A present  far too small

Dear friends,

This month, our journey with Jesus reaches its climax in the life and death drama of the cross and the power of the resurrection. There is  a strangely beautiful Anglo Saxon poem, The Dream of the Rood:  

I beheld bright in the air a wondrous cross of wood speeding its way, and all that blessed sign glorious with gold, glittered with jewels: and still through all this splendour I could see its agonies of long ago, as it began to bleed from its right side. It seemed to change, this speeding sign, sometimes all red with blood, sometimes with treasure hung.

Costly treasure decorating a thing of suffering, death, total loss. It’s a sore point. It puts me in mind of how this financial crisis has allowed  a few to grab vast treasures and pensions  while so many ordinary folk are left to pick up the tab in lost jobs, repossessions, sudden hardship.

The Dream of the Rood isn’t about that. It’s a powerful image of the meaning of the cross: the thing of suffering and death whereby our Christ attained his greatest glory. That is why we shall decorate our bare cross on Easter day once again: not with jewels, but with flowers of faith.

But hold on to the image of the cross hung with treasure. The Easter people, meeting with the risen Jesus, burst upon the world to share the treasure of the gospel. Men and women with a mission.

After  Easter we’ll be facing the fact that mission costs money. How we spend, save and give our money is as much a part of our life in God as our worship, prayer and Christian values. Especially in these strapped and taxing times, we want our church to remain solvent and able to plan for the future. So please think and pray about making a new commitment, a “pledge” as we call it, to help our churches this year. Full details are in this edition of the Newsletter.

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, he made himself poor, so that by his poverty, you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Also in this Newsletter are details of an ecumenical  Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, proposed by St Thomas’s for March 2010. Pauline and I are planning on going. By the standards of a URC minister’s pension, it’s not cheap! But we dare to believe that it’s worth a few sacrifices, and probably  our last chance to fulfil a long cherished ambition. We hope that friends from Garstang and Forton may want to come too.

Not cheap - but we dare to believe it’s worth a few sacrifices. Not a bad attitude to bring to our pledge programme.  Remember the cross “with treasure hung.” Remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of mission, think of money, and how much we want our church to remain strong, confident and creative long after the end of this present ministry.

Had Isaac Watts read The Dream of the Rood? His greatest hymn certainly speaks the same language:

          Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine, demands, my soul, my life, my all.

With every blessing,

David