From Revd Dr Mark Cheetham
Dear Friends,
We are in, what the lectionary (the 3 yearly pattern of recommended readings in worship) calls, Ordinary Time! It’s an interesting phrase isn’t it, or perhaps you find it helpful. We have journeyed through the major festivals of the Christian faith from Advent to Ordinary Time.
Often, I hear or read that, because it marks the birth of the church, Pentecost is the Church’s main festival every year – the coming of God’s Holy Spirit. Second in importance is Easter – the resurrection of Jesus, and third is Christmas, the coming of Jesus to earth. Yet we of course have made Christmas the big party with our decorations, carols, and traditions, Easter has become a Spring holiday, and Pentecost is often nearly forgotten.
Our Pentecost readings often focus worship on the story of the Moses and the burning Bush – the flames of Pentecost not devouring the bush, but being the means by which God called Moses, who took off his shoes because he was on holy ground. Once we’ve celebrated Christmas, Easter and Pentecost within the year, we then seal them into the set with Trinity Sunday. Celebrating, if you like, the complete wholeness of the God we believe in.
But each time we celebrate one of these festivals we can deepen and shape our faith. I have said before that I associate most deeply with Moses story and journey, in terms of characters from the Bible, meeting God as if for the first time and then having to respond. I don’t normally take my shoes off, but I know that when we share together, we are standing with you on Holy Ground. So I guess my question for this summer season of apparently Ordinary Time is something around where, how and when might those particularly special moments of encounter with God, come. And how you discern the appropriate response.
I suspect that, as we seek the Lord together, we will find, as Jesus did, healings and wonders along the way, we will find the costs of our discipleship and struggle together. But we will also find the resurrection power and life of God together. As we celebrate the holy place that is SMc we will also notice that it doesn’t burn up, but that God is present and speaks to us again and again. Then we shall know, experience, and believe again in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Others sense and respond to these moments of close encounter with God wherever they are and we see that as the word of scripture comes true “day by day the Lord added to their number…” Acts 2: 47.
Every Blessing.
Rev Mark