Retirement Blog Two

For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes 
Luke 12.23


During a recent holiday cruising around the Canaries, Jane and I indulged in one of our pastimes especially when on holiday, people watching and acting as ‘fashion police.’ (And I know we are not the only ones who do this!)

Sometimes we give people scores and at other times have to restrain each so that we don’t go and tell them off for appearing in public dressed like that!

Men in particular seem to put on whatever shorts or trousers are available and then whatever shirt first comes to hand. No thought about colours or patterns and stripes, etc.

And we did see several of the ultimate offence – socks and sandals, not even white socks but brown socks. 

It is all a bit of fun and I am sure people are also looking at us in the same way as well. 

However taking into account the places we visited what you wear is important, or rather what you don’t wear. For example going into Churches requires ladies to be decently attired and in some cases for men not to wear shorts.  (What’s that about I have no idea, although I remember during my Church Army training when men wearing shorts was a new fashion (early 80’s) I went into Chapel in shorts and the Principal reminded me of Psalm 147.10.

Of course when we docked in Agadir (Morocco) what we wore was even more important and it would have been very easy to have caused deep offence.   

The CEO of Church Army Mark Russel quipped that the Church Army is not a Uniformed Organisation so much as an organisation with uniforms!  

The Church Army have for the most part set aside uniforms, certainly the familiar grey battle dress uniform is hardly ever worn with the exception of a very few older officers. 

Currently a working party is looking into the whole uniform, titles, etc. thing with some feeling that it is all a tad anachronistic.

What I found puzzling is that as the Church Army was stepping out of its uniforms the world seemed to be stepping into them.  Today in any store or bank or fast food chain or coffee store you know who the staff are because they have a ‘uniform’ giving them a corporate identity.

In around the 1990’s the Church Army began offering its Officers uniform polo shirts and sweatshirts. I quickly took to wearing these whenever I was ‘on duty.’  This really helped our children as they were growing up, because they knew when daddy was ‘at work.’

Because ministry is a funny old thing and there is no clear demarcation of clocking on or clocking off.  It is very fluid and personal life and family life and ministry all bleed into each other.

I was discussing this with an Ordinand recently and asking him what he intended to wear once he was ordained Deacon this summer apart from Choir dress for when he conducts Services, etc.  I encouraged him to think of something that he would wear, perhaps a clerical collar, that could help distinguish when we he ‘on duty’ and when he was ‘off duty.’  (Although as we know ‘off duty nurses, police man, etc, often will be the first to jump and won’t stand there and say I am off duty)

Personally I have found it a great help in my life and ministry to always put on something that denotes I am a Church Army Officer when I am ‘on duty.’

I remember preaching at HMS Raleigh in Plymouth and the Officer talking about young recruits. One of the very first things they do and soon as they arrive is get them into uniforms. That helps them to be part of the team, they belong and have an identity bound up with others in the same enterprise. 

I also remember a Nun being asked about wearing a habit and she said it was great because she didn’t have to worry or fuss as to what she wore. She got up and put on her habit. It is a bit like that for me, I get up and if it’s a work day on goes something of Church Army according to what I am doing.  (I am one who does think about what I am wearing, ask my family about packing for holidays!)

So here is where this is all leading to in my reflecting and considering retirement.  What will I wear and how strange will it be not to put on my Church Army sweatshirt as a matter of course.  (And what do I do with the dozen or more shirts and sweatshirts)

This is of course tied in with identity. Because I have always worn Church Army uniform I was always identified as such, that Church Army man.

In the grand scheme of things and given what else is happening around the world it is almost laughable to even be reflecting on such a matter.

However consider this, for the last 30 years I have worn something that denotes me as a Church Army Officer for the majority of that time.

Now that’s going to take some adjustment.  

Perhaps I will need to be weaned off them gradually, one shirt less per week until I can kick the habit!  

And should you think what you wear is trite or trivial matter take a look at this TED talk…

Take a look at what you’re wearing — does it convey the complex, intriguing person that you are? If it doesn’t, it might be time for you to rethink your wardrobe, according to style coach Stasia Savasuk.

Watch her TEDxPortsmouth talk here:

https://youtu.be/L5n3V0VYGNg

What happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh? Transcript of Sermon - Epiphany Two 2019 ~ Jesus' Baptism

Sermon St Anne’s, Brown Edge 13^th January 2019

Isaiah 43.1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8.14-17 Luke 3.15-17, 21, 22

Have you packed away all the Christmass decorations yet?

Maybe so – but perhaps you are allowing the Nativity scene to linger longer.

Many Churches keep their Nativity on display until the 2^nd February and the Feast of Candlemass – the story of Jesus’ presentation in the temple as according to custom. Or as I saw in many Churches on holiday recently at least the Baby Jesus in his crib.

Candlemass is the time when Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple after forty days and they are greeted by Anna and Simeon.

Then there is silence apart from Luke who alone gives us that intriguing story of Jesus at the age of twelve going on a visit to the Temple.

I picked up a book titled The Lamb some years ago when I was in America. (Christopher Moore, Harper Collins 2007)) 

Perhaps not so well known over here, in America it was very popular even among Christians.

I say that because it is a story based around Jesus’ childhood. It is a tad tongue in cheek in most places and yet it has a certain charm and an allure.

Of course there are other works that try and make suggestions about Jesus as a child, often with fantastical tales as he discovers his powers.

But we simply do not know about Jesus’s childhood from any firm Biblical sources.

What puzzles me is what people thought about Jesus as he grew up.

Not long ago we heard about angels visiting shepherds, strange visitors bringing exotic and deeply symbolic gifts. We hear about Simeon and Anna and their prophecies over Jesus.

We are told that the shepherds told everyone of what had occurred.

And something new I learned last year. These particular sheep where Temple sheep, bred for sacrificial purposes and the shepherds would have regular contact with the temple.

How hard is it to imagine that given all of this, Mary and Joseph simply returned to Nazareth and took up their life again? 

Today, coming out of the puzzlement and silence of his childhood years Jesus emerges as his cousin is baptizing in the river Jordan – being about thirty years old as the Scripture tells us.

Today’s Gospel offers us only a few scant verses with regard to Jesus’ baptism by John. It is well worth looking at the other Gospel accounts and reading all that we are told about this event.

Although we have a scant reading we do have the very important witness to Jesus’ call.

In much the same way as we have been thinking about as we have reheard and rehearsed once more the Christmass story, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,

The Spirit descends as a dove and then a voice declaring, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.’

Jesus would have heard similar words before.

At some point Joseph would have taken Jesus into the market place and said something similar.

I am pleased to announce this is my son and we are now in business together.

This was to announce that father and son are now working together. What one says and does goes for both of them. If you have trusted the father and have found him worthy of employment then you can now trust the son in the same way.

At his baptism Jesus receives a new vocation and a new calling, this time from His Father in heaven.

This time he is building the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth.

He will fashion it well and call others to help in the task.

It is an open structure as read about in Acts where Samaritans are welcomed into the fellowship of God, previously debarred and considered unclean.

It is a Kingdom of God that thunders with praise as we heard from our Psalm, 

‘The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord over mighty waters.’

It is a Kingdom full of promise as prophesied by Isaiah…

‘But now says the Lord, he who created you O Jacob, he who formed you O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’   

I have called you by name, you are mine,’ words to be echoed years later at Jesus’ baptism as the Holy Spirits falls upon him in the form of a dove.

What slightly puzzles me is that given all that we have heard about Jesus’ birth and his presentation in the temple, with Simeon and Anna. Given all that was said about Jesus as a baby, how is it that his appearing at his baptism as someone ‘marked out’ and his subsequent ministry was such an apparent surprise, even to his own family?

We even have that curious episode where Jesus’s mother and his family seem to think he has lost the plot and go to try and constrain him, only to receive a slight rebuff from Jesus about whom his family really is, and that’s not about biological lineage.

Have you ever pondered on what ever happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh?

That leads me to reflect that we can also be forgetful about the things God has said and done in our lives in the past.

Okay we need to be cautious about living on yesterday’s manna – we need to always walk in God’s will and way as it revealed to us today.

However if learn anything from the Old Testament and the People of God it is that they remembered God’s faithfulness in the past and this gave them hope for the future.

Hope – as an acronym… H O P E

Holding Onto Past Experiences.

I wonder what stories you can tell about God’s faithfulness, both as individuals and as the People of God at St Anne’s, Brown Edge.

What is your equivalent of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

What gifts has God bestowed upon you?

And looking back to the faithfulness of God, the gifts given and the words of the prophets, God’s People wondered if John the Baptist might be the long expected Messiah.

The one they were expecting to come and usher in God’s Kingdom.

‘As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.’

What are you expecting God to do through you and with you in 2019?

What is your hope?

Where is it founded?

Do we look back in thankfulness and forwards in expectancy and hope?

In contrast a negative narrative that continues to talk about a reduction in numbers engaging with the Church becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and leads to hopelessness, despair and lack of confidence in what God can do through us.

As we move into 2019 maybe we could take to heart the words of this well known hymn by Keble…

New every morning is the love

 our wakening and uprising prove;

 through sleep and darkness safely brought,

 restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,

 hover around us while we pray;

 new perils past, new sins forgiven,

 new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If on our daily course our mind

 be set to hallow all we find,

 new treasures still, of countless price,

 God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,

 will furnish all we need to ask,

 room to deny ourselves, a road

 to bring us daily nearer God.

Or you could simply put away all the decorations, the gold, frankincense and myrrh, the Nativity set along with baby Jesus, either now or at Candlemass. We can choose to ignore and forget about God’s words spoken over Jesus at his baptism. We can continue whistling in the darkness of despair with nothing more than a vague hope for the future.

However if you are willing to accept these words that God speaks over those baptized in the Faith; ‘You are my precious son, you are my precious daughter, in you I am well pleased.

If we can accept our commission and seek diligently the plan and purposes God has for our lives and for the life of the People of God at Brown Edge, then be prepared to be amazed at the things God will do in us and through us in the  year ahead.

Let us pray together as we move deeper into 2019

Father, pour out your Spirit upon us

Grant us a new vision of your glory.

A new experience of your power.

A new faithfulness to your word,

And a new consecration to your service,

That your love may grow among us

And your Kingdom come;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Retirement Blog One

Blog One

January 1^st 2019

I always think of a New Year a little like a field covered in snow where no one has trod, it is unmarked, pure, clean and clear.

However the reality is that almost immediately we get a new calendar or diary it begins to fill up with appointments and engagements each one dancing and calling for attention, some of even demanding attention with threats of dire consequences should you neglect to attend to them, like birthdays and anniversaries.  

(Interestingly one 'anniversary' I recall is my making a New Year's Resolution on the 1st January 1975 to become a Christian)

As the New Year begins I am very conscious that in six months I am scheduled to retire.

However for most Christian Ministers employed or engaged by the Church this means not only the end of current engagement but relocation as well.

That relocation will also mean in most cases, a serious downsizing. It will call for the needful task of dispensing of accumulated books, files, resources and a whole host of others things that sit alongside a busy and fulsome ministry.

That is before you begin to think of furniture which has a distinct habit of growing to fill every available space. If you have a four bed-roomed house with a study and possibly a lounge and dining room, chances are it will be filled with furniture and other things.

We are moving from such a house to a three bed-roomed house with one reception room, a lounge diner.

We have known this for some time and have occasionally talked about it and even got rid of some stuff, but there is still a huge elephant in the room.

I am hoping that like Dali Swan’s Reflecting Elephants that is what we find when we finally do tackle it face on. That those big cumbersome elephants once brought to the surface are indeed swans. 

I am also acutely aware that I have files, both hard copy and electronically that once they surface will bring back a flood of memories.

It feels in some ways like clearing out someones effects following their death and I am reluctant to begin.

However now that the calendar is shouting 2019 at the top of its voice and there is a big red R on the 30^th June it is time to tackle the elephants in all of the rooms!

And do you know how to eat an elephant – one bite at a time!