Bible Sunday - 25th October

The earliest and most famous Gospel manuscript is the Rylands Papyrus P52, on display at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. It was purchased in 1920 by Bernard Grenfell in Egypt, then translated in 1934 by C. H. Roberts. Three leading papyrologists in Europe, to whom Roberts sent photos of the fragment, dated it A.D.100-150, although most scholars today would use a wider date range of the whole of the second century.

P52 is from a codex (ie. a book, not a scroll) and contains parts of seven lines from the John 18:31–33 on the front and parts of seven lines from verses 37–38 on the back.

Credit -Biblical Archaeology Report

The Bible contains many links between seeds and spiritual growth. The parable of the sower is the most famous. A person may hear or experience something of God which has the potential to germinate into a life of following Him, resulting in the fruit of others coming to know God too. But things can happen that snatch that seed away, killing it before it has finished germinating, or choking its growth.

What about the knowledge of God that gets trampled, churned too deep in the mire of life to develop into faith? Buried seeds don’t always die. They can lie dormant, inactive until the earth is turned over. The chance of that moment of connecting with something divine may seem infinitesimally small, but it’s not zero. The seed may be incredibly tough, just waiting for a chance to grow.

It took a long time for the disciples to understand the full implications of Jesus’ teaching: it took many of them three years or more. They could have been discouraged, but Jesus was not.

New every morning is the love our waking and uprising prove: through sleep and darkness safely brought, restored to life and pow’r and thought.

New mercies, each returning day, hover around us while we pray: new perils past, new sins forgiv’n,new thoughts of God, new hopes of heav’n.

If on our daily course our mind be set to hallow all we find, new treasures still, of countless price, God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask: room to deny ourselves - a road to bring us daily nearer God.

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love fit us for perfect rest above; and help us, this and ev’ry day, to live more nearly as we pray.

John Keble (1792-1866)

pollybrown@mottramparish.org.uk

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