I've Been Thinking About This…

Well, made it to St. Neot’s Evangelical Church today, no probs. The car has a GPS on it, so I used that to navigate through the villages. It took a bit of working out, but once I understood it, it was a breeze. Driving through the villages, temp around 70, sunny, window open … spiffy.

And what a wonderful church! Small-ish building – not at all churchy; open and airy; very friendly people; pretty good praise band; good message. Their pastor, Mike Kendall, spoke on the passage where Christ went up to Tyre (I’d not thought about that sidetrip until he read it), and then healed the Syro-Phoenician woman’s little girl of possession. I was starting to get a bit bothered at one point – I wanted him to recognize that this woman had to be smart as a whip to come back with that response that fast (”even the dogs get the scraps”); a minute later he was there saying it. I think that must be some indication of a good preacher – or perhaps a Spirit-led teacher – that the sermon to that point has been so lucid that the listeners are tracking slightly ahead of you. That allows the listener the satisfaction of feeling that the preacher agrees with them! when actually he has brought them along step by step.

One of Mike’s points was that a Gentile was the first to grasp what Christ was saying in His parable without having to have it explained by Him. She almost laid claim to a relationship with this Jewish God, despite being a Gentile at a time when Christ’s message was for the Jews (first). It made me think of Abraham’s slave (I always assume it was Eleazar, although the text just says ’slave’) who went up to Hebron [woops! just re-read - I meant Haran, obviously!] and was the first Gentile to pray to God – he starts off, “Oh God of my master Abraham…” and proceeds to ask for directions about Isaac’s bride. Thing is, the only other person who had prayed to Abraham’s God since the covenant was initiated was … Abraham himself.

A very nice young woman sitting next to me gathered me up as we stood up afterwards and talked at the speed of summer lightening. One downside to this building at coffee hour – it’s very hard to hear; noise bounces off those walls. So I had to keep asking her to repeat. She then dragged my life story out of me; we talked about various church issues; she gave me more names of books to read, which I’ve added to my Amazon list (Total Church and Living Church), both of which the pastor had recommended to her. Then for deeper insight she forwarded me on to the elders, who were also very helpful.

So I came away edified, helped and connected – again, a testament to a church that’s doing its job.

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