Weekly Update - 30th June 2023
Dear sisters and brothers
I like a good story: whether it is a gripping novel, an autobiography, a good film, a TV drama, or even the Archers on Radio 4. What I don’t like is ‘spoilers’: especially knowing how the story ends. That being said, a really good story isn’t all about the end, but about the characters, the plot twists and the emotions that the story brings out. A good story is not simply an escape from reality but helps us to understand the reality that we are living in: we see ourselves in the characters, or are made to think about the world differently through the plot, or discover something new about ourselves and the world we live in.
In some of our services at the moment we are focussing on stories. At the Community Centre on a Sunday morning we’re going through the story of the early Church that is found in the book of Acts (as well as remembering some of the stories of our own church). And at our Monday night family congregation we’ve gone back to the beginning of the Bible to look at the big story of God’s salvation that runs through the whole Bible. Of course these are not ‘fictional’ stories but neither are they just a record of what happened. The stories in the Bible, and the great story of the Bible, reveal to us the truth about the reality that we are living in and the truth about ourselves: they let us understand why things are the way they are and why we are the way we are. The story has been described as a love story between God and humanity, and it lets us into the secret of our own relationship with God.
As we read Genesis chapter 1 and I introduced the story of the Bible to the families at our Monday night congregation, most of whom are new to the Bible, I had to give a “spoiler alert”. I told them that they already knew the great plot twist that the whole story centred upon, and that I could tell them how the story ends. The centre of the story is of course the death of Jesus for our sins because of God’s great love for us and his resurrection which enables us to be reconciled to God. And the story ends as it begins, with the people of God living in close friendship with God in the beauty of the garden that God has created for us.
Sometimes in the midst of the story of our own lives we forget that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the centre of our story upon which everything else turns; and we forget that if we base our lives on his story then we can know the end of our own story: friendship with God. We also forget that we are, in fact, part of God’s story of salvation and that God is a skilled and wonderful author who has written us in to this story for a reason.
May you always return to the heart of the story – Jesus – and make him the heart of your own story; and may you live with the confidence of knowing how both the story and your story ends. Keep reading the Bible and allow it to shape the story of your life.
Our services, of course, continue throughout the summer so please join us if you can. And please know that you remain in Sarah and my prayers.
With our love,
Ian & Sarah
Rev. Ian Aitken
52 Ashgrove Road West
ABERDEEN
AB16 5EE
Tel. 01224 686929
iaitken@churchofscotland.org.uk
www.stockethillchurch.org.uk
Aberdeen: Stockethill Church of Scotland
Scottish Charity Number - SC030587