'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'

I wept when I heard this song. It is filled with grace and truth. which I take to be a gift of God manifest in the author, singer, the producer and the community of persons revealed in the diverse images accompanying the song.

My own life's experience makes plain that resurrection occurs only where there is crucifixion. Each one who steps outside the structures of law and order to follow the radical call of Grace, will suffer the consequences given in the gospel of Jesus Christ, where the living name of God is revealed. As it is written:

"So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come."

The meaning of such quotations remains a matter of thought until a decisive commitment to the opening way of God given in the gospel of Jesus Christ is embraced as a personal abandonment of trust in any and all claims to authority divorced from what is given in that gospel.

Those who make take the decisive step, out of one way of being and into another, embark on a process of transformation of values and commitments by which they are set apart to express faithful public witness. As it is written:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

I commend the workers at First United who have bound themselves to a reading of the gospel by which they are guided forward along the way of contradiction.

I admire their gracious concession, stepping aside rather than persist along a path which would have led only to conflict and confusion.

I am confident that this little death is congruent with the death given in the cross by which the way of God is refused by the way of the world.

Further, I am clear that any who embrace such a little death, will also experience the power of the resurrection which is given in this way and no other.

One more word about the Layton's song. It is offered from the centre of the storm and from that centre it expresses the grace of God which includes the least of the broken poor no more or less than it includes the most adamant defender of status quo.

Grace and peace to those who carry light along the narrow way in a world lost in the deepening darkness of law and order; by which creature and creation are exploited and oppressed in the service of profit and power.