At Morning Prayer today our little group are going through a small booklet by Archbishop Rowan Williams - "Silence and Honey Cakes' - see under 'Recently read"
One of the comments he makes is that "we love to think we know more about God than others; we find it comfortable and comforting to try and control the access of others to God." (p.25)
This is not only a temptation for me as a vicar, but for anyone who thinks they know God. When we try to tell others about God we are also telling them about our own experience of him. God, however, is much bigger than my experiences. The task for me, is not to make people in my image, when it comes to telling them about God, but to let them see that they are in the image of God.
Our task is to not only tell others about how we know God - and believe me I do think this is important - but also to listen to other people's own encounters. They might surprise and even delight us - or challenge us.
