Tonight in the pub,  Wendy led us through thought provoking stuff on the coming of Christ. For some of us, our  answer to the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?’  defaults to the centrality of the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus on the cross so that we can be right with God and spend eternity with Him.  We talked about a theology that can promote a dualistic view of heaven and earth where christians will leave this sinful fallen world and float away (upwards??) to heaven and eternal bliss (it didn’t really appeal to many of us). Was this a biblical view?

Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ve been missing something.

So, in the coming weeks, we’ll be continuing to  ask ourselves:  What does it mean to live incarnationally? What if we had not messed up, would Christ still have become one of us? Was His coming, plan A or plan B? And we’ll be thinking on this;

“And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn1:14)

Jesus, Word of God, we are eternally destined to be bound in this created world

-in this network of flesh.

As the incarnate Word and Risen Lord, you are always inviting us to union with you:

“Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.” (Rev 3:20)

“Yes, Lord Jesus” we respond. “Come in. stay with us always.”

Amen

Our first meeting in torrential rain!

The cross suurrounded by leaves, representing the saints

Well we knew the day would come… torrential rain in the park!

Nevertheless, with no-one to blame for the lack of church heating, we pressed on – and had a GOOD time.  Steve began with words from Hebrews 12, reminding us of the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, urging us on in our journey.  He then spoke of the fallen leaves around us, which though fallen, remain part of the fabric of our world.  They reminded us of the saints who have gone before us, and who remain part of our spiritual fabric inasmuch as we allow ourselves to be inspired and taught by them.

We went on to name and remember the contribution of a number of saints – those recognised by the church and those looked to as role-models and inspirational christians – both well-known and known personally to us.  We picked up the leaves and let the wind take them as we named those to whom we were particularly grateful.  It felt good to share that holy space with such wonderful people with whom we share the gospel commission.

We ended with the sharing of bread and wine – using Paul’s words from two weeks ago and especially thinking of the significance of the communion of saints.

From there to Costa coffee to dry out and warm up!  We had a keen debate about the issue of our kids celebrating Halloween – or not – and whether there is any sense of the trivialisation of evil – or whether its all harmless fun these days.  Let us know what you think!

And if you’re debating whether you’d like to join us one Sunday – the weather can’t be worse than today’s and it was OK!