Dear Friends,Dear Friends,
The Gospels have a number of stories about people bringing others to Jesus. The first thing Andrew did after going with Jesus, St John tells us, was to find his brother Peter and bring him to Jesus. Philip told the sceptical Nathanael about Jesus; in response to Nathanael's
"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said, "Come and see!" Andrew was again in evidence at the feeding of the five thousand, bringing to Jesus the boy with the loaves and fishes.
Bringing people to Jesus is part of our Christian calling. The truths of the gospel are not for us to store away as our own property – they are to be shared with others. As we approach Back to Church Sunday, the first challenge for us is to consider whether bringing people to church is the same as bringing them to Jesus. We need to be absolutely certain that we belong to lively, open, loving, welcoming Christian communities – and if any little problems need to be ironed out, this needs to be done quickly!
Peter, Nathanael and the lad with the barley loaves can be taken to represent groups in our communities today – there are those close to us – family, friends, neighbours; then there are the sceptics, the doubters, the ones we may back away from inviting; and there are the young people, whose culture may seem a mystery to us.
But in all of those groups there are those who may well respond positively to an invitation to come to church with us. I do hope that we will all find out if this is so, by playing a full part in Back to Church Sunday. In the stories mentioned above, Andrew and Philip brought people – they didn't say "Go to Jesus" – they said "Come with me".
Some years ago a boy turned up at the first meeting of a confirmation group. He said, "Me gran sent me". He didn't last the course. If gran had brought him, and been with him at church, it might have been a different story.
May God bless our efforts in the countdown to 26th September.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Calvert. Priest in Charge
Leven Valley Benefice From Our Book ShelvesLists of books about Faith, which the owners are happy to share, will be found in each of our churches. If you would like to add some of your own, please let John Taylor know. (31665) PNC |
