Snow

 

Here’s a photo of All Saints in this morning’s snow. I think it looks rather lovely or is it really rather forbidding?

Snow can look so attractive, and I am sure that we were all dreaming of a White Epiphany. Yet when it causes inconvenience, not to mention chaos, our enthusiasm can wane very quickly.

This cold snap reminds me of a line from the hymn “Thy Kingdom come, O God” where halfway through we have the opportunity to sing the line “By countless deeds of shame, we learn that love grows cold”. It’s not the most positive sentiment, and if we sing it I find myself wondering what the author intended. Or what he had experienced.

This weeks’ report from Ireland about the orphanages where the children of unmarried mothers were kept in shocking conditions, resulting in many extra deaths, makes one realise that love was in short supply. It was more about judgment on the mothers and their children, it seems, while the men or boys just disappeared. Another horror story about faith gone wrong, of love gone cold.

In the 1980’s there was a song called “You have placed a chill in my heart”. The Eurythmics describe an abusive relationship, and the need to “leave that ‘love’ behind”.  Sadly, we are very aware that a lack of love in early years can cause grief in later life, and abuse makes trusting and committing very difficult.

The disunity of the Christian church is another example of love gone cold. We are called to be one in Christ, but history got in the way, and placed a chill in many hearts. Nowadays we try to work together to give care in the community, and we have moved away from the suspicion and heresy-hunting. And yet the world sees the lack of unity, and it does not inspire faith. Jesus prayed that we would be one “that the world may believe”.

Our service of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place on Wednesday week, 27^th January at 7.30pm. I am preparing it now, and I hope that you can join us for this Zoom service which is entitled “Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit”. As fruit needs the warmth of the sun, our wintry hearts need thawing to recognise one another as brothers and sisters within the warm, intense glow of the love of God.