So how is it then that people have added themselves/been added to the people of God since Pentecost? If there was no announcement, then how did people come to know what was going on in the church and become part of whatever it was they had to offer?

Why is it that a phenomenon which was at first limited to Jerusalem spread so rapidly across Asia Minor, to the European mainland in one direction, and eastwards to Persia, India and China in the other direction, and today is the predominant religion in the world if there was nothing to tell anyone about?

If I were sitting on a belief which offered actual access to a holy God, who would accept me just as I am, and provided a means not only for forgiveness of everything in my life which represented participation in the mutiny aboard the ship which has been described, but would infuse into my life a power and a life which would change my character so that it was no longer dragged down by the gravitational pull of death, but would overcome death - both in all that it represents in this life, and in a life to come, in which I could participate in the fulfilment of creation’s purposes both now and in a life to come, and offer genuine change to a society and culture that is, in the end, locked in futility … wouldn’t it be considered gravely reprehensible if I told nobody about it?

Or is this a message which our jaded palates have grown tired of, and we would rather have something else - something - something more spicey, something new, something more novel?

Sorry Andrew - I’m not having a dig; I just had to get this out of my system so it wasn’t preying on me. It’s very injurious to one’s health to suppress things. I’m done! Also you are one better than me: I don’t yet have anything to give my wife for Valentine’s Day - I’ll have to think of something quick!