A worship service was held at 10.30am in the church building on Sunday 1 November.  The service was simultaneously broadcast on the Church Facebook page.  For the next four weeks, you can catch up here.

The Bible passages were Matthew 25: 31-40, John 20: 11-18, Luke 24:13-35, and Graeme Bell led and preached.   Sandra Bell read the Bible passages and led us in the intercessory prayer.

John writes:  Graeme Bell told us this morning that he frequently goes for walks around MacDonald Park. He often pauses at the end of the park overlooking the field beyond because he has seen deer there. Once, he was so excited about seeing one of these timid creatures that he pointed the deer out to another walker in the park. She shared his delight, and said ‘I’ve been walking here for 26 years, and I’ve never before seen a deer.’ Perhaps, Graeme suggested, she hadn’t actually been looking.

Graeme’s theme was ‘recognising Jesus’, whose presence is discerned by those who long for him, who are open to him, who look out for him. Graeme discussed Bible passages where Jesus was ‘recognised’.

He talked about Mary in the garden on the first Easter Sunday morning, thinking that the figure she saw through her tears was the gardener, and then, at the sound of his voice saying her grasped that it was Jesus, alive in front of her.

He described the mysterious stranger accompanying the travellers on the Emmaus Road, despondent after the crucifixion of Jesus. Inviting the stranger in to their house, they realise as he breaks bread that their mourning is over, for Jesus is alive, sitting at their table.

And Graeme spoke about Jesus’ teaching that he, Jesus, appears before us in the shape of all who are in need and in trouble.  In responding to them, whether we help them or ignore them, we are responding to Jesus himself.

There were two strands to Graeme’s thoughts about recognising Jesus.  In the first place, there is recognising that Jesus is who the Bible claims he is – the unique Son of God. That involves reading and research and reflection and openness. And the second strand is recognising the presence of Jesus with us, encountering him.

I loved Graeme’s thought of the deer in the overgrown field as a symbol of Jesus.  It reminds me of the ancient Christian symbol of the White Hart representing Jesus, the White Hart glimpsed in the forest around us.

Perhaps we are attracted to Jesus. We hear people speaking well of him, speaking of how he has transformed their lives. We’re reading the Bible, watching Youtube videos about evidence for the faith. But is he real? Can it be true?  And then we see a gleam of white between the trees of our  doubting.

Or perhaps we believe in Jesus, but fret because at times he  seems absent, far distant.  In the two resurrection stories we read today, we were reminded that Jesus drew near to people while they were mourning his absence.

At a level of faith, we can say ‘I believe that Jesus is present, both present in a spiritual sense, and present in the lives of all those I meet’ and yet to our emotions he can seem far distant and we long for that glimpse of the Hart among the trees.

And at a level of faith we choose to act as though certain of Jesus’ presence with us, and in his name treat others as we would treat him.  And then – after an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year – the time may come when the White Hart draws near, steps out of the shadow of the trees, steps into the clearing where we are standing. We throw our arms around his glistening neck as he says ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’

And the memory of kneeling before the White Hart will sustain our faith when once again we face struggles, and the trees press close together, and there is no flash of dazzling white.

(The image of the Hart is by Bill Brown on Pixabay. Copyright free)