Today is another glorious winter's day in Cumbria. We have had several days of clear blue skies and heavy frosts. On Wednesday, I climbed Dodd Fell with my son Chris. The landscape was almost Alpine. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Tomorrow we are making history! The 14 churches of our proposed 'Mission Community' will be meeting together at Lorton Street Methodist church for a shared act of worship. It will be the first time we have come together in this way. That is history-making in itself. But it will also be historic in the sense that we will have a shared communion service, with myself, the Methodist and URC ministers presiding together. Under the covenant agreement now in place across the county, ministers may preside at services in each others churches. This will be a very special occasion. Meanwhile, at the Cathedral in the afternoon, that covenant will be further extended as we welcome the Salvation Army into the God for All partnership.
It is also Advent Sunday - a day of looking forward to the Last Things, when Jesus will return as King and Judge of all. It is a day to remember that our world, currently passing through an 'Age of Uncertainty', is not without hope or purpose. As Christians, we are called to put last things first, to resist the temptation to live only for now (illustrated by the Black Friday phenomenon yesterday), and to live the life of heaven on earth. As I noted last week, the Old Testament narrative moves from a Promised Land to a Promised Time. We still need that perspective of looking forward, not so rooted in the present that we forget the things to come. As Brian McLaren puts it, To be alive in the adventure of Jesus is to have a desire, a dream, a hope for the future. It is to translate that hope for the future into action in the present and to keep acting in the light of it, no matter the disappointments, no matter the setbacks or delays. (p80)
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