Two photos of Siena Cathedral in Tuscany, Italy. In the mid-14th century it was a flourishing, prosperous city, and plans were made to more than double the size of the already impressive cathedral. Work started, but the Black Death came, the city’s population fell from about 42,000 to 14,000 and work stopped (they didn’t need a bigger cathedral, and probably could neither get the workmen nor the cash). So today walls of the planned new nave guard a car park. But actually there were flaws in the construction – so it is maybe as well that they didn’t take matters further. Is there a moral here for us? Should we as a country, community and church step back in the light of the Covid-19 crisis and examine whether what we have is enough, and whether some of our grandiose plans need to be re-thought?
Lord, it is good to have ambitions, to think about the future, but sometimes we need to question what our priorities are, and reassess what we are striving towards. Help us as a world, a country, a community, your church, to do that