It’s been a week which feels like it’s had 365 days in it, so I got to last night at 11pm and still hadn’t written a word of this blog post. We mark today the first Sunday of a new Methodist year. How are we feeling as we begin another year of God‘s Grace? What’s the year ahead looking like for our church, for each of you personally?
What to say today. Well, an Anglican colleague sent me these words of David Adam yesterday:
“Life is meant to be an adventure. When we cease to
reach out and stretch ourselves, something in us
dies or we feel frustrated; for life to be lived to the
full, it has to be adventurous. I believe that God
calls us to adventure, to extend ourselves, and to
seek new horizons. Our God is the God who makes
all things new and he wants us to walk in newness
of life. A relationship with God will extend our
vision, our sensitivity and indeed our whole life.
Whenever life gets static or dull God calls us out to
risk and to be renewed.”
(David Adam ‘A desert in the Ocean’ SPCK)
That’s an amazing message, isn’t it? Wherever we find ourselves at the beginning of this new church year, God calls us to adventure, to find life, to have vision, especially if we are stuck or things are a bit dull. When we don’t know where to go or how to move on, God makes a way out of no way. That’s good news for those of us who find ourselves in the middle of weeks with 365 days in them. Or suddenly something happens and we don’t know how to cope with it.
Today is the first Sunday of my twenty fifth year in ministry. I’m remembering the folk of what was then the Ashton Circuit in Greater Manchester where I looked after three churches at Mossley, in Millbrook,on the edge of Stalybridge, and at Tame Valley in Dukinfield.
I remember my first Sunday at Millbrook in September 1997. All was going well, I even coped with my organist, dear Norman Bradbury, who played the organ at break neck speed you couldn’t keep up with him and he’d only play out of one book – the 1908 Methodist hymn book! I announced the communion hymn, and everyone got up and moved. “Where are they going?” I thought. They moved leaving an empty pew in front of them. Then they stared at me after the hymn. They hadn’t told me I was expected to take the communion round to them standing in front of them! They moved, in order to receive.
We are scared of moving, we are scared of adventure, we don’t warn risk on the agenda. And even where it’s dull, it’s easier to keep doing the same old thing because it’s safe, even if it clearly isn’t working any more. To get up and move in order to find God is not just a good thing to do, it is a necessary thing to do, else God gets so far ahead of us we will never catch him up or we will miss what he is up to.
Isaiah chapter 35 is one of my favourite passages of Scripture. It’s the Old Testament lectionary passage for today. Let me share part of it again in the King James Version:
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God.”
Do we begin this church year in the wilderness? Do we begin this church year in a solitary place, feeling alone and overwhelmed? God says the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. There will be rejoicing and singing and we will see the glory and excellency of God.
Do we begin this church year with weak hands and with feeble knees? Do we begin this church year in fear? God says be strong, fear not. And you know don’t you how many times he says fear not in the Bible don’t you? 365: one for every day of the year. Behold your God.
At the little Tame Valley church they had a 6pm service and they used the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book. The organist there was prepared to play out of a book a bit newer than Norman at Millbrook was prepared to play out of! They used to like to sing these words in September:
He will never fail us, he will not forsake; his eternal covenant He will never break. Resting on the promise, what have we to fear?
God is all sufficient for the coming year.
For the mourning Judahite exiles, who had lost their temple, land, and sovereignty. Let’s revisit their state. Their suffering is manifested in “weak hands” (verse 3), “feeble knees” (verse 3), a “fearful heart” (verse 4), obscured vision (verse 5), hindered hearing (verse 5), broken bodies (verse 6), and silent tongues (verse 6).
The literary “body” constructed in Isaiah 35 has been utterly overwhelmed by despair and weariness. Their capacities needed to move through this world have been diminished. The exiles feel God’s sorrow in their very bodies.
The good news is that the God of Jacob does not abandon God’s people to their despair. Their sorrow will come to an end, and on a day when the sick body will find new life in God: the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (verse 10).
Silent tongues will be loosed to sing songs of joy and freedom. Formerly feeble knees will walk themselves to Zion. Fearful hearts will look to the future with faith, hope and courage, while sorrow and sighing will be on the run.
For us, whether we are worried about our personal lives, whether we continue to feel anxious about Covid, whether we face uncertainty in our church, our worries and anxieties and lack of direction and even desire to move and be adventurous aren’t where the story ends. Behold your God.
There are those who just get this. There are those who have vision around us. There are those when faced with a problem, see a solution. There are those who see new possibilities and big ideas when the rest of us just cannot. We need to listen to them.
Think about the woman in our Gospel story. She has faith her life could be different because Jesus was in the room. The woman, believing her daughter possessed by a demon, asks Jesus for help but hereplies ‘let the children be fed first for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’
In saying this he seems to give the impression that she is excluded from the full benefits of God’s kingdom because of her race. Disgraceful! The remarkable thing is that in response to the woman’s boldness in return, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,’ Jesus reveals that the coming Kingdom of God is a blessing for all and tells her that the demon has left the child.
Her faith finds genuine acceptance and Jesus’ response reveals that the Gospel is spreading more rapidly than even he had anticipated. It’s life-transforming good news is for the benefit of all. Even Jesus needs time to catch up with the promises and radical new life God gives.
“Whenever life gets static or dull God calls us out to
risk and to be renewed.”
“Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God.”
“For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’
Holly Adams, Evangelism and Contemporary Culture Officer in the Evangelism and Growth team wrote this in the last Connexion magazine.
“When you go boldly, you leave behind that which is neither faithful nor fruitful. You take with you all that you are, the person God has made you. You leave aside your lethargy, and you make room from your fear and your weariness for God to work. You take with you the truth of God’s goodness in your life. You put your boots on and step out boldly, emerging from the winter of inwardness, turning again and again towards the summer of God’s radiant, ever-outward love.”
As we begin a new church year, I’m very awaremany of our churches begin it with problems. We worry about our finances and our numbers, we haven’t the energy, and we are tired, our hands are weak and our knees are feeble. But let’s at least make a commitment today to journey. To try and give what we worry about to God, who is all sufficient and whose providence invites us to abandon ourselves to it. And to perhaps have some mad ideas! Behold your God. The desert will rejoice. Sorrow and sighing will flee away. The demon has left your daughter.
Someone sent me a picture the other day of a long line of sheep just going for a walk. The picture has a caption “I wonder where they are going?” I pray this year people might ask that of us. Let’s be adventurous, even just a little bit. Let’s see where God takes us. And in a year’s time let’s marvel how we have been led.
No comments:
Post a Comment