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.”

New church year and rediscovering priorities

I never really buy into this new Methodist year lark but I was led to lead my congregation this morning using the set epistle from Romans 13: 8 - 14 into looking at priorities for renewal. Some of my sermon is reproduced below:

On Thursday afternoon, I had to go and do a visit in some very posh flats opposite the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, De La Warr Heights. My instructions told me how to get in and to go in the lift to the second floor where I would find flat 16. I got in, I found the lift, I went up to the second floor, I walked out, there was no flat 16, there was flat 5, flat 7, flat 9, flat 10, flat 12, no flat 16. I walked round and round, I went back down to the ground floor in the lift, I then went back up the stairs, flat 5, flat 7, flat 9, flat 10, flat 12. There was a door with no number on it. I opened it, it was a cupboard! I went downstairs again. Then I saw a sign – flats 13 to 20 this way, there was another lift, the instructions were right in front of my nose, I ignored them and got in a mess. The lady had let me in 20 minutes earlier. I didn’t tell her I’d been in a cupboard!

But we are like that in the church, we ignore the instructions, we waste time, we do our own thing, and we wonder why things aren’t working. 

We are called to be community, and sometimes the church isn’t a very good advert for Christianity. Relationships even in a Christian community can be really difficult, we have to work at it. Love does no wrong to a neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So many Christian communities have forgotten the instruction to love. And then there are the people who say sorry and want new starts in churches and the other person won’t accept it, holding on to the hurt. 

Then secondly, we are to recognise that God is at work. Romans says “now is the moment for you to wake up from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first became believers.” Look around you and see the blessings of God today. Wake up, says Paul. Perhaps you know what it is like to nod off and miss something important. I do it watching television, especially dramas. I wake up and I don’t understand what is happening. I fell asleep watching England play Norway on Wednesday evening. I woke up and it was still mind numbingly boring as before I shut my eyes.

I remember a Thursday Sisterhood and Mrs Lancaster. Mrs Lancaster used to nod off and snore during the meeting. I remember taking the meeting once and she nodded off. 20 minutes later she woke up suddenly, looked at me and said “Good God, are you still talking?”!

Wake up calls are common when we travel. We call the hotel's front desk and we tell them when we want to be awakened. The next morning, the phone rings at the appropriate time, and a computer-generated voice can be heard telling us the time. Sometimes wake up calls come in other forms. The boss telling us one more mistake, and we are fired. A near brush with death. Sometimes we are awakened in the middle of the night, by a knock on the front door or a phone ringing or a child crying or a fox prowling setting off the security light or a cat head butting you on the pillow at 3.30am – oh that’s just my house then!

Now is the time to wake up from your sleep for salvation is near. Perhaps this is the time right here in this church at the beginning of a new year to wake up. Wake up and see what we have here, not what we haven’t. Churches are notoriously bad at listing what has gone, numbers, large Sunday schools, young people, but forget the resources within themselves today. Wake up and see what God is doing, salvation is coming. Jesus is at work amongst us, today. There are blessings today. It’s good to be the people of God today. Wake up!

Paul is addressing the Christian community in Rome not people who are outside of faith.  He is addressing baptized Christians, Christians who live in the Spirit. It would seem that this sleep is a spiritual sleep. The gift of the Holy Spirit has been received but it has fallen asleep.

Then finally, we need time to rediscover the joy of Christ in our lives again. Paul says Put on Christ, like a garment, put him on, never go anywhere without him. He talks about the world we are to live in, the world of Iraq and Gaza and Ukraine and pain and heartbreak all around us.

But for Paul, although the reality of the world was real, something stronger was more real, is more real for us. We need to begin this third year in confidence here. In Paul’s mind the day has dawned. We are not of night or darkness. We belong to the new day. “You are not in darkness!” You live in a very dark age—a dark and sinful time. But that is not the main reality for you, if you are a Christian. The day has come. Light has come. Christ has come.

When the church spends time rediscovering community, loving, being confident and awake, and putting on Christ to help us and lead us then we become what the church should be, distinctive, expectant, hopeful, and working to build the Kingdom and make the world be those things too.

I was sent a grace a family here found in America in the summer while visiting family. Perhaps this sums up my rambling for this morning:

May God give you grace to never sell yourself short;

    Grace to risk something big for something good;

    Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

Is love a priority for the church, love for everyone, at the beginning of another crazy year? I hope so, 

Remembering 100 years ago

A PRAYER VIGIL TO MARK THE CENTENARY OF THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR ONE

We gather in the light of Christ to recall the effects of human violence, our need for redemption, to voice sorrow for our own share in the world’s violence, and to find the healing of the world in the light which shines most intensely at the heart of the darkness.

Hymn: Make me a channel of your peace (H and P 776)

A Reading from Psalm 36

1 Sin whispers to the wicked, in the depths of their heart;

there is no fear of God before their eyes.

2 They flatter themselves in their own eyes

that there abominable sin will not be found out.

3 The words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit;

they have ceased to act wisely and to do good.

4 They think out mischief upon their beds

and have set themselves in no good way;

nor do they abhor that which is evil.

5 Let not the foot of pride come against me,

nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away.

6 Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens

and your faithfulness to the clouds.

7 Your righteousness stands like the strong mountains,

your justice like the strong deep; you, Lord, shall save both man and beast.

8 How precious is your loving mercy, O God!

All mortal flesh shall take refuge

under the shadow of your wings.

O God, the source of life, banish our pride and enlighten us with wisdom, that we may be led by your light,

and come to see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.

The Christ candle is lit.

Reading: Lamentations 2: 1-3; 6-7

  

Reflection – using a picture of a group of men on a wooden cart going off to war. What was the outbreak of war like?

 

2 Corinthians 4: 6-11

For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying

in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus

may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

Reflecting on the journey to war and being sustained by God:

“Christ in Flanders” 

We had forgotten You, or very nearly —
You did not seem to touch us very nearly—
Of course we thought about You now and then ;
Especially in any time of trouble —
We knew that You were good in time of trouble-
But we are very ordinary men.

And there were always other things to think of —
There's lots of things a man has got to think of—
His work, his home, his pleasure, and his wife ;
And so we only thought of You on Sunday —
Sometimes, perhaps, not even on a Sunday —
Because there's always lots to fill one's life.

And, all the while, in street or lane or byway —
In country lane, in city street, or byway —
You walked among us, and we did not see.
Your feet were bleeding as You walked our pave-
ments —
How did we miss Your footprints on our pavements ? —
Can there be other folk as blind as we ?

Now we remember; over here in Flanders —
(It isn't strange to think of You in Flanders) —
This hideous warfare seems to make things clear.
We never thought about You much in England —
But now that we are far away from England,
We have no doubts, we know that You are here.

You helped us pass the jest along the trenches —
Where, in cold blood, we waited in the trenches —
You touched its ribaldry and made it fine.
You stood beside us in our pain and weakness —
We're glad to think You understand our weakness —
Somehow it seems to help us not to whine.

We think about You kneeling in the Garden —
Ah ! God ! the agony of that dread Garden —
We know You prayed for us upon the cross.
If anything could make us glad to bear it —
'Twould be the knowledge that You willed to bear it —
Pain — death — the uttermost of human loss.

Though we forgot You — You will not forget us —
We feel so sure that You will not forget us —
But stay with us until this dream is past.
And so we ask for courage, strength, and pardon —
Especially, I think, we ask for pardon —
And that You'll stand beside us to the last.

Candles are lit

Look down, O Lord, from your heavenly throne,

illuminate the darkness of this night with your celestial brightness,

and from the children of light banish the deeds of darkness;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lighten our darkness, Lord, we pray;

and in your mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;

for the love of your only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Hymn: We turn to you O God of every nation (H and P 412)

Words of Sir Edward Grey:

On 3 August 1914, he explained to the House of Commons, as Foreign Secretary, why Britain was now obliged to go to war with Germany. His speech, with its heavy heart and its clear argument, was greatly admired. Then he returned to the Foreign Office, and worked till dusk. He looked up from his desk and saw the man lighting the gas lamps in St James’s Park below. ''The lamps are going out all over Europe,’’ Grey said to his companion, ''We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’’

“It is fitting that Grey is remembered for these words, because they are expressive of his character and his predicament. Although a stay-at-home (he went abroad only once during his 11 years as Foreign Secretary), he believed in European civilisation, and sought to preserve it. He was also constitutionally pessimistic: the events of the Great War and its aftermath justified his pessimism.” (Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph)

All the candles except the Christ candle are extinguished:

Almighty God, through your love the universe and this world were formed and sun and stars set in their courses.

In love your Son claimed us as your children; and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the future you have planned for us is revealed and assured.

We know your purpose is that all should live as brothers and sisters.

On this day we declare our sadness that the history of our world

is so marred by failure to live in peace, that injustice, tyranny and oppression are ever rife.

Remind us that still your call is given to us to show courage when danger threatens, fortitude in the face of loss and pain,

hope when tempted to despair and perseverance in defence of right values.

We give thanks for those who have set us an example in their standing fast for the ways of truth and justice,

and who held nothing back as they strove to uphold freedom and secure our peace.

Forgive us our failure to be all that we should be.

Instead refashion us into loyal servants of your cause,

that your kingdom of peace may indeed be established

through all the world to the glory of your name.

Eternal Father, the darkness is no darkness to you, and the night is as clear as the day. Accompany and protect us as we enter the night; give us eyes which watch for the dawn and hearts to learn again the lessons of love, that reconciled to one another and to you we may walk through this world’s perils and sorrows as children of light. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In your tender compassion, O 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.

May God the Holy Trinity

guard and defend you on every side,

strengthen you to face times of difficulty,

and keep you rooted in faith and hope;

and the blessing of God almighty,

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

be with you and all whom you love,

this night and always.

Amen.

Being small

I've not had an easy week. Today I have had a day where I could not be bothered. I had done no preparation for worship tomorrow so I just sat down and wrote. The passage set is the parable of the mustard seed. 

In my last Circuit we had a church that was very successful, growing,  with lovely premises and their minister, the Superintendent, used to preach there every Sunday, they were perceived by the rest of the Circuit in a different way. I remember being towards the end of my time at a creating safe space and safeguarding training morning. We talked about when people feel worth little, especially when they are told by others they are useless, or different, or not as good as we are, or that their contribution to community isn’t really much good. I watched some folk from one church in our Circuit drinking coffee looking in awe and wonder at all the technology and gizmos around Southwick premises. They were starting in their conversation to compare themselves with it, and were feeling because they haven’t got screens in foyers and masses of digital equipment and plush dishwashers that recycle water, not as good….

We beat ourselves up in life so quickly. We are not as good as that Christian over there who does so much more than us. We are not as effective as the Church down the road which is growing fast. We are made to feel because life is measured by so called “success” and achievements and goals, a world of appraisal and standards, less than the people we are called to be. We see the world and her pain and there is so much to do – and we can’t make a difference because we are so small. There are so many places where Good News and compassionate justice are desperately needed and what can we do about it? Better to not try than to be called stupid or be laughed at by others who do it better.

Sometimes I think we think we need to solve it all, to sort it all, to almost be God, and we forget that sometimes small steps are a response to faith. We do what we can do, never mind the church down the road does things we can’t do. What can we do? 

There is also the matter of seeing our own potential. This is difficult when others around us want to convince us we aren’t very important, so we believe that. I remember our deputy headmaster at secondary school –a frightening man – he had a glass eye – that’s not relevant – but he did. He used to throw board rubbers at you if you were naughty in his class. I failed quite a lot of my O Levels in 1983, some of them I got “ungraded” for – I just froze in the exam room and panicked. I went back in the September and he summoned me into his office. He looked at me with his good eye and he said in a broad Yorkshire accent, “well son, I’ve only got one thing to say to you, you’re useless, you’re absolutely useless.” Well, that made me feel a lot better. It took me ages to believe in myself after a comment like that. We feel small sometimes so we go in on ourselves. When people get at us, when we are belittled, we feel little, we feel useless, we feel it’s not worth bothering because our contribution will be deemed ridiculous.

There are better churches, better people to make a difference, better educated people, better ministers than me, I am too small.

Jesus tells a story about a mustard seed, about something small planted in the ground that eventually grows into something big. The seed is so small, how can it make a difference, but if it wasn’t planted, if it was laughed off, nothing would grow.   

When Jesus sees a mustard seed he not only seems something tiny he also sees its potential to unfold into something great. Thus he sees not only what is small but also what is not visible at all. He sees a detail of creation and perceives the full flourishing of new creation. The planting of the seed is but the beginning. The small will be blessed and made bigger by God. God doesn’t rubbish us, doesn’t compare us with others, he calls us to be faithful.

We need to remember the context of Jesus story. Remember that Matthew’s Gospel was written for converts from Judaism, a sort of manual to help early Christians live every day. They needed encouragement. The new Christian Church must have felt very small and insignificant. But it will not remain that way. It will grow into a sizeable bush – perhaps Jesus is exaggerating a bit about the size of the tree – and the birds of the air will come and rest in its branches. What’s that bit mean? Well, that’s about Gentiles – the growth will go far beyond Judaism – there will be a safe place, a haven for all people.

That’s how God works, think Abraham for example, his faithfulness to follow a ridiculous scheme going to a country he’d never heard of; think Jeremiah in pain from his call to try and talk of God’s ways to a rebellious people; think of the widow’s mite, think of Mary wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair; think of the early church at Pentecost, it began with 12 people whose track record wasn’t exactly brilliant; think of those who have influenced you, perhaps most of them who’ve helped you in your faith have quietly come to you and shown you something special, without them you would not be who you are today.

A group of ministers who were very tired went on a retreat. The retreat leader found them demoralised and unable to see what they were spending hours doing was worth it. He said this to them:

“As bearers of God's kingdom, we keep plugging away at activities which may look silly or meaningless to the world but which we believe contain the very seed of a new creation. We keep coming to church and singing our old hymns, reciting our old formulas and creeds.  All of us who preach keep cracking open an ancient book called the Bible, looking to find within it truths that are anything-but ancient. We keep gathering at sick beds and death beds and whisper our prayers for the Spirit of the resurrection to be with us in life and in death. We keep drizzling water onto squirming infants and popping cubes of white bread into our mouths in the earnest faith that through the Spirit baptism and communion don't just mean something, they mean everything.

And we keep working for Jesus in this mixed-up, backward world of ours. We keep pointing people to an old rugged cross, having the boldness to suggest that the man who died on that cross is now the Lord of the galaxies.”

The potential of seed sowing. Yes, we may struggle. There will be the perceived successful churches down the road, there will be feelings of inadequacy when we see the world and its mess, there will be horrible people out there trying their best to put us down.   Yes, we may feel like we are insignificant.  Yes, it may seem like what we do doesn't have much effect.  But in this parable, Jesus says that it is through things that seem insignificant and ineffectual that the Kingdom of God comes.  We need to keep planting those mustard seeds.  Because, even though we may not see the fruit of it, Jesus promises that this is how the Kingdom comes.  This Kingdom changes the world - and it is already happening through us! That's encouragement we all need to hear.

That’s why I am thrilled I am inundated with baptisms at the moment across the six communities I am sharing with. Some people say “well, we’ll never see them again.” That isn’t the point at all. It is about the grace of God a sacrament, a planting in people, an offering of God’s love, a moment of the divine being near. I am glad we have a wedding here next month. A couple up the road want to be married here. They know no hymns, they may not know how to behave, it may be rowdy, but they are lovely, and we’ve met, and I’ve talked God with them, we are planting seeds.

We do it on CAP befriender visits, we do through the food bank, we might do it tomorrow through a conversation at Messy Church, we might do it if we open our building more and provide somewhere to help with loneliness in people, we do it with a 20p item at a jumble sale. We are planting love in people, no explanation needed, we just do it, quiet, small acts of kindness.

The Kingdom of God starts small and unnoticeable. But when the Kingdom comes into its own, it is everywhere, and you can’t miss it. We are part of that growth, part of that kingdom, whether anyone recognizes us for what we are or not. The most important thing is that God knows.

And you know I believe God gives us small things to remind us of his presence. I had a lovely card of encouragement the other day telling me something I’d lead had really helped him. This put the pile of snotty letters into perspective. On social media, there is a thing called 100 happy days – you take 100 days and every day you post something that has lifted your spirits – often people post something very small, which has made them smile. Often funeral addresses remind people of some of the tiny particularities that made a person the individual they were.  And if you listen to someone tell the story of their grief you find the same thing: tiny details mark the most significant, poignant moments. And stories of recovery from illness or depression will similarly be anchored in moments of almost microscopic particularity - hearing a certain piece of music, noticing a flower, seeing a mother bird feed its chick - such are the turning points from that time of blackness. That actually all will be well.

And you know the best thing about this little story. It says you might not believe in yourself today, but plant the seed, do your best, and it will all be okay, and you will be surprised at the possibility with God. We need to remember God, who is big.

Sometimes we don’t know what to do with the section of God’s Kingdom that we’ve been given. Our church, our neighbourhood, right here.  We don’t know what the future holds for the church. But even in that unknowing, we have an advocate – the Holy Spirit – that helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. As Paul says in Romans, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” I am greatly encouraged by that verse.

So, we keep on, and we expect much, and we put ourselves down less, because we are worth so much to God, and we share with others that they can grow too through our planting. In the end the things that would convince us we are worth little will not have the last word. I’ll share something naughty. Before I candidated for ministry I had a three year contract as a lay worker in three village churches in my home Circuit. I went and did a funeral at Dunstable Crematorium. They told me an organist would turn up. This was in 1993, ten years after my dressing down at school.

In walked Mr Deputy Headmaster with the glass eye. He sat down at the organ stall, he was the organist for the service. He didn’t know what I was doing there.

He looked at me in the same way he’d looked at me ten years earlier and said, “What are you doing here, son?” Very naughtily I handed him a piece of paper, and I said, “I’m taking the service, here are your hymns.” He was speechless!

The Christian faith is about planting and about potential not about belittling and power and making people feel small. We need to celebrate what we can do here and we need to remember what God can do. Perhaps I’ll end then with these words from Marianne Williamson from a book called “A Return to Love.”

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,  Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ”

Is that not the Gospel we need for ourselves and the Gospel others need from us?

The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. The small is never unnoticed or devalued. 

This has to be shared (for those of us who've been there...)

Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley: The Art of the Stroppy Church Resignation Letter: Dear Church Secretary and Council 1 It is with a heavy heart 2  that I submit my resignation. I have been a member of Slimewold Church ...

A wonderful poem

I spoke to a local preacher in our Circuit last night at a concert. She was stuck on her sermon, not having a middle. The concert ended at 10. "Hadn't you better go home and finish the sermon for tomorrow?" said I, being all caring acting Superintendenty! Her son said, "she usually is up to 3am doing it." I NEVER usually alter my sermon a few hours before I preach it, but today, someone sent this poem by Anthony Wilson and it just says what my theology of the Holy Spirit is really. So, I will use it today in a busy service with an adult baptism, two confirmations, one transfer of membership, commissioning of a worship leader and communion; and tonight when I preach at an ecumenical celebration. Enjoy.  

When the Holy Spirit Danced With Me in My Kitchen

 the first thing I noticed was his arms,

thick and hairy like a bricklayer’s

with a tattoo of an anchor

as Churchill had.

 ‘Coming for a spin?’ he grinned,

in an accent more Geordie than Galilee,

and he whirled me

through tango, foxtrot and waltz

without missing a beat.

‘You’re good,’ I said.  ‘Thanks,’

he said, taking two glasses to the tap.

‘You’re not so bad yourself,

for someone with no sense of rhythm

and two left feet.’

He gave me a wink.

 ‘It’s all in the waist.

The movement has to start there

or it’s dead.’

‘You’ll find it applies to most things,’

he went on, grabbing the kettle.

‘Writing, cooking, kissing,

all the things you’re good at,

or think you are.’

He winked again.

 ‘You don’t mind me asking,’ I said,

‘but why are you here?’

‘I thought it was about time,’

he said. ‘I mean, you’ve been full stretch,

haven’t you, what with your job,

feeling like a taxi for the kids,

your family living far away,

and you ‘in your head’ all the time

as you said to someone last week.’

 I looked at him and nodded.

‘Go on.’

‘I was going to.’

He got down some mugs.

‘Let’s say I was concerned about you.

The thing is, the three of us,

we like you a lot.

We think you’ve got real potential

as a human.  You’re kind and humorous.

You’re also a little scatty.

We like that.  By the way, that fish curry

you made on Saturday was first class.’

 ‘You know about that?’

‘Everything you get up to,’

he smiled.  ‘It’s nothing to panic about.

Really.  To tell you the truth

you could do with loosening up a little.

Try not beating yourself up the whole time.

A little less rushing everywhere

would do you good, too.’

 ‘I thought you might say that.’

‘Look at me,’ he said.

‘I came to say:

Keep Going, and Relax.

Also: keep things simple.

If you are doing one thing,

do that thing.  If you are talking

with someone, listen to them,

do not blame them for being hard work.

Write as if you were not afraid,

and love in this way too.

Be patient with everyone, especially

your relations, who (I can assure you)

think you are rather special.

Make big decisions slowly, and small decisions

fast.  Do not make bitterness your friend.

Pray (I will not mind if you use

made up words for this.)

Garrison was right: ‘Why

have good things you don’t use?’

What you have been given to do,

give yourself to it completely,

only by emptying yourself can you become full.’