Oops...

We all make mistakes...

For those in the know, I made a mistake last month when I provided the dates for the forthcoming Mission Community Morning Prayer.  Instead of listing Tuesdays of the month, I confused everyone and sent the dates for Mondays in May instead.  It was only when a kind, confused Churchwarden noticed the error that I realised what I had done.  Therefore, please accept my apologies; however, it made me reflect on my error and, indeed, my fallibility as a human being.

The famous line, “To err is human, to forgive, divine,” was written by the English poet Alexander Pope in 1711.  It appears in his poem An Essay on Criticism, which highlights the human tendency to make mistakes and contrasts it with the divine nature of forgiveness.

I know that all of us have made mistakes at some point.  Mistakes can be devastating.  Just think of what happened when a relief driver accidentally dumped twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at the Lowermoor Water Treatment works in North Cornwall, leading to possibly the UK’s worst mass poisoning event. 

I wonder what the Aztec word for “I told you so!” was after Emperor Montezuma in 1519 invited the strange, white-skinned Hernan Cortés and his conquistadors in for drinks.   Despite an ancient prophecy that such men would end the civilisation, curiosity got the better of him, and as they say, the rest is history.

Most mistakes are not as devastating as those. Indeed, sometimes mistakes have led to marvellous discoveries, such as Penicillin, triggered by a lapse in laboratory protocol, or the incident in which Percy Spencer, an engineer working with radar technology in 1945, realised a candy bar in his pocket had melted (don’t ask how it affected him!).  He realised the microwaves were heating the food, leading to the invention of the microwave oven.  Mistakes always teach us something.

The incredible thing about the Christian faith is that God, who came to us in Jesus, did not choose a brilliant, intellectual theologian as the foundation of the Church.  He chose Peter.  Peter, who made impulsive mistakes time after time, eventually denied his beloved friend Jesus not once but three times—an agony we can only imagine.  Yet Jesus knew and loved Peter. Following his resurrection, as recorded in John 21:15-17, Jesus allowed Peter to acknowledge his mistakes and restore their precious relationship.  As we know, the transformed, courageous Peter went on to pour out his life in loving response to his Saviour, so that you and I should know that mistakes are never a barrier to God’s love.

So, this month, as I submit yet another list of dates, I dare you not to check them; however, be assured, I will!!

God bless you.  Revd Susan