Go placidly...

I haven't blogged for several months, no reason really, I guess it is something I always meant to get round to but never really managed it. It is a fowl wet windy day here today so I have some space to write. 

I don't like New Year's Eve. I think it is an over hyped day when people think that past midnight their problems will be over and life will be better as the 1st of January dawns. I've never got why people want to stand outside in the cold, get drunk, and "see it in" - perhaps I am old and boring. But on a more positive note, perhaps it is a day to reflect on the year that has passed, and think about the things I can control in the year ahead. 

I am hopeless at resolutions, but this year perhaps I need to take more time to be. Someone said to me on Christmas morning "you have worked so hard" and I give the impression I rush about, even though I know I do less in a day than I used to and I am better at looking after myself than I used to be. A long period of illness at the end of 2011 taught me many lessons. 

I have this wonderful Max Ehrmann quote hanging in my study. It is a painting by my Dad presented to my great Auntie Ede on completion of 60 years as a Sunday School teacher in the little chapel I grew up in. It is also known as Desiderata, Latin for, I think, "things desired as essential." 

I am not good at noise (apart from turning up the music loud when I want to sing along to pop music. Pick of the Pops on a Saturday afternoon is a gift and protected time for me, even if I catch it later on the i-player) but I am not good at noise - parties, large crowds, commotion and chaos. 

I am not good at haste either, I like to procrastinate. I will always put off to tomorrow what I needn't do today, especially things I don't want to do at all. 

But perhaps not being good at either of these things isn't a disaster. I think if I had any advice for my churches I care for it would be to slow down. "Success" isn't measured by how much stuff we do, how busy we are to the point of burnout and disillusionment, it is measured by the quality of our activity, the depth of our life together, how much joy and fulfilment there is in being and doing what we do well. Perhaps doing less noise and less haste, I need to set smaller goals, have less on my to do list every day, then I will actually achieve more because I will feel better about myself. I want my four lovely churches as we begin a process of review in a few years to do less things well, rather than a lot of things half heartedly. None of us should feel permanently tired trying to do the impossible. The Jesus I read about calls us into life, not into a perpetual state of knackered-ness! (My spell checker underlines that word in red but I want to keep it there because it is a good word.)

What am I intending to about finding peace this year?

I think I am going to have a shorter list each day of things I need to do.

I will stick to having time at the beginning of my day to do devotions. I am a member of the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship and their daily office is superb - and I am hopeless at doing it. 

I will take longer over breakfast - that means getting out of bed earlier!!

I will spend longer with my wife and with my friends. They are all a gift to me and I forget that so easily. I have times booked to see friends in my diary already through the year and that feels good. 

I am seeing a spiritual director this year - I've finally got round to finding one!

I will explore a local retreat centre, and I will go on retreat in Lent. A blog I posted earlier from Stephen Cherry whose writing I really enjoy, suggests having those sort of things in your diary and also holidays and to be able to look forward to them is vital. 

I will write more liturgies and bible studies as both refresh me. 

When I have meetings in London, I will take time after the meeting to enjoy being in London. I love walking through the streets and being there. Central London above ground is much more interesting than under ground. I don't need to rush home. 

I will attend things this year that have nothing to do with the Methodist Church. I will do this! (I never want to become one of those people who can only talk about the Methodist Church.)

I will continue to make all four of my churches feel valued by not giving them the impression I have no time for them and need to rush off from them to something else. My diary needs space in it. I am getting better at this. 

I will laugh more and fret less. And I will try and cope with life's complexity calmly rather than witter on negatively winding myself and those around me, up. 

I will take advice given to me the other month when faced with a problem - count to ten before responding, and don't write an e-mail straight back when you receive one. Things written in haste can cause great damage.  

And what about silence? I enjoy silence. I love quiet days. I am quite happy in my own space. Perhaps churches need to shut up more and listen to God. I think I am a good listener. Not every space needs to be filled with words. Perhaps all of us just need to breathe.

My favourite bible verse is this one from the little read prophet Zephaniah:

"The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love" (3: 17)

If we don't take in this year, how will we be fulfilled as people? 

Of course, all of my ideas above may well be broken by January 3rd, but it is good to start positive. I hope people who need to go out and party tonight have a good time. I might be sad and listen to Tony Blackburn for three hours on Radio 2, or I might go to bed. But however we mark or don't mark the turn of the year, all of us hope that we will be better people in the one to come. I think a good way to start is looking after ourselves!

     

  

Friendship

I did assembly this morning at a lovely little junior school near one of my churches. They are having assemblies on friendship this term. I took in Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore and we had a lovely time.

I spotted this poem on their prayer board (it is a church school) and I thought it was very powerful so I wanted to share it. It's called "If one day"

If one day you feel like crying, call me...
I don't promise that I will make you laugh.
But I can cry with you.

If one day you want to run away, don't be afraid to call me.
I don't promise to ask you to stop, but I can run with you.

If one day you don't want to listen to anyone, call me...
I promise to be there for you.
And I promise to be very quiet.

But if one day you call me and there is no answer,
Come fast to see me, perhaps I need you.

A model of community that some churches might do well to follow?  

Laughter and Memories

I had my first visit to church number three in my pastoral charge in my new Circuit today. It was Harvest and there was a lunch and "entertainment" afterwards. I really enjoyed being there with them. We had a time of fun together and belly aching laughter. It culminated in a lady getting an old Pam Ayres book of poems out of her handbag and reading "Pam Ayres And The Embarrassing Incident With The Parrot."  

There was much hilarity in the room but I think people wondered why their new minister was nearly under the table crying. When I was very young, at the church I grew up in, Folly Methodist in Wheathampstead, we used to have "entertainment"after Harvest like they did today. I used to read Pam Ayres poems out of the same book the lady used today. The parrot poem has the line "get off you little buggers" in it. I remember my Dad (or perhaps my Mum telling my Dad to do it) putting a sticky label over the last word of that sentence and altering it to perishers! I haven't heard that poem read for years. When I recovered, my senior steward said, "I think we are learning lots about our new minister today!"

It is good to laugh - I am glad to be part of churches that laugh. It is so refreshing. If we can't laugh together we are in serious strife. Pam Ayres is a genius. I follow her on Twitter and she is hilarious on that - @ayrespam if you're interested. I might have to save some pennies to see her on tour next month - she is near here in Crawley. I reproduce the parrot poem below in case anyone doesn't know it. Hearing it today being read by an elderly lady and watching people collapse in laughter and collapse with more laughter watching my reaction to it has been the highlight of my day. Thank you Pam Ayres, and thank you St Helens Methodist Church!

At the Cotswold Wild Life Park, In the merry month of May, I paid the man the money, And went in to spend the day, Straightway to the Pets Corner, I turned my eager feet, To go and see the rabbits, And give them something to eat. As I approached the hutches, I was alarmed to see, A crowd of little yobbos, 'Ollerin' with glee, I crept up close behind them And weighed the scene up quick, And saw them poke the rabbits Poke them! . . with a stick! 'Get off you little buggers!" I shouted in their ear, 'Don't you poke them rabbits, That's not why they are here." I must have really scared them, In seconds they were gone, And feelin' I had done some good, I carried on along. Till up beside the Parrots Cage, I stood to view the scene, They was lovely parrots, Beautiful blue and green, In and out the nestbox, They was really having fun, Squawking out and flying about, All except for one. One poor old puffed-up parrot, Clung grimly to his perch, And as the wind blew frontwards, Backwards he would lurch, One foot up in his feathers, Abandoned by the rest, He sat there, plainly dying, His head upon his chest. Well, I walked on down the pathway And I stroked a nanny goat, But the thought of parrots dyin' Brought a lump into me throat, I could no longer stand it, And to the office I fled, Politely I began: 'Scuse me, Your parrot's nearly dead." So me and a curator, In urgent leaps and bounds, With a bottle of Parrot Cure, Dashed across the grounds, The dust flew up around us, As we reached the Parrots Pen, And the curator he turned to me Saying 'Which one is it then?" You know what I am going to say, He was not there at all, At least, not where I left him, No, he flit from wall to wall, As brightly as a button, Did he squawk and jump and leap, The curator was very kind, Saying, "I expect he was asleep." But I was humiliated, As I stood before the wire, The curator went back, To put his feet up by the fire, So I let the parrot settle, And after a short search, I found the stick the yobbos had, And poked him off his perch.

         

What to say...

We have been enjoying settling into life in Hastings over the past few weeks. Today is September 1st, the beginning of a new church year in our denomination. Tomorrow, I lead worship in a church I know very little about, apart from the fact their choir sing an introit, the Lord's Prayer, an anthem and the doxology!

What do you say to a congregation who will come out to suss out the new minister, perhaps in expectation, but also in fear of change?

First I think I will want to say we need to be ourselves. We cannot do what we cannot do, but we have potential within us. The Paralympics are full of stories of achievement, courage, hope, the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. In the Opening Ceremony, the story was about enlightenment, where part of the Tempest was used. Prospero leads his daughter Miranda on a journey of discovery. At the end, he says to her "go, be yourself." We are called to be us. No one else is called to sing our song, as Edwina Gateley puts it in the wonderful "Called to Become" - we are not called in Christian terms to compete, but to be distinctive using our own gifts.

Second, I think I will want to say we need to be authentic. I am aware so many people are leaving the church in 2012 through disillusionment that Christians should behave in the way they see them behave, bullying, power issues, unwillingness to change, not accepting new contributions, clinging to tradition unhealthily. We need to remember why we do what we do. I went to a lovely service last Sunday in a village Parish Church where the lay reader after endless notices said, "right, let's get on with what we are really here for!" Are we open as a people? Can people see Jesus through us? Or is there something in the way?

Finally, I think I will want to say we need to embrace what is around us. At my Welcome Service on Monday we will sing a hymn I've chosen by the New Zealand hymn writer Shirley Murray:

"Community of Christ, look past the Church's door and see the refugee, the hungry and the poor. Take hands with the oppressed, the jobless in your street, take towel and water, that you wash your neighbour's feet."

We are called to respond to the need that is in our community. We are not to be a place where we have no clue about real life because we are stuck in a undated church culture that has no resources to respond because life has moved on quickly. I remember little children in my last church looking in wonder at a cassette player. I didn't win the "can I please have a CD player in church" argument with my folk! I am challenged by tomorrow's epistle from James concerning true religion: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." You've got to be in the world though!

Tomorrow's service is in the lovely Sussex town of Rye. I've been reading the history of the Methodist cause there. John Wesley when opening a preaching house there in 1789 wrote this:
"Such a congregation I never saw at Rye before, and their behaviour was as remarkable as their number; which, added to the peaceable, loving spirit they are now in, gives reason to hope there will be such a work here as has not been heretofore." I shall remind the small congregation there tomorrow that 223 years after those words were written, they are now God's people there, and there is still work to do together.

Tomorrow will be strange, but also exciting for me. I hope some folk who come out in the morning to meet their new minister, might go away helped and encouraged by a reminder of some basics. We shall see!      

One step at a time - pondering Exodus 33

Moses is my favourite character in Scripture because he is so honest. His story is full of “please don’t make me do that” and sometimes he gets exasperated with God and with his life. 

He has confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh and has won the release of his people. He has held his arms over the Red Sea to part them so the people could pass safely through, and he has guided and cajoled them through the wilderness and their justifiable apprehension that eventually questioned whether they had done the right thing in leaving the relative security of Egypt.  He has organized, cared pastorally, led the journey; he has interceded and reassured – the work of an ordained minister!  And no sooner has he gone up the mountain to spend some quality time with God, the people gather up all their jewellery, melt it down and cast it into a golden calf to worship.

In chapter 33, one of my favourite parts of the Bible, he is tired, mad, nervous and afraid. 

I guess there are times when we feel paralysed and can’t face the challenge of moving to where God requires – anywhere but there.

It is a common feeling in Scripture; think of Jonah for example, he sets off as far in the opposite direction to God’s direction as he can. Think of would be disciples of Jesus – they have all sorts of other priorities to attend to before they can commit themselves to the journey, the journey Jesus beckons them on is for today, not tomorrow. Think of John the Baptist, radical prophet heralding the coming of God’s Kingdom and calling people to change. Does he have sleepness nights in the wilderness about his safety upsetting the apple cart? Coming against the hierarchy of the day, he isn’t afraid to stand up for what he believes, even where it conflicts with the majority view around him. Going out can be risky, especially if we are commissioned to be controversial. How easily we can be knocked off course by difficulties and oppositions! We so easily give up. Keep quiet John; you can keep your head that way! It is easier to stay in bed, than to interact with the world where you might meet a Herodias.  

But wouldn’t life be boring if we couldn’t move, or hadn’t the will to move? I have said in many sermons that I believe Methodism needs to rediscover being a movement, bringing a new beginning to lives crippled by fear, confusion, stress, pain, insecurity and paralysis. I believe in a God whose mercies are new every morning and who says there is always more, more, more, more, more to discover, more work to do, more blessings to seek, more to discover in ourselves as we do his will.

One of my friends moving appointment for September like me asked her new church what they wanted her to do. They described what their very popular, long serving minister, who they really didn’t want to go, has done for the past ten years. They then told her, “and we expect you to do what he has done and we don’t want change.” And she is now worrying about moving because they seem to have already decided that “the storm may roar about me but nothing changes here,” and she won’t be allowed to be herself because they are comfortable where they are.

Some churches can be so negative – we don’t want this, we don’t want that, no new hymns, no chairs, definitely not a screen, and they seem to think new people will come by returning things back to how they were many years ago. Some churches faced what Moses faced some chapters before the one we are looking at today, “why have you brought us out here to die? We want to go back to Egypt!” Moving though can get us involved in new things and it can be fun!

On a recent visit to Hastings, I felt so good because I managed to find the road where I was heading without getting lost. But I missed the turning into the road and went too far past. I decided I could turn round in the cemetery along the road and come back. So I found the exit. Trying to turn out into the road, I saw a lot of cyclists coming towards me, but I thought I can get out before they reach me, so I turned into the road. I then realised there was a big funeral, possibly of a cyclist, and I found myself in the middle of a funeral cortege, people on the street with cameras watching and police everywhere. The cortege in front of me turned back into the cemetery, I in my clerical collar went straight on, past a bemused policewoman who assumed I was taking the service! I was in the middle, by accident, of real life, real pain, I never intended being there, but I was. Sometimes that how we find ourselves and we have to respond to what is around us.

The new, the move, the challenge is exciting. New opportunities await. I read this week an article by Canon Giles Fraser. You may remember with all those protestors on the steps he left St Pauls Cathedral and he’s just started in a London parish. Before starting he wrote, “What will I be doing? I don’t know. As I wander round the council estates I have no idea how to begin.” But then he discovers within a few days you start by seeing what’s there, where God is, and you encourage that, and you work from that point. I am thinking about that looking forward to taking my first steps into the new. I think!

A Christian Queen

I was asked to think about the Queen and Trinity Sunday for my service this week. It got me thinking about three prayers and three attitudes that our monarch might show.    

I found this prayer for Trinity Sunday:

O God our mystery, you bring us to life, call us to freedom, and move between us with love. May so we participate in the dance of your Trinity, that our lives may resonate with you, now and for ever.

Our God is big, a mystery. Our Queen sees her reign as vocation, as response to God, who is always there for her. She is a Christian, but she embraces other faiths and promotes tolerance and understanding in community. The Queen puts God at the heart of the nation’s life, reminding us not just once a year on Christmas Day, but in what she does, that he matters and he can help us.

I bought a book which came out 10 years ago for the Golden Jubilee in 2002. I remember it was hot on Jubilee Weekend 10 years ago. I did a wedding on the Saturday and hadn’t drunk enough, and I fainted at the couple’s reception in the Masonic Hall afterwards which was a big of a talking point! The book is about the spiritual dimension of monarchy and it reminds us that lots of the times the Royal Family are visible and have their highest public profile are religious in character – the Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph, the Christmas broadcast and church service at Sandringham, the Royal Maundy service, the Garter service at Windsor, royal weddings and funerals and services of national thanksgiving. The writer says, “Television and newspaper coverage of these and other events reinforces the image of a churchgoing Queen who leads her country in the worship of God.” God is central.

Then a second prayer, which is about the Queen:

“Dear Father, thank you for our Queen Elizabeth and her wise ruling over the United Kingdom for the past 60 years. Thank you for Her Majesty’s shared faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask Lord for a continued blessing of this nation through her Majesty. Amen.”  

What sort of reign over us do we have in this Queen? She is accessible, perhaps the most well known face in the world. I’ve been reading some books about the 1950’s and the Coronation in particular. At the beginning of 1953, fewer than two million homes in this country had a television set. In the build up to the Coronation, 526,000 sets were sold, and 3,000 tickets for a large screen showing at the Festival Hall went in under an hour. 20 million people watched the service, 40 per cent of the population, and another 12 million on the wireless. It was the start of the television age. She was the first monarch really to be in our homes, there for us, stability, a force for good, our Queen.

So, what sort of leadership is Christian monarchy or any sort of leader? We must look to Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus saw leadership not as dominance, as dictatorship, as bending subjects or citizens to the will of the leader, but as service, bearing the burden, paying the price. His followers thought he had come to bring freedom from the imperial Roman yoke. His kingship would change things, but not in the way people thought.

Our Queen on her 21^st birthday said her whole life, whether long or short would be devoted to service.

She cares for her people, she works hard, she lives her Christian faith daily, she knows Jesus makes a difference. She shares her faith as we must share ours. If Jesus matters, we must show he does. This got me thinking about the Maundy service. During that service, where alms are given to the people, corresponding with the monarch’s age, ever since Henry IV, the monarch personally washed the feet of the poor, up until the reign of James II. After that the monarch wasn’t involved at all even giving money until George V in 1932. But the almoner who is there and his helpers while not foot washing, wear linen aprons as a reminder of the way of Jesus in this act of service.

Then thirdly this prayer which I have loved since it was used at last year’s Methodist Conference:

“May God grant us the strength to seek justice, the wisdom to care for all God’s creation, and the courage to proclaim the Gospel.”   

How does God inspire us to go out and make a difference in the world?

He is the power within us through his Spirit, enabling us to have courage to proclaim the Gospel, to seek justice, to care. In history, kings and queens have been judged by whether they ruled with righteousness, and righteousness is literally having a right relationship with God. We are in a Jubilee year. We learn from the book of Leviticus that the ram’s horn trumpet was to be blown as a proclamation of liberty throughout the land. During this year, all debts were cancelled, lands were restored to their original owners and family members were restored to one another. Jesus announced such an agenda in the synagogue in Nazareth, freedom for the prisoner, recovery of sight for the blind, setting free for the oppressed, proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favour – the year of Jubilee. We need such a Jubilee today.

Returning to our Queen, people say when they meet her or see her in the street, they feel special. That is the Christian calling for us, the Spirit of God enables us to make a difference. People need to feel they are somebody, and God’s Spirit comes into the world to enable.

I love Jean Vanier who worked with people who have disabilities. He said, “Can we reasonably have a dream of a world where people, whatever their race, religion, culture, abilities or disabilities, can find a place and reveal their gifts?” That’s the sort of Kingdom, spiritual Kingdom we all work towards. That’s the sort of country Queen Elizabeth II I believe tries to govern. We need to be pointed to the Spirit, enabling us to make a difference.

What will thinking about our Queen this weekend, thinking about our God in three persons, thinking about the world and its need for redemption and reconciliation and Jubilee do to us? 

The Jubilee principle is that all people matter, all people deserve to live, all people can be free, all people can experience the year of the Lord’s favour. What does the Spirit do, the third person of the Godhead? It helps us see God’s future, it helps us perceive and judge people we meet, situations in the world, not simply on our own terms, but in the light of God’s new world, a world where all are included and no one is an object but a somebody. 

A God who is there everywhere – a Queen who worships.

A God who is close in Jesus – a Queen who serves.

A God who inspires and is in the world – a Queen who cares.

A church that does you good...

I found this cartoon from Asbo Jesus. I find it funny but also very sad because it can be so true.
I long for a church that heals, that walks alongside, that is compassionate, suffering with people, that doesn't judge or make inappropriate comments, that doesn't say you are okay then you find out you've been stabbed in the back. I long for a church that accepts without reserve.

Today I led folk in thinking about the Methodist emphasis on the priority of God's love, that all are welcome and all are accepted in the ethos of my denomination. I passionately believe we need to rediscover that basic principle of what we are about. I am sorry when I keep hearing stories of people stressed by church, made unwell by church and staying away from church because of unchristian behaviour they experience from people who should know better!

I remain in the church to change the church. Someone told me this morning to never stop being me and never stop saying what needs to be said, even though it can bring horrid stuff to me personally. I read Luke 4 verses 16 to 21 this morning, Jesus manifesto of Kingdom values in the synagogue in Nazareth. The faithful there received his words and were so angry they tried to hurl him over a cliff. That hasn't happened to me - yet!

I discovered this "mission statement" in a church I visited recently. I like it:

Our mission is to proclaim the love of God and share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people.

Our vision is to grow in faith: to worship, pray and learn,  to care for one another, to offer support and encouragement. 

Our aim is to serve others; to be a good neighbour in the community,  to challenge injustice,  to use our resources wisely.

That to me is what a church is for. That is how we become relevant again. Being there, being open, feeling people’s pain and joy, and not being frightened to get our hands dirty for others, rather than beating up others who aren't like us or challenge us.  People this morning loved the fact we sang some Wesley hymns. 

If we are really to celebrate Wesley and his story, then a real celebration of him and what God hath wrought would be to emulate his talent for reaching out to ordinary people in practical demonstrations of Christianity. Sounds simple, doesn't it? 

Christian Aid - not a week a year only

I did assembly on Friday afternoon at our local school. As I walked in the school, I sensed something was not quite right. The Headteacher pulled a face at me when I asked her how she was and I noticed her summoning children one by one into her office.

At the assembly, she went onto the stage and gave the whole school what for. There had clearly been an “incident” and she had spent all day investigating it. She said “you have let me down, where’s your respect for one another? If you see it, you say so!”

If you see it, you say so! I get inspiration from the strangest place… It made me think about our responsibilities in the world as part of a global community.

If we see it, we need to say so, voicing the wrong, sharing the hurt of the world with others and then doing something about it so it doesn’t happen again. Monday morning at that school they hope will bring a new start as someone somewhere shares what might have happened and the issue can begin to be resolved – whatever it is!

If you see it, you say so!

I wonder though whether because we live in an era where the news is “in your face” we take the injustice and suffering and the cry for help in the world less seriously. We can get news weary. We can get used to scenes of distress, even when we are warned “this report has some things some people might find distressing.” Is it easier to ignore the situation, keep quiet, seeing it but not talking about it, hoping it will go away?   

Jesus tells us to love our neighbour and so on - but what if I don't want to do that because my own life is so complicated today?

If you see it, you say so!

What if I can’t be bothered to say so? What if it is easier to keep my head down, because the need for aid might be messy? Do I allow the pain to continue, the injustice to continue because we are too wrapped up in what might happen to us if I stand up and am counted? 

It is easy to ignore the world’s pain, to say it has nothing to do with us, there is nothing to say. We see it, but we say nothing, so the negative things continue because we didn’t intervene. 

At the beginning of Christian Aid Week, I think we all can justify our failure to give aid, but sometimes we betray the Christ who suffers for the world and all his teachings which are all about giving help where help is needed. Jesus gets involved with Christian Aid every day. I believe the God we worship and Jesus shows is one of mercy, infinite grace, compassion and care, and who chooses to enter the difficult places and transform them.

The world is not right yet, but we don’t bury our head in the sand, or hide in fear for speaking out, we believe that we can make a better world, beginning here, and praying and giving for other parts of the world we will perhaps never visit. If you see it, you say so. I love what Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “Don’t give up, don’t be discouraged, I’ve read the end of the book. We win!”             

If you see it, you say so.

We see the world as it is as we watch the news and so on today, but we also see the possibilities that bringing Jesus’ love into that world can bring.

How can we really keep quiet, or do nothing? 

A changing landscape...?

I have just returned from a four day visit to Manchester and to the Ashton under Lyne Circuit, where I was stationed as a probationer minister in 1997.
Last Monday, I had two very interesting walks which helped me reflect on the important things we are when we say we are "church" in today's society.
I walked in the morning along Park Road in Dukinfield, where I had a little church called Tame Valley Methodist Church. It served in its heyday an industrial area, chiefly of mills. The church was nowhere to be seen having been closed in 2008 and then demolished because it was unsafe due to asbestos.
In its day, it was a place full of activity, spiritual and social, no it has been, unless you know its story, erased from history. It might have never been there. My picture above, shows what it looked like when it stood.
I met some friends from the church for coffee on Monday morning. I watched the closing service of the church on a video with them. I watched them cry as the Superintendent said words of de-consecration and the video went on to show folk dismantling important things that were inside the church that had always been there. The minister said on the video, they were no longer a church. It was very sad.
However, Marie, the steward there, when she spoke said, "the building might have given up, but we haven't!" It was good to learn that four years on from closure, they still meet as a group of folk from that place in her home, for prayer and bible study. A church building unsafe and then demolished, a people doing church together in a differently, caring for one another pastorally, and still learning together with regular visits from their minister in the place the building served. Being church with no building...
When life changes and things that were always there are no longer there and you have to watch them change, it is painful. This area has not only lost both its church buildings (there was also a small Anglican mission along the road) but also most of its employment, the mills having long closed. But I saw hope in the story of a little fellowship still meeting - and regularly praying for their community.



Later on Monday, I went and stayed for a night in Manchester City Centre. I trained for ministry in Manchester and greatly enjoyed living in the city. We were in college the Saturday in 1996 the IRA bomb exploded in Manchester, and caused widespread damage, although miraculously, killing no one. The city has changed especially round the Cathedral and Exchange Square beyond recognition. There are new buildings, new projects, and there was a confidence that things had to be rebuilt, because the people were stronger than the hatred of a few, that buildings could go, but people's resilience and strength to keep going were more important than them, even if some of them had been there for a long time. I rediscovered this postbox on Monday evening. This postbox was undamaged around absolute chaos. It has been put back where it was as a sign that in the end we keep going, despite hardship and confusion. It was interesting to see in the visitor information centre off Piccadilly Gardens, the aftermath of a campaign called #ilovemcr where people came together after last year's riots to say in the end we are better than horrible things that happen, we will keep going.

These ramblings really are trying to say that in the end, buildings and circumstances may cause us pain and leave us bereft when they fall, but we can move on beyond them. Sometimes I think today's church needs to learn this simple truth, when we are spending so much energy on them.

As the hymn says, tower and temple may fall to dust.... but that is not the end. Even though leaving a building or familar landscapes can be really hard.

At that closing service I sent a message with this prayer by Bruce Prewer from "Jesus, our Future":

Give your people the will, loving God, to close down some churches with the same faith and vision with which we open them. Let us give thanks for all precious memories, but do not permit us to live in them. Inspire us to move on gratefully and graciously, to worship and witness in new places and in new ways. And may the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing.

I like that prayer a lot.

Easter Footprints

Amazingly, my Easter message came this afternoon after sitting here for an hour thinking...
I have been struck by a paragraph in the Lent course some of us did this year. The writer of the material talked about the Early Church, and how the first Christians started the rumour of a loving God revealed in Jesus Christ by the way they were, often counter cultural to society around them. To a world which prized brute strength and exploitation, they offered love and service. And he says “Before we can pass on the good news, we must live the good news, by responding to each day with gratitude and generosity. If the church on the corner is to communicate good news, it must first BE good news.”

I know in my churches some people are worried that people aren’t coming to church anymore.  I know some people are worried that we don’t seem to be attracting new people to church. But I believe Christians have and need to be good news where they are, every day. Being good news can make a difference, perhaps to just one person today as Jesus was to a weeping, desolate Mary in the Easter Gospel. 

A man on the radio on Friday lunchtime as I was driving home from my service said he believes we are living in an age of unrest and deep spiritual questions. People are weeping because life is hard and they are searching for answers, and for God – they just aren’t looking for him inside the church, some through bad experiences inside church, but others frightened by us, and others needing us to go to them where they are. That’s why so many of our ministers are now in chaplaincy posts, at work, in places of leisure, that’s why part of my time each week is spent having conversations with people nowhere near a church building, but still doing the work of our church. How sad people don’t think people who are Christians or go to church will have anything to say to their world. We need to BE good news.     

              

I’ve always been drawn to a quote of Gerard Manley Hopkins who uses Easter as a verb, something to do. “Let him Easter in us” he once wrote. See good news and then be good news. If there is no good news in our local church community, and all we do is moan, and wallow that nothing is good, like it used to be, life won’t be much fun and we won’t be attractive. 

I have been sitting here thinking about Mary. It is not wrong to weep. It is not wrong to say life stinks. It is not wrong to question where God might be. Mary stayed in the discomfort of that place. If we do the same, in his time, and often unexpectedly a God we cannot imagine comes and introduces us to new possibilities. Because he knows us, names us, calls us to see that we live a valued life he also gives us power to see that what we are is linked into the centre of his reality, that nothing can separate us from his love.

When you’re tired, and you lack inspiration for the sermon and you desparately want it finished on Good Friday afternoon so you can have Saturday off, it is always a wonder to me that God points me when I’m struggling to the good news of a resource. Somehow I was led into my files and an Easter letter from Rev John Walker in a church magazine from ages ago. John was my Superintendent at home from 1988 to 1994 and I worked with him as his lay worker for three years. He was a deeply honest preacher, his sermons were often raw and real. He had a gift to say to his congregation listening to him it is okay to tell God how you feel. I’m going to let him end my thoughts on transforming weeping into laughter, and desparation and bad news into good and us struggling into being good news around us right here:

“If we were each to draw a graph to depict the course of our lives to date, the line would have peaks at when we felt confident and happy, and low points when we felt in the depths. Some people mistakenly associate God with the high spots only. Really he is with us at every point and turn, even when our depression makes it difficult for us to believe in him or feel him to be present. His power at work inside us can help us turn the corner. Belief in the resurrection makes us expect and look for turning points in our lives, but they sometimes come after what seemed to be the point of no return.”      

On Easter Sunday we declare that ‘Christ has risen!’ We celebrate joyfully that the God who created us knows us, and meets us.It is like that old "Footprints" poem, Jesus was always there in the walk on the sand.  

God meets us where we’re weeping for our deprived and depraved self. Like Mary Magdalene discovered, he meets us in the place where all hope is lost and all seems destroyed. It’s at that point that God is restored from the grave to make all things new. 

The edge of Holy Week: sunsets and sunrises

I am almost finished in my preparation for worship for Holy Week, just a Maundy Thursday supper, a sermon for Good Friday and an Easter Sunday service to write, somewhere in the busyness of this coming week. This week not only will bring church services but also two funerals and two pastoral visits which need to be done this week because people are struggling. We also have a big day personally as we go to see our future home in Hastings again, which is exciting, yet a reminder we are soon on the move which is a bit scary!


I guess I am reminded in all this activity that Holy Week is all about Jesus entering the busyness of the real world. In a week, he feels the acclaim and rejection of people, he goes through every human emotion possible, he suffers and dies, and he gives us hope that negativity is not the end of the matter. Part of what I still feel called to do is to share with people that in the craziness of life, and yes, even in the craziness of the Church, there is always hope. The Christian story has to face hard things, even death, in order to celebrate new life. At two funerals this week, I shall preach the Gospel. My pastoral tutor taught me years ago always to preach the Gospel at a funeral and I have never forgotten his advice.


I enter Holy Week which is always a tremendous privilege to lead people through, remembering the good news that there is nothing we face, where Jesus has not been first. I have a crucifix in my hall in the manse. Some Methodists find this difficult, but I need it there to know that my God suffers with me and transforms that suffering. Easter Sunday is a wonderful celebration. Jesus had to rise from something, and it was from the worst that another person could do to you in his day. To see Jesus on the cross is a constant challenge to me to help those who struggle and a constant source of peace to me that he is somehow there ahead of me especially at times when I struggle with stuff.


I took this picture of the sun while I was on Holy Island. It is setting above the hills. We were just coming out of Evening Prayer at about 6pm from the Parish Church and felt a tremendous sense of peace as we just watched the view in wonder. I guess that Holy Week while hard is a comfort, in that there is nothing in life or death that can separate me from God's love. Tomorrow, it being All Fools Day, I am thinking about Jesus being a holy fool, using some of an essay I read a few days ago. The author writes: " I believe in the hopeful, comic spirit that stays one step ahead of the darkness reaching out to swallow it – or is reborn out of the darkness when it chances to be swallowed. I believe in the unexpected, sometimes preposterous spirit of grace breaking into the times of darkness in our lives.” And he concludes thinking about the hard work, the pain, but the determination to journey the right way, even if it is madness:“The divine dances in our lives and something  new comes into being."


What does this week mean for me? Well, we were sent this reading some time back which one of our friends used going through a hard time. Perhaps this is why this week should be kept by all Christians properly. My picture is of a sunset which brought peace. This is all about a sunrise, and is about Easter morning.  I love the picture I've put below. It is sunrise on Easter morning last year on the Downs above Storrington, another time of real peace.  

"When I cannot see the end of things. When the darkness shines brighter than the sun. When the wound will not be healed. When I can see no answer to my questions. Fill me with knowing you are there, for me.

You are the first to weep over shattered lives. The wounded healer who mends broken hearts. The first to die and rise. The holy victim who shouts through the silence, “It is finished!”

When I am blinded by the power of present things, fix my eyes on you, the battered God of the cross. And break the power of my painful days, with reminders of new and better days, still to come. Your resurrection sunrise, for me. Amen."        

Dying and rising

Some random thoughts about dying and rising reflecting on this week's lectionary:

I’ve been thinking this week about Saint Aidan. Saint Aidan brought Christianity around the year 634 to Lindisfarne, Holy Island, where I was on retreat last week. The English in the north were described as “an ungovernable people, and of an obstinate and barbarous temperament.” No one wanted to go and share with these people and it was Aidan at a conference who offered to go. Just like that he seems to have been consecrated bishop and sent out to preach on the island. We learn that although he didn’t want to be there, he knew a large group of people had a real hunger for God. He was not like a normal bishop who rode a horse, he walked around meeting people where they are, at their own level. He shared a message that God loved and accepted everyone.

It is often I think being led somewhere difficult, we find the resources within us to be the person we are meant to be. To die to the world means being different, being put out, not behaving like others do, being Jesus where we are, even when that puts us out. I was reminded yesterday of two quotes of Mother Theresa, who said, “I know that God will not give me anything I can’t handle, I just wish that he didn’t trust me so much.” (Ever had that inner struggle?) But she also said, “I have found the paradox that if I love until love hurts, then there is no hurt, only more love.”

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground…   

Then maybe we need to think about dying to self, falling in order to rise, dying to the sin that separates us from God, the need for a new heart. Sometimes we simply need to say we need to stop behaving so atrociously and seek a new beginning as people. We get it wrong. We don’t take responsibility for when we get it wrong. Part of our faith is the need to say to God we’ve made a mess, and God reaching out to us and saying we can start again. I think there is a need for some of our ways to fall in life, in order for new fruit to grow. Perhaps we need to show some regret about words we have said, mistakes we have made, wrong decisions, hurt we have caused. Part of what we do when we come to worship is to say sorry, and when we do and really mean it and show we can move on, God comes to us and gives us a new heart and new spirit. Jesus calls us to be selfless and open to being renewed to his agenda  but sometimes we aren’t really that committed to take that seriously. But I believe in the end we shall only grow as a Church if people notice there is a difference in us and we show some regret when self becomes dominant in us. We need a constant commitment to community and to the other. Otherwise, all that will happen is that we will be permanently unhappy. 

Unless a grain of wheat should fall into the ground and die…

And maybe this dying to self, the seed falling and dying in order to bring new life is really healthy. Sometimes when things die, we think it is the end of everything. When a cause finishes, we assume we have failed. I think in today’s church where people have more commitments outside, and less time to be here, we cannot sustain everything we once did.

But actually letting some things go, can lead to new beginnings in different ways. Let me give you an example:

My church at Ashington closed in October 2010. We now have a house group there. We sold the church to a lady who is opening a nursery in a few weeks. On Friday I spent an hour looking at what she has done to the building and to the grounds. It really is lovely, especially a lovely play area outside. She has asked me to be the “local vicar” and go in for specials to share with them when they do God. In many ways, this is a parable I think of dying and rising. We still have a presence and an influence in Ashington. We couldn’t maintain what we had. Without it dying, new life would not have been able to rise. Sometimes we need to let things die, in order to have space to breathe and live healthily.

We need to be people prepared to give, to go to a cross, to die to self in order to enjoy amazing new life. We follow a Jesus who does this, and we are called Christians after him.

I find Jean Vanier's words from The Broken Body a challenge as Holy Week gets nearer... 

This road is not always an easy road to follow. There will be times of discouragement and anger; there will be many setbacks, times of ups and downs, times of doubt. But little by little if you are well accompanied on the journey you will begin to see the light in the darkness, you will drink the water, which springs from arid land.

Reflecting on clearing our Temples

There is nothing like a good clear out at home. We keep far too much “stuff”! It is therapeutic to have a tidy up. There are periods when my study is a mess, piles of paper everywhere. It feels good when I make the effort to do some sorting and then I feel in control. What about spiritual spring cleaning and the priorities of the church today?  

Jesus was angry with a place of prayer and worship being overtaken with commercial activity and financial reward and profit being more important than God – a danger for us today where we need to fund raise, but fund raise for what? But there is more to this cleaning up of the Temple in John’s Gospel than in other Gospels where this story appears. It is right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in John, and it says well actually you don’t need the Temple you need me. To defile worship of me to neglect prayer to me, is to desecrate me. Put me first. We must note John’s Gospel is all about us reflecting on who Jesus is, primarily, it is a commentary on him rather than a series of events. To destroy the Temple for orthodox Jews was blasphemy, no wonder Jesus went to a cross. But they failed to understand that worship of God can never be dependent on physical properties alone, but on Jesus’ love and life in the believer. One commentary I read this week says, “if these are absent when we engage in worship, we talk to ourselves rather than communicate with God.”

We must note also that John wrote his Gospel after the Temple had indeed been destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, that event was huge in the Jewish calendar, and with no Temple the people had to completely rethink their spiritual life. Imagine coming to a place of worship since birth and suddenly it was no more. What would you do? Methodism today has too many buildings, our headquarters are saying, some of them are in the wrong place, and are not doing very much, but if you’ve been to a church which closed, that is hard, and to have your church criticised by someone, or ruined from within sometimes, is really painful. The General Secretary of our church, Martyn Atkins, was at Ministerial Synod in Canterbury with us on Wednesday. He said the aim of our church over the next few years is to say less “I belong to that church” and more “I am a disciple of Christ.” Perhaps buildings will become less important and perhaps we will be church where people are, more. I don’t know. It is a frightening yet also exciting time to be a Christian.

I wonder reflecting on this passage, and most of the passages in Lent are really hard – what do we need to clear out in order to be better Christians? Are there things we need to stop doing? What in our lives needs a good scrub and a good deep clean in order for us to feel better? Jesus simply today asks us to think and maybe reassess what is important. 

Ash Wednesday afternoon...

I am sitting in my study having cleared up a mess and now the desk is tidy so I can start doing things that need doing!
This morning, I shared in an Ash Wednesday with 11 Methodist folk. It was a good time of communion and quiet reflection. We committed ourselves to turn to Christ and to support one another on a Lenten walk together, as we work out what it means to be Christ-like in today's world. Tonight I shall receive rather than lead in an Anglican service in our village, which will include ashing - a sign in the end we are God's people, and we are meant to respond to him in all that we do. Our lives should be a faithful response to his care, even in the mess of our lives.
This weekend, I have a church AGM. Perhaps the first Sunday of Lent is a good time for such a meeting! I hope my folk will clear up what mess there is (and there is some!) then commit themselves to start again, trying to be more like Christ, engaging, suffering, celebrating, enjoying, dying and rising, as a community. I hope the meeting will end with an act of commitment, perhaps not with ash, but with renewed enthusiasm to be centred on God and his will for us, where we are called to be.
I am not in the practice of giving things up for Lent, although I need to keep away from chocolate and biscuits. I think it more helpful to have time to think about what it is all about. I hope to have space each day to breathe in, to be aware of my surroundings, the people who love me, and what is important in my life and in my ministry, and where God is leading me each day. In the end, I think Lent is a time for real self examination and resetting of priorities, both for individuals and for churches.
I dipped into Rowan Williams' book "Silence and Honey Cakes" the other day. It is a book full of the wisdom of the desert thinkers. I was challenged by this quote, attributed to one John the Dwarf:
"You don't build a house by starting with the roof and working down. You start with the foundation. They said, "What does that mean?" He said, "The foundation is where we start. Every commandment of Christ depends on this."
What I believe will be tested by what I do, right here. There's a Lenten challenge!
So, on with what needs doing, then.          

A discipleship movement equipped for mission?

The other evening I arrived on the premises at my church a little early for a meeting. In our hall was a Zumba class, a group of ladies moving very fast to tracks such as “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5 and “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga. The walls were vibrating as the music was so loud and there were smiles as the minister knew the words to these songs and was attempting to dance along the corridors! Movement and enjoying movement is what a Zumba class is all about. Movement does you good.

When I was at infant’s school, I remember “musical movement” in the hall, where we were invited to use our bodies to be creative, to pretend, to make shapes, to move freely, until the teacher told us to freeze and stay still, to not move anymore. We didn’t like being told to stop moving. It was contrary to what we wanted to do. Movement is exciting, inviting, to not move leaves us extremely weak. My Mother is building up her strength, not simply from major surgery, but from lying still in bed for over three months. Not moving leaves us vulnerable. But, so many churches today don’t seem to want to move anywhere. They want to stand still, or repeat a familiar programme that is safe, with no risks. I understand this. Many people in churches are overloaded, tired and frightened as numbers drop, as congregations age, and as resources get scarce but there is the same amount of work to do. Many churches have become not movements anymore, but monuments. The pressure of life has left them with no energy to move on and they are unable to move anyway because they do not have the confidence.

Over the next few years, the Methodist Church is being invited as a denomination to revisit what it is for. Methodism was raised up, our history books tell us, to “spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land.” Wesley formed the Methodist societies as revival movements within a structured Church. He was frustrated that the Church of his day was not on the move enough, not reaching people where they lived and worked, not relevant in worship and concern to a local context, not exciting and radical enough. I don’t think he ever wanted to form another Church; he wanted to shake his own up. However, another denomination is what we are but with a distinct purpose and life. We need though to discover what that life is.

The General Secretary of the Methodist Church, Rev Dr Martyn Atkins, presented a report entitled “A Discipleship Movement Shaped for Mission” at  the Methodist Conference last year and local churches are now to begin to study it. Many Circuits are beginning to review their life in the light of it.

We are beginning that in our Circuit this month at staff level, and I know the folk in Hastings, Bexhill and Rye Circuit are beginning a process of honest review which I shall pick up in September. One of my churches to be has an enormous building once full, now perhaps too big, and another one, doing some wonderful outreach to families, has voted to come out of their building by 2015 as they are wasting money patching it up.

The report, which was adopted by Conference asked what sort of Church we want to become in the next few years, and what is our mission? Also, what sort of disciples will we be? There is an urgent need to encourage one another, Dr Atkins says, to have conversations about our discipleship. This will have a different conclusion in every church.

Methodism today is extremely diverse. Some churches have elderly congregations, who need care. This is true of our churches locally here, we need a good pastoral system, and we need to provide activities that are appropriate for a senior age group. We are trying hard at this. Younger congregations may have much more energy to grasp opportunities to serve their community, but we need to find something that together we can work on to show we are a movement moving out to people rather than waiting for people to move towards us. We do not ever retire as Christians!

We also need to remember that some followers of Jesus may not be in churches at all. How will this alter our priorities in years to come? Will there be more need for chaplaincy work in our shops, offices, factories, how will we minister to those suddenly unemployed? How do we maintain relationship with elderly folk who can easily be forgotten once housebound or with families too busy to come to church on a Sunday? Will we need to go to them more or provide some sort of multiplex church model where people come when they can, at times we might think are silly? But will we have the energy to do more, and if not, will we be brave enough to stop some things to enable this necessary moving out? There are lots of questions!

I believe there will always be a need for a church to meet in, and this article is not to criticise what we are doing here. All of us work hard to keep our buildings going. I am just wondering what sort of church I will work in say towards my retirement in 20+ years time? Many people are now saying if it doesn't move, Methodism will not be here as a denomination. I do not believe that, but I think we need to be honest about what the needs are, how we can respond, what is tiring us out, and what needs to stop.

If Methodism is to “spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land” then every little thing we do needs to centre on the Bible, on relationship with God, and out to our community so we respond appropriately, and we need to help one another go out and move, if we are to be equipped so we may need some training!

Long term, are we brave enough to move and enjoy moving, or would we rather the teacher (Jesus) allow us to stand still, for ever? Remember he says, “Follow me.” One new initiative is a thing called “Tell, Show, Be” – we will be judged on how we share our faith, how we live it both in church buildings and out of them, and how we are as a disciple, our attitude to life. I challenge you if you have the internet to look at this site and let me know what you think – www.tellshowbe.com; and also perhaps this film on You Tube called This is Discipleship – www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8ERxqCqQ

I have just put these thoughts into our church magazine. I wonder if I will get any response? How will our churches be in a few years? Does movement in the Spirit of God scare you, or excite people? I take courage that Jesus promises I will not be alone, when I try, even if I fail. And most of what I do, I think, will not be done in a church building, which people may not like. I remember that old quip - "he calls us to stand on his promises, but all we do is stand on the premises." Movement or monument? 

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. I simply, thinking about injustice and today's genocide and putting down of others, share some words I find powerful, and I pray I might have the courage where things are so wrong, even locally, to speak up and speak out. We pray for a world where no one lords it over another and destroys them because of difference.

Pastor Martin Niemoller was an ardent nationalist and prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

Here Lord is my life

I have just finished my sermon for my second Covenant Service tomorrow morning. We will be thinking together about Jesus' invitation to "come and see" in John chapter 1, and our response to that invitation.
In recent days I have really noticed, in my slow return to work responsibilities, that so much can detract people from the actual invitation of Jesus to come to him. So often, the institution of church gets in the way. We have to spend so much energy on raising money to keep the church going; we fret where things are done a little differently to the script we cherish and find safety in; we find church tough because there are less of us, so sometimes we turn on one another and relationships become difficult. And yet, the church is built on faith, not rules, not numbers on seats, not how busy the building is and how much money we are bringing in. Jesus says to Peter at that moment when he shares his views on who he has been following, "on this rock, I will build my church" - a rock of faith, not a book of routine, rules or stress!

Tomorrow morning, I am taking two services for the first time since my return and will give communion to people for the first time since September. I have missed giving the people in my pastoral care communion. I believe it is the greatest privilege of ministry. As people come to the altar, Jesus allows them to remember his invitation, to start again, to find the reality of a new covenant, to go into the world renewed and wanting to do things differently - at least that's what he hopes will happen in people, I think!

I am using two readings which I share here. Today is the birthday of Albert Schweitzer, born in 1865, a missionary who set up a hospital and leper colony for the very poor in Africa and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. I found a little prayer of his which is powerful:
"Here, Lord is my life. I place it on the altar today. Use my life as you will."

As we come to the altar, the table, we come to see again the grace of God and his love for us, despite who we are. We offer this God our lives and try to be better people as we receive of him. We come and see, and then we go and live.

I find strength in knowing I can always have this new start. I need to know I can receive this strength for life daily, especially when dealing with some things the church does when it gets sidetracked from the invitation!
We are also sharing these words tomorrow. In our new Methodist hymn collection "Singing the Faith" there is included this hymn by the New Zealand hymn writer, Shirley Murray. These words remind me of the quality of the invitation and the challenge of our response being worth something in return:

Because you came and sat beside us,
Because you came and heard us speak,
And we ignored you and we refused you,
We ask forgiveness, Jesus Christ.

Because you laughed and loved the child-like,
Because you lived from day to day,
And we love status and steady money,
We ask forgiveness, Jesus Christ.

Because our peace was your agenda,
Because you wept to see us war,
And we love power, and winning battles,
We ask forgiveness, Jesus Christ.

Because your cross compels an answer,
Because your love absorbs our sin,
And we are wounded because we wound you,
We ask forgiveness, Jesus Christ.

Because you came on Easter morning,
Because you come at Pentecost,
And in the Spirit, we are forgiven,
We live to praise you, Lord Jesus Christ!      

Going round and round?

I have been sitting thinking about what to say to a congregation I haven't been in touch with for nearly four months and I only have seven months left with. The annual Methodist Covenant service is a good opportunity to remind people about direction and opportunities. I was reminded of passing this roundabout the other week in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, known locally as the "magic roundabout" - I used to dread driving lessons which included it. The initial reaction facing something like this is to panic, to think I can’t keep travelling and want to get out, because the journey is too complicated. But if you look at it differently and think it is only several little roundabouts in a row, you can tackle it. If you say, I am in control, and I can cope with the obstacles and the traffic coming at me in all directions, I can tackle it. I have the resources. I am in control.

There are people who face 2012 with great uncertainty, going round and round without confidence in their own resources. Our local Rector in his letter in the Parish magazine said one parishioner said he would rather not think about it when asked about hopes for a New Year. There are people worried about money, job security, health, relationships and we seem to have begun 2012 with a lot of stabbings and killings for no explicable reason. 

How do we help people find direction rather than go round and round in a circle of panic? Perhaps we need to begin to face up to our task to simply care for people and help them on the road. 

Surely we are to care, and be there for others. We are to care for one another, to help one another find direction, to be there pastorally when life is like a confusing roundabout and we don’t know what to do.

I like this prayer written by the current Methodist Vice President, Ruth Pickles, on Day 1 in the current Methodist prayer book, inspired by Hebrews 12: 12:

Gracious God, through your Son, you call us to walk in your way of service and sacrifice. We don't expect it to be an easy way; we know we will get tired, sometimes lost and disillusioned. But you promise always to be with us: strengthening, guiding, uplifting. Help us to trust always in your promises, that we may walk with determination, faith, courage and joy until we find our rest in you. Amen.