A Message from Reverend Andrew M. Emison

​Dear Friends,
​
I write this from my tent, pitched at the front of the worship area at Frodsham Methodist Church. It’s the start of our Life Together; our annual event where the teenagers of our church live in Christian community.

For five days beginning in the midst of a school week, church becomes our home. We’ve just finished evening prayers. It’s 11pm. So far, all is quiet! During prayers I was sharing my belief that we see God most clearly as God comes to us in Jesus Christ.

“Where was God when I prayed to God every day for my Gran to be cured of
cancer? She died!”

“Where was God during the genocide at Auschwitz?”

Great questions!

It’s at times like these I remember 1 Peter 3:15:

“Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you;”

I like a bit of theology, but at times like this that I beat a hasty retreat. My retreat takes to the firm ground of that rocky hill of Golgotha; to the cross of Jesus Christ.

At the centre of my faith I do not find some Greek god sitting on a cloud pulling levers. When I retreat to the core of my faith I find a young man, nailed to a cross who prays for me and for you.

Dietrich Bonhöffer, the 20th century martyr who inspired our Life Together wrote from his prison cell:

“Only a suffering God will do”.

My answer was not complete. It was partial. Where is God? Right in the middle of it! Jesus – God with us, God for us.
​
Grace and peace.
Andrew

Rev'd. Andrew M. Emison
Minister