Monday 29 June 2015

Captain's Log June & July 2015


Another busy month that included a long weekend trip down to Sussex.  I had the great joy and privilege to have been invited to preach at the First Eucharist of Revd Kate Lawson at All Saints, Hove.

On the Saturday I dashed over to St Michael’s and All Angels Lancing by way of making preparations for a Parish Weekend in late September 2015 when we will be exploring ‘Whole Life Discipleship’ and the work of work of LICC. Visit www.licc.org.uk

After the morning at All Saints and a buffet lunch I drove over to Bexhill-on-Sea to lead an ‘Everybody Welcome Course’ review. This went very well particularly as I had suggested that they have some of their people visit others churches and then report back. This was very helpful, insightful and informative.  On the Monday I travelled to London to attend a meeting of Sunrise Ministries having accepted an invitation to be on the Board of Trustee’s. Back to Crawley and time to have a very welcomed and relaxing meal at the home of Deidre and Howard Schnaar with Tabitha who is domiciled with them during her work time.  On Tuesday we journeyed back to Stafford.


More Farming Community Network stuff this month including a NFU Regional Meeting with a Farm Walk and a BBQ.

(Interesting for a vegetarian!) 

I also attended the FCN 20th Anniversary Celebrations in Cirencester. A wonderful event and it was great to catch up with friends from around the country – but a torturous drive back! I am still keen to hear from people in Staffordshire who would be interested in forming a Staffordshire FCN Group. www.FCN.org.uk

Several speaking engagements that included the PCC of St John the Baptist, Ashley. I gave them a quick introduction to the Five I’s – a way of being church with intentional evangelism at its heart and core.  Then at Cheadle Deanery Synod and here another short introduction, this time on ‘From Church Congregations to Faith Communities Using Story.’ Finally to the PCC St Mary’s, Mucklestone and here looking at the Great Commission (the Great Omission!) and how we can frame our faith story and be the People of God with confidence and expectancy that the Church will not only continue but continue to grow.   Love doing this kind of stuff. 


Sunday preachment's’ including leading Services also continues and I have been ‘out’ every Sunday this month. These have all been in rural settings with some lovely faithful people, yet who often feel in despair at the reduction in numbers attending added to the burden of maintaining a listed building. We really have to find new ways of doing and being Church in the countryside. Fundamental to that is to know what is our core business, beginning by asking the why, what, who, when, how and where type questions. 

Lichfield Church Army Cluster meeting at Hanley and guided by Frank McGregor making preparations for a large Diocesan Celebration in September - 'The Goodness of God.' 



Prayer Diary July 2015

30th June – 2nd July at Buxton for the National Missioners Conference.

4th July
I hope to get along for some part of the Well Dressing Blessing at Croxton.
If you are in the area check out www.croxtonwelldressing.weebly.com

Sunday 5th
Should be in my ‘home’ church of St John’s, Littleworth. In the afternoon I am going to help in setting up for the Staffordshire RDA County Fun Day at Ingestre Stables

Monday 6th
Helping out at Staffordshire RDA County Fun Day at Ingestre Stables.

Tuesday 7th
Meeting in the evening with a small group from the Chebsey Benefice, currently in Vacancy. I am walking alongside them and helping them to keep a mission focus.

Wednesday 8th
Meeting with Revd Stephen McKenzie, Coates Heath Benefice.  Fresh eyes, new ideas for this rural benefice.  Also the Caravan is having an Annual Service – at 33 years old ‘Barnabas’ is beginning to show his age!

Thursday 9th
Speaking to the Mothers’ Union Spring Council. Planning on sharing something of my story and then challenging them to rehearse their own faith story. Jane is also accompanying me and will be endorsing my story in song.

Friday 10th – Sunday 12th
Staying over at Ilam Country Caravan Park.  Saturday 11th is a large Summerfest – a Mothers’ Union Day of Fun and Festivities based around Dovedale House.
  
Tuesday 14th
St John’s ‘Growth Group’ – first time in an age when I have belonged to a home study group. I try and get along as often as I am able. Great supportive people and tonight is our ‘social evening.’

Wednesday 15th
Chew & Chat – a lunch time meeting with a couple of friends to do no more than chew, chat and pray with each other. We get together once a month.  (Others in the area welcomed to join us)

Thursday 16th
Meeting with the Christine - Spiritual Companions Co-coordinator. This is one whole area I haven’t got to grips with yet. However I do now have a Spiritual Companion but I haven’t yet found a regular Day Retreat venue like Crawley Down Monastery.   

Sunday 19th
Leading Praise & Worship at St Peter’s Forsbrook.

Thursday 23rd
33rd Wedding Anniversary!

24th – 27th July long weekend trip to Cornwall for the Baptism of Lowenna on Sunday 26th.

Friday 31st
‘Wash Up Meal’ for the Staffordshire County Show.


Sunday 28 June 2015

A Markan Sandwich - Transcript of Sermon St Margaret's Draycott-In-The-Moors 28th June 2015

St Margaret’s Draycott 28th June 2015

2 Corinthians 8.7-15 & Mark 5.21-43

I’m a runner, nothing too serious, about 20 miles a week, the occasional 10k and the odd half marathon.

If Mark’s Gospel was a race it would be a 10k.  A 10k is enough of a challenge in terms of distance. (In old money that is 6.2 miles) Yet it moves along at a cracking pace.

Mark’s Gospel also moves along at a fair pace with an economy of words. It is considered to be the earliest of the Gospels and written for a Gentile readership. Although initially people would have heard it read rather than reading it themselves.

Last week we are all at sea and it is worth noting that when we think about people hearing this Gospel, when they heard boats mentioned they would know something important was going to happen.

In our reading today we have our feet firmly on dry land but near to the lake shore.

We have skipped the reading of the demoniac being healed (pigs and evil spirits being cast back into the sea) and moved back across the water where a large crowd soon gather.

We then have a Markan sandwich – two stories interwoven and each informing the other.

Remember that for Mark he wants to show Jesus’ authority and his compassion.

‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’  Matt 9.36

This is such a rich story and I only wish we had the time to explore all of it's various nuances and the lesson we can learn. However time restricts, but please do explore this passage further at home and perhaps in home groups this week.

So, I would like to draw your attention to just a few things and for your consideration as you seek to live out your vocation here as the People of God in this place.

Let’s begin by getting hold of the most amazing fact that this story is about a woman and a female child.  In ancient culture and in Jewish culture of this time they were non-people. Their value came through their parents or through a husband.

True there are some notable exceptions throughout history and indeed in the Scriptures, Deborah during the period of the Judges perhaps being the most notable on the Old Testament.

So Jesus is engaging with woman. Let’s stick first of all with this woman who had been hemorrhaging for the same length of time the little girl who was dying had been alive – twelve years.

A crowd, a woman cut off from her community, cut off from worshiping God – her hemorrhaging would have made her ritually unclean – she hears about Jesus. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. I only need to get close enough to touch the hem of his cloak – that will be enough. She has faith, maybe only as little as a mustard seed faith, but it is enough for her to reach out to Jesus for healing and salvation, which are but one word in the Greek. She manages to touch Jesus’ cloak and knows in an instant that healing has come, she is now restored. 

She can now slip away and show herself to the Priest and be restored back into the community, back into being able to worship God.

However on this occasion Jesus feels a power going from him, he knows someone has reached out towards him in faith and hope.

There is the pressing matter of a very anxious Synagogue Ruler who had come in equally desperation and knelt at Jesus feet and begged for help.  All of that was again unprecedented – Synagogue Rulers did not make a habit of falling at the feet of an itinerant Rabbi. But desperate times calls for desperate measures.

Leaving Jairus twisting his cloak in his hands and hopping from one foot to another Jesus seeks out the woman who had touched him. From a heart of belief she had reached out for healing and salvation and now, as Paul will go on to write in Romans, she was called to confess with her mouth.

‘If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’  Romans 10.9

Let me ask you this, what room do you leave for people with mustard seed faith to touch the hem of Jesus?

In one church I ministered in we made a point of leaving some of the back pews empty not only for latecomers but also for visitors. This enabled them to slip in the back quietly and without being fused over. Of course we took care if it was right to talk to them later, but we allowed them the space to watch and observe God’s people at worship.

Let me also ask this question – do you expect people to come and join you on a Sunday morning who do not ordinarily do so? If we have no level of expectancy that there may visitors among us then we can very soon slip into a way of doing that suits us, pleasing ourselves rather than placing ourselves before God and welcoming the stranger among us.  We don’t need to announce anything or explain things, people know what we do. I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard that said or known it to be implicit in the way Worship is conducted.

Then while I am asking questions here is another one as we think about this woman and Jesus asking her to confess with her mouth. Just what opportunity do you give for those who believe in their hearts to also confess with their lips?

Recently at the First Eucharist of Becky Richards at my home Church, St John’s Littleworth, we didn’t have a sermon, but three testimonies of how God had been a source of strength and help. 

On Tuesday I sat with members of the Church Army Community and we heard stories of how God had done some amazing things in people lives. We need to hear these stories, we need to encourage other, we need to know that if you touch but the hem of Jesus’ robe in faith you will receive health and healing and salvation.



Let’s get back to Jairus whom we have left anxiously watching this interruption take place.

Jesus’ is on a roll now and so having identified the woman, having called her daughter, having shown such compassion and love and having recognized her faith he now ask her to confess, to speak out.

Woman didn’t speak out in front of men in public in this culture and context – it was yet another taboo Jesus’ is about to drive a chariot and horses through.

Jairus would have heard her story and would have felt such a body blow. Because she was unclean and she had touched Jesus he was now also unclean. And God did not work through people who were unclean. Jesus could do nothing now to save his daughter.

Just as Jairus is processing this and anxiety beginning to turn to despair he receives news that his daughter has died.

Jesus overhears this and turns to Jairus and says, ‘do not fear, only believe,’ perhaps as he did so he pointed to the healed woman slipping back into the crowd.

They arrive at the house and Jesus takes with him his inner circle, Peter, James and John.  Note here that there is nothing wrong in having close confidants, only when they begin to think they are more important does the trouble arise. 

They are chosen by Jesus.

John 15.16 ... "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would last...

The official mourners are there with offering lamentations. Although being a Synagogue Ruler he would have many friends and people who would have come to commiserate.


Then we have one of only three places when we have the language of Aramaic. Probably spoken by Jesus because it was a language the girl would know and would bring comfort. It was something that impressed itself upon the minds of those gathered there, especially Peter, accepting that Mark’s Gospel is largely Peter’s account.

Talitha Cum – Little Girl, get up. This isn’t resurrection into new life that will come later. This is restoration and rising from the dead into a physical life.

As we have run alongside Mark in his Gospel we have witnessed Jesus calm a storm, heal a demoniac and now we see him raise the dead.

Jesus is demonstrating his authority over nature, over demons and over death.
Jesus is Lord of life and the author of creation.

However the story continues – so come back next week for further installments!
Jesus authority will be challenged, he will hear the sad news of the execution of John the Baptist and then we read of the Feeding of the 5,000. 

As Jairus’ daughter is restored back to life he says to her parents, ‘give her something to eat.’

As Jesus gathers with his disciple before a crowd of thousands whom the disciples want dismissed so that they can go and get some food, Jesus says to his disciples, ‘You give them something to eat.’

And he says to you and he says to me when we see people, who are deemed unclean, when we meet people dead in their sins, when we see people lost and leaderless, ‘you give them something to eat.

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6.35

Let me close by drawing your attention to Jesus words accompanying his instruction to feed the girl.

‘He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this.’

This is known as the Messiah Secrecy Motif, found mainly in Mark. The broad understanding is that Jesus didn’t want to preempt his unfolding ministry and maybe even start riots. There was to come a time when this would change. It begins with Peter’s confession in chapter 8, although Jesus swears them to secrecy on the Mount of Transfiguration, until the resurrection.

Guess what folks – the resurrection has happened and we are no longer sworn to secrecy but are actively encouraged to tell everyone all about the marvelous things God has done in our lives and what we have witnessed Him doing in the lives of others.  

But maybe, just maybe, you are here this morning with a mustard seed faith. Or maybe you have yet to hear the voice of Jesus calling you to get up.

Well today you have an opportunity not only touch the hem of Jesus’ robe but to stand in front of Him and know yourself to be clothed in a new, fresh robe of righteousness that has your name and the name of Jesus the Saviour engraved upon it.

Jesus wants you take off your filthy rags of sin and corruption and be clothed with the garments of heaven.

And for those who are already clothed in a robe of righteousness you have an opportunity to receive new power so that you will find boldness in openly declaring Jesus as Lord of all

I now invite you all to bow your heads and close your eyes as I offer the prayer of Sir Francis Drake…

Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
AMEN






Sunday 21 June 2015

ALL AT SEA! Transcript of Sermon 21st June 2015

Sermon Chebsey & Seighford 21st June 2015

2 Corinthians 6.1-13 & Mark 4.35-41

This morning we are all at sea!

Well the Sea of Galilee. Not a sea as such but a large lake some 13 miles long and 8 miles wide and fairly shallow at 200 feet. This is partly why a wind barreling down the surrounding hills could soon whip up a furious storm in the middle of the lake.

It also appears under several others names, the Sea of Chinnereth or Sea of Tiberius or Lake of Gennesareth.

Being at sea was not good place to be for a 1st century Israelite. The sea meant chaos and demons. Think about the opening passages of Genesis, the water of chaos; consider the healing of the Gaderene demoniac, with the filthy pigs and evil, unclean spirits cast back into the sea.

Then hoping it is a metaphor because I love the sea is that phrase in Revelation 21.1. ‘Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.’

It is this undertone that needs to be borne in mind when we look at this story.

Here is Jesus, we can assume weary and tired so that as we might say, as soon his head hit the pillow he was asleep.

I love the thought of Jesus’ absolute trust. I remember taking our young children on a camping holiday in France, one as young as six months.  They had little concept of what was going on as they made a long journey and then slept under canvas. They trusted us as parents and as long we were present then surely everything is going to be okay.

‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ Matthew 28.20

Jesus was in the boat – he had said ‘Let us go across to the other side.’  He had not specified how they were to go across – over the water, upon the water, over the water – they had made an assumption, true a logically one, but an assumption none the less.

And we can make assumptions when God asks us to do something – we quickly begin to think it through and how we can go about it. Yet God may ask us to do something that appears very illogical.

Isaiah 55.8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.”

Paul was a good Israelite, and would have carried that deep respect for the sea. Sailing along on a journey of persecuting those who followed Jesus he met with the risen Lord, and his life was turned around. He was then to travel many miles by sea and suffer various shipwrecks along the way. Yet he was not afraid to travel upon the sea because he walked close beside Jesus all the time, Jesus was in the boat!  And we can thank God that he did, as he helped to spread the message of Jesus far and wide, taking it beyond the shores of Jerusalem and into Gentile waters.

Back to Lake Galilee and the boat... 

Eventually the disciples go to Jesus to wake him up. Certainly some of these men were fisherman, and they had worked the Sea of Galilee for generations, they had part blood and part Lake Galilee running through their veins. Yet at this moment they turn to Jesus a carpenter for help.

Should we hear a motif that will be played out in full as Mark writes his Gospel?

There will come a time when Jesus will sleep, the sleep of death for three days. 

There will come a time when the disciples will be all at sea as Jesus is arrested and crucified and laid dead in a tomb.

And remember all that I have said about the sea being the place from where emanates all kind of evil – here, as Jesus sleeps, the evil forces are trying to drown him and those who would foolishly put their trust in him.

As Jesus is crucified the voices of mockers cry out…

"He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. "He trusts in God; let God rescue him now, if He delights in him, for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" Matthew 27.42-43

Is this not an echo we hear in this little story?

And Jesus awakes and rebukes the winds and the waves.

And Jesus comes out of the tomb and rebukes death and sin and evil.

In the storm tossed boat this is Jesus demonstrating his mastery over all the forces of nature – as an authentic human being without sin he is living as Adam could have lived.

In the storm tossed boat Jesus confronts all the powers of hell and with a word of command bids them be still and silent and they obey.

Then Jesus turns to the disciples and says, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’

Is this another echo – is this the resurrected Jesus saying, ‘why were you afraid? Have you still no faith?’

Little wonder however that the disciples proclaim, ‘Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Do you get the drama – do you feel the bristling tension, do you see the sea soaked disciples slacked jawed and in utter awe.

There is so much more we want to know about this story, and yet we are not told. Mark is a sparse Gospel with an economy of words.

I imagine them remaining in silence afterwards, putting the boat back to good order – each initially wrapped in their own private thoughts. Only gradually beginning to talk about what they had just witnessed.

Paul journeyed through many stormy seas, quite literally, so that the Gospel of Grace might be heard and spread and accepted. 

Paul and many others endured severe hardships to bear witness to whom this man was. The one whom the very forces of nature could not drown, nor the might of Rome destroy. Nor could the rejection by His own people stop the message of God’s rescue continuing to be heard and demonstrated.

I’ve been in the same boat as those disciples, in fear of drowning as various storms broke over my head.  But through it all I have learned to trust in Jesus.

‘When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.’ Isaiah 43.2

What story can you tell about being rescued by Jesus?

What hardships are you willing to endure to bring to others the message of salvation?

Is Jesus in the boat with you – or are you trying to sail through life under you own command?


Just who is Jesus for you today? 


And while you consider that, listen to this...





and should you want to know more visit here...


Sunday 14 June 2015

Transcript of Sermon Bradley le Moors and Alton

Sermon – Bradley and Alton 14th June 2015


1 Samuel 15.34—16.13
2 Corinthians 5.6-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 4.26-34

And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Saviour God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

The Message

In the late 70’s early 80’s I was involved with Church Army in London. Occasionally I had to take a bus up the Old Kent Road. On the way there was one bus stop outside a pub called ‘The World Turned Upside Down.’

That is exactly what is going on here as Mary burst into a song of praise.

That’s what is happening in our readings with an emphasis on judgment.

The story of David being chosen is a familiar one to us, perhaps too familiar and we might have lost sight of the radical nature of this story.

Israel was emerging from being escaping slaves to becoming a nation state. Some argued for a king to be appointed like other nations. You can read the various arguments for and against in the Scriptures. The main argument against appointing a king was that God was there King. However Saul is duly appointed and duly disappoints. In our story there are two key parts to consider. Firstly is that the monarchy once established is governed by a successor not an heir. Secondly and more obviously is the youngest son being chosen above his brothers? (Not an uncommon theme in Scriptures) 

And it is God who chooses Saul successor.

Tuck this verse away in your memory bank…

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”   1 Sam 16.7

The first of our judgments...

Let me ask you what do you think people see when they look at you - and what does God see? Does God see a heart for Him alone, totally given over and the first and foremost love of your life?

If you were to be put on trial today for being a Christian would there be evidence to convict you?

2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!’

Our passage from Corinthians talks about another King and another Kingdom – talks about how one day all people will come before the King of the Universe and be called to account for their life.

2 Corinthians 5.10 ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.’

So, Scriptures tell us that one day you will be in the dock and called to give an account of yourself.

I remember as young Christian, (not a Christian who is young, I was 24 when I became gave my life to Christ) I had several dreams of being in a court room. I was being accused by the Satan of all sorts of things I had done and said in my past. Nothing too horrendous I might add, no drugs, sex and rock and roll! But there was still enough to make me squirm and feel uncomfortable – and guilty. 

Romans 3:23 'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,'

As each sentence was passed I noticed someone speak up in defense and accept the guilty verdict but then going on to say; however the debt is paid in full!

Blessed Saviour and Redeemer…

Romans 5.8 ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’

Having been acquitted the next question is ’how shall I now live?’

This passage from Corinthians might have us thinking about this future Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven as a place we go to when we die – another realm in another place.

We haven’t got the time is to explore this fully now but this is not the full truth of the matter.

Revelation 21 speaks of a new heaven and a new earth – the realm of our Holy God, heaven, being conjoined with the realm of creation, earth, in a glorious re-creation.   Where sorrow and death and evil are no more and where God will dwell with His people.

That new conjoined realm has already begun to be ushered in as Christ went to his death and then was raised to life.

As the People of God we are only to judge in the measure and the light of Christ and the coming Kingdom.

Isn’t that what we are asking for when we say the Lord’s Prayer?

Your Kingdom come you will be done in Alton, your will be done in my family, your will be done in my own life and heart. Your Kingdom come at each and every place I find myself and in each and every situation I face.

Isn’t that our calling, our task as the People of God?

Taking our cue from the Parable of the Mustard Seed we seek to spread the seeds of Gospel truth.

We will not necessarily know what and how those seeds will germinate and flourish.
1 Corinthians 3.6 ‘I (Paul) planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.’

"Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow."



Little by little, step by step, God is turning the world the right way up. In this great work of redemption God invites you and he invites me to participate. 

Indeed you will be either working with God towards the redemption of the 
cosmos or against God’s plans and purposes. That is your choice – today, and one day you will be judged by that choice.

I made a choice to marry Jane on the 23rd July 1982 and enter into a covenanted relationship. From that decision I make a daily decision to continue in that covenanted relationship.

On the 1st January 1975 I chose to enter into a covenanted relationship with God. From that decision I make a daily decision to continue in that covenanted relationship.

That’s my story – what’s yours and what difference is it making?


Or to put it another way – just what on earth are you doing for God’s sake!