Letter from the Clergy - Dec 2009 & January 2010

Dear Friends,

Birdsong in the Mist

A bird was singing - I noticed it like I’d never heard it before. The birdsong was clear, sharp and true. I was standing in the Blue Bell Hill picnic area, admiring a non-existent view, for all around the mist was thick and impenetrable, shrouding grass, trees and shrubs, and making dull the noise of people and traffic. But that lone voice cut through the mist, breaking the stillness, claiming unseen territory. As I walked back home, I noticed birdsong all the way - not such a lone voice after all.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

In preparing for Christmas, the church year takes us to John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus. His was a lone voice, like that bird singing in the mist. He looked like a man out of his time - like a wild desert prophet from the Old Testament cropping up in the New - where the world was sophisticated and Roman. He knew himself to have come just in time, because time was running out. Any day now, everyone would be called to account. His was ‘a voice crying out in the wilderness’ - the same sort of lone voice that warned of problems in our day with the banking system, or about sharp practice in Parliament. John’s voice in the wilderness called on people to disassociate from all wrong-doing before judgement fell. Crowds of people warmed to it.

Positive Alternatives

John the Baptist predicted that the One who came after him would bring judgement. Jesus did not come to condemn people, but by their response to him people put themselves under judgement. By his teaching and example Jesus offered positive alternatives showing how to live life to the best. He demonstrated that life is most fully lived when we’re not full of worries about ourselves - our earning power, our prospects, our self image or anything else about ourselves. Instead, he showed that living by faith in a loving heavenly Father provides the basis for real freedom. Many consider such options unrealistic, too tough to be genuine alternatives. But still the birdsong can be heard through the mist, and some are willing to join the chorus.

The Kingdom of God

Listening to the news and watching the world around, it often feels like the mists overwhelm us and as a society we have lost all sense of direction. But when we hear words of transparent honesty in a world of spin; when we see actions of genuine selflessness in a world of greed; when we experience deep joy in a world of superficial emotionalism - then it is like that clear sound of bird song cutting through the mist, and we know the kingdom of God has come near.

Rev Phil Wootton
 (Team Vicar)