That was a new experience this morning! We read a story to our grandson Busby over 300 miles away in Cheltenham, played a game with him and sang a song. We were also able to see his wee brother, four month old Roddy, who probably didn’t know much of what was going on but looked happy enough. All possible because of Face Time on the Manse ipad. It was good fun and an opportunity to be grateful for the technology that enable us to keep in touch. Of course as soon as I write that you realise what is missing. We can’t touch. I haven’t yet had a cuddle from Roddy. Altogether now: ‘Awww.’
There was a new experience yesterday which made me see that the technology doesn’t just enable us to maintain relationships but also to forge new ones. A young minister in Wick, Andrew Barrie, had been in touch last week. He wanted to interview me on Face Time about my cancer experience for his video blog. That happened yesterday and when it was over we got to chatting. It turns out I know his father also a minister. We were both in Ardrossan Presbytery as baby ministers. Apart from making me feel old I came away from our time together feeling I had made a new friend.
Andrew was telling me about the live streaming his congregations had begun for Sunday worship. One of the great encouragements so far has been the number of non-members who have been logging on. It may be that these times have turned people’s hearts Godwards. Perhaps going to Church has for many reasons been a problem for certain people. These and other thoughts come to mind.
What is of real importance for us all, however, is to take these experiences to heart and to learn the lessons that are emerging from these times. In a sense we should not waste the challenge of these times in just hoping that we will get back to normal. This is an opportunity for reflection and preparation because what we are going through will leave us changed forever. The Church will never be the same. The eternal truths of the Gospel will stand and ‘shall from age to age endure’. But how we share these truths and live them out in our lives should always be subject to scrutiny and adaption. The vision of the Reformers embraced the dictum that the Church should be ‘Reformed and Reforming.‘ We need always to be on a stretch to find the best way to share the story of Jesus. This doesn’t mean tinkering with structures and chasing every fad and fashion. What is needed apart from an essential spirit of repentance is a serious consideration of how best we can bear our witness in the community in which we are set down.
The present crisis has already exercised the imagination of Churches of every tradition throughout the world. Together we see the need to hold things together until these days are behind us. But let us pray that this will be a prelude to a new vision of the Church with mission at her heart, a launching pad for the Gospel, what I once heard described as ‘the greatest truths anyone can ever stumble upon.‘
