Peter and the Fish

In today's readings in the English Lectionary we come to the odd story of Peter and the fish . It is an odd little story - and, of course, there is a theological point behind the fact that Peter is sent to get money from the mouth of a fish instead of out of their pockets to pay taxes - if only we could all reel in a trout to pay the IRS!

I have to say I find it slightly unsettling as it reminds me of childrens birthday parties and conjuring tricks but more to the point for me this morning I had forgotten it was there at all. If you had asked me to recount the deeds of Peter I would have missed this one out.

I have no idea why I forget some stories but I do and I find myself picking up the text and looking hard and saying to myself "Yes that really is there!"

The reminder today is simple - the Bible is a huge book - even if you have a better memory than me and can remember the bones of the book - different bits of the stories jump out at you every time you read them.

Yesterday I watched the same movie I had watched the day before. I told the family it was funny and because they all sat down to watch it, I stayed put. It was funny for different reasons with a room full of people laughing. Same movie, same room but very different place in many ways.

We change as life goes on and we do forget which is why the Bible is not a one off book - we have to keep coming back. Reading it on a schedule which covers the whole book can get a bit tough going when we hit the legalistic books but it does ensure that we do not rely on memory to cover the good bits - because the good bits are often things which we have simply read through previously - God comes to us in new and varied ways - often through the same familiar words.