Thought for the week January 10th 2021 The Baptism of the Lord

Now when all the people had been baptized and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in the shape of a dove. And a voice came from heaven “You are my son, the beloved; my favour rests on you.” Luke 3:22

This Sunday concludes the season of Christmas. We celebrate the Baptism of Jesus which starts a time in our church calendar which eventually will lead us into the season of Lent.

Over the past few weeks, the church has been concentrating on the birth of Jesus Christ and the visiting of the infant Jesus by the Magi. We don’t hear a lot about Jesus’s childhood but we can imagine him growing up in his humble surroundings in Nazareth, helping his father with his carpentry. I’m sure as a small boy he did all the things that boys do, playing games and getting in to mischief, but as he grows, he learns from his mother and father, the rights and wrongs and moral teachings that parents give children in order for them to grow into decent human beings and be accepted into society. Little did they know what was ahead of them and how Jesus would have a world changing impact on all society then and 2000 years later! Now we fast-forward to when Jesus is a thirty-year-old man. We come to a moment in his life when Jesus is about to begin his public ministry which will eventually lead to his death, resurrection and ascension. Before he begins his ministry and the work that God has given him to fulfil, he comes to be baptized. He goes to John his cousin to baptize him. Jesus didn’t really need to be baptized as he was pure and free from all sin and Johns baptism was more about repentance and his aim was to baptize the Jews as a preparation for the Messiah’s coming so that they would be cleansed by water of any wrong doings, so as to be ready to meet the Messiah when the time came. But although John resists Jesus at first, Jesus insists that John baptize him. It may be that Jesus was confirming John’s work to the Jews, that he was right to prepare the way for him and also to show them that a new era was dawning, a new start for all mankind. As Jesus emerges from the waters, the crowd would have been aware of something extraordinary happening , they would have been able to see the clouds parting and the dove descending, feel the holy spirit and hear the voice of God saying “ you are my beloved son with you I am well pleased” Wow! can you imagine being in the crowd, standing by the river Jordan, on tiptoes, trying to see what was happening, seeing the people’s astonished faces, hearing the ripples of water fall as Jesus emerges from the water, feeling a sense of wonder, rebirth, renewal, you would definitely feel without question that this was the long awaited Messiah, Jesus the son of the father. God introducing his son, and the beginning of his son’s ministry. Jesus’ baptism gave him the strength and support that he needed for the three years which lay ahead of him and we need his continued love and support to help us in our lives. As we start this new year and we reflect on what a year we have had or will have, some of us with sadness some of us with great joy, some with indifference, it is a good time to think about renewing our faith and thinking of new ways to kick-start our own spiritual journey. Let us imagine ourselves standing by the river Jordan and being cleansed by Jesus. Having all our angst and any past bitterness we might have, washed away and replaced by the Holy Spirit, having that sense of renewed faith and free from those things we have done that disappoint ourselves, and more importantly disappoint God. I find it quite liberating sometimes to sing the verse in Charles Wesley’s uplifting hymn ‘And can it be’ where he writes:

“Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night,

Thine eyes diffused a quickening ray

I woke, the dungeons flamed with light

My chains fell off, my heart was free

I rose, went forth and followed thee!”

At the end it’s a wonder that those I may be singing next to don’t hear my sigh of relief. Phew! I feel better for that!! I know that the chains are a metaphor for our burdens etc. But if it were literal and being totally honest with myself, I would be like Marley’s Ghost, if my chains fell off you would need a HGV to remove them!

But joking apart, in this new year, let us be re-energised and as the Lord forgives us let us try to forgive those who may have hurt us, for whatever reason, big or small, we may or may not be able to forget, but in light of this last year and the way it has changed so many people’s lives, in good ways and in bad, doesn’t it seem a little petty and futile to hold on to those thoughts and feelings that ultimately make us miserable and more importantly, keep us from having a wholesome true relationship with God. Let us move on with a lighter heart, it’s good to have a bit of friendly, cheeky banter but let’s ditch the Mee-mawing (as we say in the north) and try to be kinder to each other. I know it’s easier said than done and who am I to preach! After all we are just human and its part of our makeup but we can at least be aware and maybe catch ourselves before we act? It may not stop us but it’s a start. During this pandemic, it’s been amazing how resilient people have been in finding ways to keep our fellowship together, organising Zoom meetings, virtual choir, virtual services including Sundays Cool and yes, even carolling scarecrows! Thank you so much for all your hard work and effort, it really has kept us connected. Now Let us try to move on this year with a positive attitude, we have a vaccine that despite the logistical problems will hopefully be the start of us getting back to as normal life as possible, being able to hug our family and friends, singing in real choirs going out to dinner, theatre, cinema’s, parties, but more important is getting together in fellowship to praise, love and serve our Lord.

Julie.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, as we begin 2021 I ask that you would watch over us and give us the strength to keep moving forward.

I pray that the world will overcome this pandemic and that you help to heal all those who have suffered in anyway.

I pray that this New Year will be filled with joy, peace, love and hope and that you continue to watch over us. Keep us and our loved ones safe and guide us in choosing the right path to take.

Lord heal the broken people, make well the sick, restore happiness to those in despair, bring love to the lonely, food to the hungry and peace to our world.

Amen.

Happy New Year! It made me wonder as to how many times over the years, I have ritually exhorted this salutation to the incoming new year, offering it as a benevolent bequest of hope for all loved ones, friends and even strangers for something better than was had in the year passing. I also then realised that I have never actually followed up as to whether my wish had come true for the countless to whom I had offered it, but one thing is for certain, like many others I will be saying it again and again as one expiring year rolls into one anew, simply because it is the customary thing to do, so why do it? Well, on face value it’s a nice and often polite thing to do but it seems to me that as human beings, we do it because we each live with a constant need, some deep-rooted primal desire, to find real happiness and then having done so to simply remain being happy. The nature of what true happiness actually is, remains of course extremely subjective, with each and every one of us having a different measure for what it is that has the ability to make us feel joyfully content.

If and when someone does find the happiness they seek, then the ensuing questions that are likely to be considered would be firstly as to its measure and then importantly as to how long will it last? Is it really possible for anyone to be perpetually pleased with their lot? The famed psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Karl Jung clearly didn’t think so as he wrote:

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness because the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

It would appear then that to know one emotion requires experiencing the other and indicates a universal need for balance in all things that we humans can claim to know and understand about ourselves, which is important to remember when comparing our fortunes and misfortunes with those of others, trying to work out whose grass is greener as we sometimes find ourselves doing, because clearly everyone experiences a measure of both light and dark within life, regardless. I would also suggest that when someone experiences the light of happiness, then life should feel relatively uplifted and easy to deal with and therefore the real challenge behind the quest for continued happiness, perhaps lies in having a plan of what to do when that equalising measure of darkness, comes along in one of its many disguises.

John tells us in his Gospel reading for today that the plan we should seek has been with us since before creation, before time itself, he reminds us that before whatever you could imagine ever existed, there was God and God is love. God’s very nature is a love that flows out and returns, that gives and receives, that multiplies and unites. God is generosity and delight so overflowing that it wishes to share its perfect happiness with others. Our first understanding of His sharing was creation itself and since then everything we may know about the existence of everything, is in fact the work of God’s love and His desire to share it with us.

Whilst nobody has seen God, we can claim to know Him because He came to us through the Son and it is Christ the Son that physically brings God into our world, so that we can gaze upon Him and begin to understand the happiness we can all find if we too set out to both love and share. Christ the Son is the Word, and the Word was in the beginning and He is God. We Christians are called by God’s Holy Spirit to focus on the Word and in doing so will hear the Son call to us “Come and enjoy the love of God, as I do. Come and express the generosity of God, as I do. Come and display the glory of God, as I do. Come and be children of God, resembling Him in every way. Come and be me.”

So, we have a plan, but it does require an unwavering focus upon God, achieved through the Son and guided by the Spirit, something that the human condition has a knack of always getting in the way of. We are called children of God and like all children we can so easily be distracted, especially by other fleeting desires that we feel could make us happy in a far easier way. We lose focus, important things now become blurred, we feel lost and like lost children we run around in a panic trying to find the next fix that will make us feel secure again. Stand still, John suggests, and look to the Son, for you will never find God if you look anywhere else and gradually not only will you see God again, but you and others will see the Son within yourself more and more, for we are made in His image to share in both God’s love and delight, to love and share with one another, that is our purpose, that is the plan.

Danny

Heavenly Father thank you for your ceaseless gift of love
seen in the face of your Son
heard in the sound of His word
found in the joy that it brings
All glory, praise and honour to you
Amen.

Thought for the Week – 22nd November 2020 (Feast day of Christ the King) AKA – Stir up Sunday

This Sunday is a special one as it is the last Sunday in the church year. Next week we begin the new church year with the first of the four Sundays of Advent. It is an exciting time, preparing for Christmas and the birth of our Lord Jesus. Although it will be very different this year, I’m sure we will find a way of being with our friends and loved ones, albeit at a distance. But we know and remember that although a time of joy and celebration, for some it will be a difficult time, and we keep these people in our thoughts and prayers and pray that in time they will come to enjoy and celebrate Christmas as they once might have done.

This Sunday we celebrate the festival of Christ the King. It is a festival in honour of Jesus Christ as lord over all creation. It was established by Pope Pious X1 in 1925, originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October, but revised by Pope Paul V1 in 1969 and moved to the last Sunday immediately preceding Advent. It is also ‘Stir up Sunday’, the day when people drive their families mad! (only kidding)! It is the day when traditionally families gather to prepare the Christmas pudding so it has plenty of time to mature before Christmas day. However, the day does not actually get its name from stirring the pudding but from the Book of Common Prayer,

“Stir up we beseech thee o lord, the wills of thy faithful people that they bring forth the fruits of good works, may by you be richly rewarded, through Jesus Christ our lord Amen”.

The prayer is asking God for something much more important than the stirring up of a Christmas pud. We are praying that God will stir up our wills so we might be encouraged to get on with doing the good works he has planned for us and then by God’s will, be rewarded. However since Victorian times it is for some, still associated with the lovely family custom of preparing the pudding together. Not that we do this in our house as my dad has a recipe handed down from his father, so he (and my mum as his commis chef AKA head cook and bottle washer!) prepare it.

My guilty pleasure is watching a good old schmaltzy Christmas film, usually involving a soppy dog and a couple who dislike each other immensely to start with but end up………. well, you know how it ends. So on yet another rain soaked “lock down” day recently, we were searching through the TV guide only to find a lot of doom and gloom, statistics of the pandemic etc , in fact so many people in the UK felt this to be true that they wrote into the BBC , influencing them to feature some heart-warming stories. One such story was of an 80 year old ex music teacher called Paul Harvey who had Dementia. His son Nick was visiting him during Lockdown and realized he was deteriorating and could sense him drifting away from him. He wanted to do something to inspire his father, to put a twinkle back in his eye. He remembered his father telling him that his party trick to get his students engaged was to ask them to give him 4 musical notes, he would then compose a piece of music using them. Nick knew music was the one thing which was guaranteed to bring him back to somewhere near normality. His son decided to present a challenge to him and gave him 4 random notes, F, A, D and B. To his and his son’s surprise Paul was able to improvise and compose a piece of music. His son posted a short video online showing his father playing the piece. The post received more than 1.6 million views, including someone from The London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is now out as a single, named

“4 notes” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS0q6AW35OM.)

all of the proceeds going to charity. His son said it had given his dad a new lease of life and Paul himself said, it was very, very moving and thrilling all at the same time.

I think that sometimes we see a glimpse of Jesus in these stories and as David said last week, music can stir up emotions, both positively and negatively, take us back to places we remember vividly and bring us joy when singing our favourite songs of praise. Paul Harvey was a teacher and had his students, just as we have a teacher in our Lord Jesus and we are his students. But like all students we can easily be distracted. How many times has the Lord tried to prompt us into doing something? It might be visiting someone you know who is struggling at the moment or helping a neighbour who could do with a hand. It may be ignoring that niggle which has been getting at you to chat with the old boy down the road who’s lonely, but putting it off until another day. Then you get involved with more pressing things and time passes. I know this doesn’t apply to everyone but I’m sure it resonates with some. We are human after all with all with our own individual failings, but God knows this. We can though, see Jesus in so many ways. When did you last see Jesus? I bet if you think about it, there are many times he has shown himself, perhaps in certain deeds, people’s faces, the things children say. In our daily lives it is all too easy to carry on without a thought of Jesus until something catches you unawares and touches your soul in some way or other, or more often than not, you need his help. How many times have we ignored the Lord or turned our back on him when he was right there in front of us.

Matthew 25:31-46 “but when the son of God comes in his Glory and the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats”

If you read Mathews Gospel , separating the Sheep and the Goats, where the good and the bad are to be judged, you may, as I do, think, oh my goodness, I haven’t done half the good deeds I should have, and have been a disappointment to God in many ways. But surely God can recognise a tryer! Although we might very often fail, God knows that our intentions are good and I like to think he will take that into consideration when deciding if I am a sheep or a goat!

There are so many good deeds and causes to get behind, it’s an insurmountable task, but we are not expected to do it all, because the King whom we follow and worship is not one who rules with fear or cruelty, but with love and kindness. As Ezekiel describes him more like a shepherd king.

Ezekiel 34 11-16. “I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks… so will I seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered”.

This is our King, the one who watches over us, helps us in our time of need, heals our hurts and softens our hearts towards one another. Our King, Emanuel, God with us, he was not a king as in the literal sense, not born in a palace with riches beyond compare, but a child found among the cattle in a simple stable in Bethlehem. So we don’t have to make massive gestures to win God’s favour, even the smallest, offered with sincerity could make all the difference to those we love and especially to those we find hard to love. We don’t have to search to find Jesus, he is always with us, we are his children and part of his flock and we have been found!

Julie Robinson

Prayer

Dear Lord forgive us when we don’t hear you
and choose our own way.
Stir up our imagination to find ways of being better people,
to have eyes that see the best,
a heart that forgives
and a soul that never loses faith.

Amen

Thought for the week 15th Nov 2020 – With a nod to St. Gertrude

(Feast Day of St Gertrude 16^th Nov.)

What is it about “Onward Christian Soldiers” that gets people, well, up in arms? I played it a few months ago at the end of a service where the priest had mentioned it, and the former vicar of Writtle who was in the congregation (or, as we organists like to think of them, “the audience”) stormed out, slamming the door behind her. It’s not easy to do – it’s a big door. She must have been very cross. When I played it at my former church, Stanford Rivers, I used to get the giggles at the thought of the elderly and, in certain cases, terminally confused, congregation marching off as to war. And then we changed our hymn book and found that “Onward Christian Soldiers” had been replaced by “Onward Christian Pilgrims”, completely different words to the same tune. They were queuing up aquiver with anger after the service to protest, and we never sang “Pilgrims” again.

Now, any clued-up English Lit student will tell you that as poetry, while neither hymn is exactly Bard of Avon stuff, “Pilgrims” wins hands down. The idea of Christians as pilgrims has been an appealing one right back to Chaucer and before, stretching through John Bunyan to the twentieth century: “We are pilgrims on a journey / and companions on the road.” The “Pilgrims” writer manages to work in references to Psalm 23:  “Through the darkened valley / walk with those who mourn” and the Prophet Isaiah: “Swords are turned to ploughshares”, in a hymn whose spiritual scope is far greater than that of “Soldiers”. In its emphasis on truth and justice, faith and resurrection, hope and eternity, “Pilgrims” expresses better what most of us are likely to feel about what it is to be a Christian.

By contrast, “Soldiers” is a one idea hymn – it’s all about soldiers marching into battle. In these woke times it doesn’t help that the soldiers are all “brothers” – the sisters are on hand to make the half-time tea. And when it asserts that “We are not divided…one in hope and doctrine”, you have sadly to acknowledge that this is far from reality. When I hear some senior African clergy talking about homosexuality, for example, I wonder if they are in the same century as me, let alone the same church.

And yet, that isn’t the whole story. For a start, you have to factor Sir Arthur Sullivan into the equation. His great tune St. Gertrude for the hymn works brilliantly for “Soldiers”, with its insistent marching rhythm, and not at all for “Pilgrims”. Pilgrims simply don’t march like that. Try setting off for Walsingham at that speed and see how far you get.

Crucially, you also have to factor in what happens when we sing hymns. They take us out of ourselves and put us in different places. We may not know, for example, what to do with bows of burning gold, but singing “Jerusalem” makes us feel that we have to do something to make our green and pleasant land greener and pleasanter. “All glory, laud and honour” puts us in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; “Silent Night” in a stable on Christmas Day. “Soldiers” sends us out into the world determined and ready for what life might throw at us. We enact the words we sing; we become Soldiers of Christ in the act of singing and saying that we are.

Another martial hymn speaks of fighting “where’er you meet with evil / Within you or without”. It is a reminder that if being a Christian is simply a cushy number, we aren’t doing it right. There are things within all of us that we have to struggle to get right. Being a Christian is like being on a lifelong diet and fighting the desire for death by chocolate. And while fighting evil outside ourselves is a task fraught with difficulty – how much easier it is to join the Green Party than actually to confront the selfishness, greed and cynicism that we routinely see around us – “Soldiers” reminds us that while popular causes and unpopular leaders rise and wane, this confrontation continues.

The wonderfully named Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould wrote “Soldiers” for his junior choir to sing in procession; singing it takes me back to my days as a choirboy and the hopes you have at that age that the world can be changed for the better. So, indulge your inner idealist and give full lung power to “Soldiers” when singing is allowed again. Let’s hope that someone writes a different tune for “Pilgrims” – it deserves it. Inevitably it won’t be as good as the “triumph song” for which we must continue to thank Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould and Sir Arthur Sullivan.

David Pattrick

Almighty God,
As we sing praises to you in hymns and song
May we always be mindful of the words we sing
Help us to use the music we make carry heartfelt words of
Praise, repentance and supplication.

Loving Father
Help us to be soldiers for you.
Help us always to fight for justice,
Justice for the poor, the underprivileged,
The down trodden, the homeless, the lonely.

Help to fight against greed, self-interest, cruelty
And abuse of power over people.
And as we fight these things Lord
May we do so, not with our own self-righteousness,
But with a righteousness that comes from you
Using weapons of care, compassion, understanding
And above all Love.

In Jesus name we ask it. Amen

Though for the Week 8^th November – Remembrance Day

 Reading Isaiah 2 Vs 3-5

These words from Isaiah tell people of his day and also people of today how we should live a life of peace and a life of striving for peace. Remembrance Day is a day when we remember so many who died in wars, millions of them. We mourn their passing, we remember the goodness and wisdom, the life and the laughter, the potential and the passion that died with them.

But Remembrance Day is more than that. It is the day when as Christians we should all dedicate ourselves anew to build a world of peace and for this we should look at the Prince of Peace, Jesus and it is with his help we can do this.

We all have a story to tell, I was reading about Martin of Tours, his father was a Roman army officer and he was trained to be a soldier. When Martin was a boy in Italy he had been caught in a thunder storm and he had sought shelter in the nearest building, which was a church where a service was in progress. He listened to the stories of Jesus and was captivated. He accepted a new kind of training to be a soldier of Christ, but before his learning about Jesus Christ was complete and before he was baptised, his father presented Martin to the Emperor. He was only 15 years old when he was sent to Amiens in France to begin his military service. On his arrival he met a beggar and moved by compassion, Martin took his own fine cloak, cut it in half and gave half to the beggar. In a dream he was commended by Jesus. He sought baptism and after another two years went to the emperor and asked to be released from military service to live a different life. It was difficult and unpopular but it was granted.

Martin, released from the army, had to walk home, it took him weeks. His mother joyfully met him and she became a Christian but his father turned him out! Now Martin walked back to France where he offered to help the Bishop of Poitiers who ordained him a deacon.

Martin wanted to live in solitude so after a short time he went to the quiet village of Ligugé and built himself a little cell (the first in Europe). He was not alone for long he would rise from prayer to respond to those in need. One day he attended a leper, another day he prayed for hours over a man who had hanged himself and whose life was returned to him and he was cured. God’s power was mightily at work in him, so it was not surprising when the Bishop of Tours died, Martin became their next Bishop.

As Bishop he made evangelistic visits to Pagan villages. One pagan priest challenged him to be bound to a tree as it was felled, to test whether his God would save him. The tree turned away from him, he was saved.

Martin used his privilege of being a guest at the Emperors table to ask for the release of innocent prisoners in Tours before he ate anything. The Emperor deeply respected Martin’s Christian example.

Martin did not live in a comfortable palace, he lived like a monk. He inspired many young men to live like this and they built a large monastic community where they lived in individual cells cut from the rock, in large gardens, fields, stables and chapels. They only spoke when necessary. This was the story of Marin of Tours, he achieved much.

What is my story? I was born in Scotland and brought up to despise my father – I learned different later. I was confirmed into the Episcopal Church and finally went to Glasgow University and graduated with BSc. I found then that the only work for me in Scotland (as a woman) was teaching. But I was offered a graduate apprenticeship from a visiting group from the Marconi College in Chelmsford.

But what is my Christian story? At Glasgow University there was a Christian Union, it had strengthened my faith and I now realised that Christ would be with me. So I moved to Essex and attended Marconi College where I met my husband and we got married in 1959. He became a Christian when he saw how much it meant to me.

I attended Chelmsford Cathedral first. After Marrying we lived in Springfield so we attended Springfield church where I became a reader and an Industrial chaplain.

Martin of Tours was a soldier of War who became a soldier for Christ, I’ve mentioned that I was bought up to despise my father but my life in Christ taught me differently.

Thank you Lord, may these thoughts turn any thoughts of war and conflict in others, to thoughts of love and compassion.

Joan

Heavenly Father

On this Remembrance Sunday

Forgive us for any feelings of

Hatred or Ill will we may feel to others.

Help us to see all people through your eyes

And to love them as you do.

We thank you for the sacrifice of those

Who have fought for the freedom of others

For those who have given the ultimate sacrifice

Thank you especially for the sacrifice of

Jesus on the cross.

Turn the hearts of warmongers

Into hearts of peacemakers

Give wisdom to the leaders of nations

And help each one of us to

Play our part in bringing peace to our world.

In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.