St Stephen On-The-Cliffs, Holmfield Road, Blackpool, FY2 9RB Telephone Parish Office: 01253 353894 Email:
Parish Clergy: Vicar, Canon Andrew Sage
letter for September
When Father Andrew asked me to do the letter for the September, my heart sank.
This reaction of mine wasn’t so much because I hadn’t the time to compose a letter, but because the request was the first sign that Summer was almost over again….and that before long we would be back in the monsoon/hurricane season again in Blackpool as our Illuminations are switched on.
And that got me thinking, why do people flock in their thousands to come and see the Illuminations every year, sometimes returning faithfully year after year? There would no doubt be different responses to this question, were I to go interrogating visitors :- “A grand day out”, “because the kids enjoy it” etc. …but at the root of many of the responses will be a single reason…because they are different, because there is nothing like them back home.
For someone like myself who has grown up with the Illuminations, this is sometimes hard to appreciate. The idea of walking (or crawling) down Blackpool promenade looking at coloured light bulbs every night just doesn’t appeal to me. …but then I don’t think the Promenade is the best place to see the Illuminations from anyway. For me the best viewing platform is somewhere out to sea. I found this out a few years ago, on the Isle Of Man ferry one very rough September night, when I was returning physically, mentally and spiritually drained after the hardest week of mission I have ever been on. From somewhere in the middle of Morecambe Bay, I could see the whole sweep of the Illuminations from Bispham down to Squires Gate shining out into the darkness of the night. It was more than a welcome sight, I can say that for certain…., and it really was more than that for what I could see in those Illuminations is what we in the church are to be about, shining out into the darkness which surrounds us (not that I could appreciate that at the time though !!!)
A few years earlier I had been to the “Spring Harvest” Christian celebration which had been themed around us “being light” that particular year. The organizers had had difficulty deciding whether to name the programme “Lights of the World”, “Lights to the World” or “Lights for the World” that year. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, because as far as I was concerned, we are called to be all three in relation to our world. Looking back however, I‘m not really convinced about the “s“ at the end of “light“
You see, looking at what Our Lord said, He didn’t use the “s”. He called us the light of the world (Matthew 5.14), just as He Himself was The Light of the World (John 8.12 & 9.5). That is important because it is exclusive and it is singular
It is exclusive in that He is The Light of the world, and we are The Light of the world in Him. God has provided no other light to guide people to Himself, other than himself incarnate in Jesus the Christ and latterly ourselves, the church, the body of Christ. That is a tremendous privilege, but it is also a tremendous responsibility
It is singular because we are called the light, not lights. We are children of the light. There is effectively only one light, and that is Our Lord shining out of the hearts of us, His church (2Coritnthians 4.6). Whilst each of us is called to have a personal relationship with the Godhead through Jesus Christ, an integral part of that relationship is our incorporation into Christ, into the body of Christ, the church, rather than trying to go it on our own
Thinking back to that view of the Illuminations from the middle of Morecambe Bay, if there had been one single light bulb shining in the Illuminations , it wouldn’t have attracted my attention, in fact it probably wouldn’t have been that noticeable at all. Similarly if someone had moved all of the light bulbs and freezes of the Illumination displays and resituated at random points along the coast from Knott End down to Lytham St Annes, the display, although complete in a sense, would have lacked order, attractiveness and effectiveness. It’s only because those lights were together, in the place assigned to each of them by a designer who had an overall view of a big picture, that they were able to make the visual impression which they did.
Going on from there, had the Illuminations display consisted of a single colour the length of the Promenade, the whole view, although visibly arresting at first, would have lacked sufficient interest or beauty to hold attention for long. It was the colours, the intensity and the design of the Illuminations set in the context of that stormy night, that gave it what is now currently known as that “wow” factor
Putting this into context for ourselves at St Stephens, we as individual light bulbs need to have our own personal connection to the mains power supply (that’s God) in order to shine as we should, but as those bulbs we are to shine, as we shine best… as a united light, as the light of the church. We are all different. We are may be of “different colours, sizes and shapes and backgrounds“. We may have different gifts and abilities, different experiences, different views on various matters. but we are all to shine together with one purpose, to be seen, to give light, to draw people back to God
My friends in Christ. We live in dark times. For ourselves as a local expression of the church, facing the financial challenges we do, the future is uncertain. For ourselves of our tradition, within the Church of England as present, the future is similarly uncertain. We are aware of these issues already, they have been well documented elsewhere, they already occupy our time and energies and you do not need me to go into detail about them.
Looking outward, towards the world, our present and our future looks even darker. We only have to watch news bulletins, pick up newspapers or access the internet to find this out. It is into this darkness, a darkness which is far deeper far more threatening and far more evil than the Irish Sea ever was back in September 2000, that we are called to shine for Christ.
We are called to be light in the world - we are the only real light our world has
We are called to be light for the world - showing them a better way. The way of Christ
We are called to be light to the world - guiding them to God
We are called to be light together - we are to stick together in the service, worship and witness of Christ, come hell or high water
We are called to be light for each other. Some of you may know, have heard (or even sung) a modern Christian song was is known simply as “The Servant Song”. It’s a song committing ourselves to the service of each other, rather than God direct, and it contains the line “I will hold the Christlight for you, in the nightime of your fear” . The line is a simple but powerful commitment which we need to be willing to make to each other.
All of us have received the light of Christ. Let us then walk in that light and be that light every day of our lives. Shine as light in the world to the glory of God the Father
Ian
