Christ of Brindle

I called at Brindle Church recently, situated between Chorley and Preston. I have written about it before, during the time when Parliamentary troopers used its tower as their look-out during the civil wars. This time, the door was left unlocked, while a surprisingly good-looking older man changed the flag. The church has an unusually informative website and boasts a peculiar interior. Churches’ stained-glass windows typically bore me; the puritans generally removed the most interesting examples, and much of the Victorian or modern stuff is sentimental tosh or dark and staid. Yet a window at Brindle caught my eye. It twice depicted the Lord Jesus, in His roles as Glorious Creator and Resurrected Conqueror. I would guess it was installed in the 1950s, but I cannot corroborate this and would be pleased to receive correction. I stood before it, all agog, for it captured, albeit imperfectly, the creative energy and dynamism of the Word made flesh. Though stained glass is static and still by definition, the artwork seems to ripple and dance in the sunlight.

Too often, we picture in our minds the Lord Jesus in His earthly form- the kindly rabbi, the suffering servant. This is mainly good and proper; on earth, He rendered the invisible God visible. Yet we should anticipate Him in His eternal majesty and awesome brilliance, such as Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel attempted to describe. The breath-taking splendour of the divine Son of Man is mete enough to see us through this dreary vale of greys and browns, moans and sighs.

And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Revelation 4:3