"Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt, doesn't stop me dreaming."

Three Lions - Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds



As a devoted England fan, I know what it's like to hold on to past glories.  I was born 15 years after England won the 1966 football World Cup, but I could tell you all you'd want to know about the match.  Each player who took part is a hero (as exemplified by the reaction to Alan Ball's death), and around the time of every major international football tournament, we are treated to yet another documentary linked to the 1966 World Cup team.  We are forever reminded of their achievement and will be until another England football team wins either the World Cup or the European Championship.  Were that to happen, they too would be venerated until the next time, and so the cycle will continue.

But why am I blogging about this now? It's simply becuase I believe we see the same phenomenon occuring in the church.  When there seems to be a lean spell, we look back with misty eyes on the glory days - we tell stories of when all the churches were full and when England was a Christian country, we recall the great revivals of the past, the Billy Graham crusades, the Toronto Blessing and we remember just how good things used to be and long for it to be the same again.  

In St Mary's, one of the churches where I have begun my placement, there is this same sense of longing for the past glories to return.  Although always part of the same parish as St Helen's, there was a time when the church had its own minister to look after it and each minister and their family attracted growth, as these families brought other families with them through their links with the local schools.  Members of the congregation remember these days of growth with great fondness and long for them to return.  But the reality is that the church is unlikely to have its own minister for the forseeable future and therefore growth will not happen the way it used to.  This is a very difficult thing to come to terms with.  It's not easy to let go, but let go is what they must do - what we all must do if we are to get on board with the plans God has in store for us.

Look at this passage in Isaiah 43:

16 This is what the LORD says—he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.“

God is speaking to the exiled Israelite people who'd been kicked out of the promised Land and reminds them of the glory days of the Exodus, when the waters of the Red Sea were miraculously parted for God's chosen people.  No doubt that the exiles would know the story well - they probably told each other these stories to keep them going and remind them that their God was strong and sovereign and capable of miracles.  But amazingly, he tells them to "forget the former things; do not dwell on the past."  Why? "See! I am doing a new thing ... I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."  You see, God invites them to forget the past and let go, so that they can be released to see what God wants to do now. 

I believe that the message God gave to the Israelites is the same message he's giving to us now.  It may seem like we are in a spiritual wasteland or wilderness, and that things are as low as they have ever been, but I believe that God is as active now as he ever was - I for one am excited about being part of the Church of England today.  While we have faith, we have hope, because God certainly hasn't given up on his people - so let's not give up on him, or indeed ourselves.  Let us forget the past and look forward and pray that God would open our eyes to perceive the new thing he has in store for us.  It may be hard to let go, but I know that it will be well worth it.