as giving up being right, giving up our need for control and blame and so on, tied in with the advice of the writer of Ephesians.

What do you think? Which things do you find it hardest to give up? What do you think would happen if you did give them up?

I would welcome your thoughts,

With every blessing,

Sally