Bishop’s Finger

The Bishop’s Finger is an alehouse in Canterbury. According to my Dictionary of Pub Names, it is a nineteenth-century term for one of those old-fashioned sign posts carved into the shape of a hand with a finger pointing. The term ‘finger post’ became a slang term for a clergyman because ‘he points the way to heaven but does not necessarily go there himself’. Judging by some of the current raft of Anglican bishops, I cannot even say with certainty that they even point others to heaven, never mind themselves. It is also certainly worth contemplating our own direction of travel. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, a text upon which I preached a few Sundays ago, Paul urges his readers to check their own spiritual vitality. Much as we point others to heaven, are we really going there ourselves, are we mere chaff hid among the sheaves, tares lurking among the wheat?