God’s Word
God's Word has been important in my
faith journey. I came to faith in my thirties through the faithful preaching of
Colin Bennetts, then Vicar of St
Andrew's, Linton Road, north Oxford. It was Colin, who became a good friend to
Susie and me, who nudged me towards ordination. A few years later, I was
privileged to work with Dennis Lennon, then Rector of St Thomas's, Glasgow
Road, Edinburgh. Dennis was the best preacher week-in, week-out that I ever
heard.
The tradition in which I came to
faith places a high value on daily Bible reading and a daily Quiet Time.
Preferably early in the day. But for many of us it is not something that we
find easy. Sometimes the prescribed passage is too familiar, and sometimes it
is too unfamiliar. And clergy are sometimes too quick to turn the reading(s)
into sermon notes rather than letting God speak to them (us) as individuals.
Jeremiah who was familiar with rejection and suffering is aware of those who
plot against him; the lamb being led to the slaughter prefigures both the
passion of Jesus and the hymnody of Graham Kendrick. And in Luke the Passion
Story continues. After the arrest of Jesus on the Mount of Olives by the
soldiers of the Temple Guard, Peter, the strong man of Jesus's followers and
undoubtedly an archdeacon in the making, is moved to betray his Lord three
times.
Few of us suffer persecution on
account of our faith. Here in Europe clergy and church congregations are more
often ignored than persecuted. And yet we are anxious about many things: the
chaos of BREXIT; the challenge of unprecedented people movements; the
inexorable fact of global warming; the threat of a world choked by plastic
waste. We cannot ignore these concerns in our prayers. And we stand firm with
the Psalmist on the hope that God hears the prayers of the prisoners and will
come in glory to rebuild his world.
Chris Martin
(Chris had three stints on the
chaplaincy team at our church and led three Men’s Retreats. He currently lives,
with his wife, Susie, in Edinburgh.)
"Sacrificial Lamb", at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN, http://diglib.library.
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