Have Bible Will Travel

By Peter Meager

From the beginning of lockdown in 2020, the online newsletter of Cupar Old Parish Church became a focus for the church’s life. I offered to join the small team who prepared weekly Reflections for it in support of our minister Rev Jeff Martin. Jeff followed a study guide, We Take the Road by Walking by Brian McLaren in many of his weekly sermons during the first year of restrictions. I followed his lead with digressions to respond to what was happening at the time; for some Saints’ Days, and to consider some Bible passages from the Common Lectionary.

I have never been much of an original thinker, preferring to recycle other people’s insights. I always kept a large notebook of snippets and ideas for sermons and have dipped liberally into it in preparing these articles. Unfortunately, I didn’t always note where I had found these bits and pieces and apologise if I have failed to attribute any of my quotes to their authors.

Above all, my prayer is that we might all find renewed joy and hope as we walk the road of Christian faith together following this time of acute pandemic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9781528952330

Peter Meager

Peter Meager grew up in Shotts, Lanarkshire. He came to personal Christian faith aged 8 and knew he wanted to be a minister from then on. In his sixth year at school, his headmaster told him that going to university would be a waste of time. He ignored this advice and was accepted by Edinburgh. Just before his course began, he met Christine and they married between his Arts and Divinity degrees. On ordination into the Church of Scotland, he joined the Army as a Chaplain. Sixteen years later, they moved to parishes in Fife’s East Neuk. While there, he developed Laryngeal Dystonia, which forced him to retire in 1999. Peter is renowned for his bad jokes and has often been told, “You should be on the telly – and then we could switch you off!” Since then, they have lived in Cupar. He had subsequent careers as a Psychiatric Hospital Chaplain, Presbytery Clerk and Manager for the Dystonia Society. He still volunteers as a Patient Partner with St Andrews University Medical School. They have two children, a daughter-in-law and five grown up grandchildren. Peter now looks after Christine, who has dementia, but they still enjoy trips away in their campervan. He has always been a keen photographer and he took most of the photos in the book.

Book preview

About the Author

Peter Meager grew up in Shotts, Lanarkshire. He came to personal Christian faith aged 8 and knew he wanted to be a minister from then on. In his sixth year at school, his headmaster told him that going to university would be a waste of time. He ignored this advice and was accepted by Edinburgh. Just before his course began, he met Christine and they married between his Arts and Divinity degrees.

On ordination into the Church of Scotland, he joined the Army as a Chaplain. Sixteen years later, they moved to parishes in Fife’s East Neuk. While there, he developed Laryngeal Dystonia, which forced him to retire in 1999. Peter is renowned for his bad jokes and has often been told, You should be on the telly – and then we could switch you off!

Since then, they have lived in Cupar. He had subsequent careers as a Psychiatric Hospital Chaplain, Presbytery Clerk and Manager for the Dystonia Society. He still volunteers as a Patient Partner with St Andrews University Medical School.

They have two children, a daughter-in-law and five grown up grandchildren. Peter now looks after Christine, who has dementia, but they still enjoy trips away in their campervan. He has always been a keen photographer and he took most of the photos in the book.

Dedication

My wife, Christine, always reviewed my sermons when I was at home. Comments like, It’s too long. It’s too theological. You can’t say that! kept me on the straight and narrow. I dedicate this booklet to her now that I am no longer able to benefit from her insights, wisdom and common sense.

Copyright Information ©

Peter Meager 2024

The right of Peter Meager to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528950145 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528952330 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.co.uk

First Published 2024

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Acknowledgement

David Cole was a housebound member of Cupar Old Parish Church. He is the one you have to thank or blame for this book. He received the Church’s E-Bulletin each week and contacted me to say that he was enjoying my Reflections and that he thought others might enjoy them too. He also hoped that this might be a way of raising some funds for our church and for The Dystonia Society. David then got the book ready to send to a publisher. (Sadly David died in May 2023 before the book was published.)

I must thank Rev Jeff Martin for his encouragement and support as well as for picking up some of my mistakes before articles went live.

These chapters are essentially short Bible studies. The aim of a Bible commentator is twofold. First it is to understand what the writers were saying to their original readers. Then it is to try and discern what God might be saying to us here and now.

The late Professor Willie Barclay wrote a number of Bible Commentaries aimed at the ordinary reader. They were printed by the St Andrew Press, Edinburgh as The Daily Study Bible. I have always found them a source of insight and inspiration and refer to them regularly.

Similarly, Keswick Ministries have built up a large online resource of Biblical teaching based on talks given at the annual Convention. I have also delved into those to get my basic facts straight.

The Common Lectionary suggests Bible passages to be used in church services throughout the year. The Working Preacher website (https://workingpreacher.org) has built up another online resource which helps preachers who are seeking to apply the Bible message for today.

In quoting the Bible, I have mainly used the New International Version for the UK (NIVUK).

Foreword

From the beginning of lockdown in 2020, the Online Newsletter of Cupar Old Parish Church became a focus for the church’s life. I offered to join the small team who prepared weekly Reflections for it in support of our minister Rev Jeff Martin. For twelve months, in many of his weekly sermons, Jeff followed a study guide, ‘We Take the Road by Walking’ by Brian McLaren. I followed his lead with digressions for some Saints’ Days, Topical events and Bible passages from the Common Lectionary. These were well received and one of the readers suggested that they might be appreciated by a wider audience and that we should publish them.

We were to be allowed back into our church building on Sunday 26th September 2021 and this seemed like a good time to round off this volume. I have never been much of an original thinker, preferring to recycle other people’s insights. I always kept a large notebook of snippets and ideas for sermons and I have dipped liberally into it in preparing these articles. Unfortunately, I didn’t always note the sources of these bits and pieces and apologise to the authors of any quotes that I have failed to attribute.

I offer this booklet in the hope that some of the Reflections might raise a smile and that others might support, challenge or comfort you. Above all, my prayer is that we might all find renewed joy and hope as we walk the road of Christian Faith together following this time of acute pandemic.

Canada

Many moons ago, I was heading back after conducting a funeral. As I was the only passenger in the small military plane, I was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and wearing a headset so that I could talk to the pilot. It also enabled me to listen to his interaction with air traffic control. Immediately after taking off from Edmonton, in Alberta, we had entered thick low clouds and there was zero visibility.

I knew from a film I used in Padre’s Hours with the pilots in an Army Air Corps squadron I looked after back in Germany that in such conditions, a pilot will become completely disorientated within 30 seconds with almost certain loss of control, unless he relies completely on his flying instruments. He cannot trust his normal instincts. Our immediate destination was the town of Red Deer, where the pilot had to drop off some supplies. In those pre GPS (Global Positioning System) days, the pilot was using (RDF) Radio Direction Finding to navigate and had locked onto the radio beacon at Red Deer.

He was told to start his descent when he passed over the beacon. Eventually, the RDF needle swung through 180° indicating we had flown over the beacon and we started down, further into the murk. After three minutes, we were told to reverse our course. The pilot turned us around, still with nothing to see but the spinning propeller in front of us, which was splattering water droplets on the windscreen. At 500 feet, we suddenly emerged from the cloud to see the runway just ahead of us. To say that I was relieved would be an understatement.

A Beaver aircraft like the one described

This image is owned by the Historic Army Aircraft Flight

It was only by having complete faith in his instruments and complying totally with the instructions he was being given that we arrived safely at our destination. With no end in sight for our current situation, we need to rest assured that God is able to guide and guard us on this disconcerting stage of our life journey; we need to go on, obediently listening for His voice and putting our faith into practice each day, wherever God has put us. J B Phillips translates 2 Timothy 1:12 like this, ‘For I know the one in whom I have placed my confidence, and I am perfectly certain that the work he has committed to me is safe in his hands until that day.’

A couple of years before, I had been in Belize. Part of my parish was the RAF radar hut. I’d pop in from time to time to catch up with the duty officer. On the screen, the arm of the radar tracked round illuminating any aircraft in the vicinity. It would show up as a little blip of orange light. The operator would track the flight path using a manually operated cursor; so that, should anything untoward occur, there would be a record of its last location.

As I looked at the extending line on the screen, I knew that when I flew up-country to take services on the next Sunday, I would be tracked from the moment we took off until we reached our destination and eventually got back to base. The knowledge that the Lord would be watching over us, second by second, in turbulence or when all was going well was a reassuring, calming source of comfort, strength and peace.

In Psalm 121: verses 3,7,8) we read: 3 He – who watches over you will not slumber; 7 He will watch over your life; 8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Would it be very irreverent to insert ‘socially distanced’ before ‘coming and going’ in verse 8?

You may wish to join me in Prayer.

O Lord of the revolving year, as we prepare to celebrate Harvest, we praise You for your boundless bounty; generously and freely providing enough to satisfy the needs of all. You give food for our bodies and nourishment for our souls. Father, we thank You and are mindful of those who have to rely on food banks or relief programmes through no fault of their own. May they too have cause to thank You for the way You provide for them.

We thank You too for all who work on land or sea, in shops or on market stalls to provide our food. May they know your presence as they cope with climate change and the risks presented by coming into close contact with others in these uncertain days.

As hedgerows and forests turn golden yellow and brilliant red, we thank You for the autumn beauty which cheers our hearts. As skeins of over wintering geese appear again in our skies, we hear their honks of encouragement to their neighbours and our spirits are lifted too. Father, we thank You and are mindful of those whom life has treated harshly, who have little to dispel the gloom or give them hope. May they not be broken by these difficult times and may they have cause to thank You for sustaining them through the love of families and friends and the support of governments and communities.

As our hospitals and care homes come under renewed pressure, we thank You for the degree of health and strength that we enjoy and pray for all those who care for others so professionally and cheerfully. May they find courage, strength, joy and fulfilment as they respond to your call to love and service. We offer this prayer in the name and for the sake of Jesus our Saviour, Master and Friend. Amen.

I usually close by sharing an old hymn. Last week, I came across a brand new one by Bishop Timothy Dudley Smith (author of contemporary favourites like ‘Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord’.) He was commissioned to write it by the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association. I think it is a fine summary of our faith-reminding us, amongst other things, that Jesus comes to meet us each day, wherever we are and that we need to be ready for the difference that encounter will make. They didn’t give the tune but when I contacted them, they agreed that ‘Aurelia’ would be a good fit (The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.)

Praise God for those who brought us to know and love the Lord,

who nurtured us and taught us the treasures of His Word;

to read in Scripture’s pages of God’s eternal plan,

fulfilled through all the ages in Christ, the Son of Man.

Give thanks that God has given His written Word of Life,

The pilgrim’s path to heaven, the Spirit’s sword in strife.

The eye of faith, beholding the way that Jesus trod,

In Scripture finds unfolding the loving heart of God.

Proclaim the Gospel story, forgiveness for our sins,

Exalt the Lord of Glory through whom new life begins.

Our hearts be strong and steady to trust in Him alone,

Alert prepared and ready to share the faith we own.

Rejoice in free salvation, through Christ who died to save,

Who bore our condemnation, our guilt and cross and grave.

Now risen and ascended, He makes His promise plain.

When earthly time is ended, the Lord will come again.

He comes when least expected at God’s appointed hour,

no more despised, rejected, but glorious in His power.

Be ready; then, to greet Him according to His Word,

prepared each day to meet Him, our risen, reigning Lord.

Post Easter Reflection

Since the beginning of our Self-Isolation, I’ve been keeping a photo diary. It now has one hundred and sixteen photos. Many of them are of the culinary delights issuing from our kitchen. Even if I say so myself, what they lack in Master Chef presentation, they make up for in taste. Unfortunately, this has led to a second project, The Self-Isolation Diet. Anyway, on our walk on Sunday, we set out for me to do a collage of ‘Cupar Churches United in Lock-Down’.

Looking at the photos, I wondered if there is any theological significance in the varying colours of our church doors. Having passed St James’s we took a turn around The Hough (a local park). There the empty play park seemed to shout out to me, bereft and forlorn. A line from the hymn ‘Think of a world without any flowers’, sprang to mind: ‘Think of a park with no children playing there’.

On returning home, I decided to look up the rest of the hymn. To my surprise, I discovered that my line hadn’t been included. The verse I was thinking of only said,

’Think of a world without any people,

think of a street with no-one living there,

Think of a town without any houses,

no-one to love and nobody to care;

We thank you, Lord, for families and friendships;

We thank you, and praise your holy name.’

In our hymn book, that song ends there but my memory was telling me there should be more. I was once chaplain of a church that had representatives from thirteen different Protestant denominations. We also used the Methodist Hymn Book. There I found these two verses which were very appropriate for the Easter season:

’Think of a world without any worship,

think of a God without his only Son,

Think of a cross without resurrection,

only a grave and not a victory won;

We thank you, Lord, for showing us our Saviour;

we thank you, Lord, and praise your holy name.

Thanks to our Lord for being here among us,

thanks be to him for sharing all we do,

Thanks for our Church and all the love we find here,

thanks for this place and all its promise true;

We thank you, Lord, for life in all its richness;

we thank you, Lord, and praise your holy name.’

When we are back worshipping together again, perhaps we can sing this hymn including the extra verses. I leave you with a prayer for Eastertide;

Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked and no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts, that we may seek the good of others and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace, to the praise of God the Father. Amen.

SOME BIBLE MISQUOTES

Which two Ice Cream Companies get a mention in the Bible?

Walls of Jericho (Joshua 6:1–5) and Lyons of Judah (Lion of Judah) (Revelation 5:5)

Where do the media get a mention?

Mark 2:4 in the Authorised version: ‘They could not come nigh unto him for the press.’

Where do fishermen’s waders get a mention?

Psalm 42:1 ‘Pants for the water brooks’, (New American Standard Version 1977).

Bird Cage

I took this photo of what looked like a massive rusty birdcage last May, while sailing along the Grand Canal in Venice. ‘All it was lacking was a giant stuffed parrot,’ or so I thought.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw another picture of it in a newspaper article and learned that it was actually a very famous sculpture by the Chinese artist and human rights campaigner, Ai Weiwei. It was entitled, Gilded Cage and was commissioned in 2017 in the light of plans to build a wall between Mexico and the USA. It was made of golden steel and erected in New York before being taken to Venice in 2019. How ignorant I had been but it stimulated my thinking about the nature of Lockdown.

After 10 weeks, we have adjusted to the new routine of living within the safe cocoon of strict self-isolation. We shop online and our groceries are delivered to our door. A relative collects our tablets from the chemist; we are able to get out for walks and keep in touch with family and friends by phone, email and Zoom. We have erected a cage around us to