Page 2 - Contact Autumn 2017

a better story

As we head into another autumn season, As we face into diffi cult days ahead for the
a major thrust of what we are aiming to do in Church in the West and as we become more
High Kirk will be to nurture disciples. Nothing and more a minority voice, we will have to fi nd
different there from any other year of course a renewed belief in the Bible as the Word of
but, as many of us know, being a disciple in God and a restored confi dence that actually
modern Britain is not getting any easier. We we have a better story to tell; a story of human
are going through times of major upheaval and fl ourishing when we follow our Creator’s
confusion: the uncertainty of Brexit, increased instructions. This confi dence won over the
terrorist threat in Europe, widespread sexual pagan cultures of the early centuries and it
confusion and increasing disparity between can do so again, though not without cost and
the rich and the poor. As the Psalmist asked sacrifi ce. As we move into days of the Christian
in Psalm 11:3 “When the foundations are faith being marginalised we must continue to
being destroyed what can the righteous do?” show love, compassion and yet a commitment
Yes, being a disciple of Jesus Christ today is to the truth of the gospel. Only this can change
challenging. lives for the better.

And yet following Jesus has never been easy Paul writing to the church in the city of Corinth
and perhaps we have had it too good for too – a moral mess of a city if ever there was one
long. The Christian faith was born into a world - reminds the church that they were made up
very much like today, in fact it was worse. The of former pagans and people engaged in very
Greco/Roman world was pluralistic, immoral sinful lifestyles but he says “that is what some
and unfair. Sexual standards were much lower of you were. But you were washed, you were
than today; slavery was common and there was sanctifi ed, you were justifi ed in the name of
worship of a plurality of gods. One wonders the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.6:11). They
how the Christian faith grew at all never mind discovered a better story and a better hope
become the dominating infl uence in the world which lifted them from a sinful dead end life to
by the fourth century. It was because the an abundant and free life in Christ.
Christians had a better story and they
had the Holy Spirit. We have the same message today as modern
day disciples of Jesus. The fact that fewer in
our world believes our message does not mean
that we despair, rather we pray for more of
the Holy Spirit and we commit to live out a
distinctive, pure lifestyle. Our preaching
and teaching this Autumn is driven by the
conviction that we have a better story to tell.
Let’s continue to believe that and live it out
so that we might be salt and light. Our culture
needs us more than ever.

Blessings,
Norman