Suburban Snow Sunday
by James Mercer
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them". Matthew 18:20
The 8.00am BCP Communion service on Sunday mornings is a 'Marmite service', some love it, some don't. Those that love it do so for a variety of reasons; familiarity; resonance of the language; history; the fact that it delivers 'what it says on the tin'; time of day; lack of 'fuss'; a small congregation.
Those that dislike it do so because of the unfamiliarity of archaic language; history; predictability; the time of day; a small congregation.
Sunday dawned cold, dark, snowy and icy. Would any venture out into the wintry suburban morning? Icy pavements edged with frozen slush, black as volcanic dust.
The table was laid, two candles lit, single bell tolled - clear and urgent over the roof tops of a peculiar snow-silent metro-land. Susurrus of traffic suppressed.
Booted and muffled he entered the church. An occasional visitor, known by name, not by story - a familiar stranger.
Communion shared - an old contemporary story enacted and re told. In the quiet intimacy of an early morning meal, personal histories revealed, stories told, journeys compared, vulnerabilities owned and prayer articulated.
'"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them".
Indeed.
Thank God for surprise encounters, inhospitable mornings and the unpredictability of the predictable. Should any more have ventured out on that rude morning, a moment of special affinity and shared communion in Christ's real presence might have been missed. A quality of encounter perhaps less likely to be discerned amidst the casual familiarity enabled by a more clement Sunday morning, or less formal liturgy.
Snow Sunday - a surprise encounter, a stranger less strange, Jesus - and Marmite from 1662.
James Mercer is the Associate Minister within the Benefice of St Aldhelm, Purbeck.