Standing on the high field behind my house addressing a
large body of people; being asked by one man why he shouldn’t kill an animal,
and me replying ‘Because the animal is God;’ having this statement reported in
the local paper and being mocked for it; being invited into the house of a
woman and her two daughters; being interrogated by the elder sister while the mother
remains apart and the younger sister excuses herself and goes to bed; being
aware that the elder sister’s attitude is neither friendly nor hostile, but
cold, clinical and disinterested; being asked to leave and doing so. The end.
What an interesting mix of Gospel allusions and current
reality. I woke up with the usual feelings of anxiety, but with an added
overlay of rejection. I also felt a conviction that I should cancel the
hospital appointment I have booked for next week. I felt shaken for a couple of
hours, but now that the dust has settled, two things occur to me:
1) I’ve always been a bit strange, but I’m becoming ever
stranger and more uncertain as time goes by.
2) I wonder how a man could address five thousand people in
the open air and make himself heard without a PA system, and what this suggests
about the literal accuracy of the Sermon on the Mount.
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