An Inspector Calls!

I must admit, I do love a good melodrama; the suspense; the intrigue; the mystery of the who-done-it keeping one on the edge of the seat. But even the screen images, stage production or page turning thriller of J B Priestley's classic, lost its charm this week when I received a letter informing me that an Inspector was to Call on me at the end of the month; an OFSTED inspector. (the UK Governments OFfice(for) STandards (in) EDucation).

Its the dread of every Principal that seems to say you are guilty until you prove your innocence.

As both a Principal and a Methodist minister, I've started to wonder this week, how a church would fair if an Inspector Called.

Many an inscription penned in the front of a presentation Bible contains the words, "Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15 But what does this study mean. The Greek word infers to hasten, make haste, to exert one's self, endeavour, give diligence. In Luke's gospel there is a wonderful picture of an expectant people waiting for Jesus. (Luke 8)

Perhaps for the church, it has to be, the "expector" calls; after all didn't Jesus urged his followers to watch and pray.

In Priestley's plot, the Inspector has come to the Birling home as part of an inquiry into the suicide that day of a desperate young woman. As the Inspector’s investigation unfolds, we discover how the life of the dead woman had been intertwined with the Birlings and observe how these revelations affect each of them.

I wonder, if the inspector arrived at the church door, how much evidence would confirm that its occupants lives had been intertwined with the long expected Crucified one? Or is that a notion now out of fashion today?

It was Oswald chambers who said, "Unless in the first waking moments of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on the wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God."