Pastoral Letters
Post Code
There are a number of books and other odds and ends scattered about my study floor. Occasionally, one of them reminds me it is there as I trip over it, and usually at the most inopportune moment: like, in the middle of a telephone conversation. Many will remain in their languid state possibly until I move out to 'pastures new', but each and all have their uses at least in the occasional moment.
But not so one dog-eared publication!
It's ingenious in its concept and very useful, when used in the correct frame of mind. It begun life, as far as I recall, as an experiment in the Norwich area of the country, when to each row of properties was attached something entitled a 'post code'. There was a unique number to a particular area, and the postal delivery service said it would enhance and speed up the delivery process, as this 'new code' would greatly help the sorting process.
Flushed with success the Royal Mail eventually rolled it out across the country and eventually every area had a distinctive marking they could really call their own. Do you know yours? But this book I referred to ---------- this 'Post Code directory for the Northeast' ----- is a valuable book. A few minutes study will reveal a division road by road; avenue by avenue; lane by lane and so on. Blocks of property with a particular code attached to them. Big businesses generate their own code. But these 'blocks of property' are still not that unique for there is nothing to set them apart from others in the block, or is there?
Try this ---------- place a surname on an envelope: then the house name or number; then the code ------- no street name, nor town name, required: it's all in that series of letters and numbers we call the 'post code' with a little bit of help from a house number and a name. And it will arrive ------ eventually given the vagrancies of the system and how much you pay for the stamp!!!!
Overall, an ingenious method of sorting things out. [What do they call it in the States, a zip code'?]
Do you ever regard YOURSELF in a similar vein?
When you think about it, as Methodists we are given a 'post code', whatever happens to be the one attached to the Church we belong, but that in itself distinguishes us from others: Methodist. Called together in Jesus' Name to worship God, Father Son and Holy Spirit in a distinct way as was formulated by our forefathers in the faith, and distinguished through such unique Acts of Worship as 'The Covenant Service' But we have all become aware that there are other 'post coded properties' nearby which also house people called 'Christian', but with other tags to them ….. Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist and so on. Sometimes we feel that we dare not encroach on such property as things are 'so different' that the system, what we can call 'our freedom of choice' could not cope. Then that becomes the 'excuse' we use for remaining in our 'denominational hole'.
Events over recent weeks have shown that 'exclusiveness' can be a term we can bury in history and then take the wonderful exciting step of worshipping and working together. Yes, maybe our fore bearers in the faith would anguish and gnash their teeth at what we are doing, but we are simply and very effectively, carrying out what the Lord commanded us to do …… 'To be one, as He and the Father are one'.
While the present postal system may divide us on the basis where our plant is, it cannot hold us back from rejoicing with one another as Christians in our various localities. As the book of letters and numbers may becoming outdated, so too may our attitude to one another, as 'rival' Christian camps. There have been many wonderful 'signs of God' around since 2006 begun. Let's no blind ourselves to the wonderful 'movement of the Wild Goose' [the Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit] and rejoice that it has touched our community and seeks to work among us.