The fifth day of Advent - remembering a Fens legend

Today we’ve driven three hours back to the Fens to remember a dear man, George Rollins, who with his wife Mollie befriended us when we began to attend their chapel. Mollie and George enjoyed 64 years of marriage and were only apart 15 weeks and are now reunited in the sprouting broccoli patch of heaven! Here’s the tribute I gave in the service today. I choose to blog it to remind us in Advent we don’t journey alone but we are sent people to welcome us and encourage us by who they are.

After a very wet drive back up the A17 and A1 I told our preachers meeting tonight we minister to faithful people week in and week out like George who have kept chapels going for years. They minister to us when we go to them as much as we to them. On this fifth day of Advent take time to thank God for ordinary people who are extraordinary to us. They are everywhere! 

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It’s been very interesting to read the tributes to George posted on the Tydd St Giles in the past Facebook group over the last few days. My favourite is that George was a “Fens legend.” 

That’s not a bad epitaph is it? 

My wife Lis and I arrived in the Fens MethodistCircuit in May 2019 after a rough time. I was unwell and the church gave me a recuperative year. We decided to attend the most rural chapel we could find and see what welcome we got.  That chapel was Tydd St Giles and Mollie and George welcomed us, and over that year and a bit we were there, they cared for us, and Mollie would ring us up after we’d moved to North Yorkshire to see how we were. And when we came back this way and called on them, the best china came out!  I’ll never forget their kindness. Genuine kind Christian people.

We celebrate in George a long life of faithful service to community, family, chapel and farming. George’s 95 years were well lived, a simple life, a happy life, a life of quiet gentle devotion and care. 

Mollie used to enjoy chatting to Lis while we were here and later on the phone. I used to get George! He would tell a story very slowly whether it be about chapel in the past and great anniversaries or friends in Tydd Fen and Tydd St Giles or sharing in great detail about how long his greenhouse had been standing or about this years crop of tomatoes and sprouting broccoli, or what he’d been up to visiting family or giving you graphic information about his latest scar. He’d roll his trouser leg up to show you! He was a real character it was good to know. 

George enjoyed talking about his upbringing in Newton. He treasured Mollie and they were a team. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather.

George and Mollie enjoyed a long and happy marriage. We used to smile when Mollie would say on the phone she had to go as she needed to get George out of his boiler suit! 

George was deeply grateful for the care he received from David and Maureen and Susan and Andrew and the family. When Mollie went into residential care and then hospital, he would drive every day to visit her. I used to find the roundabouts in Wisbech scary and I’m not 95.

George loved the land. His small holding at Westlands was a pride to him. Lots of people have commented about his stall and having time to chat. Peter Thatcher in Gorefield sums it up: “George was one of a rare breed of fen smallholders, he and Mollie were unique. Always had some time to enjoy a chat. I'm sure George will be tending the heavenly broccoli patch and tomato crop now.” 

I read that the Fens, although it covers less than 4% of England’s farmland, it produces more than 7% of England’s total agricultural production, worth a staggering £1.23 billion. George was part of that story! I also read the Fen farmer was a hardy soul with the wind and the rain blowing across the land. He was though passionate about his work and George went to work up to fairly near the end of his life. No one was going to stop him climbing a ladder! Pottering about was a joy to him and the array of flowers as you drove past the house lifted your spirit.

Chapel was important to George. He was a faithful Methodist. The chapel at Tydd Fen was obviously a lively place where lots of people were nurtured and George and Mollie were at the heart of it. When it closed, they went down the road to Tydd St Giles chapel. We know about Mollie’s faithful playing of the organ, George welcomed people and 2pm on a Sunday was so important to him. It was so hard when the chapel was declared unsafe very suddenly in 2019. George thought it would be okay to go in and rescue stuff and took some persuading that wasn’t to be. 

The Methodist folk worshipped for a while in the community centre and then in the lady chapel of the Church until Covid came and finished things. I’m so glad we landed in the village one afternoon. Had we not we would not have had the privilege of knowing George and Mollie who became our friends. 

Both have been an inspiration and while they never went far, Wisbech and Lynn were a bit of an adventure, both of them made a difference to our and your world. For George, what mattered were Mollie, family, the smallholding, chapel and friends. He was a lovely lovely man the like of who we will not see again. His long life was well lived, quietly and faithfully. One of my favourite pictures on my phone is of George in his cap outside his home chatting away to us as we sat in the car. We told him we hadn’t got long but he had a yarn to tell — slowly and in detail! 

Without his sort today, life would be so much more difficult. He leaves those of you closest to him a large hole as he does in this area, but he also leaves a huge legacy and a call on us I think to live more simply. Love the land, love family, love God. Be genuine. 

It struck me thinking about George that God at the beginning of time needed a farmer, someone to care for the land. He created us and gave us the world, the garden, to look after. We only make a difference to the world if we look after what we’ve been given. George had a small part of God’s world to look after and he did it brilliantly and now after a life of faithful service he is now at rest in the church triumphant. He wanted to live longer than his father. He told me that often, He is reunited after only fifteen weeks apart with his beloved Mollie and life which as the old hymn says which began with a garden, has ended with a city of gold. Death has been passed through,and eternity is real for him. Because of Jesus. 

George Rollins, Fens legend, thank you for everything. Dear friend, may you rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen. 

The fourth of day of Advent - Christmas in your face :)

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I joked on Sunday my Advent would only last until Wednesday afternoon! This afternoon the local Federation of WIs had their carol service with me and tonight we were at the town Christmas evening in Boroughbridge. 

Both events had people somewhat hyper! Carols and mince pies were in abundance this afternoon and more carols, mulled wine and a hog roast tonight. There was in both events a feeling of comfortable bonhomie and contentment. 

Perhaps we need a month of Christmas to get through one of the darkest bits of the year? The ladies this afternoon thought the service lovely. The children tonight were excited to sing in their school choirs and to see Santa on his sleigh. There was a convivial atmosphere as I walked through the town. It’s as if suddenly we switch on happiness and community spirit. Bizarrely. 

Dare I be honest and say I’m already fed up with it?!!!!? I’m so not ready for Christmas and I’m trying to work out why it’s getting earlier and longer. I’m not sure it’s about anything but escapism from our mire for most people. 

I will get into it I guess! I have another carol service on Friday and a Christmas dinner and a carol concert on Saturday. I need to keep focussed. There is a message beyond the frills to be shared. I’m glad people at both gatherings enjoyed themselves. I’m just wanting something deeper… 

In other news - six Christmases in - for the first time the nativity figures at church are facing the right way round!!!!! 

The third day of Advent - your journey starts here.

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Writing for the third day of Advent from the Toyota garage in Knaresborough as my car is in for a service. 

The sign on the desk on arrival says “your journey starts here.” 

I’m reminded of the old story of the tourist in Ireland wanting directions. He’s told “I wouldn’t start from here if I were you.” 

The point of Advent intervention is that God comes and finds us where we are and beckons us to start a journey with him. We start from our here. This season is all about transformation and working towards a better future. I had a meeting this morning discerning how we work through a difficult time to a place where things might be more straightforward long term but how to journey through the immediate challenges is hard. 

“Your journey starts here.” 

The challenge of Advent is being brave enough to be prepared to go. We need good preparation to travel. Like a through service for a well used car. We need good Advent disciplines of listening, discerning and vision to travel well. We need to be open to surprise. The first recipients of incarnation didn’t expect what they found on the road or where they needed to travel. This Sunday we will hear of a call to start again to really receive what is coming on our journey. 

Wherever we are, God comes, whether our starting point is joy or sorrow, clear direction or no idea, certainty or disillusionment. 

The point is God finds us and leads us to where we should be. We can choose to travel or stay where we are. But not to go is to miss where he might be, isn’t it? 

On this third day of Advent let’s start a journey. How about it?

Going home

In the car today the radio has been tuned to Magic Christmas. It’s December 1! Despite what I wrote  and said yesterday December 1 is Christmas! So on the radio came Chris Rea and “driving home for Christmas.” 

Going home is an Advent theme. In the darkness to light service last night in Durham Cathedral, which was a little piece of heaven touching earth, they used a reading from Baruch in the Apocrypha. 

In Baruch, the people of Israel have been dispersed among the nations in their Babylonian exile; Zion has been deserted; Israel’s enemies rejoice. However, Baruch promises that the people of Israel will return to Jerusalem, a Jerusalem that will regain its ancient splendour. “For God will give you (Jerusalem) evermore the name: ‘Righteous Peace, Godly glory’” (Baruch 5:4). 

Baruch speaks of a God who has not forgotten the exiled people, but will bring them back to their glorious land and city. In Baruch 5:5, the writer paints a portrait of an eager Jerusalem, watching anxiously as the children of the city “gather from east and west at the word of the Holy One,” and rejoices “that God has remembered them.” Then Baruch proclaims that “God has ordered that every high mountain, the everlasting hills, be made low, and the valleys filled up to make level ground, in order that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God” (Baruch 5:7). He concludes by promising that “God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of God’s glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come only from God” (Baruch 5:9).

1Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.
2Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
3for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven.
4For God will give you evermore the name,
‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.

5Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
7For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
8The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
9For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Going home.

Looking for the exiles to return.

Safety and security. 

God will restore us. If these things are to happen we can drive home for Christmas with confidence and joy! 

People, Look East by Eleanor Farjeon

People, look east. The time is near  Of the crowning of the year. Make your house fair as you are able, Trim the hearth and set the table. People, look east and sing today: Love, the guest, is on the way. Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare, One more seed is planted there: Give up your strength the seed to nourish, That in course the flower may flourish. People, look east and sing today: Love, the rose, is on the way. Birds, though you long have ceased to build, Guard the nest that must be filled. Even the hour when wings are frozen God for fledging time has chosen. People, look east and sing today: Love, the bird, is on the way. Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim One more light the bowl shall brim, Shining beyond the frosty weather, Bright as sun and moon together. People, look east and sing today: Love, the star, is on the way. Angels, announce with shouts of mirth Christ who brings new life to earth. Set every peak and valley humming With the word, the Lord is coming. People, look east and sing today: Love, the Lord, is on the way.

Advent not Christmas!

​How many of us have Christmas decorations up? Does it feel like Christmas begins earlier every year or is that just me? Someone sent me a card which says “there are twelve days of Christmas and none of them are in November.” I’m not bah humbug about things but I just want us to do Advent first. Because to do Christmas properly we need to do Advent. 

How many of us have an Advent calendar the first door of which you open tomorrow? The idea is to make a journey slowly one day at a time. 

Every year, I’m amazed that advent calendars continue to sell out.

I thought their days were numbered.

 

I came home to find all the windows wide open and everything had been taken.

Next year I'll be hiding my advent calendar.

 

I don't have an advent calendar

So I'm just opening cupboards and eating whatever is in there

 

What happened to the man who stole an advent calendar?

He got 25 days

 

Christmas comes like a juggernaut if we are not careful. For some reason my busiest week in December is this coming week with a village hall Christmas party, a WI carol service, a scouts carol service, a Christmas concert and a Christmas dinner. I think I can avoid Christmas until tomorrow night then it gets full on day after day after day. 

The good news of Advent is that Christ comes among us in unexpected ways, at unexpected times, now. Get ready, because you never know when Jesus will show up, as Mother Teresa called it, “in his most distressing disguise.” She knew when she and the sisters of her community served lepers, the poor, the outcast, they were really serving Christ. 

Jesus also said he would come to us in other ways too, ways we might miss if we are looking only for big, showy, obvious ways. Jesus Christ comes here to meet us when we come for communion in bread and wine: the body of Christ for the Body of Christ. He comes in relationships given to us. He comes in conversations and encounters. He comes in those moments of silence we create to listen for him. He comes if only we would open our eyes to see him. So, yes, Jesus Christ comes among us every day.Advent calls us to be people who believe in hope. For he is here!

I found these words of Canon Charlie Allen one of the clergy at Durham Cathedral helpful when I read them this week:

We do not give up or despair when the sands of life shift under our feet, when we are overwhelmed, or exposed to something we cannot control or foresee. When we are shaken by the conflict at display in our world, by leaders who build walls rather than bridges, by the apathy of some towards the vulnerable in our midst.

Because an Advent people are open to the possibility of a different future, to the possibility of the impossible, to the call of faith, hope, and love, of courage, compassion and beauty, of forgiveness and healing. The ways of the kingdom that tug at our hearts and at our souls.

I don’t know what the future holds and neither do you. But I know this. That the voice of Advent speaks of the possibility of a new life, a transformed life, of all that is longed for but seems improbable and out of reach.”

Christ has come, Christ is come, Christ will come. This is Advent - ‘Journeys end in lovers meeting. Before the final wedding of God with humanity the lovers meet many times… the ‘Come’ theme from whichever end we view it is about the advance of lovers…The gift is certain, because God is already pledged, already in our world, already Emmanuel. We are irrevocably, unconditionally, loved.’ (Maria Boulding, The Coming of God).

God of justice and peace, 

from the heavens you rain down mercy and kindness, 

that all on earth may stand in awe and wonder 

before your marvellous deeds. 

Raise our heads in expectation, 

that we may yearn for the coming day of the Lord 

and stand without blame before your Son, Jesus Christ, 

who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

In three days time I’ll stand and wish a lot of WI ladies a happy Christmas and I will sing carols. I will wish the church a happy Christmas soon. But I just want us to have a holy and watchful Advent first. 

Drop down ye heavens from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness.
Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people;
My salvation shall not tarry.
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.
Fear not, for I will save thee;
For I am the Lord thy God,
The holy one of Israel, thy redeemer.

 

The last days

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 Over recent weeks we’ve lost three very gifted actresses. Their names all began with the letter P. Pauline Collins, best known I guess for the film Shirley Valentine, Prunella Scales, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty and Patricia Routledge, who played the wonderful Hyacinth Bucket.

Shirley Valentine was not like Sybil Fawlty or Hyacinth Bucket. She didn’t do self importance. I’ve led such a little life. And even that will be over pretty soon. I have…allowed myself to lead this little life when inside me there was so much more. And it’s all gone unused. And now it never will be. Why do we get all this life if we don’t ever use it? Why do we get all these…feelings…and dreams and hopes…if we don’t ever use them. That’s where Shirley Valentine disappeared to. She got lost in all this unused life. Sybil Fawlty was the real manager of Fawlty Towers. She was formidable and to be taken notice of. I have had it up to here with you. How, dear? You never get it right, do you? You're either crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some benzedrine puff adder. Just trying to enjoy myself.

Then Hyacinth Bucket enjoyed her status in society, or what she perceived it to be. 

“I have an unblemished reputation at home for the quality of my bathroom linen. It is one of the attractions of my candlelight suppers that our guests are able to peek at the quality of my bathroom linen.”

” If there is one thing i can’t stand it’s snobbery and one-upmanship…. People like to pretend they’re superior…. Makes it so much harder for those of us who really are”

Have you met people like her? There are people about full of their own self importance. There are also places that want you to know you are not really meant to be there. We went to my cousin's wedding in a very posh hotel in the Cotswolds last weekend. Lis had for her dinner plant based roasted vegetable and feta pithivier. She wondered what was coming. It was roasted vegetables and feta with a pastry hat over them. 

 

Imagine being in church with self important people. We’ve none of them here but I’ve had them. The church that rowed about who sat on the top table at functions, the church with a property committee who ruled the church with an iron rod and the minister was told not to be interfere as property was nothing to do with him. The church where two men, both called George, would enjoy sitting at the back of Church Councils and quote out of old copies of constitutional practice and discipline of the Methodist Church to try and catch out their Superintendent! 

 

God doesn’t do self importance and it will only lead to disaster. 

Several generations ago, the preacher here on a Sunday morning would have taken the whole service from up there in the pulpit. He would have thundered words about judgment and God’s wrath. You wouldn’t have greeted him at the door and say “nice service.” His aim was to tell you you have sinned and to make you feel uncomfortable. And yet churchgoing numbers were a lot higher than they are today. 

 

God’s ancient people saw themselves closest to him in the Temple in Jerusalem. Here’s a picture of it. It was massive. You could see it for miles. You sang as you approached it – I was glad when they said unto me let us go to the house of the Lord. 

 

And yet the prophets speaking to God’s ancient people warned them that as we’ve sung towers and temples will fall to dust. And people’s behaviour especially those within the religious community would be discussed. Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘Not a root or a branch will be left to them.’” 

 

Imagine if I preached that this morning. Imagine if I told you Allhallowgate will be no more because you’ve been very arrogant, self important and selfish. Just imagine… what if we weren’t here.

 

If you read on in Malachi chapter 4 there is some hope. There is a but. There is a call to return to God and seek his Kingdom. Yes, we deserve God’s punishment. Yes, Judgment Day could be a horrible day for us, indeed, should be. BUT! But what? 

But the one who’s coming on that day is Jesus. Yes, the same Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the dead, he’s the one who’s coming back on Judgment Day. 

We hear thoughts to that point in the second verse of Malachi 4: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.”

God’s ancient people had a choice. Most chose wrong.

We have a choice as God’s people today. Either we worship ourselves and our church or we serve God and look for him. Will we leave this service in despair as God comes with wrath or will we find him new and leave frolicking? I wonder how you will greet me today at the door!

The Temple was a symbol of Israel: of God’s favour. ‘Look at us, we are the children of God!’ For first-century Jews gazing at the extraordinary building was to fix their eyes on something which symbolised for them the presence of God.

A classic commentary from Matthew Henry says: ‘When we speak of the temple, it should be of the presence of God in it, and the communion which his people there have with him. It is a poor thing, when we speak of the church, to let our discourse dwell upon its pomps and revenues, and the dignities and powers of its officers and rulers.’

The Jewish reverence for the Temple, which had been built to ‘give God a home’ where his presence could rest, had turned into worship of the building and its grandeur. Self importance over service.

Today and next Sunday we hear of the last days in our readings. The world is doing Christmas. The lights were switched on yesterday and Father Christmas looking a lot like Sid Hawke was there. I’m being contacted about Carol services and Christmas parties. I want it to be not now! First we need to think about a bigger picture. Not just a Temple destroyed but this. Wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues, the destruction of the very places that enrich our lives, all these things, Jesus says, will come to pass in the last days. And just when we think it can’t possibly get any worse than that, Jesus gets personal: You will be arrested; you will be persecuted; you will be thrown into prison and hauled before the court.

Then notice what he says next: Just when everything is shrouded in darkness; when lies have taken the place of truth; when war seems inevitable and eternal; when the earth trembles beneath you—then you will have the opportunity to share who we follow.

God is faithful even when everything around us is falling apart. And the Church is called not to worship itself but serve others and be in the world not apart from it. Even when it’s hard. The passages of Scripture today remind us to be Christ’s church not ours. Self importance leads to disaster. The top table church lost peopleafter a dreadful time when people turned on each other and sat in worship not speaking to each other. The property committee alienated so many people the atmosphere was nasty. And one of the George’s left his church because he got ill being so obsessed with getting his own way. 

I read recently read an article from a Christian organization, that speaks to the temptation to make an idol out of the strength and power we so often see in the institutions around us – and to even say they founded in God’s name. Rachel Asproth says this:

 

Christianity has often found itself on the wrong side of privilege. Historically, we have sided with empire too often to call it coincidence. But why?

It’s the oldest story in the Good Book. We want to rule—desperately. We have drunk greedily from the fountain of power since the beginning of time.

We went after power when we fell in the Garden of Eden. Satan offered Jesus the chance to rule over the kingdoms of earth in exchange for his worship. James and John asked Jesus for seats at his right and left hands.

Humans crave privilege. We side with empire because we want to rule. And the human instinct for empire gave birth to the oppression of women, to the subordination of people of color, to the demonizing of the “other.”

The powerful find great security in their privilege.

It was this weakness that Satan himself sought to exploit when he offered Jesus an earthly empire in exchange for his everlasting kingdom. 

Jesus rejected the human instinct for empire. He chose not to rule.

Clearly, Jesus knew all about the human instinct for empire. He also knew a simple but profound truth: all empires fall.

So will ours.

The kingdom triumphs because it is no empire. It is built on equal measures of justice and mercy. It is ruled by a God who bleeds because his love is too big

 

Self importance or self sacrifice?

Hiding from the world or being in it?

Power or service?

Worshipping a building or using it for God’s glory and sharing it with others? The choice is ours. 

The church, our church exists not to be preserved but to be spent, fuel for the Spirit’s work in the world.

 

Doesn’t it?