Like many others, I have had to do things differently during this lockdown. I am fortunate in being able to work from home and that I live in a large house with a big garden (my family and I are never on top of each other). I look out of the vicarage widow and wonder what I is like for those in flats, especially if they have young children. Let us pray for those who find this lockdown difficult and frightening. I am learning new skills. I continue to learn about video and sound editing as I produce Masses, reflections and other services for YouTube. One of the strangest things I have done so far has been going to Margot’s house to record the Angelus while maintaining social distancing. I remained 2 meters away with the recorder while Margo was singing into microphone in her front garden. Margo had to contend with the wind and passing cars as she was singing (I hope you will all enjoy the results so that Margo and I can consider our time well spent). Arranging a funeral has also been very different from the usual as I can’t visit the bereaved family and we will be limited to a handful of mourners at the crematorium. Other things have been less strange, though in their way just as unusual (such as helping Stanhope hall deliver food parcels on Wednesdays). As we look forward, we hope that we will be able to do more things as restriction are slowly released. However, it is likely that life won’t return to normal for at least another year: even then we may have to find a new normal for our lives. Jesus’ disciples also had to find a new normal after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The old certainties had gone, destroyed by Jesus’ death. Jesus’ resurrection didn’t return the disciples life to normal because Jesus was with then in a new and different way. Jesus used the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension to explain to his disciples that he was going back to the Father and that they would have to find a new normal. Jesus promised that they would get help to find a new way of living. That help came on the day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. It took a long time for Jesus’ followers to work out what the new normal was for their lives. Indeed 2 millennia later we are still finding new ways to follow Jesus in, and we still need the Holy Spirit to guide us. Let us pray that both in this pandemic and in our lives of faith we will learn to follow God better.
When we cleared the garden at the North side of St Albans in the Autumn, we cut back many plants including some winter flowering Jasmine. I remember the previous year that it hardly had any flowers. The had Jasmine had spread a lot and I had previously dug up a small piece and transplanted in the vicarage garden. I dug a hole, out in some chicken pellet manure and planted the Jasmine. It was a lot of work watering the garden in the summer and that included the small jasmine plant. The summer was very hot, and plants didn’t grow much because of the lack of water. Akole and I were rewarded when the small winter jasmine plant was covered in yellow flowers giving a little colour to our garden in the winter.I am reminded of The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree In the gospel according to St Luke (13:6-9). Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So, he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’The parable strikes me as both an encouragement and a warning for St Alban’s. The work that we have done for the Heritage Lottery Fund Grant to repair our roof, create better access and develop contacts with the community is a great opportunity. It is metaphorically digging around us and putting manure on us. We need to grasp the opportunity and work together for our church to grow and fruit. This is not the work of any individual or a small group, it is the work of the whole church.We start off with the advantage of a church that is welcoming, and we have seen the fruit of that this year as some new people have joined us. We need to do more though, not only to get visitors to stay but to reach out and encourage others to come to our church.I hope that by giving pruning the jasmine in the church garden, cutting back the trees that shadowed it and using fertilizer the Winter Jasmine round out church will one day brighten the cold months once again.
