Have you tried reading the Bible from front to back? It's a tough task, and many people (myself included) resort to other ways of picking up the message without getting stuck in the intricacies of Leviticus and the other arcane material.

What struck me in my reading is the way that God has revealed Himself to different people and the quite seemingly ridiculous things He has asked people to do. Abraham, for example, was asked to kill his only son, a child he'd awaited for a hundred years; Moses was asked to take on Egypt, the world's mightiest nation, alone and armed with just a stick; Joshua and his lot were to overcome one of the most fortified cities in the east with just trumpets and shouting; and Noah was asked to build an ark, so many cubits long, so many wide and deep, and then go and find a pair of all living things. Can you imagine what you would do if God asked you to do something like that?

" I want you to nip down to the builders merchant and buy up 700 lengths of timber, a ton of nails, some wood stain and varnish, and then build an ark in your garden. Then, when you've finished that, go and find a pair of each beast and put them into the ark, together with your family, and wait for rain." (Wouldn't have long to wait in England!)

"Okay, Lord. Where do I get the money for 700 lengths of timber, a ton of nails, wood stain and varnish and all the other things - my credit card is right up to its limit? Besides Lord, the most complicated thing I ever made in woodwork at school was a tea tray."

But, even if I do manage to build the ark, I then go and collect two budgies, a couple of the neighbours' dogs, two cats, a pair of rats, two pigeons (if I can catch the things), and a couple of spiders - probably the sum total of the wild life in my home town - I wouldn't need an ark, they'd all fit in a canoe.

When God asks us to do something which is remotely out of the ordinary, we tend to put up all sorts of excuses not to do it. The people in the Bible did, and I know I did when I first felt the call to the ordained ministry. Compare that with people's response to the Devil's call.

I think I'm really scared just in case God does ask me to do something which might remotely require courage, real effort, or involve me in ridicule - I can imagine the looks I'd get from my neighbours if I started building an ark in my garden! What's more frightening is that all the characters in the Bible that I mentioned earlier actually did what they were asked, despite their fears and doubts. Compared to them, my faith is miniscule.

There was once a young lad - perhaps nine or ten years old - who knocked on people's doors to sell postcards at 10 pence (a few cents) each. One woman asked what he was going to do with the money he was earning. He said: "I'm raising £100,000 (say $160,000) to feed the hungry children." The startled woman replied: "Do you expect to raise all of that by yourself?" "Oh, no, miss;" answered the boy. "There are two of us!"  I'm sure we could all learn something from that sort of attitude.

Luke 15 contains what are generally known as the three 'lost' parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal or lost son. Each of these three parables is important in its own right, but collectively, they speak of the importance and value of the individual, not just as an individual, but as an individual in relationship.

For example, the first story speaks of a flock of 100 sheep - one is lost and so the shepherd goes off to search for it. That missing one is vital not just because it is an individual entity, but because without it, the flock is incomplete.

In the second parable, we hear that there are ten silver coins, but one goes missing. But this story isn't about money, but about something more valuable. In the time of Jesus, the mark of a married woman was a head-dress made of ten silver coins linked together by a silver chain. For years maybe a girl would scrimp and save to amass her ten coins, for the head-dress was almost the equivalent of her wedding ring. So we can see, therefore, that whilst the individual coin was important in itself, its real value was in making the head-dress complete once again.

How many time have we heard antique valuers say: "If only you had the other one of the set it would be worth so much more." No wonder there was such joy expressed in each of the stories we heard, and notice also how in each case, the friends and neighbours are invited to join in the celebrations, because the wholeness and completeness of the community is at stake, too.

Yes, we are each important as individuals, but our real value is in being individuals within a community, the community of God, for there is completeness and wholeness, just as there is unity and wholeness within the Trinity. Therefore, as individuals and as a community, we reflect the character of God in our lives. Each time we hear of one of our community hurt or murdered or robbed, we all feel it in some way, it brings fear and undermines our relationship with each other. Just think about how isolated and afraid people have become because of this disunity.

In 1 Corinthians 12, St Paul speaks of a body where each limb is vital, though no one element is more important than the other. Nevertheless, if one limb is lost, then the whole body is incomplete. He moves on to say "Though we are many, we are one body." As the Body of Christ, there is a similar relationship, he is our head, and without him we are incomplete and cannot be whole. And as that body is strengthened by the addition of more lost souls, then we too rejoice.

Look around and see the completeness of God's creation. There is an inter-relationship between all things, take one of those elements away and something or somebody else will suffer as a result. That is why we need to concern ourselves about marriage, the environment and about peoples far away, about poverty and homelessness, and about all the other things which endanger our community, which we call society.

God wants us to have a relationship with Him and with one another. We are part of Him and He a part of us, whether we appreciate that or not, and through our unity with Him we are united with one another. "No man is an island, entire of itself" wrote John Donne. We can have no value outside of a relationship. Our value is the value given to us by the love of another person; in return, we give value and esteem when we love. And, as love is the very nature of God, then there is always joy and celebration when that love is strengthened .

"Love one another as I have loved you," Jesus urged. Why? Because in doing so we reveal God to the world, we reveal God working in the world, we reveal God's love for the world, and for the individual.