Articles - From the Curate

'It's a sign of the times.' These are words we use regularly, often to speak about new and frequent sightings of items or features that have become part of modern life. Sometimes the words are used with enthusiasm, at other times with regret for what has been lost.

The bottle of water, the tattoo, the loyalty card, the mobile phone; each are signs that we are in the 21st century, they are a constant feature of our times and most of us subscribe to them in one way or another. If we look behind the sign we can perhaps interpret something of their underlying meanings; a desire to communicate, a need to speak of identity, better awareness of our health needs, sometimes simply a desire to conform to the norms of the day?

The gospels speak of Jesus as being a sign for the people of his day and Christ himself told the Pharisees to read the signs of the times. Jesus was encouraging them to engage with their present culture, to interpret it and also to find within it those things that speak to us of God.

Some of the signs in our present time can be irritating, the constant ring of the mobile phone in train carriages and the conversations that follow or the frequent requests for us to sign up for loyalty cards that we simply do not want. Others are more encouraging, the bottle of water, the plastic card that gets us out of a tricky situation, the mobile phone to hand when the car breaks down.

We each as Christians are signs in the world, our church building is a sign of Christian presence within our community; as part of a congregation we offer a sign to the world about the nature of the church family. I wonder what message these signs offer? I wonder if people are drawn towards or recoil from them?

How do we as Christians read the signs in today's world? How do we respond to them? How do we become more and more a sign of Christ's presence? Questions perhaps for us to ponder and to pray over.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay