St Edburg's Church - Bicester

If you take the train from Bicester Village to Oxford and can find a window seat on the left-hand side, you can see seven church or chapel towers en route. Apart from that of St Edburg’s in Bicester (best seen from the platform before boarding the train), the train passes St Swithun at Merton, St Mary at Charlton-on-Otmoor, St Andrew at Oddington, St Nicholas at Islip, St Edward’s School Chapel in Summertown, and St Bartholomew in Jericho. Only the last is really close to the train and the others all have to be sought out carefully and are not always visible depending on weather conditions. In the mist last Wednesday morning none of the Otmoor churches could be seen.
 

In many ways, the journey is a metaphor for our lives as Christians. Throughout our lives we are trying to journey towards Christ and His Kingdom and trying to see our route through all the distractions placed along our journey. So, if we think of our lives like this train journey, the church towers are guiding points reminding us of our faith and our duty to follow Jesus and obey his two great commandments to love God with all our strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. Sometimes we will see clearly the guiding points along our journey. At other times they will be invisible because of darkness, fog, rain or other obstructions or distractions. Then we need to seek out guidance to ensure that we are travelling in the right direction.
 

Advent, which started last Sunday and lasts until Christmas is an especial time when we should seek guidance. Since early times, it has been observed by the Church as a time of watching and waiting for the coming of Christ and a time when we should pray and study to discover the guidance and inspiration that we need to keep following and journeying towards Christ. As well as preparing for Christmas we should be making time to pray for Christ’s second coming, to reflect on how God first came among us as a human being to bring us salvation, and studying to understand better how God wants us to behave and to accept the love that he offers us.
 

Christopher Young