Pub.

I went to London last Friday. I love London. I love the oldness. I love the quirky buildings. I love the history. I love the hustle and bustle. I love Covent Garden. I used to buy ties there from Jane Ireland. She made really creative ties, some of which I wear on a Sunday! I love the fact that in tiny little shop in Covent Garden I was able to buy Sandalwood aftershave. There’s a story behind that which is too long for this blog, but if you want to know, please ask! We went to London to go the the pub. No, really I did. Not on my own. I went with some of the family. And we went to go to the pub! A few pubs actually. We went to the last remaining galleried pub in London. Built in 1676 it hosted Shakespeare’s plays and was visited by Charles Dickens when it was still a coffee house. It even appears in Dicken’s novel Little Dorrit. I love the fact that we can go to a place with such a history. A place where we know someone like Dickens went. It’s a great thing to be in the same place as someone you read about, or whose novel you can read. To think: he was here. Actually here. It brings history into a new light. At least it does for me. And I’ve been in other places like that. I’ve had the privilege of going to the Holy Land and standing on the beach where Jesus met Peter over a charcoal fire. That was the moment Jesus met Peter in his deepest pain and Jesus invited him to follow again. I’ve been to the Garden of Gethsemane. I’ve stood on the hillside where Jesus delivered what we call the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve crouched at the place where Jesus is believed to have been born. That one was quite funny actually. I went with Munir, a minister, who managed to move all of the Japanese tourists out of the way so I could have my moment at the birth place of the Son of God and have my picture taken! He was able to do that because he was wearing his dog collar and the staff knew him! I’ve walked up Mount Sinai to see the sunrise. I’ve been to some of the places we know about as Christians. I know that mostly, these locations are disputed. There are a couple of views about where the Biblical Mount Sinai is, and the other places too! The point though, is, like being in the pub that Dickens frequented, it makes the whole thing real. These are real places where real people stood. We can go and be in the places, as far as we are able to understand where they are, where the forebears of our faith went and stood. I don’t know about you, but sometimes for me the stories of the bible feel a long way away! But on Friday last week, I was reminded of just how real they are: real places, real people. We can’t all go to the Holy Land and stand in the places I’ve been able to stand. But perhaps we would do well to find ways to remind ourselves that the people and the places of the Bible story are real. God really did meet Moses up a mountain. God really did come to earth and was born as a baby. Jesus really did give the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus really did meet Peter on the beach in his deepest pain and ask him to follow again. And God really does want to meet with me. And you. Maybe, on reflection, I should go the pub more!