Sunday 6th April 2025 – Lent 5

Mia is a pedigree Vizsla. She has a Kennel Club record proving her pedigree. (Amba may have a pedigree, we’re not sure—she’s just a bundle of youthful energy in a wirey coat!)
In terms of church attendance, I have ‘pedigree’. My ‘mother’ church had, and still has, strong links with Oak Hill Theological College, with many students and staff choosing
to attend Christ Church, Cockfosters. My parents were PCC members and Sunday school leaders. Dad was a verger, sidesman, and regular attender at Keswick Bible Week.
Mum sang in the choir, was Overseas Missionary secretary, and attended Billy Graham rallies in 1954 & ’55. My birth nearly interrupted a Sunday School leaders meeting. I first went to church aged 2weeks, was baptised on 3rd February 1963, and confirmed on 4th May 1978.
As I grew up, I attended Climbers, Explorers, Pathfinders, Koinonia and Sunday Fellowship. I still have my BCP, presented for 40 consecutive Sunday attendances at Explorers.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about God or Jesus. After listing his ‘pedigree’ in his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes:
‘I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’
What mattered to Paul was not his past record but his present knowing ‘Christ Jesus my Lord’. He wanted to ‘know Christ, to be ‘found in Him’, to ‘gain Christ’.
Like Paul, I can claim ‘pedigree’. And like Paul, for me my pedigree isn’t important. So I can join with him in saying:
‘Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.’