Reflection 2.

 

How best to we remember Jesus in Communion.  The most obvious way is to

1.      LOOK BACK.  Some Christians call this the Lord's Supper and it is possible to go back to that upper room where Jesus first takes bread and wine. Mark tells the story vividly of a group of disciples blind to impending disaster, bickering about self-importance, with Judas right there just thinking this is another Passover meal, when Jesus takes bread and says: This my body, This my blood.  But this supper table is not the place to look, for when Jesus takes bread and wine he is taking us to the Cross. As though we must climb up the sides of the hill called Golgotha to see a hideous sight where the best man who ever lived, hangs in agony, rejected by the crowds,  with a gash in his side and thirst in his throat, separated from his Father (Father why have you abandoned me) with an unimaginable burden crushing him. The man who said: Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friend. You are my friends if you do what I tell you. He is giving us everything by sacrificing his life as a Lord who offers friendship in relationship with him as Lord.  

It is an overwhelming spiritual truth that nobody could put us right with God unless he helps us.  And he does it his way giving his only Son to take away the sin that separates humankind from God by the power of love sacrificed in death.  And he does it for me and you.   Remember me says Jesus because I am suffering to win new life for you. 

In my ministry occasionally people have said: I can’t take communion at the moment. I am in a bad place and it doesn’t feel right. But there never is a right place. None of us deserve this.  The most amazing truth is that when we truly grieve, truly with repentance that looks to the cross…this is precisely where Jesus wants to meet us.  It’s profoundly serious and personal. 

The old spiritual goes Were you there when they crucified my Lord. Well, of course not. Yet Jesus did this once for all for all of us. So yes, I was there.  Because God so loved the world, this death has cosmic reach.   Let’s quietly hear the words in Stuart Townend’s song that we shall sing;

Behold the man upon a cross

My sin upon his shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished.

A reflection on Communion

 

My computer surgery and death messed up various plans. A couple of weeks ago I was asked by our minister to offer a reflection leading into Communion last Sunday, and I began to jot down early thoughts on my trusted computer. Which, alas, turned out less trustworthy.  Among files lost were these early notes. My practice is to prepare a stereo script (for eye and ear) and then internalize its main thrust.  Needless to say the process was somewhat abbreviated! I chose two readings: Mark 14:33-36; 1 Cor.11:23-29. I so rarely speak in church nowadays so I thought I would give you a flavour!

In reflection I began by describing the first time I saw communion. I was around 9 years old.  My friend and I finished children’s class early and went to find our parents in the main church building. Through a chink in the nearly closed doors we witnessed an extraordinary sight. Everyone was so quiet. No prayer, no singing. 'Here', my friend said, 'they're eating something'. 'Let me look' I said, and those few seconds are imprinted on my memory. The utter strangeness, the mystery of people eating in church. Even at 9 years old I realized something special was happening for God.  And it was. 

Jesus only asked us to do two pieces of ritual. One is Baptism – the public entry into belonging with him and his church. We have celebrated that with one of our young people the week before. Two is Communion , when repeatedly we do something for Jesus together.  It doesn’t demand special equipment, just bread and something to drink. But it's practical, involves us in doing something together. Jesus commands: Do this to remember me. And, yes, he commands!

I split the reflection into three parts. They are well-worn: LOOK BACK, LOOK AROUND and LOOK FORWARD.  Onto the next posts. 

Computer Surgery

I regret to announce that my laptop went into surgery last week.  Well, not immediately.  Clearly unwell, I left it for extended diagnosis. It felt strange as I walked away from my constant companion of 6 years with a certain amount of dread.  Which turned out to be appropriate as the consultant announced it would require major surgery and have to stay in for a few days.  While under the operation procedure it sadly perished.  Apparently the battery had expanded to mess up the internal organs.

I was promised that all the key personality traits and knowledge could be transferred to a new machine which I collected late yesterday.  I am trying not to expect too much.  Signing back in to some essential programmes has proved highly stressful with password amnesia.  Indeed, accessing my blog took a painful 30 minutes, as attempts became ever more desperate.

Unfortunately, the dead computer was strongly tied in with my seminary past.  Two distinct systems divided responsibilities of accessing and storing data.  Finally, severing from this past has mightily disrupted the new machine with all kinds of stuff still to be found, including my sermon preparation for next Sunday and notes for my Tuesday teaching (which began last night).  It has added an unwelcome frisson to my life. 

But I was also challenged.  Just how much had I come to be dependent on a machine which is vulnerable? And how much did I need all this data going back 23 years?  Good questions.  I am chastened and am trying to simplify though (very) kind friends have said they would like the blog posts to continue. Well, for a little while, anyway !

About Noel 3)

Though it was clear that Noel was highly regarded in the Baptist World, I had absolutely no idea that he was going to become President of the BWA 1985-1990. Whenever he visited England he would stay with us as the unassuming friend he had become.  I am not quite sure how it worked but he must have been behind me becoming a member of the Doctrine Commission and therefore a regular member of the annual meetings held on every continent in sequence. I became part of a little travelling British gang. I learned so much and on each occasion  he always spent time with me.

 Owing to the many visiting academics who visited our Cambridge Church I had begun what became a very significant relationship with Baptists in Australia.  Several concurrent years I was the annual convention state speaker in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and at other mission events.  Such a privilege. But never  Perth and W. Australia which lay so far away from what became our main centre of gravity in Sydney.  Noel lamented this absence.  

When I became seriously ill in 1986/87 he came and stayed in Cambridge with us. He grew even closer in friendship. I found him an exceptional mentor.  When I was asked to submit my name for Principalship of Spurgeon's College in 1993 he was a wise supportive guide. (However, when I asked his advice on my move to the US he was less convinced it was right!) 

Eventually I did visit Perth to speak at the college and spent time with Noel in his home.  The icing on the cake was the later invitation to fly out and preach at the 50th anniversary of the college's foundation. Renamed Noel Vose Seminary it was memorable in many ways, not least because Noel and his two successors were present to join the celebrations.  I think you can tell from just this snatch overview how much I valued him and friendship seemed to go both ways.  Indeed his biographer included  Noel's over-generous assessment of me with warm words about Carol, Simon and Robert. 

How good it is to recall influences like these in our lives.  And it was his dedication to me inside one of the G.H. Morrison's books of sermons that began this memory trail.

About Noel 2)

When I wrote yesterday's post I had no idea how much joy it would give me. I hadn't really thought about the circumstances of how I became friends with Noel for years. Maybe never.  Not properly. Now I see more clearly that it was one of those wonderful moments when God gifted me in quite a remarkable way.  I hope that you can look back to the beginning of some friendship which became a vital part of your life.

Immediately we met, Noel and I clicked.  Of course I was intrigued by this significant BWA figure on my doorstep but none of that mattered.  His biography speaks of his humility and goodness.  I love that definition of a Christian: 'Someone with whom it is easy to be good."  Even though he was 24 years older, was Western Australian through and through, he became a close friend to the whole family.  Our teenage boys loved him and so, eventually, did their wives. While he studied for a term in Cambridge his wife, Heather was studying in Paris. This gifted couple had begun lives as Baptist pastor and wife, with pastoral  experiences I could easily identify with. 

In 1959 he was appointed as the Founding Principal of the proposed Baptist Theological College of W. Australia and the adventure of building a college from scratch began in 1963.  By the time I met him, his role and influence was well established but, honestly, he wore these credentials with such modesty they were invisible.  All we saw was a loving man of God who was willing to share love with us.  And I know this may sound over the top but he remained a dear friend in our story right up until his death in 2016.

That following Christmas, 1980, I sent him our annual letter which playfully summarized some of our family happenings through another year.  He wrote in appreciation and said how every year he invited a group of neighbours after Christmas to share in breakfast. Though some were not believers he wanted to give thanks for the season with them.  Hospitality and evangelism were two of his big themes.  However, he began a tradition which continued the next three decades of reading aloud our Christmas letter! 

It's impossible to do justice to the difference Noel made to my subsequent life and ministry but I must write at least another post.

About Noel 1)

In my last post I mentioned Noel Vose who became a great friend and mentor.  His story in my life is entangled with several happenings. In 1980 the Baptist Union Council selected four 'young ministers' to be delegates to the Baptist World Congress meetings in Toronto, 1980. 20,000 delegates, representing 30 million Baptists from across the world held their main meetings in the Maple Leaf Gardens, home to the famous hockey team. As my first experience of the BWA it was utterly overwhelming.

Delegates stayed in hotels throughout the city, and each day began with prayer in the hotel with fellow guests.  On my own, I quickly made friendships, some of which lasted for years.  Each day, we then travelled to the Maple Leaf Gardens for morning Bible Study, after which sessions detailed the wide ranging work of the BWA departments and commissions.  I was involved with the Commission on Doctrine which met later in the afternoons and was to turn out to be a significant dimension of future ministry in writing and ecumenical dialogue. Of course, at the beginning I had no idea of what lay ahead.

In the evenings there were major worship and preaching sessions with a wide range of speakers.  At one of them an Australian preached.  I was sitting far away in the stalls with thousands around me.  A large screen showed gave his headshot so I had some idea what he looked like.  I remember vividly how he illustrated sin by the way delegates continued to take flash photos even though they had been instructed not to!  Though there was a noticeable drop in the number of flashes still they happened. 'You see, you just cannot stop doing it" he challenged.  He said much else of substance.  I noted his name Noel Vose in my bulky congress notes.

A few months later, back in St. Andrew's Street Baptist Church, Cambridge, I was leading our evening Sunday service. It was a dark, miserable evening. Congregations in the morning service were small but in the evenings only a smattering of people met in the building holding 900. I know some people felt its death was nigh. At the very back a solitary stranger appeared. When the service was over I shook his hand and realized that a few weeks earlier I had witnessed him at a distance in the Maple Leaf Gardens.  Noel was studying at Tyndale House and thought he would try a local church.   

I couldn't believe it. Neither could he!  We arranged to give him a meal that week and quite extraordinarily we began such a warm, deep friendship that from that point on he became one of those special people that the Lord gives us.  He was truly the best kind of gift God could give.  I have often wondered how he might have gone to another church on that dismal night.  But no.  God was in it!

Farewell to George H. Morrison

I know....who is George Morrison?  In the sad task of saying good-bye to the last of my preaching books I want to show respect to some past great names before their collected books go. I admit I knew nothing of this Scottish preacher until my friend and mentor Noel Vose was visiting us.  Noel deserves many posts himself for if I am remembering old friends he deserves to be up the front.  However, not to sidetrack, Noel on one of his visits from Australia accompanied me to a used book shop where retired clerics had dumped their books.  Often piled up haphazardly at bargain prices (but who would want most of them?) Noel espied an old volume of George Morrison's sermons.  I confessed I had never heard of him.

Noel bought it, plus one or two others, and said I needed to familiarize myself with him. He lived 1866 to 1928. Early on he became assistant editor on the New English Dictionary at Oxford which drilled into him the power of words and on completing his Divinity course at Glasgow University he became assistant to the famous minister Alexander Whyte, whose lifestyle and ministry greatly impacted him.

He served churches in Thurso and Dundee before his most significant ministry at Wellington Church, Glasgow from 1902 until his sudden death in 1928.  Several issues hit me in his biography.

• He completely devoted himself to his churches and their communities. Nothing mattered more than caring for the sheep and preparing sermons, ever asking the question: 'What is there for my people to live on?'  Rigorous in his study he visited every afternoon for several hours and kept an accurate record of every visit he paid. The last year he lived he paid 1200 calls of his nearly 2000 members. He said that the secret of a happy ministry was to be constantly moving among the homes or our people.
• He was not strong and suffered serious illnesses. One of his friends said "illness and loss have been mighty factors in the shaping of George Morrison...the cruel fellowship of pain and sorrow had given him great thoughts of God and Christ.'
• His modesty. Though he became famous through his preaching and writing he 'retained the modest spirit that will learn from the humblest friend, and never forgets anything of any value that may be dropped by the poorest talker. In private life the same gentle and generous man speaks to you as speaks to you from the pulpit, and in the quiet kindness of friendship though you never feel you deserve that.

This gifted hard-working man who devoted himself to the local church took preaching seriously. Every day he read a sermon from a wide range of preachers for the good of his soul and when it came to his own sermons he gave his very best with a simplicity of language (though dated to our ears), a sincerity, and uncomplicated style.  

I think Noel wanted me to know him because his life speaks of many qualities that I so admire.  Not one of the big names but worth knowing.  The few books I say farewell to will not appeal to many of today's readers but I am grateful to have had them on my shelf.