'See, I am doing a new thing!'

Jo Jeffery 

My thought for the week is eloquently expressed by Isaiah and Archbishop Stephen Cottrell ? Any additions I could make would be superfluous, except to invite you to ponder and to wonder. How might we express Jesus so that he can be heard and recognised in our culture today? What might be the “startlingly new” that God is asking us to envision together with him? 

Isaiah 43 v 18-19 18 

“Forget the former things;     

do not dwell on the past. 

See, I am doing a new thing!     

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 

I am making a way in the wilderness     

and streams in the wasteland.

Extract from “On Priesthood” by Archbishop Stephen Cottrell

The great composer Bruckner never completed his ninth symphony. It was the summation of his life’s work, but he died in 1896 before it was finished. The first three movements were written, but only fragments of the fourth movement remained. He told friends that the symphony was to culminate in a triumphant “Alleluia”, and was to be a hymn of praise to God. Most orchestras usually play the first three movements only. However, if there were to be a serious attempt to construct the missing movement what would be the best way to do it? Would we ask just one person? Or would it be better to gather together an experienced group of musicians, scholars and conductors who loved Bruckner’s music, and knew it intimately, and approach them? They would then completely immerse themselves in the first three movements and remaining faithful to them, and from their knowledge of Bruckner, produce the fourth. This fourth movement would be consistent with what is already written, but at the same time entirely new. 

The task facing the Church today is analogous to the writing of this fourth movement. The first three movements are written: they are the unfolding story of God’s involvement with the world he has made. You could say the first movement is the Old Testament, telling us how God chooses a people to make his purposes known and demonstrate his goodness. The second and central movement is the story of Christ, God’s disclosure of his nature and the story of how God reconciles the world to himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. And the third movement is the outpouring of the Spirit in the life of the Church and for the transformation of the world from Pentecost until yesterday.

But the fourth movement is not yet written. It is a song of God’s love for the world today; in order for it be sung, and so that it can be heard in the culture and circumstances of the different and very varied communities in which the Church serves, God is calling together a band of players – those who play the violin and those who play the spoons -  and he is asking us to so inhabit the beauty and purposeful melodies and rhythms of the first three movements that we will, for our day, for our parish, for our world, produce the fourth. It will be entirely consistent with what has gone before. It will be startlingly new. It will proclaim the faith afresh in each generation.