Miracles

Miracles have been on the news agenda much more than usual this past week. The remarkable rescue of the miners in Chile dominated the news for more than 24 hours, and the President of Chile (amongst many others) called it a miracle.
According to the president’s Protestant chaplain Rev Alfredo Cooper (also a CMS mission partner), ‘Many of the miners went down as atheists or unbelievers or semi-believers and they have come up to a man testifying that they were not 33 but that there were 34 down there – that Jesus was there with them and that they had a constant sense of his presence and guidance.’

All of this was welcome relief from the cynicism which surrounds us for much of the time. Sadly however, as this week’s readings show, miracles don’t necessarily lead to strong faith. They can even have the opposite effect (Mark 6:51,52).

Nevertheless, the success of the rescue highlighted another important principle seen in this week’s readings (Mark 6:7) – that of cooperation. And it was far from being the only example in the news this week.

For the past 14 years, two teams of workmen have been boring the world’s longest rail tunnel – 35.4miles long – under the Swiss Alps. On Friday, a tunnelling machine broke through the remaining rock to complete the tunnel. The accuracy was stunning – within 8cm horizontally and 1cm vertically.

Liverpool fans will be hoping for a demonstration of partnership and cooperation from their club’s new owners. Echoing the club anthem ‘You’ll never walk alone’, John W Henry, head of the new owners NESV, said, ‘We're going to do a lot of listening, we have a lot to learn, and we'll walk this path together.’

Emlyn Williams