| One phrase that I have come across several times over the years is, ‘you (or one) can (or should) never go back’.
Not never go back in terms of never visiting somewhere that has been important to us in the past – I received an invitation to visit my old school some time ago and look forward to finding the opportunity when I’m in the area sometime to go for a nose and to reminisce – but that once one has e.g. left a former employer, one should avoid going to work for the same company or person again. The reason being that some of those who have taken such a step have later regretted it making the comment either, ‘it wasn’t the same’, or ‘it was exactly the same’ perhaps remembering why they had decided to leave first time around.
So I find myself brought up short when I read passages like this one, often from a prophet of the Hebrew Bible, that speak and yearn for restoration. The Israelite/Jewish people found that life back in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile even once the Temple had been rebuilt was very different to how life had been beforehand. Times had changed and the experience of history meant the people were not exactly the same as they were before either.
Sometimes when I hear Christians of all denominations speak of their dreams for their church it sounds rather like a yearning for how they remember their fellowship used to be. When there were pews and the first however many rows were filled with children and young people on a Sunday morning. The young people would go to their groups leaving older members comfortably sat at the back of the chapel – another reason perhaps why it is so hard to persuade our congregations to sit at the front!
But while it would of course be lovely to have more people, of more ages, worshipping in our churches on a Sunday morning, I realise now that this is not what I yearn for or want above anything else for our churches.
I dream of a Church where people are growing as Christian disciples. Becoming more like Jesus. Becoming more confident at sharing their faith with the people they encounter: family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, acquaintances alike. A Church within a society that lives out the belief that God is for All.
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