Across the road on the neighbour’s footpath sits a yellow council sign that has just been posted. My curious self invited me over to see what it was about. My hunch was an approval for the typical ‘demolish the lovely old cottage and replace it with a Tower of Babel’. But it was an application to build a jetty on the river for their boat, and any objections were to be lodged with the council within thirty days.

God too in his fairness, when he started building his church, posted a sign inviting objections. It can still be seen in the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? Who is he that condemns? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (That good old sign has weathered many a storm, and the font in which it was written – ‘crucifix’ I think – still holds its rugged form.)

The sign has now been up for nearly two thousand years, and thus far, no serious objection has been lodged nor sustained. Perhaps it’s because God in his logic and kindness, included on the sign strong answers to the questions. Admittedly there have been objectors during the build from that infernal world, but they have not succeeded, and the project will be completed as planned. Bit hard really to argue, when the Owner-Carpenter paid for the building with his blood, and lives to see it done.