Church: What is it good for? (whose sin is greater?)

This thread is the second in a series that came about after finding that the majority of the people I engage with are of the opinion that the answer to the question: "Church, what is it good for?" come back with the response: “Absolutely nothing!”

The first part of this series reminded us that Jesus' once and for all atoning act on the cross and the shedding of His blood in that event is made of ALL humanity. Forgiveness and reconciliation with the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are but an act of faith away. Remember Romans 3.24-25: “And ALL are justified freely by His (God’s) grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith...”

Salvation is universally given, but before my universalist friends start cheering there's that reality that it needs to be received by 'by faith in Christ' and this means reconciliation with God. Now, despite those who will reach for their rubbers to erase bits (or words) they don't like. No matter how much some will claim that the words of the Bible were added to, removed or otherwise modified by people with their own agendas (the great redactionist caveat): The reality is that what we have is Canon (kanon - the yardstick or measure) and what we have is what we've got and what we should work with!

I will just get my soapbox out and say that there are a few things that drive me to distraction.:

i. 'sin' - is the word we use to denote something that contravenes God's law, will and desire for us. Though some will wise to erase the word for some old tosh about 'God just wanting us to be happy' and calling upon us to 'reread the Bible through the lens of love and approval for all'

ii. The Old Testament is not a bunch of 'stone-age (mysogynistic) old blokes' who had no understanding of the societal values, actions and behaviours such as we encounter today'. The reality is that they knew it, experienced it (and more) and acted to be countercultural. The problem with today's Church is that too many of its member want to create a popularise, permissive, weak and wishy washy, Christ denying, body.

iii. We are not here to create God in our own image or to approve of the gods of this age in order that we might create some syncretic abomination. We are here to be like the early Christians, ethnically Christian, obviously countercultural, and truly discipled and disciplined.

iv. I see, in the Christian faith I am part of, a Church that lives to make God's love known, embracing ALL people as a totally inclusive body making real the 'nothing you've been, seen. done, or will do can separate us from the love of God'.

v. I believe in a Church that is called to meet those doing it wrong ('caught in sin') and to restore them gently (righteous anger is rarely righteous) taking care that in doing so we don't enter into doing it wrong (yep, that's 'sinning') and so deny the love of God towards others or within us.

It is all so blinking obvious! Isn't it? This is 'Being Christian 101'.

So when we find someone 'caught in a sin', isn't this what we should be doing as Church:

Engage with them and dialogue, never losing sight that the person before us is the 'image of the invisible God made visible', and seek to sense the heartbeat of God and His presence (will, rule, love, demands and actions) and get in step with it. We find the mission Dei and sign up to be part of it, for undoing so our incarnate nature brings God into the person's presence in flesh just as God brought that self-same presence into relationship with a fallen world. After all, a fallen world is just the same fallen person, like the one in front of us on a much larger scale.

A good rule is know you own limitations - I know I can generally only deal with the world a person at a time!

How do we do it? Better still, "How should we do it?"

I know only of one sin which is 'unforgivable' (Matt 12:31-32 "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.").

As I read this I find myself wondering if this means that everything else we do has to be considered to be forgivable. I mentioned this to some Christians last year (Happy New Year!) and they told me that murders, people-traffickers, fornicators, adulterers, paedophiles, homosexuals, bisexuals, rich people, poor people, liars, thieves, alcoholics, Remainers, Leavers, drug-dealers, and (add your own area of antagonism and curse them and continue). Doesn't this leave us with a cruel and wicked God?

Does He really act like this? Is He really this cruel and heartless?

I don't think so. So the answer to the question, "Whose sin is greater?" The same one Jesus is asked in John 9. The people believed that illness, poverty and the like were the result of sin. I once attended a Pentecostal church where were told to confess of sins that they might prosper. The most power sin known to humanity, the one that apparently rendered God impotent to act or to bless was the: 'Unremembered, or unknown, unconfessed sin.'

What a week and useless, uncaring and unable to act God some people have created for themselves.

So to answer the question, "Whose sin is greater?" I think the answer is obvious (but will probably get me loads of email and conversations started (hallelujah, how I love conversations) in that it surely has to be: No one's!

And if Judas hadn't decided to take things into his own hands, you know, I am certain that there was forgiveness and acceptance available to him for the hands of the risen Christ. But that wouldn't have served the cause of the person who prompted him to steal the car and deny the Christ now, would it?

Pax

NOTE. I'm sorry to those who have written to me saying something along the lines of, "You naughty mysoginst. God is not a 'He',"

Please remember that I an an exceedingly old goat who happens to feel discomfort when God is referred to as 'S/He' or as 'He, He, She or It' or whatever you like to use. Each to their own (and no I'm not being a mysogynist, but are you not perhaps enjoying your views from the comfort of your position as a mysandrist?

16,874 days later . . .

. . .  and still a Christian!

So much for the passing fad my Father assumed my ‘religious’ experience all those years ago  to be!

46 years, 2 months, 12 days ago I made the conscious decision to accept that Jesus was not only God but that He died for me (on a cross) so that I could be reconciled to the God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Not an emotionally charged experience -  as a budding scientist and three years into engineering training I looked for things that made sense.

I asked questions of the man sharing Jesus with me and he gave answers (as best he could). He invited questions and held up a mirror to my actions which, illuminated by the light of a love which I didn't deserve, made the offer before me seem like too good a thing to pass up. The more I asked the more questions I had and yet the answers joined some of the dots such that I couldn’t walk away and bin it as rubbish. The inner resonance caused me to merely look further.

Just as I was excited by the science and engineering around me (and I still am today) so too was I excited by the theology of this Jesus stuff; yet the more I read the more I realised how little I knew. The only assured facts were my own massive ignorance (a sentiment I share with Socrates and Einstein)!

So here I am: Flawed, fallen and not always as nice as some might think or expect. 

I’ve buried loved ones, been alone and rejected. I’ve been lied to (and responded in the same vein).  My life has been amazingly blessed but this was despite many sad and dark moments: After all being Christian still sees us live in a world of challenges and pain. 

I’m a husband, a father, a brother, a friend and a follower of Jesus. I seek to show His love to those around me and I strive to find the merest hint of a glimpse of hope that I might look like Jesus to those around me.

I read my Bible: Not to please God but to explore the resonances within me from the words before me that I might grow in my faith.

I pray: Not to get stuff but to develop the potential within me to live in the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual places that surround me and sometimes threaten to breach the walls that protect me. Prayer is about reminding me how important things are, not to get what I want from God! I pray to survive the storms rather than demand that they stop.

I bless others:Not because I’ll get something from them but because by doing so I walk to the heartbeat of the God I follow and bring about the realities of His love to those around me. 

The Christian life brings so many things. But they’re not riches or fame or possessions or applause (perhaps I’m doing it wrong and should get into the prosperity thing!). I’ve seen tragedies which looking back were triumphs. I been cheated on, lied to, stolen from, abused, misused and treated so awfully (and much of that was just the Christians!!) and yet all I can find is love, healing, acceptance and a peace that the world can’t sell or afford to buy because of the love of a God who became human and died for me.

In World War II, a Jewish inmate in the Auschwitz concentration camp, was sentenced to death as a retaliation for an escape. The man cried out how he needed to live for his wife and children. Hearing this a Franciscan Friar, Maximilian Kolbe, stepped forward and swapped places with him. Kolbe spent the next ten days in a starvation pit, leading the people with Him in prayer until only he remained alive. The guards eventually shot him - but the man whose place he took survived the camp and vowed that having been given his life back - for it should have been him who died - vowed that he would live each day differently because of Kolbe’s selfless act of love and sacrifice.

This is the same reason I continue to follow Jesus and live to love and praise my God. For I too was dead and through an act of love by Jesus on the cross, I have been given my life back to reside in the fullness of God’s love now and for all eternity.

This I have found to be true. What more can there be than this: That Jesus died for me to reconcile me to the Godhead and to hand me back a life that was otherwise as good as dead.

And tomorrow it will be 16,875 days I have followed Jesus the Christ - and there’s room for companions on that road. Come join me and let me introduce you to a man (Jesus) who knew everything I’d ever done, or was going to do, and yet He took my place and gave me back my life and you yours and made true the fact that nothing you’ve seen, nothing you’ve been, nothing you done, or will do, can separate us from the love of God.

Pax

Journal: Monotheism, tritheism and Islam

One of the things that Christians appear to either struggle with or ignore has to be made real in the form of the Trinity! If we look to the words of Deuteronomy 6.4 (the shema) we find ourselves faced with the statement: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one'

No doubt or hint of equivocation to be found here - and we believe that God is consistently one, one substance, possessing three distinct and separate natures. There have been, and still are, people who have one God and then the other two as subjective and inferior, other have three gods. God as the Creator and the Holy Spirit and Jesus as created was dealt with in the Church Councils - Sabellius, Arius, modal stuff where there's three form - each existing like ice, water and steam - all this stuff was dealt with and lines were drawn to uphold the Trinity as something solid, sound and consistent.

The thing is that many don't understand the concept and outworking of the Trinity at all and if this is true for the Christians, how on earth do we expect Muslims and others to understand that we Christians and not a bunch of polytheistic - well tritheistic - sorts?

This was the task before me as I taught at an Islamic school yesterday. The school was good in so many respects, the children were disciplined and well-presented, generally attentive and to be honest - pretty much everything you don't always expect from a state school (in my experience).

Moving on to the classroom, the questions were though out and a dialogue was established. I did stuff in a year nine class and then a mixture of years nine and ten - boys in the first, girls in the second - and I think ( hope, pray!) that we all got something from the experience.

One of the best ways to understand your faith is to try and explain it to others and having had friends from many faith (and no faith) groups and nationalities I have often had to become an apologist for the things I believe to be true and found in Christianity.

So in all, a stimulating and most excellent afternoon was had - after an invigorating shower in the morning (indulged in whilst fully clothed in a graveyard with others) - some administration (which, like the poor, it seems will always be with us - followed by some study, some music practice and then a rather interesting Bishops Certificate course where the topic on offer was 'the Trinity' (how's that for a coincidence?).

So a day in which to give thanks for so many things.
For those I have engaged with.
For the places I have found myself.
For the conversations had.
May the things that divide us be made things that bring understanding and respect.
The things that we use to condemn others never be turned against us.
And may the love of God, and of his image made real in the person before us, never be weakened by the meanness of our hearts.

Journal: living under this world's yellow sun

The day now past has been one of challenge, blessing and a little personal pain today; not bad for a day billed as "off'. It started with breakfast and the company of a friend. One of the people who will listen to me and make, not always comfortable, comments and observations and provide part of what in combination with others is an effective spiritual direction process.

It's good to reflect and make oneself vulnerable to people - something we clergy do too little of - for it makes us human and exposes our feet of clay. The problem I find that hits me most is that unlike Superman,  living under the yellow sun of earth  doesn't seem to give me super powers at all! In fact there are times when I struggle to leap small obstacles with a single bound and am not only slower than a crawling bullet, but am wounded by words too! Yes indeed you - I'm frail, fallible and human.

Part two of today came in the shape of a service which unexpectedly arrived at my doorstep. But it was soon sorted, done, and gave me a sense of blessing too. When everyone is human then only the few - in this case the one - is truly revealed to be super. And so God was brought into the presence of others and I was blessed to be able to bless. That's what days off are for: Blessings!

So by the time the afternoon was with me we (the two made one through marriage) decided to take in a 'wrinkly film' (£3 each with a tea or coffee handed to you - a real bargain indeed). The film:Collateral Beauty - billed by some an a little over emotional, self-indulgent, offering.

But I got much from it even though it was so very obvious, over-egged and had too many words at time; yet was still effective and, for me at least, at times little painful. It's not often people will find me mention Timmy, a son who was loved much and who, attracting a litany of health issues, graced this world for just shy of ten years.

Howard the Will Smith character) is, Scrooge like, visited by love, time and death as he struggles over the loss of a child. Now it wasn't so much the film that touched me and entered into places I thought were dealt with and boarded up but the opportunity to let words and images resonate with the crystal glass memories and pains that lie hidden deep within the boarded up places.

The problem we have with loss is that we either bury the feelings of pain and grief with our loved ones or we nod at them and pass them by on the other side of the road, hoping no to have to stop and engage with them (a bit like some of the people life conspires to bless us with :-) ).

So yesterday I grieved over the loss of a son and touched the heart of God, another Father who shares the loss of a child, and was equally touched and blessed by the whole painful encounter. Tomorrow I will stand with people and in the resonance of today will bring them to a place of grief, loss, celebration and continuance of life. This yellow sun and the vulnerability it brings to my every day is indeed a blessing for it illuminates the hand which holds me and makes me safe.

Film done, it was time to write funeral services and edit sound tracks so that they fit the bill for my trip to the Crem'. It is so easy to 'do' funerals as if they were a row of identical objects on a conveyor belt. But the time taken to craft words that speak of the life, the joys, the pain, which shape and mound us is essential. The simplicity of finding words for a treasure is overtaken by the opportunity to be an apologist for a life lived in painful experience and broken relationships. This is the joy and the challenge we encounter when in the company of another person's dead.

The day ended with wedding stuff - and boy do I struggle with weddings! Unlike funerals where people need a neighbour, someone who will come alongside and help make sense of things, weddings often turn out to be a long line of service providers with the cleric and a required, yet not always required part, of the whole thing. But for this one I am involved with people I am involved with and so it's part of the family rather than part of the package. And that's a joy I will enjoy this coming Saturday.

So another 'day off' ends and I have had fun and pain and revelation and more besides.

Lord, for all the facets of the day I give You thanks and praise.
For my dead, and the dead of others - I give you thanks and commend them to Your grace, love, care and mercy. Bring Your healing into the presence of those whose loved one I will do services for this week.
For those I have been a blessing to today: I thank You.
For those who have blessed me and shown me kindness - thank You for them.
Lord, bring me sleep and refreshment - may tomorrow be filled with encounter and opportunity to make Your love and life real in the people before me.
Lord, I love You,

Journal: A day off

Well, a third of a day off anyway!

Before the world starts the, "You have to take your day off," tirade, I had to square away some of the funerals in terms of getting the CDs burnt, the service paperwork done, a regimental flag found (ended up buying one from ebay), and other arrangements made. The next seven days have as many funerals (and there's none on the weekend) so it's a bit of a marathon. In fact with nineteen, which was not only the average age of the US soldier in Vietnam, is now but the high water mark of my monthly funeral service tally. A new record - can't be bad can it?

The day started with the usual daily Office (usually done between 04:30 and 06:00 depending on what's ahead - the busier I am, the earlier it gets done) and soon found itself taken up by funeral stuff. By 07:30 I'd had a brew and was well into the first set of stuff.

It's odd but I have come to realise that the world at large assumes that service just happen. If only this were true, but the reality is that to get liturgy and content in the right place, to do the right stuff about people, get names right, make sure the tensions in the service (any service, every service) are created and resolved: This takes work. Thankfully there are colleagues who work at providing quite poor liturgy as a spur for me to keep in working at it!

So notes written up, myriad numbers of telephone calls made (seems I spoke to one FD nine times during the course of the morning), service and other related sheets put together, printed and put in their relevant envelopes - I found myself done such that lunch and a film became ours a little before half one. A great day thus far, and for that, time with the other half was my reward and joy for the second part of the day.

We went to the wrinkly film club. It so unlike my earlieat film club experiences where I'd buy a ticket (3p) and head to the toilet to let my mates in through the fire exit before we sang the rousing 'We are the boys and girls well known as, the minors of the ABC . . . '.

Today's extravaganza coat £3 and came with a brew (Tea, the nectar of the gods - unless it's the stuff most churches dish up after the service). The film was 'I, Daniel Blake' and it didn't take long to see why they'd checked for concealed weapons before we entered, after all the Job Centre is only across the road from the cinema! This is a must see for people and I think it's a film we need to show to Church sometime. The film is about a man and his dealings with the benefits and employment related processes in the U.K. It made me angry, reduced me to tears and brought back so many memories of when I worked in that sector. Church was seen in it as perhaps one of the only true moments of hope.

Film finished, we left ready to have a fight - the adrenaline was flowing - with the shops as I purchased more comestibles to feed my heavy administrative appetite before heading home. Got home and then (without a brew) went and did a food shop and saw no one I knew; which is so very odd it made me stop and think for a moment. A trip out without encountering a single soul:; had the apocalypse begun?

Home again (without any sense of a bit of  'jiddedy jig' or a fat pig in eveidence) a bit more funeral admin before an episode of 'The Undertaker' (I kid you not) - my TV of choice at the moment and then a snuggle in the settee with a good wife (left the book elsewhere) and a chick flick on Netflix. Bliss.

Early to bed tonight (before midnight) and now all is quiet in the house and the breathing next to me is regular as a little hushed it's time to reflect on where me and God have been today. It's now that I realise how many opportunities for engagement I've had today thanks to the telephone - something we clergy (and the world) seem to have forgotten as we text and email our way through the day.

Lord, for the opportunities to enter the homes of others through a bit of copper I can but thank You. For the difference a call has made - the making of a virtual incarnacy theirs - I give You praise. Not as good as a simple touch and a real presence, but today I will give You thanks because as I was in one place, You, and another person were standing with me in the work of being Church as they visited someone in hospital.

Lord, help me to raise up born again believers who give without counting the cost. Help me to walk I Your footsteps and experience the security and life-changing reality that this brings and may others walk in those footsteps behind me - for aren't we called 'leaders' as well as followers.

Father for the daily bread, the forgiveness of my sins, the fact that today I do not think I have out You to the test but walked as friends in partnership as family: I love You so very much. Bless all I am and do tomorrow - may my encounters speak of You and my life show Your love and the work of Your hand.

Let's do this again tomorrow, eh?

Journal: Men's breakfast, A party and more

Had a go at a men's breakfast today - good turn out and great fun. Really weird when I find myself about to stand up and still not sure what I'm supposed to say. But it went and I was reminded of so much that God has done in my life. Memories of blind seeing and other amazing things were dropped in front of me as I played the cards before me.

It's odd but when I think of the various phases of my life and the opportunities I have been given, and how easily we forget them as time moves on, I realise how blessed I am. And have been - for so many years as a Christian.

Phase two of the day was taken up with funeral visits and related stuff - also encouraging and fun before we hit the last phase in which we had a birthday party and filled the church building. Talked to many new people and had a really energised evening.

Kept coming back to the 'is there a man amongst you who'd offer his son a stone if he asked for bread or a snake is he asked for fish? If we, being awful can give our kids good things, how much more will God, who is good, give his kids?

Sunday looks 'interesting' with fives services in two different locations - nine of them home - some of the natives looked restless when they found I wasn't going to be with them. Needs so Prayer, wisdom and stuff I reckon.

For today's bread - the forgiveness I have been shown (and shown), the trust rather than test that has been today's walk and the ability to touch people with You love.
Lord accept the praises and thanks of a simple man.

Journal: Give me just a little more time

Looking like a very interesting month as the number of funeral services keep on growing! Monday saw a ninety-five year old lead me to the Crem' on a motorcycle hearse - a life of military service celebrated - a good day's work indeed.

Looking up I realise that there are still eleven funeral services involving church, Crem' and graveyard before the month's end - how cool is that?

It's a month with new challenges as I look towards Saturday and speaking at a men's breakfast, the following week I'm doing a talk at a dinner and have a couple of other interesting things like it suddenly pencilled in too! Perhaps I need to stop losing weight so I can become a big fat movie star!!

The month has been tinged with sadness as friends from church have left us. Our beloved Ivy has gone, Larry is no longer with us, Michael has finally succumbed after a long and valiant fight and Brian is with us no longer - having had a tough end to it all. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

It's a sad thing but having worked in, and with, teams most of my working life I have to say that the one place I have never really found a true collegiality is in the Church. I pray for the churches in our town and consider many to be, if not friends, acquaintances - but the standing together and working for one another such as is found in the engineering world has not been a defining or enduring reality.

I've realised that in recognition of this I am slowly slipping away from the opportunities to engage in shared nothingness - I really can't be bothered with the dissipation and the game-playing, life's too short and the task is so big. It's not that I want people to do things my way; I merely want them to do!

I saw someone I know this week and whilst I'd usually stop and engage with them, this week I realised that they'd been part of Church and had now, passing fad passed, moved in to their next passion of the moment. It was at that moment that I thought, "I don't have the time for this!" and so, praying for them as I went, left them in the distance without them noticing I'd ever been there and carried on to do the task in hand. My presence only seems to cause them embarrassment so it was a win-win outcome I guess: But it is tinged with a sadness that leaves a dent on the paintwork.

It is always sad when people you think are with you prove to be no different that the Christian heroes of the Bible. They deny you at the point when things are troubled in the same way Peter did in a courtyard and like the old Lone Ranger joke where surrounded by a screaming horde he turn to his native Indian companion and says, "Just you and me against all these," hears the words, "what do you mean 'you and me' white man?"

Lots wife told him to 'curse God and die' because she wouldn't go with him - a bitter integrity we sometimes lack in the world of Church.

The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Christ - we will leave that to the Christians :-)

Lord, thank You for the privilege and challenge of Church,
Help us to stand as one and to have an integrity that takes the world's breath away.
To be different through the love we share,
To be courageous and honest,
To be loving and kind,
To follow You and never to count the cost.
Make me, make us, more like You.

Journal: Theodicy and stuff

The night ended with a couple of hours of great conversation on the subject of evil and God's part and out response. It was quite a challenge and quite a journey, and loads of fun. But before we got there I had a trip to buy comestibles of the Communion kind and some material for house groups, so I had a trip into Brum - and that started the day of well (as any trip to a shop what sells books always does).

The filling in this enjoyable sandwich was home Communions and pastoral conversations and so, it has been an almost perfect day I guess. A day in which I find myself smiling consistently and almost foolishly.

Add to this the fact that Anselm popped in with his ontological argument for the existence of God and Epicurus had a pop at God for not giving him however many number he needed to win the lottery!

So the encounters, the challenges, the pace and the overall content was great: Thank You Lord.

Hopefully I looked like Jesus to those around me and I was God's man in the place.

Thankfully God's love and grace were evidence in large quantities.

Lord, for a day passed when I can reflect upon the many blessings you have given me, I can but praise you and head for bed a very happy and content man.

Hallelujah.



This place of reflection is here for me to dialogue internally and gain insight and perspective. It first appeared in this current form for some of those looking at creating their own journal as part of the their journey to discerning vocation. The Morning prayer is there also for that same purpose: to create the discipline of prayer. 

Sunday is a fun day

The day began with an 'early' Communion and ended with a Taizé Communion and, sandwiched in between them, was another Communion and an Epiphany service - and as a result the day just flew past in the blink of an eye. Looking at the clock, day aone, I realised that it had been, almost the toe minute, twelve hours from beginning to end and yet it didn't feel like it at all.

I was grabbed by a member of the parish a few weeks back and given a ticking off about how it wasn't hard work but long hours that killed us. But the problem is that each of us has a different idea of what constitutes 'long' I guess.

Today was about Christ becoming known to the world as the Magi come knocking with their gifts but unless we, the Church, are out there telling the world about Him, how will they hear or have that 'scales falling from the eyes' moment? We have a task before us indeed - and I wonder if we are doing it as well as we should?

Lord, this has been a great day; one in which I have been privileged to open the Scriptures and celebrate the risen Christ, and I thank you for it. But it has been a funny day. An unsettled day too as each of the Communion services were slightly out of kilter: the service sheets were wrong in one (Praise the Lord I had a set from elsewhere in the car), the means by which the candles could be lit were non-existent (must learn to carry a lighter), the order sheets had totally vanished in another service (rushed and printed a new set!!), a page was missing from another service (but the memory had the words on the internal paperwork), one of the people leading was missing, and ... well you get the picture I'm sure.

In former days I would have regarded the bumps in the road as 'attack' whereas now I just regard it as mere organisational tremors. But as I reflect in a most excellent day I am pondering whether these bumps might not still be attack. OK! We managed to pretty seamlessly deal with all but the candles, but these things which take my eyes off of the important and cause me to break step, who does it work for? This has made me realise how lax I have become at praying before, and for, a service and lulled me into a sense of false reliance upon others - and the more weak links we introduce, the more likely it is that something will break down.

Lord, help me find the balance between collegial and shared and abrogation. Help me to rejoice in the joy of having so many people involved in the service (we had eight different voices making our main service run yesterday - and it was brilliant) but not forget my duty to ensure that it flows well. Help me to train, equip, release and inspire those around me - and also not forget that sometimes it's the bumps that help us to climb. A shiny polished slope is destined to keep us in the shallows rather than take us to the heights!

One of the joys today was found in small numbers - for in one place with our 'special' service on offer we barely filled a quarter of the building and yet, talking to people afterwards, I realised that what we had done was immensely valuable as it made Church accessible for those who came to a place where it might not have been expected to be.

Church in unusual places - sounds like the New Testament times, doesn't it?

Lord for the needs, the pain, the confusion and the bumps - I thank You.

For the joy of working with others - I give you praise.

Give me patience, grace and love for the day ahead - be with me every step of the way, just as You were today :-)

No heat but plenty of fire

two great services today - the challenge of circumcision and being part of a family of faith is a really tough one for it makes calling a real issue and additionally turns us around to look at what it means to be family too.

Today was a privilege, I only hope I took the opportunities that were before me and did justice to the challenges today presented. Two different congregations and so two different, and yet in essence the same, messages in a day of challenges which saw late starts, later starts and no heating.

Commitment looks like turning up for a early service, especially when the weather is poor and the season cold - we need to cherish our early service congrations for they are not the old stalewarts but the bedrock! For those who came to the 'main" service in a cold church, this is another facet of commitment that deserves to be nurtured and treasured. How do we pastor our sheep and be the good shepherds God, and they, desire?

This appears to be on God's books as a season of nurture and for treasuring those who make up our churches. A season of caring for the newcomers and for raising the bar in terms of Bible knowledge and lifestyle choices for all who follow Jesus, the Christ.

Lord, help me to reach the lost and to treasure every encounter this year. Bring me divine appointments and make me slow to engage with the dross of everyday church life, choosing instead to be present at the partying that surrounds new birth and the discipline of our calling.

Help me to make my diary a tool that assists rather than a chain that constrains and keeps me stuck in the dungeon of excessive work. I have nothing to prove and nothing to give but my love and worship, help me to take more time with you and to calm the daily rush of oft unnecessary toil.

Help me to cherish being part of a physical family and to walk the centreline that divides the two, putting neither to the sword and fulfilling that which I should be doing and giving opportunities for that which I desire to be doing.

Church should be a party not a homework session - a place of love, acceptance, and tolerance. MY this be the reality for me and the people I serve and the church of which I am a member.

Hallelujah

Living in a broken world

Today has been one of those days when the objective lens on the microscope of life has been clicked on a notch and what it has revealed as the focus was adjusted is a bit unsettling. I reflect upon my introduction into the world of histology, the times when you stick a slide under the lens as gasp at the thing before you; awe-filled at the wonder of creation. The immensity of things that exist at a microscopic level.

There are times in life where the self-same response is brought forth in life as the magnification is clicked up and the view, for a number of reasons, stops you in your tracks and causes a sharp intake of breathe. This is one of them!

The pastoral role, the being a shephed for the sheep, is one of the most privileged, challenging and humbling roles anyone can aspire to assume. There are times when the sheep kick out and bring you home bleeding and limping. There are the times when you need to go out and find them and, having done some, plonk them around you neck (smelly and muck covered though they be) and bring them home. Worst of all are the times when th wolf is at the door, often a door that they've opened for a number of reasons, and the contest is on.

we are called to be 'one who comes alongside' - a Paraclete - to be the one who rushes into the burning buildings of life and contend with those who might devour those who stand before them. To give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf; to set the prisoners free and to preach 'good news' to the poor. In a day of death, Christingle, confusion and the promise of salvation the subtle tones and the rigid lines take on more meaning, and show themselves to be much more, as the focus knob is turned and all becomes clear and understanding, clarity and knowledge are added to.

The day has been a day of three halves - a sandwich in which the filling was the joy that meeting new people brings coupled with real 'family time' (which I need more of) - the bread being the things my life as a changed human being (the ontological reality that is 'priest').

Lord, for the broken people I seek to serve, give me clarity of vision and sharpness in my thinking, and action, that I might be their protector and guide. Give me wisdom in my dealings with those things against which they contend and gentleness in my execution of all before me. Help me to hear Your voice and to move to your prompting, to take each step prayerfully and never to startle the sheep or cause the wolves to strike. Gentle as doves and cunning as a serpent - now that's an image to contend with innit?

in a classroom of children, glow sticks, oranges and the excitement of Christmas before me, I experienced such joy as the privilege of engagement was mine.

In the joy of seeing the bricks were laid and relationships developed in the promise of changed lives as situations - the opportunity to extend the family that is more than being a congregation.

In the pain, anger and frustration that is mental health and the wounded and broken individuals, and the resonance in those around them with their bitter self-recriminations and destructive mea culpas - I look for you and your healing and redeeming love.

Lord, we bring who we are and what we have to the party, help us to accept and engage with those in the room the way we want to to be accepted and engaged with. Help us never to pass by on the other side when the need is obvious and apparent. May the wind in our ears never stop us hearing the voice in our hearts and, even though we might limp,may we never stop running the race until the line is crossed and our journey is done.

Thank you for a mixed day and for the challenges and joys - let's do this again tomorrow - but let's do it a bit better eh?

The fool has said . . .

. . . In his heart, "There is no God!"

Yet today in the encounters this was clearly untrue for God, like many other things, is to be found should one have the eyes to see Him.

Many years ago whilst walking with a friend in the country I realised that they we seeing so many things I wasn't - or to put it another way - I was not seeing what they saw. I asked them how It was that they saw so much when I saw so little and was told that I had never learnt to look!

Isn't this the problem with our 'post. hristian' world today? In days past, accepting the concept and presuming the reality of God, people would have eyes which saw Him and His works. Today we have become blind to the things around us, choosing not to see (or perhaps they are merely unable) what is around them.

Today began, as ever with the daily Office and after some forlorn shuffling of paper saw an early Communion service. How is it that some fail to get excited by the psalms such that we are slowly seeing them exit from our worship? The very first thing we say in our midweek service is the Psalm - and some days we gasp and other days we dance, but we are never left unmoved. The temptation to cry, "Hallelujah," is immense and compelling in the extreme.

The creation of tosh as an outworking of our own desires and attitudes is so great. Never is this statement so true than when it comes to matters of belief for here we find the logically doubtful rubbing shoulder with the awe-inspiringly glorious!

Do I do that?
Are there irrational assumptions made alongside the Christian speaking esoterica which confuses and counfounds?

Recalling the essay thrown back because it was 'too theological' and my protests that theology was what it was only to be met with a rebuff which led me to realise that for my theology to be real I needed it to be done in less theological tones such that it could be read by the non-theological. A fellow student protested that it was 'dumbing down' and yet, although the theological terms allow one word where many would be needed, they also, in that one word, alienate and confuse.

So Lord help me to be an apologist (sorry, I meant 'give an answer for the hope that I have in Jesus, the Christ') and to engage with those who are both near and far off. Help me to explain the deepest truths simple, and the simple truths deeply. To make the difficult things of God simple and the simple commonplace.

Help me to visit friends and minister that same Grace that sets me free and makes us one; to never see a client but a brother or sister; to never hide behind the answerphone or the email but to engage as Christ engaged, and engages still.

Funerals and the visits, the legwork, the paperwork, are to be found in abundance and the grim spectre of those not laid to rest before the Bethlehem bit arrives is before us. The chairs, empty around festive tables, will shout of loss. O death where is your sting: O grave, where is your victory?

Nativities and Christingle, carols and mulled wine are racing towards us. Not my busy time, just my more visible time. And who will they see? Those who tell me they are busy rarely are! Those who are never seen are rarely seen working! Which is the truth for me (for many I know can take care of their own attitudes and rarely welcome question or observation from others) and how do I make it Your truth?

Lord, for the encounters had today - may those around me have find the Christ in some measure.
For the decisions and suggestions made today, may Your wisdom and life have been present..
Create in me a pure heart and an honesty that speaks in the silence.

May the Grace of God abound and the light of Christ be obvious in all that I do. Thank you for the meetings made, the Communion (and glow sticks) given and the good cups of tea received. Bring it on today and help me as I lay loved ones to rest I pray.

And may I touch the hearts of the foolish :-)

Saturday? Isn't that your day off?

Of course the answer is 'No!' When I served my Curacy it was made very clear that unless Saturday was my official day off, it was a working day. It can be a lighter day than the weekdays, but it most certainly isn't a day off.

I know that I struggle with the concept of days off some weeks as the pastoral needs tend to encroach and amazingly condense my 'off' time but the problems are many and varied in that I don't have a job, I have a calling. Not only that but what I do with a dogcollar I would happily have done without one as a Christian had I ended up working in the City until retirement.

'My church' is mine because I belong to it rather than own it! This is a lesson some I encounter, ordained and lay, need to learn.

Today I have engaged in some subversive Christianity and made Jesus, the Christ, known in some unusual (for Church) settings and in some amazingly God-filled settings. I have found myself greeted and acknowledged by children and adults alike and I like it. Not because I'm a celebrity (although I'll sign copies of the diocesan magazine if you want me to :-). ) but because I am part of a community - and that is the key.

Looking to see what God is doing in the lives around me; getting in step with His mission (the misseo dei is never to be missed) and reaching out to people with no visible need (always and often the neediest) my job is to make 'Christ Known'

As I reflect on the day I ask myself so many questions:
Where did I make Christ known today?
Did I do it well or did I make Christ look wrong and foolish?
Was I a 'fool for Christ' or just a fool who happens to be a believer?
Who did I bless by my presence and who would have been more blessed without it?
What has today taught me and was I willing to learn it; and willing to apply it tomorrow?

Today I took the opportunities I took, but know I could have perhaps taken more. God grant me the wisdom to see the lines I can, and should cross, and those where I need merely to pour you healing presence and step back. Help me to reach out and touch the broken with your love - to listen more - to rest in you and enjoy the scenery just a little.

I love You Lord - you float my boat and rock my socks off - you tell me that all might come near and how nothing separates Your creation from You. I just need to make Church understand that now :-)

Time for Zzzzzzzzzs - bring on tomorrow and make it a little more challenging still, I'm far too comfortable!!

A day of many parts

The day started with the usual routine of daily Office, usually occurs anywhere in the morning from 03:30 onwards (usually finding itself at 04:30 it seems as the first thing I do when I wake). This is the opportunity to read the Bible and pray, setting up the day that follows as the spiritual equivalent of porridge for it sustained me throughout the day, in the stillness before the dawn aririves.

I blog the readings each morning (there is a growing group of people who use the condensed form I post as part of their introduction to doing the Office) as part of growing discipline in myself and others.  So, Office done, there's some post-production work on a recording to be sorted and then it's into the church building to set up for the Thursday Communion and the drop-in that follows it. Chairs out, orders of service and Bibles on the seats, lay up for the Communion, fill the urn (and turn it on - always important). Then it's the tables and chairs, biscuits and stuff for the two hours that follow after the Eucharist is done.

I rejoice at the Psalm in Communion today (118) it's like a sweet jar full of old favourite sentences and they bounce around my head all day: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone - Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord - Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Words that sustain.

How sad that we have lost the Psalms as part of our public worship in so many places - sadder still the contraction to just two readings! Jesus, the Christ, is the capstone which holds it all together - Hallelujah! We share the word and celebrate the resurrection and recommit ourselves to shime in the dark places of our town - for we are salt and light.
What does that look like?
How will you use me to make You known today?
Where will my feet take me and what do I need other than You?
So many questions and challenges buzzing, then and now as bed is made my hiding place with you.

The drop-in was amazing, so many people with so many issues, yet laughed and encounter and the joy of being family for those who known the Christ and those perhaps a little far off - just as it shou,d be for first they stop, then the sit and then they recline - aren't people amazing and isn't God great?

Onto a meeting and finding joy in the shape of a nearby church and the steps to be taken there - little steps bring a great distance in the passage of time - the key is to take them! Back to the START course where it transpired that when looking at who our hero is Jesus want mine! Shock or what?
We talk and look at the heroes society has in its sportsmen and women: overpaid, indulged, living wrong lives and et emulated and applauded, is that what a hero is? Move on to great leaders, commanders, businessmen and women: is victory or success the key to making a hero? Nah, when we look past their achievements and their fine words we find feet of clay,

As we talk about why I live the life I do, flawed fallible, excited and generally weird I mention that I am, and do, because Jesus is MY LOVE, and that's the word - it is LOVE, not HERO, that we need to be thinking of and looking to emulate, to please and to follow. How absolutely amazingly wonderfully brilliant is that? His love endures for ever.

Buzzing I prepare and head of to ke a bunch of ten ann eleven year olds around a church building and share some of the wonderful treasures, explaining symbolism and imagery, and making the love of God as seen in Jesus, God made man, known. Making time running around the church and pointing out stuff that is usually missed - making connections - explaining liturgicalbits and giving little hooks  and sowing seeds. How I love this life which so many others seem to think is a job. I'm working, and for, with the person I love - can it get any more wonderful?

And it does - for I find myself in the ditch it's the woman I love, half a pint and a pork pie and some time to chat and meet new people and enjoy the woman whose lives surrounds and sustains me also.

Lord, I am just so very blessed!

All before me was joy today: The engagements, the conversations, the opportunities seen and taken. The written word and the living Word filling and sustaining and guiding me.

Thanks for a great day - same again tomorrow please?

Wear your poppy with pride

Today is 'All Souls Day', the day we remember and give thanks for the lives of all who have 'gone before' and as we do we commend them to God (may they rest in peace) and look towards the return of Jesus, the Christ - reaffirming our hope in the resurrection.

As you think of those whom you know, or know of perhaps if they left this life some time ago, can I encourage you to think ahead for just a moment to Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday (the 11th and 13th of November in preparation of those two days add a poppy avatar to your social media presence?

There are a number on the Vic the Vicar blog - all you need do is go to a search engine and search for:

Vic the Vicar poppy avatar + the name of the cap badge, branch or organisation

(REME, Signals, Int' Corps, RAF, etc.)

If you, or a loved one, served in a branch of the forces or have an affiliation with the cadet organisations and the like - take a look you'll find a poppy there - there's even one for RTTW.

And if you don't find the poppy you need - add a comment and it will be there ASAP.

Let us remember those we love before God and comment them to His sure keeping trusting in the resurrection and the unending love of God.

As requested - one fire chaplain poppy - one Catering Corps - two ATC poppies


(other requests most welcome):

40Acts - Day 11 ' L.O.V.E. '

Love means a lot of different things to different people. It might look like hanging up the bathroom towels after you use them, instead of leaving them on the floor. It might look like a special surprise. It might look like a day spent in someone's company. It might just be a pat on the back and a smile. But each of us is built to give and receive love. It's a basic need. So give it to someone today.

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. 

(John 3:16 NCV)

Without oxygen and food and water, we can't survive. But there’s something else. Something just as crucial to our survival.

In one orphanage, it was discovered the babies were not thriving. And, even though they were being fed properly, some were dying. Researchers finally uncovered the reason. These babies were not being held or touched. They were not being loved.
                   
Without love a baby will not survive. And neither will we.

Love, like oxygen, is vital.

We use the word LOVE about all kinds of things – we love our spouse. Or a kitten. Or a holiday by the sea. Or a film. Or a cup of tea. Or a chocolate biscuit.

We use the word lightly. What is love? Hasn’t it got it to be more than that…?

It’s why I wrote this entry in my devotional:

What is love? Is it a feeling in your heart?

The Bible says Love is much more: it is patient and kind, never bears a grudge, doesn’t demand its own way, always wants the best for someone else, never puts itself first, never gets jealous, isn’t proud, doesn’t boast, isn’t rude, always hopes, never stops.

Oh dear, that’s quite a list. Who can love like that?

Only one.

He left his father and his throne and came to live with us. And showed us what love was really like.

Because, you see, Love isn’t mostly a list. It’s a Person.

May the One whose name is Love,
The One who made us from love, to love,
May he fill our hearts
And our souls
And our minds today.
And may we be open doors
Through which He may love the world.

Today's blog was written by Sally Lloyd-Jones.
Find out more about her and support her chosen charity here.

To see today's challenge in full - click Here

Ash Wednesday 2016

So here we are at the beginning of another Lent and the challenges that lie before us are perhaps tempered by the failures that lies behind us or diminished by our triumphs. Each of us create a patchwork quilt of our lives - some of the patches bring joy, others tears and others still, regret.

Some will take us back to the times when we have blessed God and those around us, others will bring back the pain of failure and separation; from God, from those around us, from those special people in our lives.

Today as Lent's forty days call us to examine our lives, what will we find and who will we have become at the end of this road?

Will the cross be on our shoulders or in a ditch?

Lord, how can we stand in your presence?
Our sins lie behind us and the accuser stands before us.
People, clamour round to hear the words and add their scorn;
Where blessing should be found, there is but contempt.
Those who would call themselves Church become one with those who cried out; "Crucify HIm, crucify Him!"
The homeless are passed by (on the other side of the road);
The hungry go unfed (perhaps it wasn't our ministry);
The poor, will always be with us (and 'we' have so little, what can 'we' do?)
The 'straight' are crooked and the 'gay' are sad,
The woman up the road with four children - none of them have a Dad,
The man who cries out about what should be done - continues to do nothing!

Today - in the ashes of the same palm crosses waved in triumph - is found our failings.
Today - in the ruins of our lives thus far - is found the reminder that we too are dust.
Today - a day of hope, not sorrow - for there is one who speaks for us.
Today - as the path to the cross become clear - there is forgiveness.

Give us the strength to take up our cross

To lay down our sins

And truly follow Him

Who is, for us, the Christ.

Amen.

Can't make it to church? - 12 April15

In today's readings fellowship and unity, followed swiftly by the king of the doubters himself, Thomas, feature large. So let's take them in that order and begin with the Acts passage; a passage that many have come to make the Philosopher's Stone of being Church.

Here we have a bunch of early Christians in Jerusalem. They meet in the Temple (in Solomon's Portico (a covered walkway on the Eastern side of the place) and shared the Apostles teaching and broke bread and...

And displayed such unity and love a that people were attracted to their philosophy and lifestyle. Many will tell you that they lived in communes but the more I've studied this the more convinced I am that they lived in their own homes and came together and, when they need arose! shared what they had in terms of money and property. You need a law mower? Use mine! The Church needs money - hang on a minute whilst I sell some land or go get some money from under the bed. Interestingly the words 'from time to time' are missing from the NRSV version but should go in front of 'for as many as owned lands'; this is about meeting the needs of those around them.

The Acts 2 and 4 passages are so often taken up as what happens when we come together and act as 'Church' and is the dream of many as the hallmark of successful and authentic church; and it is - all you need is sharing in the vision, the pastoral, the commitment to give and meet the needs of the Church and the putting of the 'the fellowship' and the gospel before self.

It is, as the psalmist tells, us 'good and pleasant' to live in unity. But the idyll comes at a cost because unity means submission and putting self lower than others. It means more than sticking a fiver on the plate as it passes and thinking that's 'job done'. It is about putting self on the cross and giving our all physically, mentally, financially and spiritually.

And that's where all this Acts 2 and 4 stuff gets sticky. The Acts believers were caught up in a frenzy of faith, successful faith, where people were healed and stuff happened. This is reflected in the 1 John passage where fellowship features large. 'Fellowship' (koinonia in the Greek) means family and like the 'ohana' word in 'LILO and Stitch':

“Koinonia means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten”

What would you do for those you love? 

Think about that question and then ask whether you'd do the same for those in the church around you.

If your church needed money to survive - would you give or give up?

The answer to that question might just explain why the Church struggles in some places and perhaps gives us a clue to what is going wrong with the Church today. 

Every day I ask myself where my commitment, passion and heart are when it comes to Church and those within it - what would your answer be if you asked the same question of yourself?

Sadly, the second focus of the day - Thomas - has the potential to get lost in the desire for unity and yet he is part of the picture we need to be painting today as we seek to be 'authentic Church' because he is something we need more of in our churches (yes, you read that correctly).

'What?, I hear many say, 'We need doubters who question God and bring unbelief into church?' And the answer 'Yes' is found in who this man, Thomas, is in terms of what we know about him and what he brings to the party.

For too many years I have lived with people who deride and abuse Thomas as the purveyor of doubt; the bringer of the most destructive cancer Church can suffer from. But they are wrong.

Wrong because when Jesus says he is about to set off for Bethany, a place where death is a real potential, His followers all try to persuade Him otherwise, but Thomas gets his coat, bowler and umbrella and ready to follow Hhis master says to the rest of the disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him.' (John 11).

Here is a man of courage and commitment - he is someone modelling one of the traits I wish we could see more of in the Church: courage and commitment regardless of the cost to self. This is the fuel that makes unity a reality and draws others into fellowship with us. People love to see authentic commitment.

But still people will be shaking their heads and will be pointing to the 'doubt' label as if it is wrong. But doubt is good and essential for us if we are to not have doubt eat us away. Doubt is the crucible where faith is refined and made real (I loved it when I first said it from a pulpit and love it still as I type those words - and the memory of a colleague shaking their head and taking me to task over it later only makes it more important).

Thomas missed Jesus popping in after the resurrection and I'm not sure whether he thought it was a wind-up or what, but what is says is 'Show me! Let me make this mine in the only way I can: Seeing is believing, so show me!'

The problem with doubt is the fact that it demands an answer; it demands proof and this is where the problems start and our dislike of doubt begins to bite. For doubt requires an answer and so many I engage with are unable to give one, so they merely dismiss the doubt, and the doubter! as something wrong and continue by applauding those who have 'faith'. Could this be because the faithful don't ask questions we can't answer perhaps?

To have a true and authentic faith, one which builds Church and sees people selling stuff and coming together and seeing lives changed and 'signs and wonders' and miracles and stuff there needs to be a complete 'soldoutedness' and this comes by having tested what Christians claim and challenging it to the point that it stands or falls within us. We cannot live in a world of 'because I say so' but in a world of 'because I believe so': And this comes by not leaving your brain at the church door but by using it fully and becoming a reasoned and engaged and thinking and challenging believer.

Thomas is our model for this. If you have a doubt, then ask and if the person you ask cannot give you an answer then ask someone else about the hope that they have in Jesus, the Christ, and tell the person with no answer to 'man up' and get an answer too!

Fellowship - Unity - Doubt - Belief

All a fingertip away if you really want them and an eternity away unless you can live authentically and honestly as Christians. It's your choice ;-)

Collect
Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts, that we may seek the good of others and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace, to the praise of God the Father. Amen.

Acts 4.32-35
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Psalm 133
Behold how good and pleasant it is to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head,  running down upon the beard, even on Aaron’s beard, running down upon the collar of his clothing. It is like the dew of Hermon running down upon the hills of Zion. For there the Lord has promised his blessing: even life for evermore.

1 John 1.1 - 2.2
We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us - we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

John 20.19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’




A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. 

Post Communion
Lord God our Father, through our Saviour Jesus Christ you have assured your children of eternal life and in baptism have made us one with him: deliver us from the death of sin and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Can't make it to church? 22 February 2015

Here we are at the First Sunday of Lent - and oddly, for those who don't know it, Sundays are not actually part of Lent because Sunday is a 'mini Easter' and so it is always a celebration. So the ashes and the taking up of things (and the subsequent laying down also) are put to one side for 24 hrs - but of course the cross we carry isn't!

And what of our readings? 

All too often we forget that part of our daily worship is to be found in the Psalms and so why not have us start there as we are reminded of Him in whom we put our trust and the cry to be taught the paths of righteousness, that way of the cross, is clear for us, and for those with whom we deal; for surely we deal in the same way with others as God deals with us (don't we?). For, 'All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.'

Psalm 25.1-9

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies triumph over me. Let none who look to you be put to shame, but let the treacherous be shamed and frustrated. Make me to know your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you have I hoped all the day long. Remember, Lord, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions, but think on me in your goodness, O Lord, according to your steadfast love. Gracious and upright is the Lord; therefore shall he teach sinners in the way. He will guide the humble in doing right and teach his way to the lowly. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

So here we are, stepping out on this first Sunday in Lent looking to walk in mercy and truth and what do we find from the readings? Will they offer us more of the same or will they, as sometimes is the case, cause us to wonder where the link is?

Well we have Noah as the focus of our Old Testament reading - the looking back at God having taken things into His own hands and the promise that He will never take direct, hands on, action against the wicked. That's what the rainbow says, "It's hands off from me, I'll send you signposts, and prophecies and people who will stand with you, but you have control of it all!'

And herein lies the answer to the question, 'Why does a God of love let bad things happen?' and the reason for for asking the question, 'Why do you people keep doing bad things?'

Genesis 9.8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

And the two passages below. The Gospel talking of the start of Jesus' ministry and God's affirmation of Him as He sets out on the road to the Cross - that most active and engaged path of truth, love and mercy  - and the succinct summing up of it from words of 1 Peter 3:

'For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, 

the righteous for the unrighteous, 

in order to bring you to God.'

Add to this the words:

'And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you

not as a removal of dirt from the body, 

but as an appeal to God for a good conscience,

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ'

And 'Bingo!' it all becomes clear and the jigsaw coming together gives us a picture of a God who seeks us to be a people who will not need Him to intervene (because He can't - He's made that promise in Genesis 9 that He won't and He ALWAYS keeps His promises. 

That picture of a people who will not ask why God isn't acting because they are!

A picture that see us making a stand and ensuring that the wrong are stopped in their tracks.

So are we going to be people who complain that God never acts or are we going to be His hands and feet; His arm of love that embrace; His voice that speaks healing and forgiveness into the world and more specifically those around us? Are we willing to take up our own cross and start down the paths of truth, love, reconciliation and denial of self? (Let's pray):

The Collect

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

1 Peter 3.18-22

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you - not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Mark 1.9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ 

Post Communion Prayer

Lord God, you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith, increase our hope, and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.