The Green Chalice by Mark Coleman

There is the hymn “ O Perfect Love” by Dorothy Frances Gurney. It’s a substantial hymn. There is the song by Simply Red “Perfect Love”   - that’s not so memorable. The Bible verse from 1 John 4.19 is memorable: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. There is a lot of fear about these days. We hear this weekend from Lady Warsi that David Cameron is adding to the Islamophobia, fear of Muslims by his recent speech. Our Greek friends must be worried about what happens next. And many of us in the Church are frightened of change and wonder what happens next. And we would not be human if we did not have fears for ourselves and our families. We are human after all and we are mortal. So there is a lot of fear about – at a national level, a church level and a personal level. We hear today how the disciples are frightened too (Mark 4.35-end), trapped in a boat with their fearless l...