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09/04/2002 Entry: "Keep me travelling along with you"

So it's official. At a special "Circuit Service" tonight my colleague was welcomed and I was inducted as Superintendent. So I'm stuck with it - and it with me! It was a very happy service. I got to sing two of my favourite hymns (Let earth and heaven agree and Lord of creation), my colleague Alf prayed extempore but sounded though he'd been crafting for days, and our District Chair preached a very touching sermon. It was one of those occasions that 'felt right' at every level and made me glad to be here.Wil's sermon raised an interesting point that I hadn't considered before. Almost in passing he remarked that for the people of Israel, Egypt had been a place of salvation. It was literally the place that enabled the survival of the people. In the Bible story, there could be no Israel without Egypt. But the place of salvation became a place of bondage and oppression. They needed to move on, but stayed put. "Treating an inn as though it were a home" was the way he put it."Moving on" is always uncomfortable, though Methodist ministers here do have to get used to it just as their congregations do. But journeying, moving on, pilgrimmage - these are essential metaphors in the Christian faith. For Jesus is always ahead of us, calling us as surely as he called 12 others long ago: "Follow me."

So every dayWe're on our wayFor we're a travelling, wandering raceWe're the people of God

Posted by Bene Diction @ 09/05/2002 02:08 AM CST