My Final Ramblings as Lay Chair

Dodgy times? Well, ‘Always look on the bright side of life…’ Sing along, singing always gives us a lift even if you can only manage to warble in the shower in true Monty Python style.

As I tap away on my keyboard, rambling into my last offering as Asterby Group Lay Chair, I do wonder about the shape of things in the next few years.  Our rollercoaster world is charging through 2025 and the global picture for this year remains just as disturbing as last year’s picture, if not worse.

Nations across the globe are unsettled, uncertain, under severe economic or violent pressure. Leaders think in the short term and self-benefit is a way of life.  Statesmen who speak and act for his/her people and their future, no longer exist.  Mighty powers sign up to save the planet then later, walk away from their signature or simply baulk in the first place.

Geo-politics has taken on the ‘grab it’ style of rhetoric.  Tolerance, agreement and cooperation have slipped away.  We are forever trying to interpret the language of the sound bite, often intended to be deeply inflammatory and destructive. Shameful!

Just as the world has become ‘extreme’, so the weather beat us to it! Our January cold was bracing but the amount of water that fell as rain, sleet or snow was alarming, and a serious issue for many people with their homes messed up yet again.  There have been the flames of L.A., now fixed in our memories for ever.  Since then, nature has had its say in other ways with bulbs bursting into carpets of colour and birds courting, displaying their finest plumage and song that declares the new life of Spring.  There is some brightness after all.

Where else is there light?  My wife and I are in our Heinz year of marriage and still find our lives illuminated by each other and our wonderful family; our children and their wives; our grandchildren and, an awesome great-grandson. In your family, I hope love is thriving as well.

As ever, a month or so ago we all celebrated Christmas with giving, receiving, and sharing.  There was plenty of sparkle and light. Did a thankful thought slip into your mind for the Christchild’s birth or, was it a tag-on, a Christmas decoration?  The calendar now, leads us towards Easter, when the short ministry of Christ was snuffed out, only to Resurrect on Easter Day into a message of ‘hope’ that still illuminates the lives of people 2000 years later.  While there are many glimmers of light in the world, we need more.  I think the world needs the transforming light of Jesus’ teachings.  Distortions of their meaning have been with us from the beginning of the church and likewise in other religions as we well know, but take the kernel of it all, ‘Love God, love your neighbour as yourself’ and you have a sound foundation to start with.

I do wonder…..Was LOVE born at Christmas or, after Good Friday ended it all, was it born again on Easter Day?  New Years resolutions have long faded, or are perhaps hanging on, just, but your own private meeting with Christ could and would stand the test of time. A resolution for eternity.  That’s a complete renewal, a case of being born again to a life without end. A path worthy of serious consideration and adoption?

The Good Friday service, held in the natural amphitheatre that is Red Hill (18^th April at 10.00am) is a great place in our beautiful Wolds to come and join hundreds, to ponder the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and maybe find some of that ‘Peace that Passes all Understanding’ for yourself.  Red Hill is a great place to take a walk after the service to fire up the appetite and think about those Easter Eggs you’ll be giving and receiving 2 days later. Do come.

In the meantime, God Bless and keep you and thanks for rambling with me. And, yes, SING!

George
Acting Lay Chair, Parochial Church Council of the Asterby Group of Parishes