Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends
When we went into the first lockdown last year, I posted a recorded story and reflection on Facebook every Sunday. It was only meant to be for a few weeks but lasted for 23 weeks! Now one year on, Facebook reminds me under its “Memories” feature of those posts I made one year ago. Yesterday (Monday) I was reminded of a story I posted about a young couple, Bryn and Alice who had just bought their first home together and, in the process of decorating and furnishing it, set about assembling some flatpack furniture. Bryn, being keen to impress Alice, began assembling a TV unit insisting he did not need the instructions. After a long process, eventually the TV cabinet was assembled except there were two pieces of wood and some screws left over! Bryn had missed the instruction to attach two shelves with the screws to the lower part of the cabinet. Alice, sensing his frustration, quietly opened the instructions and guided him in first taking apart what he had made and then reassembling it.
One of my favourite pieces of scripture is recorded only in Luke’s Gospel chapter 24, when on the evening of the first Easter Sunday, two of Jesus’ disciples encountered the Risen Christ as He first walked with them on their journey from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. Then, having invited Him in to join them for a meal, they somehow recognised Him as Jesus took bread and broke it. They then rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others! Even though we may not always have the instructions to work out how, Jesus’ appearance on the Road to Emmaus reminds us that He still walks in Resurrection power with us too. It is ONLY because He died and rose again that we can know His presence with us. Jesus walks where we are walking and wants to help us to understand more about God. He helps us make sense of life and its problems and, above all, He makes Himself known to us in the ordinary everyday things of life – and especially as we break bread!
The purpose of any set of instructions is to tell us how to put something together or how something works. They can seem complicated and, sometimes, we think we can manage without them but, like Bryn, we can be left feeling confused, lost, and annoyed if things do not work out as we think they ought. After 14 months of living with Covid restrictions etc, it is easy to feel fearful and certainly a bit mixed up and muddled! Somehow, the rule book we were following has changed! We have lived in isolation from each other, even from our closest family and friends. We have lived for much of that time without meeting each other in our churches. Now, as we begin to look towards reopening, re-emerging into a new kind of normality, what are the rules and where are our instructions? Well, if you look on the Methodist Church website there is an abundance relating to risk assessments etc! Yet, most importantly of all the Bible is our rule book and there we see that Jesus is alive! The Emmaus Road appearance of Jesus comforts, reminds, reassures us that even in the most difficult, puzzling, saddest moments of our lives, when we may have to take apart what was and reassemble something else, Jesus walks beside us. Far better even than Alice who picked up the instructions and guided Bryn to a DIY success, the Risen Jesus comes alongside us, guides us by the hand and says,
“Come with me; follow me! I will walk beside you!”
Sunday worship continues on Zoom at 10.30am.
Next Week, Monday is a Bank Holiday, so Bible Studies will meet on TUESDAY at 7.00pm and Thursday at 10.30am.
Wednesday prayers at 10am continue as well on Zoom.
There are Whypay Sunday services and service sheets for use at home. For more information, please contact your pastoral visitor or minister.
Every blessing to you all,
Revd Deborah Wainwright, on behalf of the Bede Circuit staff team