CLERGY LETTER FOR

JUNE 2010

The Rev'd Derek Hinge writes....

Mountains have been on my mind lately.  It all began with the magnificent achievement of the group of parents and teachers from our school in climbing the three highest peaks in Britain within twenty-four hours, to raise money for the new nursery.  And that made me think about ‘mountain top’ experiences which is the way Christians sometimes describe the defining moments of their spiritual journey.

Perhaps that idea is derived from events in the Gospels when the disciples had experiences with Jesus that were formative in their understanding of him.  One such happened on the day before I am writing this, namely Ascension Day.  Then he took them to the top of the Mount of Olives, and with his last words to them ringing in their ears, he finally disappeared from their sight as a bodily presence.  Far from being sad, we read that they went back into the city in a mood of joyous worship.   And we could add the Transfiguration of our Lord as another similar experience that led the disciples into a deeper understanding of him and a call to a deeper commitment to the practical outworking of the Kingdom.

By the time this issue is published we will have celebrated Pentecost, that extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit of God that Jesus had promised.  The disciples were fired with a new energy and power that was unmistakably the unseen presence of Jesus fulfilling the promise he had made ‘to be with them to end of time’.  Although this event did not take place on the top of a mountain, it can surely be counted as perhaps the mountain-top experience of all time!

Sometimes we talk of people having to climb mountains in the sense of facing a daunting task that requires a lot of physical, mental and spiritual energy.  In some ways our political leaders, following the General Election, are going through this sort of experience having to weigh lots of different demands while keeping focused on the important issues for this country and its people.   Such experiences can be the stuff from which dreams come, because dreams are clear views of possibilities, the sort of clear views you can only get on the top of a mountain!

But our Christian journey cannot be just a string of ‘mountain-top’ experiences.  We have to come down from the mountains and live the experiences we have had in the nitty-gritty of our everyday world. Our on-going journey is to discern the hand of God in all that goes on around us.  I was reminded recently of a story that Anthony de Mello tells.  ‘A fish is searching for the ocean.  Everyone he has asked has heard of this thing called “ocean”, but no one has any idea of what it looks like, or where it might be found.  Maybe it is just wishful thinking.  Or maybe it is the ultimate reality in which every fish lives and moves and has its being.  Maybe it is the mystery that nourishes every fish and sea creature and keeps them alive and growing.  Maybe it is the place in which every little stirring of the water, every hidden current guides the course of every fish, from the smallest plankton to the mighty whale.  Maybe it is the one true home.’

A mountain top experience may be very rare, but if you too are searching for this elusive ocean in which you live and move and have your being, then look no further than what is all around you.  God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, so close that we can’t see the ocean for the water, closer than our own breathing, less than a heartbeat away.  And the Spirit of God is released in us every day to give fresh insights, new visions, dreams to pursue, - mountain tops waiting to point us closer to God.

With love and prayers,  Derek.