Cogges Parish newsletter July/August 2001

From the newsletter ...

It's just not cricket!

I write this, my last article in the Cogges Parish Newsletter, with a mixture of excitment and sadness. Excitement, because God is taking my wife and me on to a new sphere of ministry in Exeter; sadness, because we are saying goodbye to people and a place we have loved very much over the last eleven years. It was in this community that we saw our eldest daughter married, and where our youngest daughter was born and baptised (as it happened, all in the same year!). We have shared in the work of the gospel, in both joy and sorrow with the people of St Mary's and the Blake Church at Cogges, and St James, South Leigh. It has been good to have been here.

Preparing for the move is a powerful reminder of this time eleven years ago, when we first moved into the Priory. We arrived in late July, and spent the first few weeks in residence enjoying our summer holidays. In the midst of carpet laying and curtain hanging, there was time to watch cricket on television. My abiding memory is of seeing Graham Gooch, in the first Test against India at Lord's, scoring 333 runs in the first innings, and 123 in the second, ensuring England's resounding victory. It was a marvellous match, and you had to feel a little sorry for Alan Lamb and Robin Smith, both of whom also scored centuries which were rather overshadowed by their captain's brilliant performance. It makes a sad contrast to the lacklustre performance England are putting on in the current one-day international series with Australia and Pakistan.

There is also a sharp contrast between those heady and brilliant days and today's troubled times for international cricket. The former South African captain, Hansie Cronje has been banned from the game after being found guilty of taking part in match-fixing, and suspicion and allegations continue to sully the name of a game which was once a byword for honesty and fair play. You can almost hear the mandarins of the Long Room at Lord's spluttering "I say, it's just not cricket!"

It shows that no part of human life is exempt from human corruption and greed. What the Bible calls "sin" is a pervasive force. Even cricket, that bastion of solid virtues, can be spoilt by it. Even God's creation, which its Creator described at the very beginning as "very good" can be, and has been sullied by it.

That's the bad news. But there is good news, too. The Bible puts it like this: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). It has been my privilege over these last eleven years to preach and encourage the people of Cogges and South Leigh with this very special good news. No matter what failure and disgrace we fall into, there is a place to which we can go to find absolute forgiveness and restoration. Jesus died on the cross to win that gift for us. All we have to do to receive it is to believe and ask. Although I am sad to be leaving, I am confident that I leave behind three churches which know and proclaim this greatest of all truths. My prayer is that some who are reading this newsletter will accept the gift that Jesus Christ holds out to you today.

In a few weeks time, the Bessent family will be on holiday from work, and settling into Alphington Rectory. Once again, in the midst of carpet laying and curtain hanging, I hope there will be time to watch cricket on television. This time, it's the Ashes. I would like to think that someone like Graham Thorpe or Marcus Trescothick will follow in the footsteps of Gooch and hit a huge score against the Aussies. We shall see!

May God bless you all.

Stephen Bessent

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