April 2008 Message From Rev. Allan Fawkes

 

My Dear Friends,

 

Welcome to our web site. I hope that you will enjoy reading about us. We are a country parish, west of Fraserburgh, with the sea to our north. We overlook the sea, and are open to the winds. It can be chilly, but the welcome that you will receive if you do visit us, or join us for worship, will be warm and sincere.

 

I am writing this in the middle time of the Olympic Games, held in Beijing. They seem to be shaping up to be amongst the most memorable of recently held Games – this apart from problems with the Olympic Flame, Tibet and smog.

 

Probably the Games will be remembered longest for the feat of Michael Phelps, who has won the greatest number of Gold Medals in Olympic history, the greatest number possible at the present time. Dedicated, hard working, forceful, yet obviously popular with his fellow competitors, he is the epitome of the Olympic spirit.

 

A memorable team was the Polish team who won Silver Medals in the Men’s Lightweight Rowing Fours. Only(!) Silver, not Gold, but they hadn’t expected to do anything like as well as that. They did their best and succeeded better than their wildest dreams. Paula Radcliffe came 23rd in the Marathon, which was far, far below her best time. Of course, the fact that she was suffering from a stress related fracture had everything to do with it. She illustrated the Olympic ideal – it’s not the winning, but the taking part that counts.

 

What about the very attractive young Chinese girl who sang during the opening ceremony? A credit to Chinese youth. Well, not really. She didn’t sing, but was dubbed. A bit like Audrey Hepburn in the film of My Fair Lady. The big difference was that we all knew that Audrey Hepburn was dubbed. The Chinese tried to pass off the girl as the singer. I wonder who felt more humiliated? The bonny lassie who had the looks, but couldn’t do well the thing that she was supposed to be doing, or the lovely singer who was judged too ‘ugly’ to appear on television?

 

It’s a good job that God doesn’t deal with us in that way. We have no pictures of Jesus, but Isaiah chapter 43 doesn’t give a very flattering picture of his appearance. God sees under the surface, whether fine or rough when he looks at us, and judges us as we really are, not as we seem. I wonder what he sees when he looks at us?

 

Your sincere friend,

 

 

Allan Fawkes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Image on this page courtesy of Christian Clipart