Wrapped Up, Warmed Up

The chilly weather came late November, with chapel-goers reporting temperatures as low as -7 centigrade. This cold snap was immediately followed by Storm Bert (is it no longer possible to suffer a windy day which does not now warrant its own Christan name?) bringing gusts and rain. Despite Bert's low pressure restoring milder temperatures, I decided that it was time to light the fire. So for the first time this autumn, I sit at my laptop with the flames dancing about the sawn pallet wood I keep feeding them. Although the novelty wears thin by January, I must confess that there is something quite pleasant about sitting by a fire while seeing the branches sway and the rains fall beyond the window pane.

Earlier in the week, I walked to chapel for our morning Bible Study, a 5-6 mile hike along the narrow lanes and across the snow strewn fields. There I had no fire with me (though I cycled to chapel last week with a hot water bottle shoved up my jumper) but I was well wrapped up: a sheepskin coat over a woolly jumper, a woollen hat, leather gloves and boots, and denim jeans. Despite the low temperature, I was not cold. Indeed, the hat kept coming off, so hot was the head.

While sitting by the fire, I absorb the heat, bask even. Outside in the cold, it is a matter of retaining whatever heat I already have, or what my body can generate. This is a picture of a church: it retains and it absorbs. It warms the people it has, and seeks to obtain new. A biblical church is not an old-fashioned mission hall, each sermon purely evangelistic in content, each service as 'seeker friendly' as possible. Neither is it a holy huddle, a smugly contented group of the elect with no regard or concern for those outside. As a pastor, and as Christian people, let us warm those already in, shielding them from the icy blasts of the world, while also receiving and fascinating those from without, seeking to bring in as well as to keep hold. So warm your cockles by the fire, and wrap up warm when you venture out.