A witness to something crucial
Have you ever been an eyewitness to something crucial? A car accident, maybe, or some other important incident. If so, you’ll know that being an eyewitness carries with it a responsibility – to report truthfully and carefully what you happened to see.
At Berridge Road recently, we have been working through the first letter of John, which begins with John emphasising his credentials as an eyewitness of Jesus Christ. ‘That which we have heard’, he writes, ‘which we have seen with our eyes…and our hands have touched. This we proclaim concerning the Word of life’. In old age, John was vitally concerned to show that he was an authentic source of information about Jesus, having been his close friend and disciple. His words, like all those of scripture, are trustworthy and true.
For John, the truth about Christ was something the church needed to demonstrate as well as proclaim – we needed, he wrote, to love others ‘not with words… but with actions and in truth’. Whatever we are eyewitnesses to over the summer, let us follow his advice, which so closely followed that of his Lord.
With the assurance of my prayers,
Andrew Rumsey, Vicar