Church bulletin:
Before my parents emigrated to Australia, they ran a small grocery shop for a couple of years. One day my mum saw a particularly old looking penny in the till. It was dated 1773 and I now have it in a collection of other coins. The oldest penny I own was minted in 1745 and is in good condition for its age. It is quite amazing to think that it had been in circulation for 25 years before James Cook sailed into Botany Bay on the Endeavor.
Decimalisation officially occurred in Britain on Monday 15 February 1971 and the “old money” was phased out. My 1745 penny was possibly involved in transactions for 226 years. I like to hold that coin wondering where it might have been and whose hands it passed through. Maybe one of the crew on the Endeavour was paid with it. Was it in the pocket of someone listening to Whitfield preach. Did Horatio Nelson or Charles Dickens come into contact with it. Was it put into the offering at the Metropolitan Tabernacle during the ministry of Spurgeon, or perhaps it was once in Spurgeon’s wallet. Maybe Jack the Ripper was its owner. Did it make its way oversees. Was it next to the photograph of a soldier’s sweetheart on the Western Front.
In a strange way it makes me feel connected to the past. In my hand is the same coin that was in someone else’s hand when they bought bread in the 1740’s. Cheesy and nostalgic on my part I know, yet it is a common desire for people to feel connected to the past. Tracing ancestral lines is hugely popular. Several TV shows take celebrities on a journey of discovery as they investigate the lives of their forebears.
Christian biography and church history does the same thing. As we engage with the church from ages past, we acquaint ourselves with individuals, events, theological controversies, and developments, all of which have helped to shape our faith. The labours and examples of those who went before continue to minister to us. In this sense we are the products of a rich and diverse spiritual ancestry. We do not find ourselves in the present, Bible in hand seeking to work it all out from scratch. We are part of a tradition which can be traced back over time. There is a faith connection which unites us as God’s people not only in our own day, but with the past.
This connection points to the reality of the ‘universal church.’ We are all partakers of the Holy Spirit and for that reason we are all joined to one another and members of the same household. To study church history is to study family history. It is to learn about who we are. Why do people investigate their natural family ancestry? – they want to learn about their background and what it is that makes them who they are. They recognize the connectedness they have with the past. We as Christians are connected to the past.
It is good for us to remember that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We belong to a universal body which transcends time and place. We share a faith connection with those who went before us, just as believers in the future will share a faith connection with us. God exists outside of time, and one day so will we. When the clock finally stops ticking, we will stand before God a united body of people which has spanned the ages. No longer separated by time. No longer separated by space.
One with Christ, one with each other, together forever in His presence, world without end. A timeless connection.