Cooksmill Green Congregational Church

Thought for the Week – Sunday 20^th June 2021

Our Gospel narrative for today (Mark 4:35-41) places Jesus and His disciples in the heart of a great storm, one that puts great trepidation into the hearts of  seasoned fisherman and who whilst believing they are about to perish, see Jesus asleep on a cushion! We all face great storms in life and naturally can feel both scared and overwhelmed by things we cannot control, the last 15 months being a prime example. Here comes the honesty bit now as I ask you this, how many times perhaps have you prayed to God, to ask for these and other troubled waters in your life to be stilled and yet felt like He was asleep in the back of the boat? I doubt very much you would be alone if you did.

As Jesus stills the raging storm, we see again the awesome power of God in action where the unpredictable and merciless forces of nature suddenly respond like obedient children to His voice. The Disciples who were in absolute fear of these forces, now seem equally afraid of the suddenness of the dramatic calm, as the realisation hits home of just what Jesus really can do, sure He’s already done amazing things before but this is on another scale. Even after what they already knew of Him, the narrative leads us to believe that they still lacked the expected depth of faith that such close followers should have, one that will lead them to the truth that they were always safe when He is nearby, that even though seemingly asleep, He was right there with them as they faced their greatest of fears.

These witnesses to the miracles of Jesus, now suddenly chose to hold entirely onto their rational understanding of their tangible world, rather than give over their darkest fears to the fortifying reassurance that we call faith, sound familiar to anyone? It could and should lead us to consider then that if the disciples had such uncertainties about the nature of what it is to have unerring  faith in what God can do, then surely, we too can be susceptible to the same insecurities that most, if not all of us, certainly experience. It’s not about judging the strength or indeed frailty of the Disciples faith, it’s about considering the complexion of our own, and that in itself perhaps takes some real honest reflection on what it is that we each consider to be its meaning.

The Gospel reading as usual provides us with the  opportunity to both find and absorb the spiritual sustenance derived from the words and actions of Jesus. Each of us has the opportunity to find a deeper and more personal understanding of our relationship with God, simply by placing ourselves within either the historical narrative or the present-day metaphor it so often provides, and then, importantly, being truly honest with the results. If you are anything but honest about the thoughts and feelings you experience when you encounter scripture, be it servile acceptance or sceptical disagreement, then I believe you risk missing out on the deeper learning potential that it may offer, after all God knows what you are thinking before you do, so the only person you can possibly deceive is yourself. Honest introspective reflection somehow breathes new life and relevance into ancient text, the words and their meaning belong to you and the power of the Holy Spirit is no longer constrained.

Every now and then I find myself experiencing a head and heart conflict over the interpretation of Scripture, which also includes my understanding of faith, where the logical head is often too keen to try and refute the plausibility of the divine omnipotence of God, whilst my faith heart counters with a deeper emotional desire for the presence of a guardian to protect me, nurture me, talk to me and of course unconditionally love me. He is all powerful and yet gentle, disproving of my sins yet unrelenting in His forgiveness, all this and so much more allows my smug faith heart to ask my rebellious head “ can your cold logic do the same?” and with that it’s simply game over and faith wins the day. Not everything in life has to be about the logical, well not for me, but what about you? How do you reconcile any conflict you have between the concrete experience of reality and the seemingly illogical mystery of having a faith?

We are all God’s children but we are all as individual as the fingerprints we own, so would He really expect us to all believe, think and act the same? I mean, have you ever found yourself measuring your own depth of faith against that of others around you and having done so, felt that they are somehow closer to God and therefore maybe a better Christian? I used to do this until I realised that faith is the foundation upon which each of us builds our own individual and very personal relationship with God and therefore has the potential to be as unique as those fingerprints I mentioned. So I now believe that we should not try to benchmark faith, I would argue that it is not a comparable human quality to be placed upon a scale as we so often do with attributes like strength, knowledge or compassion, it’s too complex and intimate to the soul for us to do this without somehow causing offence. It’s true value for me is found when it is most sorely tested, the darkest of times, moments when life’s demands bear down and  no earthly remedy is available. How strong is my faith? Well that’s a matter for me and God himself but I do find myself empathising with the Disciples in that boat, would I have behaved any different, most certainly not, would I behave any differently in the here and now storms of life, well, I know that at any given time I could find myself imploring Jesus to wake up and come to my assistance and my honest expectation would be that He will, though when He does I fully expect to hear the same chiding words that He gave to the Disciples “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Perhaps with all that I know of Him, He’s got a fair point, a tough, but fair point indeed……Amen

Danny

Heavenly Father thank you for always being at my side,

knowing that you are always listening for my call.

Your love gives me the strength I need to face my darkest fears

You calm the storms of my life.

Almighty God you are powerful beyond my understanding

I am humbled at the hearing of your name

I am filled with awe at the beauty of your creation

I am inspired by your endless love and grace

Holy Spirit come fill my life with hope for a better future

Forgive my transgressions and set my heart and mind upon

the path that draws me closer to you.

For in you I am always saved,

Thought for the Week Sunday June 13^th 2021

Draw the best out of others

Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you. (Ephesians 4:29 G.N.B.)

When the Irish missionary Columba paid a visit to the important Clonmacnoise Monastry in Ireland, he was surrounded by many brothers who wanted to hear him. A boy whose negative attitudes and looks caused people to look down on him, crept in behind Columba. He had heard read from the bible how a miracle occurred in a woman in a crowd who was able to touch just the edge of Jesus’ cloak and she was healed (Matthew 9: 20-22). So his idea was to touch the edge of Columba’s cloak without being noticed. Columba like Jesus, sensed in his spirit that someone was there, turned round and taking the boy by the neck brought him forward.

Some of the brothers tried to shoo the boy away. Columba hushed them ‘open your mouth and put out your tongue’ he asked the boy. Columba reached forward and blessed the boy’s tongue. He told the brothers ‘do not let this boy’s present disposition make you despise him, from now on he will cease to displease you. Indeed he will please you greatly and grow little by little, day by day in goodness and greatness of spirit wisdom and discernment will increase in him and he will become an outstanding figure in your community. God will give him eloquence to teach the way of salvation.’ This boy was to become famous throughout the churches of Ireland and was highly regarded by them, his name was Ernene mac Craseni.

What a wonderful story this is of Columba’s healing of the boy. It, the healing, was going to take some time (little by little, day by day in goodness and greatness of spirit) and the boy was to become an outstanding figure in the community. Interesting that some of the brothers tried to shoo the boy away. They likely thought the boy was not worth healing but he was and Columba saw this and he blessed the boy’s tongue. The boy also knew he needed healing. It was going to take a long time but the healing was needed and accepted and what a healing.

Jesus said. ‘…learn from me because I am gentle and humble in spirit…’ (Matthew 11:29 G.N.B.) When Paul listed gentleness as one of the nine fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:23) he used the Greek word praotes. This word overflows with meanings and it is far removed from some current images of gentleness as unreasonable sweetness, powerless passivity or timidity. Plato considered gentleness to be the ‘cement of society’

Aristotle defined it as the mean between too angry and never becoming angry at all. The gentle person expresses anger for the right reason and duration and in the right way. It is the characteristic needed when exercising discipline (Galatians 6:1) facing opposition (2 Timothy 2:25) and opening ourselves to hearing God’s word without pride (James 1:21)

This is the most important part of the rule Love Christ, hate wealth.

Devotion to the King of the sun and kindness to people.

If anyone enters the path of repentance it is sufficient to advance step by step. Do not wish to be like the charioteer (Rule of Saint Gall)

Joan.

Holy Spirit ENLIVENER

 Breath on us, fill us with life anew.

In your new creation, already upon us,

Already breaking through, groaning.

And travailing, but already breaking through, breath on us.

Till that day when night and autumn vanish

And lambs grown to sheep are no more slaughtered

And even the thorn shall fade and the whole

Earth shall cry, glory at the marriage feast of the lamb.

In this new creation, already upon us, fill us with life anew.

                                                           George MacLeod

Thought for the Week Sunday June 6^th 2021

Opening Prayer

As we start our Sunday and a new week ahead let us bring to God all that we are – our hopes and worries, our joys and pains, the good things and the bad, trusting that God loves us and will protects us. Amen

Mark Ch3 20v-35v

As I was looking at the readings for today, I have to say that I found this particular part of Mark’s Gospel quite challenging and hard to interpret, especially the part where Jesus said that his Mother and brothers were not his family, but that his family were those of his followers who wanted to know more of the kingdom of God.

Here is a brief summary of the Gospel reading:

Jesus is in a house in Capernaum and a large crowd had gathered, so much so, that Jesus and his disciples were squashed and didn’t even have room to eat. It is said that the followers may have travelled from his home town of Nazareth, which was only about 20 miles away, so may have known Jesus as a child.

There were in fact three types of people in the crowd, those who wanted to learn more of Jesus’s teachings, the Pharisees and Jesus’s family.

The Pharisees were there to stir up trouble; they had been watching Jesus for some time and knew that he held great power so felt threatened by him. They try to discredit him by telling the crowd that only God had the power to heal and that according to the Jewish law and the 10 Commandments, the Sabbath should be kept holy, but Jesus healed the sick, and if needed, on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees informed his followers that Jesus was a blasphemer and was not the son of God. They stated that as Jesus had the power to heal people, he must be Beelzebub the devil. Jesus’s responds to this by answering in parables.

“How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.” Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven for the children of man and whatever  blasphemies they utter, but  whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”.

Jesus had casts out demons, so if like the Pharisees suggest, Jesus was Satan, he would in fact be casting out himself. How can the devil cast out the devil, he would just cancel himself out, so Jesus couldn’t be Satan…

If Jesus is binding the strong man (Satan) he is stopping him from doing evil. Jesus is stronger than the devil and plundered his wickedness changing it into righteousness and in doing so overcame him.

In the last part of the parable he was saying that our sins will be forgiven, that is unless we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit as the Pharisees had done when saying that Jesus was Beelzebub and had an unclean heart.

Mary, Jesus’ mother and brothers were also at the gathering, they had joined the throng and asked one of them to inform Jesus that they were there and waiting outside. They believed Jesus was out of his mind and had turned crazy so wanted to take him home, to protect him. They may also have been slightly embarrassed because of all the commotion he was causing.  The person from the crowd informed Jesus that his mother was outside seeking him, Jesus said,

 ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.’ ” (Mark 3:31-34)

I found this passage difficult to understand and I’m sure many people standing in that crowd felt the same way. What could Jesus mean? Could it be that Jesus knew that his family were there to take him away, therefore stopping him from being obedient to God spreading the Christian message, doing Gods Will?

And what about Mary, how did she feel? Did she feel she had lost her son?

I remember when we first moved to Essex and Steve hadn’t been in touch with his mum for a few weeks and then had to make a flying trip back to Cheshire for work reasons and didn’t get time to call in and see her. She had found out and rang me saying, “for the first time I feel I have lost my son” I could hear the hurt in her voice. Of course she hadn’t, and this is in no way comparable to Mary’s plight but still, both are mothers and must have felt that they weren’t needed in the same way as before.

I suppose some of us can relate it to when our own children or someone close to us leaves home and may meet someone else that may mean more to them than us or their parents; it doesn’t mean that they love us or them any less it’s just a different kind of love.

In a far more significant scenario as in the case of Jesus, although loving his mother and his brothers, his commitment was to God, to love and obey his command. In this parable Jesus is not saying that he has no responsibility to his blood relatives , even when dying he took particular care for his mother –John 19 v 25-27 he is saying that we have a prior loyalty to God and his kingdom.

The family was probably under a lot of pressure; and as mentioned previously feeling embarrassed at Jesus behaviour and thought they knew best, they didn’t. Jesus had the choice of leaving with them “going quietly” thereby pleasing the family and stopping their worrying and  Jesus  persevering with his mission of teaching and healing that would eventually lead to fatal consequences yet also the salvation of the world. Thankfully he stayed true to his mission at a cost that the family could not have known at the time.

I thank God that we have our own families to cherish and from whom we can gain support and wise council, but we can also gain other riches from our Christian family.

I know this from my own experience, especially when the girls were growing up. Being part of our Christian family was an integral part of their lives, sharing in fellowship with other youngsters, singing in KOGS (Kids of the Green) church outings etc. and generally having the council and love of the whole church fellowship, this has played an important part and helped shape who they are today.

Although these parables have been difficult for me to interpret and I thank those who have helped me understand them, it has been a good lesson in my faith journey and I hope that it hasn’t confused you but given you food for thought. I suppose like Mary we have to let those we love spread their wings and seek their own destiny.

Julie

The following is an excerpt from the writings of the poet, artist and philosopher Kahill Gibran.

“And a woman who held her babe against her breast said, speak to us of children.

And he said:

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts
For they have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer seeks the mark of the path of the infinite, and he bends you with his might that his arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archers hand be for gladness
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable”.

Thought for the Week – 30^th May 2021

Pentecost Part 2

So what does the Pentecost reading tell us about our response to the Holy Spirit? Well, I do not think it is an invitation to go around talking in tongues – and I know St. Paul would agree with me here. What strikes me is the whole thing about language – that suddenly people found they could understand and be understood by others from whom previously they had been cut off. Language does this – it is not only that your languages may be limited to rusty schooldays French or Latin, meaning that you struggle with anything apart from holiday phrases in anything else, but as soon as someone starts to speak we start to make judgments about them – which part of the world they come from, what class they are from, how well educated, how interesting they are… But here, as people join in praising God, the Holy Spirit breaks down these barriers that we ourselves place that prevent us from seeing people as they are rather than as we might want them to be.

There are certainly occasions when language is not needed for communication. When you see on the news a mother grieving for a child killed in Gaza or the horrifyingly numerous other places of conflict in the world; when you see anger and defiance on the streets of Burma; when you hear profound meditation in a Buddhist temple rite – then it does not matter that we do not have the words; we have the essential meaning. This quality of empathy to me is a God-given work of the Holy Spirit – it means that we can relate to the feelings of others in a way that God relates to us. Without it, we could not love God with our whole hearts, or our neighbours as ourselves.

Another way in which language can be superfluous, something dear to the hearts of me, and (I know) Steve and Julie and Danny is in music. You begin with the words on the printed page, but when you begin singing them, the Spirit gives life to them; you can be swept away by the feelings they evoke; you may have the profound joy of sharing this feeling with those with whom you are singing and those who are hearing; and while the “flesh” is preoccupied in counting the bars and following Steve’s beat, the “spirit” is liberated and exalted. And in some music there are no words or the words do not matter: when, for example, I hear the last chorus in the Bach B minor Mass, I hear the heavens opening as the trumpets sound; in the last movement of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony I hear the muffled drumbeats of death followed by music of sadness, acceptance and ineffable beauty. It is not for nothing that so many of our images of God’s kingdom are taken from music. If Jesus is the Lord of the Dance, then the Holy Spirit is the Lord of the Song.

The Holy Spirit does not get much of a mention in the Church of England Creeds, just the credit for having “spoken through the prophets”. I think this needs special consideration. Try, as I did for last week’s “thought”, just dipping into – say – the book of Ezekiel. You soon realise that his prophecy is not like the weather forecast or racing tips or Gypsy Gladys telling your fortune at the church bazaar. The language is obscure at times – deliberately so, I would say – yet the message is often hard to miss. The prophet is putting the behaviour of people and rulers into the context of God’s teachings and values: where they have fallen short, what God promises them; why good or bad things have happened; what they need to do to put themselves right again with God. For all that Ezekiel covers issues clearly prominent at the time, his words still resonate with us because through them we too tap into the nature of God. Are there prophets today who speak with that kind of resonance? I would say that whenever we hear a fine sermon, the same thing happens: the Spirit moves us. Which is why good preaching is so important in a church: through it, God moves in a way that makes plain his mysteries; without it, we are delivered to the spiritual Dead Letters Office.

Another of the problems with the Holy Spirit that I alluded to last week is what Jesus says about him (or her – I do like to think she reflects the “feminine” side of God) is the actual word he uses – variously translated as “helper”, “comforter”, “counsellor” “advocate” and (would you believe?) “redeemer of the accursed”.  They all fall down in some ways because they attempt to define divinity through quite specific human concepts. To me, the idea of “advocate” has a depth that the others lack. Among other things that an advocate does, he or she will clarify your thoughts; will help you formulate your case in a way that will convince other people; will guide and advise you through the court action; will always (for a fee!) be there for you, on your side, seeing the best in you; and at the end, will plead your cause before the judge. To me, the Holy Spirit does all of those things – if we allow it to happen. So the closer we draw to God, the more the Spirit helps us in our struggles to be Godly, and when we ask for his mercy ((another legal concept) for our shortcomings, insofar as we have been on the side of God, he will be on our side in granting it.

Which leads me to a possibly controversial question. If the fruits of the Spirit are, as Paul tells the Galatians, love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control, are those whose lives show these fruits following the way of the Spirit even if they do not sign up to all – or any – of the Christian doctrines? Are goodness and godliness one and the same?

I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide you in the way of all truth.

David

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for the

Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Help us always to be

Guided by that same spirit

Throughout all our lives,

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Thought for the week – 23rd May 2021

Pentecost

Did you watch the State Opening of Parliament this year? In spite of restrictions, it remained a day of splendour, ritual and mystique. It was easy to see what the Queen’s rôle was – the figure of authority, telling it like it is. Similarly Charles – he supported the Queen, literally and metaphorically; as her son, he shares her royal nature, sitting enthroned at her side, and in some ways is already taking over from her. But there was a third figure at the front, who came in separately, did nothing obvious or special, wasn’t even spotted very much by the cameras; an ephemeral, almost shadowy figure.

I thought of the Holy Trinity. God, Son, and Camilla.

I have always had problems with the Holy Spirit. The first problem is the name. When I was a child, it was generally the Holy Ghost. So when I pictured the Trinity, God was the old man with the beard, Jesus was the stained glass window at our local church, and the third figure was similar to Casper, the friendly ghost. I knew he was friendly because as someone hopeless at art, him at least I could draw. Ectoplasm isn’t hard. His name was Whit, and thanks to him, we had a Bank Holiday.

The second problem was much more serious. The Christian groups I came into contact with as a teenager were always going on about the need to be born again and baptised anew into the Holy Spirit. It turned out that all the non-rebaptised Christians I had been singing with in our church choir were second-class citizens. We might possibly get into Heaven, but not the mansions – only the council estate. And then I played for a healing service taken by a notorious local evangelical. The service was continually interrupted by someone speaking (or rather shouting) in tongues; the “healing” manifested itself in a long line of people falling backwards like dominoes and being moved out of the way by a hefty bunch of spiritual East End bouncers. It filled me with disquiet.

When I do these thoughts for the week, I hear voices. I hear the voice of Danny, talking about the need to tackle subjects that we find challenging, not just the easy and obvious ones. I hear the voice of Julie, full of sincerity and honesty and faith. And usually a few days after I have sent it off, I hear the voice of Steve with tactfully constructive suggestions (he told me to say!). I decided to heed these voices in trying to answer my own questions about the Holy Spirit. I have to say that there is no subject in our religion that so demands that we go back to the Bible to see what it has to say on the matter, and no subject that is so confusing and contradictory in what we find there. So I am going back to first principles. If the Holy Spirit proceeds from God, an expression of God’s nature and his actuality and his presence, then it is something that as Christians we all should experience, can experience, do experience; and that experience is transformational, is extraordinary; and it is a beginning, not an end.

The Spirit of God actually makes its first appearance in the second verse of the Bible, an expression of God as Creator, bringing form and order and meaning to the world. Another key mention is in the famous passage of Ezekiel about the valley of dry bones, into which God breathes his Spirit and gives life. So, proceeding from first principles, I would say that is my own experience of the meaning of the Spirit, and I’m guessing yours as well. During lockdown, I have been following the first year of life of Christine, my partner’s, grandson via Instagram and it has been little short of miraculous to see how his every act, his every expression, everything he does and sees and reacts to, is nurturing and fanning that spark of life within him, that humanity. At the other end of the spectrum, to see someone who has died is to know that in death that spark of life has gone – it is no longer there, the person that was is not that body, the chrysalis is dried up and empty, the butterfly has flown. So I feel certain that the life I have and the life you have is the gift of the Spirit. And that has another important consequence. I was watching the BBC programme Hospital this week. We are so used to quiz shows and Line of Duty that you look at the various patients and wonder firstly who will survive, and then who ought to survive. And then you follow the doctors and nurses and patients and their lovers and families, and to do so is to know that they all want all the patients to survive. They are all human beings who are loved and all have worth and all have that spark that you do not want to be quenched. So in a very real sense, we all bear witness to the fact that life is not just given by the Spirit, but is sanctified by the Spirit as well. The sixth Commandment does not establish the idea of the sanctity of human life but is a reflection of that value. What God decrees and what we feel in the depths of our being are one and the same, united in and through his Spirit.

I try to restrict “thoughts” to 1000 words, so it comes as a shock to realise I have used up my allocation without getting as far as the New Testament! Steve has kindly given me the go-ahead to do the concluding part next week.

A final note: if the Spirit gives life and sanctifies that life, it does so not only to Christians but also to Muslims and Jews, to all people. Think on that, Benjamin Netanyahu. Think on that, Hamas.

David

Heavenly Father,

As we reflect on Pentecost

Help us to be open

To your spirit working in our lives.

Give us the wisdom and strength

To heed your prompting

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thought for the week – 16^th May 2021

This week, the 7^th Sunday after Easter, is also the Sunday after Ascension. Ascension will have been celebrated by many Christians last Thursday and I’ve been sharing some thoughts on this event with Joan, one of my co-contributors to Thought for the Week, and we both agreed it’s a very difficult subject and one that can’t really be tackled at any great depth in a short ‘Thought for the Week’. But is there something we can pick out from this event and the effect it had on the disciples that can teach us something today in 2021?

One of the lessons we could all learn, or at least I certainly could, is patience! So much had happened to Jesus’ followers in the previous three years or so. They’d been travelling with this enigmatic man who they now knew, for sure, to be the Messiah. They’d seen him in action, listened to his words, just a few weeks before they saw him put to death on a cross, they’d witnessed him risen from the dead and for forty days after his resurrection, many had been sharing food and fellowship with him, received further teaching and now he was going to leave them – but not without a promise. A promise that they would be baptised in the Holy Spirit which would comfort, guide and see them through the times ahead. The disciples wanted to know if this was it, was this the time when God‘s kingdom would be restored to Israel? Jesus was quite clear, that was in God’s hands and would happen when he decided. Is it any wonder they were impatient after everything they’d experienced? But the restoration of God’s kingdom would happen in His time and in the meantime the disciples had work to do, they had to go out and spread the good news of the gospel far and wide.

I’d like to return to a subject we considered back in July of last year, that of ‘time.’ When I looked back on that thought I realise it was a period when, like now, we had been anticipating some sort of end to this pandemic!

Time is a very precious gift from God and one we should try not to waste. Faced with a situation where some event or occasion we’re desperately waiting for is yet to happen, we have two choices. We can sit around and do nothing, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for whatever it is we’re waiting for, or we can use the time wisely, perhaps in preparation for when that longed for event happens, but not exclusively. If we’re looking forward to friends and family coming for a BBQ in a couple of weeks, we don’t sit around doing nothing in the meantime, neither do we leave it until an hour before they arrive to go out and buy a BBQ, charcoal, get the food ingredients, marinade the meat, make desserts, cut the grass …… among other things we use the days preceding to prepare and make necessary purchases. As we enter into the next level of life, post pandemic, which we all hope and pray, in spite of recent reports, will continue in a positive direction this time, what are we doing with our time? Oh I know we can go to shops now, but what about life, the ‘life in all its fullness’ we talked about last week?

Time is not the only gift God has given us, what other skills, gifts, talents has he given us that could enrich our lives now and into the weeks, months and years ahead, and just as important (more so perhaps) that could enrich the lives of others. Are they the sort of skills that require practice and refining, there’s a lot of truth in the cliché ‘use it or lose it.’ Do we have latent skills not yet explored? How are we using our time?

When Jesus left the disciples on the day of Ascension he knew he was leaving them in what is still an imperfect world, he knew they would need encouragement and help. Life would not be easy and they would need to love, care, encourage and build each other up in what, for many of them, would be a hostile environment, using all their God given gifts. But it wasn’t just about each other, they were to show God’s forgiveness, love, compassion, to the wider world, encouraging and building up wherever they could.

I realise that I constantly return to this subject of forgiveness, loving and caring for each other, and was about to apologise for doing so, but these things were, and still are, central to the commandments Jesus gave his disciple’s, so surely they must remain the central message of his church 2000 years later.

So I suppose they bear repeating?

Steve.

Father God Help us we pray

In our journey through this imperfect World

To know your presence is still with us,

To know that we are not alone.

Guide, strengthen and encourage us

In all we strive to do for you.

Help us to share each other’s burdens

And each other’s joys.

Be with those who have no one to share with,

Guide and strengthen us to become your eyes, ears

And voice of comfort to strength and encourage them

Whenever we can.

And may we do it all in Jesus name. Amen.