29 July 2024

Yesterday, I was preaching at Balmerino in North Fife  at 9-30am and Crail in the East Neuk at 11-30am. There was a forty minute journey between the two.  I had to pass through St. Andrews on the morning of the Highland Games. There were no undue delays. It made me more understanding of our Highland colleagues.

During the services, which were both the same, we sang John Bell’s hymn, ‘Inspired by love and anger’, set to the beautiful tune for  ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’.  The words  of  the song were written by Yeats and set to an old Irish folk song. Bell’s words sit very pleasantly with the Irish music.

In the fourth verse, we stumble upon these lines, ‘And who, when few will listen,/ will prophesy and preach?’ Who indeed? The number of ministers in training has fallen dramatically since I was accepted as a candidate in 1976. And since then, there has been an increased risk of stress related illness amongst the ministry.

Gone are the days when I preached at New Kilpatrick to 350/400 people. The congregation was huge but, more than that, committed, loyal and receptive to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Nowadays, even large congregations have lost numbers and certainly doing rural pulpit supply, the numbers are between 20 and 40.

‘And who, when few will listen will prophesy and preach?’ Three things. Firstly, the small numbers do not  challenge the veracity or the urgency of the message preached. Secondly, the Church was established on a foundation of twelve ordinary people and now is embraces two billion!

Thirdly, God has promised that his Word will accomplish its divine purpose. Maybe not in the preacher’s day  but then we do not always harvest what we sow. Preaching to small numbers is not as easy as preaching to large crowds who validate the worth of the ministry by their presence.

So let’s give a cheer to our parish ministers who faithfully preach the Word in and out of season with little validation except their calling from God! And let us remember another preaching  verse omitted from CH4, ‘Tis the Name that whoso preacheth/ Speaks like music to the ear’ and celebrate the joy of our preachers!

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