The Church by the Bridge - 100 Years of Good News
Last week whilst travelling along the Ridgeway near Tring, all of a sudden I came across dozens of runners coming the other way. All had a race bib on and were clearly going places.
Once back home I looked it up and it turned out that they all were competitors running the Ridgeway from Ivinghoe Beacon all the way down to Avebury which is 86 miles in total. They had 28 hours to do it. Having subsequently followed the race online, out of the 115 competitors the winner came in after 15 hours 32 minutes and the last one 25 minutes before the cut-off time, having been on the move for nearly 28 solid hours! Also out of the 115, 40 did not finish.
Quite a feat for everyone involved!
The apostle Paul likens our faith journey to a long race. A race that does not win itself but one where we need to keep training for and working at. Different to a race of 28 hours, our faith race can take a lifetime. The difference between a faith race and a running race is that there is no cut-off if we are not good enough or fast enough. The only cut-off happens if we ourselves decide not to continue or persevere with Jesus Christ.
Looking ahead to this coming Sunday, the even better news is that Jesus knows that it is not easy on a faith journey. Like a physical race we need various ‘top-up’ stations or coming together as a community in the name of Christ, in other words ‘church’. Without receiving and being in fellowship and without getting spiritual third party input, we very much run the risk of getting low on spiritual fuel or simply running dry.
So, just like there is a pacer in many road races Jesus has also given us a pacer. A pacer is someone that one can follow and tune in to since the pacer knows what speed is right for us to finish the race. ‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God.’ (John 14:16,17a)
This pacer we have is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, part of the Trinity, has been poured out to all believer on Pentecost 2,000 years ago and since then to all confessing believers.
The Holy Spirit is with us day and night keeping us moving in the direction that we need to go in to finish the race to God’s purpose.
On Sunday we will be celebrating Pentecost, a truly special day, and a day which in my home country is still rightly celebrated through a bank holiday.
As we come together to be spiritually refreshed on Sunday, we will also celebrate the amazing pouring out of the Holy Spirit which has set in motion events that led to the spread of the message of the Good News, Christianity, from Jerusalem out into the world.
Have a blessed Pentecost
Kai