TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2016 JEREMIAH 31:27-34
His name is Frano Salek, and he makes me smile. He is from Croatia, and he has a story to tell. So amazing is his story that you will possibly be shocked, and certainly moved. I predict you may even gasp by the end of it. It was in 1996 that Frano was driving along one of those twisty roads that snake around mountains when he encountered a United Nations truck, coming straight for him. He instinctively jerked the wheel to avoid impact and drove his Skoda through a crash barrier and over a 300ft drop. Somehow he managed to open the door and leap clear at the last second and landed in a tree which was clinging to the side of the mountain, while his car hit the ground, exploding on impact. I don’t know what went through his mind as he sat in that tree watching the flames dancing out of his car. He maybe remembered twelve months earlier when he was knocked down by a bus in Zagreb and walked away with only minor injuries. Possibly his brain dredged up that incident in 1970 when a faulty fuel pump from his new car spewed petrol over the hot engine and blew flames through the air vents, burning off most of his hair. Or perhaps he recalled that time in 1966 when he
was onboard a bus when it skidded into a river, drowning four other passengers, but allowing him to swim to safety with just cuts and bruises. Or even that incident in 1963 when was thrown out of a small plane on his one and only flight when a door flew open and he was sucked out. Later that day he woke up in the middle of a haystack with no serious injuries. Or, as he perched serenely in that tree he had a flashback to 1962 when a train he was travelling on from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik plunged into an icy river, killing seventeen people, and causing Frano to swim to shore with nothing more than hypothermia, shock, bruises and a broken arm.

Now there are two things we can learn from Frano’s extraordinary life. First, if he ever offers to give you ride, just say ‘no’. And second, if he asks to pick your lottery numbers, take him up on it. Because, Frano's story doesn't end with his seven neardeath experiences. In 1997 he won the equivalent of $1,000,000 with, get this, the only lottery ticket he has ever bought. But there's more. According to The Daily Telegraph, Frano gave away all his winnings to his family and friends, saying "money cannot buy happiness". And that, I suspect, is the greatest miracle of all.

If Frano was in fact remembering those scrapes with death, then he was quite unlike God. You see God can be so... (Read the full Sermon here: Stop all the clocks.pdf )