ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD
The Iron Road
A man there was who traveled by train from Charing Cross to Ramsgate on the morning of 5th May 1952. According to his recollection it left the station soon after 10am. The carriage he traveled in, an open plan car with entry doors at each end and seats arranged in banquettes of four each with a central gangway, was no more than half full with plenty of free places. He chose one in the banquette nearest the door with its back to the engine, the facing one being occupied. He, this man, remembers the first stop at Chatham, when some got out and a few got in.
From there on he remembers nothing until the train was running into Sittingbourne, although it was scheduled to stop at Gillingham. But he was not alone and he could see his companion though there was nothing to see, and he could hear him though there was nothing to hear. He said, this companion, "I think you are looking for me." And he, this man, replied, "Who are you?" He got no answer because he knew who he was.
His first memory is of the station signs below the acorn-shaped lights, the green roundels of the Southern Region of British Rail with a straight bar bearing the name of the station in white. The memory is crystal clear and sharp to this day.
The next thing he noticed was the other passengers. The carriage was crowded, with all the seats occupied except the three in his banquette, and many standing in the gangway, from Gillingham he supposed. They were watching him, their eyes wary and puzzled and, though for no reason he could discern, frightened. He couldn’t think why. Or why they did not sit in the three free seats in the banquette. At that moment the train slowed to a stop and the doors opened. A few alighted and a few boarded. One of them was a man. He looked at the standing crowd, then at the empty seats. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he sat own in the seat facing him, this man that is. Immediately two standing passengers, quicker in the uptake than others, followed suit.
The question is, what was troubling all those standing who eyed this man so strangely? Did they think he was drunk though it was no more than 11.00 in the morning? Possessed? Lunatic? Did he do strange things? Say anything?
I was that man. That day I placed my hands between the King’s hands and became his man. I cannot so continue but by virtue of His indwelling presence in me. My constant fear is that in some moment of madness or folly or stupidity I will pull my hands away and be no more His man. But this has never happened – not yet. Every time it has threatened, as it does from time to time, for the choice is wholly mine, that grip far from slackening has tightened, holding me, giving me pause, bringing me to my senses once more.
It was many years before it began to dawn on me why it might be that those people look at me so strangely. On the day of Pentecost, when a roaring wind and the touch of fire rested on those gathered together, they found themselves speaking in strange tongues, "as the Spirit gave them utterance". Could it be that is what happened to me on that 5th May 1952? I know not, God knows.
John Rae, 2000
A Lay Minister's Thoughts (1)
In a sermon I recently heard, the preacher said that God has a way of nudging us when he wants us to do something for him. I remember one of the first nudges he gave me, long ago. I was sitting quietly in church, and in my head I heard a question. He spoke my name and then said "Will you tell my children about me?"
In my head I answered, "Yes, Lord, of course I will."
I was teaching young children at the time, and I thought to myself, "That’s easy. I’ll tell the children a few more Bible stories."
Little did I realise that I’d end up, after appropriate training, talking to God’s children from a pulpit.
Is God is wanting something else from you? Don’t be too busy to listen. Following the Way is never dull.
A Lay Minister's Thoughts (2)
I get bothered about the passages in the Bible that separate God’s people from ‘The World’.
‘The Church’ is a gift from God, and we are the Church. It seems in many passages that the World is to be avoided. It is not of God. But Jesus ministered to the World. Imagine a beautiful garden. The flowers and shrubs are tenderly cared for, and the weeds are pulled up and destroyed. Is ‘the World’ like the weeds in the garden, things to be destroyed? But God created the weeds and he loves them.
It has been said by people who know about such things that weeds are really only plants growing in the wrong place.
We all want comfort and security in our lives. I believe that we become ‘the World’ that the scriptures talk about when we value our possessions and our comfort far more than we care about truth and other people’s comfort and security. ‘I want’ is more important than ‘I’d like’ or ‘I need’.
When the Church values buildings more than people; when the Church puts more energy and thought into financial problems than into spreading the Word of God, maybe then the Church becomes the World, as understood by the writers of the New Testament.