The Church Today
The following story was recalled by Major Beverley McCombe in our meeting last Sunday morning.
Major Beverley
Fishing Story (Muir adaptation of Hollinghurst)
Once upon a time, there was a large lake. It was a lake rich in fish as a large river ran into it feeding it constantly with fresh water. On the shores of the lake there was a community who lived by fishing from it. The community was strong and prosperous as fish were plentiful and so easy to catch.
A time came when they noticed that their catches were dwindling and some days they caught nothing at all. The community began to be anxious and to wonder what was going wrong as they were not doing anything different from what they usually did. They decided to investigate.
Now earthquakes were not unknown in this area and indeed a large one had happened a few years before. As they investigated they found that the earthquake had thrown up a ridge diverting the river that fed their lake miles in a new direction. They decided to sail down it to find where it now went. They found it opened out into a strange new lake they had never seen before. Some of the weirdest people they had ever seen were fishing round this lake. Not one of them was fishing properly with a boat and a net but they were using all sorts of strange methods and were landing catches of the strangest looking fish they had ever seen. They decided to see if they, too, could catch some of these unusual fish, so they put their boat onto the lake, sailed out and lowered their nets. Nothing. They tried every trick they knew but they caught not one single fish.
Dejected, they went back home and called a meeting so the whole community could discuss what to do. Some said they clearly would never get fish from the new lake and would simply have to keep fishing the old one; after all there were more fish in it yet and perhaps still enough to last their lifetime. Others suggested that, if they waited long enough, perhaps another earthquake would divert the river back to their lake again. Others again suggested that if they redesigned the boat, the fish in the new lake might be attracted to it. Others faced the fact that the old lake was soon going to have no fish left and suggested that they would have to find a way to fish the new lake or the community had no future.
What were they to do? What would you do, for indeed this is our story, the story of the Church in Britain in the first decade of the 21st century.
Food for thought? This story is in keeping with the theme of vision which we are exploring at this time of year. We pray that God will show us what to do and guide us in doing it.