Communion comment

Many thanks for your thoughtful articles on Holy Communion (September Life and Work).

In our Church, Elinor Gordon held informal Communions, and during meditation, we enjoyed readings from the Iona Community, various poems and relevant extracts from science and philosophical writings all of which added new dimensions to our understanding of Jesus’ life. We have always had the formal Communions (four times per year) and I valued the sense of community and presence of Christ amongst us in these. However, our recent September Communion changed everything for the Congregation.

In his sermon, John Jenkinson said that one of the very dangerous things about God is the silence of his coming, his invisibility and the fact that he is so very ordinary! John pleaded and urged that all those receiving the bread and wine should pause, and consider the simplicity of the elements, an ordinariness which illustrates that God comes to us in familiar, often small and simple ways. Jesus came as a carpenter! In Jesus’ life, he always noticed and revered and felt deep compassion for the least of his children, and as we take the elements we need to embrace his love for the simple, the care for the beggar and the refugee family in desperate need. That is the trouble with God; he will insist on being so very ordinary. We do not recognise him. This is one profound meaning embedded in the act of eating the bread and drinking the wine. In this simple process we are meeting the small God that Jesus saw in suffering humanity. This is not a symbolic act of the church, it is the living connection between the life of Jesus and his people in ordinary elements. Somehow, through your Communion, if you are sincere in searching for him in humility and asking forgiveness, Jesus will come to you and as the days go by, you will know it.

There are many meanings of Communion, but what was given to us on this September Communion Sunday was shocking but wonderful.

John Kusel, Cumbernauld

Communion has certainly changed over the years. My earliest recollection goes back to my first Communion in 1953.

The elders all wore formal attire (probably hired for the occasion). The congregation wore their ‘Sunday Best’. It was a solemn, dignified and uplifting service. To me the highlight was when the minister said words to the effect: ‘The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.’ This was followed by a time of silence for personal reflection.

Now, things are different. Formal dress has gone. The dark suits, white shirts and black ties which replaced it seem also to be on the way out. Some members of the congregation no longer wear ‘Sunday best’. The time of reflection following the ‘Peace’ has been replaced by the somewhat undignified spectacle of people dashing about shaking hands with one another.

The pattern for elders’ visits has also changed. Previously elders would visit at least eight days prior to Communion, this to enable members to attend the preparatory service which took place the Sunday before, or during the week prior to Communion.

In the old days, the Elders’ visit was quite an occasion. He was always invited into the house. Sad to say, in some instances this is not the case now. Sometimes the doorstep greeting is: “Do you want to come in?’ and after a short space of time the comment accompanied by a look at the clock is: ‘You’ll have more visits to do.’

Was it better then, or is it better now? All I can say is a lot more people attended Communion than do now.

W Findlay, Bishopbriggs, Glasgow

Prayer and Fresh Work

At our church staff bible study one recent morning, we were reading and discussing Judges chapter 6. At the start of the chapter, we read that God handed his people over to the Midianites for many years. This was because of the evil that the Israelites had done in God’s sight. No matter how hard the Israelites worked in their fields, the Midianites, Amalekites and others destroyed their efforts and Israel was impoverished. The Israelites were not able to work themselves out of their problems. But when they cried out to the Lord for help, God sent a prophet to them. The prophet did not immediately announce God’s help. Instead, he said that God had been good to the Israelites in the past, yet they had repaid God by revering the gods of their local culture and by turning away from God’s voice.

As we talked about this, we remembered that the General Assembly has called the Church to pray for God to do a fresh work amongst us. We were glad about this, but we also agreed that God will not answer that call for a fresh work unless God’s people are willing to recognise their sinfulness and turn away from it. Before we pray, we must look at ourselves and ask if we are missing God’s mark in some essential ways. We agreed that God will do a fresh work amongst us after prayer with repentance, on his terms. Never on ours.

Stef Fowler, Louis Kinsey (Rev) and Sue Thomson, St Columba’s Church, Bridge of Don, Aberdeenshire

Gospel debate

Further to the two responses in Life and Work (October), to my letter in the August edition, regarding the authentic gospel, can I offer some clarification? The prime source of our beliefs as Christians, is the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This is not officially disputed in the Church of Scotland, or any other mainstream church that I am aware of.

Your two correspondents, Messrs Hume and Hellier claim greater wisdom than the Apostle Paul by dismissing his 13 letters. By doing so they contradict the apostolic church and all of the great apologists for the Christian faith down through the centuries, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, George Whitfield, D L Moody, C H Spurgeon and Billy Graham.

They seem to have a selective approach to scripture and believe parts of the four gospels but seemingly not John 3 v1 6 or John 1 4 v 6, which tell us of a unique Saviour, whom we need to get access to the Father and who is able to save us from perishing due to our sinful nature. Mr Hume seems to believe the passage in Acts chapter 2 dealing with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost but seemingly not Acts chapter 4 v 1 2 which tells us that “Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

They seem only to look to the gospels, in the formation of their view of the of the cause and effect of the death of Jesus Christ. Does this mean that they have also dismissed the 3 9 books of the Old Testament? Jesus certainly didn’t and quoted widely from them. The Old Testament has much to say about the true meaning of the death of Christ and with regard to the substitutionary atonement, none clearer than Isaiah chapter 5 3 which tells us that: “He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.”.

The Gospel of Christ as described in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is not complicated, it is stated very clearly and the simplest of people are able to understand it. The confusion arises when religious people take it upon themselves to rewrite the gospel to suit their own perceived wisdom and that is a recipe for disaster.

Alex Glen,Elder, Glasgow: Sandyford Henderson Memorial

End profanity call

Cartoon: Bill McArthur

Watching the BBC drama “Strike – The Cuckoo’s Calling”, has made me realise that it is too long a time since complaints about the ever-increasing frequency of the F word on so many television programmes were publicised again.

What makes our predicament worse these days, not better, is that viewers are forever being “warned” about “strong language”, when the prevalence of the same off-the-shelf word, instead of the careful selection of pertinent and more telling adjectives and expletives, is proof of the writer’s weakness – as well as an insult to interested grown-ups at the receiving end.

Ever since I did my time in the army, I have understood the fairness of the old judgement “swearing like a trooper.” But that simile would never have been coined – and applied over centuries – if constant swearing (bad language) had been normative in society.

Back in the days when I stood on the terracing on Saturday afternoons at Tynecastle and Easter Road, just occasionally a supporter the worse for drink would let out a swear-word at the referee and immediately a strong male voice would be directed over our heads, “Boys present”, or “Ladies present”: and the culprit would get the message.

How things have changed for the worse! The big media cuckoos have been throwing out of the nest of civil culture a heritage of concern and decency for humanity’s vulnerable chicks.

As for the amoral spin-doctors who replaced bad language with strong language, they should be called back to their dictionary and their conscience.

Jack Kellet (Rev), Innerleithen

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