Returning to a former Circuit

I am returning to the Stamford and Rutland Circuit at the weekend to lead a quiet day on All Saints on Saturday. Then on Sunday I am back at Oakham Methodist Church to lead worship for All Souls Day. Methodists generally don't do either of these days in my experience. It is a bit high church! But I think we need to remember with thanksgiving the story of God's faithful people. It is then fitting I am returning to a Circuit where I learnt how to be a Superintendent, (there was a lot less admin and "stuff" in 2002); a Circuit which looked after me, and which I was very sorry to leave. A manse next door which was the first home of Molly the cat, who used to love climbing on the church roof and climbing through the church window looking at me from upstairs! There will also be sad memories as I stand in Oakham church on Sunday, one in particular of a day that was very happy then.

Here are my thoughts writing to a former church. I think the weekend will do me good, especially the posh hotel in Uppingham from Friday this week to Friday next!

Looking back and remembering, looking forward and remembering where we have come from – as individuals, as a nation and as a world fellowship of the people of God. Remembering is at the core of our identity and vital to our self-understanding.

The Psalmist knew this. 

“I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

things that we have heard and known

that our ancestors have told us.

We will not hide them from their children

We will tell to the coming generation

The glorious deeds of the Lord.”

What we have heard from those who have gone before us, lays upon us a responsibility, a duty of love to pass on what we have heard. Our relationship with God is a blessing, an intangible treasure at the heart of our lives – it is a blessing to be passed on.

If we wish to live a life faithful to God – it is not only about us as an individual and our personal relationship with God. We are as much part of that great stream of Christian history as the saints and souls of old without who we would not be here.

But today is not just about history or memories, although today, All Souls Day, is a day to remember those who have gone before us from our own lives, not famous people maybe but famous and precious to us. We have a story, there have been people sent to us to share life with, family, friends, people in the past of our church and former church here. When they pass on, we miss them. Tonight you will gather to for a service of remembrance as a Circuit. I might if I am allowed to, slip in at the back. My Dad died in 1985 when I was 17, I still remember him with as much thanksgiving today as when I lost him. Friends who have died have left a mark on me. I led a very sad funeral last week of a 101 year old. Her family wanted no fuss, they didn’t want people there at the crematorium, they gave me few details. They wanted the service and thing over with. I thought they disrespected the lady, but they were difficult people so I did as I was told, but it bothered me. Then of course, we miss people who have sat around us in church. It is eight years since I was your minister, and as I look out at you this morning, I am delighted to see people I don’t know who never had to suffer those years with my wacky ways, but also I look out and think about people who are now rest in the eternal rest and peace of God, faithful souls who will always be part of the story of this place, sharing good news in Oakham with countless people, through quiet devotion.

Today is not though just about memories. 

Dear Friends of Oakham, it was one of the deepest privileges of my ministry to serve you. Why? Because you were always outward looking. Not only trying to worship here, and be a fellowship here, but ready to make a difference in the world through Fair Trade, through caring for your neighbours, through Open the Book in schools, through Likoma Link Trust and many other outward signs of commitment. This church was transformed for the glory of God – but building it you built on a firm foundation of those who had gone before you. Living next door was fun, especially when the Brownies had a fire drill, or on a hot summer evening the Bowls Club had the fire door open and a bowl would come down my drive while I was sitting in the garden. But you were faithful to God moving on being faithful, ready to respond to Jesus.

And years on from that, you are still here. Be encouraged today. Like me, you are waiting to see what the Methodist Church sends you at the end of this week in a potential new minister. We are one minister short like you. You need to remember your faithfulness. No minister is perfect, no minister will come and do it all for you. What will be brilliant is that whoever comes here will work with a faithful people ready to see what God might do next. Remembering the past, we move confidently into the future.

Perhaps the Church of England service book sums up what these two feast days, All Saints yesterday and All Souls today are for – in the end remembering events, people, makes you different – “All Saints Day celebrates men and women in whose lives the Church as a whole has seen the grace of God powerfully at work.

It is an opportunity to give thanks for that grace, and and how it shapes a human life, it is a time to be encouraged by the example of the saints, and to recall that sanctity may grow in the ordinary circumstances as well as the extraordinary crises, of human living.”

All Souls is a feast day where we remember everybody we need to remember - that could be someone you've known or know, a patient, kind, humble, unselfish, generous person. It could be someone getting on quietly and kindly caring for those whom are deemed without hope. These days are days of hope and of light for us all. Who do you remember with deep gratitude right now?   The Chinese have a proverb, indeed many proverbs, but I wish to quote this one now, ‘dig a well before you are thirsty.’ We are called to dig our Christian wells now, we are called to an active and engaged waiting for the appearance of the Messiah in this world and at the consummation of history. We are called to pass on the light that we have received, to hand on the baton of the Gospel to the coming generation.

For all the saints who showed your love in how they lived and where they moved for mindful women, caring men accept our gratitude again. For all the saints who loved your name whose faith increased the Saviour’s fame who sang your songs and shared your word, accept our gratitude good Lord.

May you continue to be faithful. May you remember the saints and souls of old. May you remember the acts of God in Jesus for you. I wonder if a congregation here sings that hymn in say 50 years time – I might be here, I might not, aged 97, what they will celebrate about us?

A Basil Fawlty moment

Have you ever had a Basil Fawlty moment? You are so exasperated with life you boil over and it is all too much. I love that bit of the Gourmet Night episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil is trying to get the dinner back to the hotel from the restaurant in town and his battered old car won’t go.

“Come on, start will you? Come on! I’m warning you – if you don’t start…. I’ll count to three, one, two, three. Right! That’s it. You’ve tried it on once too often! Well don’t say I haven’t warned you! I’ve laid it on the line to you time and time again! Well, this is it. I’m doing to give you a damn good thrashing!” And he goes off and gets a large branch and beats the car without mercy.

Or, life feels just a little bit too demanding today and you want to escape it. I had a panic attack on Monday. I was going to visit my Mum by train and then have tea with my friends and their children. Monday morning was wet and miserable. I was tired. I got to St Pancras and the trains were all over the place. And I stood there and froze. All I wanted to do was come home to bed. I couldn’t face what lay ahead so I chose to not go. I had a nice dinner and came back to Hastings.

Sometimes we need instant help and encouragement to keep going. Like Basil Fawlty, life won’t go today and me frozen in panic and fatigue in the middle of disgruntled train passengers and Mothers I needed encouragement to go on but things felt too big and I couldn’t cope.

I believe people need encouragement today to keep going. I believe the church needs more than ever to be a community of encouragement and I believe passionately in a God who encourages just when we need it. So I want to explore those things using our three readings we have shared today.

Encouragement means to be in the state of being encouraged, and to encourage means to inspire with courage, spirit or hope, to spur on. Someone once wrote: “Flatter me and I may not believe you. Criticize me and I may not like you. Ignore me and I may not forgive you. Encourage me and I may not forget you.”  There is tremendous power in the giving and receiving of encouragement. We all need sources of encouragement. The reality is that we cannot live without being encouraged, especially in a world that paralyses like Basil Fawlty’s car or too many demands being made of us when we are vulnerable.

I think God answers prayer. But God can only answer prayer when we actually pray. I prayed in panic at St Pancras. God told me to go and have some space, and think about me. Encouragement comes when we most need it.

Then I think people want to the church to be encouraging. They still think the church will judge, condemn, exclude and that it isn’t for them. People live in a world that is individualistic and they long for community. There was a report this week about older men and loneliness. I am convinced there is a ministry of encouragement badly needed and which is central to the church’s work today. We sing “he bids us build each other up.” But sometimes we put our fellow human beings down and we quite enjoy doing so. Is the church a place where God’s overwhelming grace and encouragement are seen and shared?

Methodism talks about all being welcome. If we mean that, we will be encouraging and embracing whoever God sends our way, both in this building and more importantly wherever people are in our community.

Asking for encouragement, being encouraging and finally today, believing that God is encouragement in Jesus personified. My Mum had a consultant’s appointment the other Monday. She has some health problems and sees a consultant in London every six months. Every six months she gets worried about the appointment. This last time she was told she is doing really well. She smiled sweetly at the Professor and left the room. Then she turned to me and said, “He didn’t mean that, did he?” And she refused to believe what he had said to her. There are a lot of people like her out there, who need to believe life will be okay. We live in an era that will quickly abandon other people because our own lives are so complex – we have battered cars that won’t start and we are bombarded with demands we freeze in panic on the station platform of life. 

"In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Every morning I pray the Canticle of Zechariah which is the song sung by Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, praising God for God’s work throughout history and through their new-born son John who would become the Baptist. These verses always fill me with hope and a lightness as I begin the day as I sit in my dining room and think about how God is leading me and us today. God encourages us if we will find him and hear him, and people need that, there is much darkness and shadow of death, even in the church, gloomy negativity, we need guiding and our world needs guiding to something different. Less me and my tablet, less me being frozen in fear, less thrashing of things that won’t work, and more focussing on the way God in Jesus would have us be.

What do you hear in the Benedictus for you, right now? I hope the tender compassion of our God is an encouragement for you, whatever you are facing at the moment.

“He is your Father, and His role is to protect you; He will comfort you and guide you. He will feed you; He will carry you when you are weak. He will seek you out when you go astray; He will help you in times of trouble. He will not let your enemies go unpunished; He will cherish you like a father cherishes his daughter. When you fall, He will pick you up; when you don’t understand, He will always understand. When you feel like life is weighing you down, He will lift you up. When you feel like giving up, He will encourage you to keep going. When you are sad, He will lighten your spirits. When you need advice, His line is open 24-7. When you feel unsafe, He will be your safety; when you are worried, He will be an ear to your concerns. When you feel burdened, offer your burden to Him and He will take it. Where you have been burnt, He will make you beautiful; where you hurt, He will heal. Whenever you feel lonely, He will always be with you. Where others have not supported you, He will support you. When you feel discouraged, He will be your encouragement. Where you don’t know, He will tell you when the time is right. When you feel unloved, remember that He has always loved you.

You see limitations; God sees opportunities. You see faults; God sees growth. You see problems; God sees solutions. You see limitations; God sees possibilities. You see life; God sees eternity.”