REFLECTION

These two passages throw up a lot of questions! They have been the subject of many a debate among Christians in my lifetime and I guess for many generations that have gone before.

This weekend is traditionally "Smarber" weekend at Low Row. People gather in the unofficial car park on the Friday evening, walk up to the old chapel that once was the hunting lodge of Philip, Lord Wharton. He was a Parliamentarian during the Civil War but opposed the execution of Charles 1. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London later on but eventually became Privy Councillor to William III.

Before his death he started distributing Bibles to children and young people who had learned passages by heart and the charity continues to this day. Indeed there are members across the Pastorate in proud possession of 'Lord Wharton Bibles'.

I am sure there were many debates about these passages during those turbulent years of our national history.

The same would have been true of the dissenting group meeting at the Market Cross in Northallerton and then moving into the present building just over 200 years ago.
Reading Darlington's history in the book by Harry Bunting, "Through the Blue Doors", its roots to go back to the Commonwealth period of Lord Wharton when St Cuthbert's was, for 15 years, Presbyterian. Although the present building is just over 150 years old, many of its congregation are made up of former Presbyterian and Congregational members from Union Street Congregational Church and St George's Presbyterian Church using the latter's building. The debate would have gone on within these walls too.

For the main question is "How should we live together as Christian people".

Just a month or two ago I think our answer would have been "we meet together to worship, share the sacraments and learn from each other, and we seek to follow Christ's example in our daily living". Long ago the selling of possessions and distributing to those in need had been dispensed with as the fledgling churches established themselves and by the time 1 Peter was written there seemed to be the problematic question about Christian slaves and Masters and how they should behave. Before we jump to the conclusion that this endorses slavery we need to note that there was still the expectation that Christ's return was coming soon and to question the current socio-economic- political status quo was not top of the agenda; especially in the light of local persecution.

So what has changed? Well we can't meet physically together but we are finding ways to worship together - even if not sharing the time or space, and we are sharing worship in wider contexts - through TV, radio, facebook, zoom, YouTube.

We are finding ways to learn from each other - Skype and email Bible Studies. Deeper and more meaningful phone calls and emails. Many are also reaching out in their care for the wider community seeking ways to follow Christ's example in daily living - volunteering, sewing bags and scrubs and keeping an eye on friends and neighbours. Prayers too are more meaningful because they are more focused and there is more time to sit and really concentrate and we have heard instances where people have felt very comforted because people are praying - even at many miles distant.

But that leaves the sacraments. Those things which hold and bind us in a deeper fellowship as we Baptise and as we share bread and wine together knowing that God reveals himself, in Christ, in a more profound way in these actions of using the symbols of water, bread and wine.

However, I was really surprised by the phrase 'they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts'. It almost hit me on the forehead, as it were, Doh! My Salvation Army friends and Quaker family members would say 'at last!' 'You get it!'. For isn't every meal an opportunity to meet with Christ not only in remembering to give thanks for God's provision in the food we are about to receive - but in all those occasions when Jesus ate and drank with all sorts of people and 'graced' them with his presence.

Now I am not advocating that we give up our practice of sharing Communion with each other once we are back together, but in the meantime perhaps we can just spend an extra moment or two before every meal - not just to give our normal thanks for it and remember those who have nothing, or very little, but also take that moment to reflect that Christ is our Shepherd and our Guardian and we are enfolded in the love and care of Christ just as our forefathers and foremothers were in their times and in their sufferings too.

We have a deep and rich heritage and one we will be there to pass on in time to come - but in the meantime may we continue to worship, continue to pray, continue to break bread and continue In our daily living to God's glory.