Sunday Thought – 29.09.24
The remediation of old gas works sites is tricky. Such sites are often heavily contaminated by past uses and, before they can be reused, the contamination has to be dealt with. Depending on the concentrations of contaminants there are different rules and regulations as to how this can be dealt with. The ‘nastiest’ material gets removed from site (at great expense) while less contaminated soils are buried on site under guidance and approval from the local council.
This process could be seen as a reflection of our attitudes to wrongdoing or sin. As a society and as individuals, we try to deal with the really nasty sins but just bury and ignore what we view as the less serious issues. Someone working on a past gas site could easily uncover contaminated materials again – and the issues that we seek to hide from others can also be uncovered in the future.
Christians believe that Jesus came to deal with all our sins, truly decontaminating souls through his death and resurrection rather than burying problems for later. There may still be earthly consequences from certain actions but, in God’s eyes, believers in Jesus have had been cleaned: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (NIV, Psalm 103:12).
My sin – O the bliss of this glorious thought –
Horatio G. Spafford (1873)
my sin – not in part – but the whole
is nailed to His cross; and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul
Prayer Points for the Week:
- Pray for the communities affected by the closing of the Port Talbot steelmaking blast furnace.
- Pray for those who have lost family or homes in the wake of Hurricane Helene in North America.
- Please pray for the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East. For peace; for aid to get through to those in need; for those mourning the loss of loved ones.
