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Focus
Focus is the bi-monthly magazine of Brislington United Reformed Church.
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Pastoral Letter Feb. 2006
“…I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life” (Ezekiel 37:5) 5) |
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For some winter may come as an unwelcome intrusion between autumn and spring. The days are short and dreary and it’s all we can do to keep warm. Even walking to the shops can be an ordeal if the wind is blowing its bitter blast full into your face. So it’s always good to get home again and get close to the fire. A few weeks ago I was crossing the Mendip Hills and stopped to take some photographs. It was freezing cold; the sky was an insipid blue, like a frozen tear drop glistening on a polar ice cap, and ice crunched loudly beneath my feet as I walked across frozen fields bordered by frost capped dry stone walls. The reason I was trudging these deserted fields was to take some close up pictures of some trees I had spotted on my journey. Trees are such elegant structures especially in winter when, deprived of their leaves, it’s not only possible to see their detailed shapes but also to look right through them as we might view a skeleton in an X ray picture. And with the washed-out yellows and greens of the surrounding winter landscape, coupled with the browns and greys of yesterday’s vegetation still clinging to life, the scene of winter death and decay was complete. But there is also a real beauty in winter that can be seen at daybreak as the sun rises in the sky. For it is then that vivid reds, yellows and even greens stretch out in bands across the horizon as far as the eye can see, a truly spectacular sight evoking wonder and awe at the majesty of God even in winter. And many a morning I’ve got up at daybreak grabbed my camera and taken pictures of these stupendous visions of glory!
And Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dried bones is not dissimilar. His vision was of a fallen nation rather than of a winter landscape but with its barrenness, brokenness, death and destruction it paints a similar picture. Yet as he looked upon this daunting spectacle so forlorn and beyond hope it suddenly came back to life – a bit like spring coming in the depths of winter. But it was only a vision. And a vision is just that; a picture of what could be rather than of what is. A vision is only a possibility which only becomes a reality when people work to make it happen. And at the beginning of 2006 what is our vision for the world, our nation, our church and ourselves? The world seems to stumble on without direction and vision unable to free itself from the mistakes of the past no matter what the politicians say. And our society is growing ever more remote from God as it seeks to please itself being obsessed with celebrity, money, self-interest and choice. But what of us? What is our vision or goal for 2006? Maybe we don’t have one. Maybe we feel we’re just holding on, barren, broken in faith, family, health, church and hope. So perhaps we’re postponed “vision” and are awaiting the arrival of springtime buds to give us a lift. But God is God of the winter as well as of the spring. God is God of the bad times as well as of the good. God is God of today as well as of tomorrow and today is all we have. And in Ezekiel’s vision of futility and abandonment God entered it and breathed new life into what seemed to many to be beyond all hope. So perhaps winter isn’t such an unwelcome season after all. |
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For maybe, just maybe, God has entered our barrenness (and the world’s) and is right now renewing it, as he renews all things, for new life, new service, new possibilities and new beginnings even though the frost is still apparent on the ground all around us! But do we have the vision to see it?
Happy New Year.
In Jesus’ name
Derek Marsh
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"Derek Marsh Assembly Accredited
Lay Preacher" |
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