Of Vines Vineyards and Abiding!

United Broughton/Croxton/Chapel

3rd May at 11 am at St Paul's, Croxton.

John 15.1-8

In thirteen days’ time I will be celebrating a birthday, when thanks to some catchy lyrics from Paul McCartney I will be able to ask my wife if she still cares for me and if she will still look after me!

There are a few odd things about getting older that kind of creep up on you and take you by surprise.

Just the other day as I was driving somewhere I was listening to Radio Stoke. (Radio One is way too loud!)  That might be bad enough, but then Gardeners Question Time came on – and I went on listening - and listening with interest.

(With huge respect for all lovers of gardening of more tender years)

However I remain largely ignorant about all matters horticultural.

Having been in Ministry for nearly thirty years we have traveled around a fair bit and have had to deal with some pretty neglected gardens during that time. I remember digging down into the back garden in a council house we lived in during our Luton days.

As I dug down it became like a bizarre archaeological dig, I found a mattress and all sorts of other stuff. Eventually we found a path that must have been at least 2 feet down, buried under soil and other stuff.

The Vicarage Garden in Luxulyan in Cornwall however did beat us. It was huge and had become a veritable wilderness. I was always scared I would lose one of the children and have to send out a Search and Rescue Team.

Our current garden in the Manse at Stafford is basically okay, but just been neglected for about a year. So I am trying to re-establish the borders as one of the first task.

But I don’t really know whether what I am digging up and consigning to the tip is a good flower or plant or a pernicious weed. I can tell the basic stuff, I know what dandelions look like and nettles and brambles. I am also transplanting some stuff and pruning the Wisteria and Honeysuckle that was growing at the front of the house and taking over everything and blocking out light.

‘I am the vine and my father is the Gardner.’

(You were wondering when I would get around to the Gospel reading weren't you!)

Jesus himself may have been a gardener as well as a carpenter come builder. 1^st century Palestine was an Agrarian society.

However Jesus isn't merely using a horticultural metaphor, but saying something far more profound. When we read our Scriptures we need to learn to see links and patterns, we need to take cognizance of echoes and themes that we have come across before.

We have to learn to do that because we are not 1^st century Jews living in Palestine.

So what do we hear when Jesus speaks of the vine?

We should hear a rich and deep metaphor that was very much part of the warp and weft of how the Jewish people thought of themselves.

The picture of the Vine is a picture of Israel transplanted from Egypt and placed in the Promised Land.

Psalm 80.8-11 ‘You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its boughs to the sea, its shoots as far as the river.'

In Isaiah chapter 5 we read a very well-known piece about a Song of the Vineyard. About how Yaweh had planted this vineyard, nurtured it and tended it and looked for good fruit and yet it yielded only bad fruit.

Then do you recall the story of that we find in all three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke – sometimes called the Parable of the Tenants.

The story tells of a man who planted a vineyard and a built a wine press and a watchtower. (Nothing to do with J.W.s)

He rented out the farm to tenants. At harvest time he sent servants to collect some of the fruit. But the tenants beat him and chased him away. Eventually the owner sent his son, thinking they will show respect to him. But instead they killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

That story needs to be read in the light of Isaiah 5 and other related passages.

So you can see why this story about the vineyard in John 15 is not simply a 

good horticultural illustration.

This is a story that is as deep and as rich as the very best and most expensive of red wines – wines that have a long, long history.

‘I am’ – the well know motif of John’s Gospel. I am the true vine – here Jesus declares that in him is Israel personified, he is now Israel coming into the Promised Land.

And he brings with him a new people – those who will abide in him, those who will stay close to him.

Those who will accept the pruning and cutting away of long held and deep traditions so that the true vine as God intended can flourish.

Now I did have one bush in our current garden that I think was some kind of rose bush. However it had become so long and spindly it was hard to tell, and most of it was dead anyway. So, down went the lot, cut right back almost to the roots.

Those branches I cut off would soon die and find their way to the tip.

‘…apart from me you can nothing.’

It is a partnership – the whole enterprise of God is to bring about a new heaven and new earth, a redeemed and restored cosmos - as we read in Romans 8. 21-23…

‘…that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.… ‘

Can I ask you this morning how big is your concept of God, of the Jesus story, of the Lord’s Prayer that is often on our lips but in reality far away from our hearts and even further away from our hands and feet in making it a reality. 

Of course, of course, there are some massive questions that we in our generation face, in the same way each generation has had to face.

Where is God in the appalling disaster in Nepal. Where is God protecting His people as Isis continues to rampage and brutally kill and murder with impunity men, woman and children?

Those and many others like them are hard questions to face.

I remember many years ago visiting Speakers Corner in London when I lived not far away. On one occasion someone took me to task about the Christian faith and successfully deconstructed so much of my belief and made it sound like so much bunkum.

I walked the couple of miles home in sombre mood. However as I walked I kept thinking, maybe, but Jesus is real. I know Jesus is real, I know that I have experienced his love for me.  I know the love, care and support shown to me by others of God’s family.

I was cut, pruned, taken right back to the roots, but remained in Him.

Gradually I grew back, and I grew back stronger and more fruitful.

None of us like to be pruned, but think of it this way.

My Father is the Gardener, a skilled Gardner, who is not like me with my honeysuckle, randomly hacking away at each and everything.

Pruning a vine is a skillful operation and the gardener needs to get in very close to the vine.

When things are most painful, when it seems the pruning is almost unbearable, it is then that your Heavenly Father is the closest. 

So, we may not have a ready answer to those who would quiz us about our faith in God when disaster strikes.

We may not have a ready answer, but we can know Jesus. We can abide in Him. Rev 3.20 ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’ 

We can take faith in the resurrection as sure evidence that Jesus as Israel personified has entered the Promised Land. We can become part of a new faithful people peculiar unto God who are being rooted and established.

Mixing metaphors and referring back to the passage from Romans, childbirth is painful, even for Princesses. However there is joy in new life, new hope and new promises.

So, let me ask you again, how big if your God?

And let me ask you how fruitful are you?

In the back garden of our home in Hove, Sussex we had a pear tree. How did I know it was a pear tree – because it produced pears?

However we tried to harvest the pears one year and it was complete waste of time. The tree hadn't been pruned and tended and looked after. The fruit produced were very small and bitter and fit only for insects to enjoy or the compost bin.

What fruit am I bearing and what fruit are you bearing?

A few weeks ago I was at a Church Army Gathering. This brings together 

Members of the Church Army Mission Community. Among those gathering are our retired Officers, many of whom have served in God’s vineyard for many, many years. And it shows, their bodies may have grown weary but their spirits remain strong and from eyes that may have become dull physically, the light of the Spirit shines brightly.

When someone tells me that they have been coming to church all their life I would expect to see some good fruit. We have a list of what some of this fruit looks like in Galatians 5:22-23

'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.'

.

Try putting your name against that fruit and see how you measure up!

However remember we all are a work in progress!  God loves us just as we are, but loves us enough not to leave us that way.

I would expect that if people have been abiding in Jesus for decades then it would show.

My wife and I will have been married for 33 years this year. One of the things a number people have noticed is how much we are beginning to look alike. (Much as some say is the same for pets and their owners!)

Now we don’t know what Jesus looked like physically, and that’s not the point anyway. The point is that we abide in him and bear fruit.

This is how we will show we are disciples.

There is a world of difference between being a Church goer, a follower of Jesus and being a disciple.

The Greek word for disciple is mathetes, which means “learner,” the word indicated “thought accompanied by endeavour.”  This meant that a disciple was not merely a person who was learning something as a fact but was actively learning to adhere to the principles of whoever he was following.  In the ancient times, when a person chose to become a disciple of another person, the disciple would follow his teacher everywhere. 

He would live where he lived, he would sleep where he slept and he would eat where he ate. He would be with his teacher every moment so that he could learn everything about him. 

Augustine of Hippo wrote…

‘Jesus Christ will be Lord of all, or he will not be Lord at all.’

I am the Vine (said Jesus) – the true Israel, sent to do all that Israel was meant to do, to be a light to the Gentiles, to show to a watching world what it means to live a life as an authentic human being lined up with God’s will plan and purpose.

As disciples of Jesus we are called to work and labour in God’s vineyard, so that we may see a realized Lord’s Prayer, where His Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. That means right here and right now!

Let us pray – (Ignatius of Loyola)

Teach us, good Lord, 

to serve you as you deserve,

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,

to labour and not to ask for any reward,

save that of knowing that we do your will. Amen.

OMG! or 'My Lord and My God' (Transcript of 2nd Sunday Easter Sermon)

Cheadle & Freehay 12^th April 2015 

2nd Sunday of Easter

Acts 4.32-35 1 John 1.1-2.2 John 20.19-31

‘Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’

From the 1^st Letter of John…

‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we   proclaim concerning the Word of Life. ‘

Jesus’ words to Thomas, struggling to accept that Jesus had been raised to life (and who can blame him!)

‘Because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

I take that to mean you and me and all those over the centuries who have put their faith in Jesus. The countless millions who have declared along with Thomas, ‘My Lord and My God.’ Or perhaps in modern parlance…OMG!

Those who have found the truth of Jesus’ words ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ John 10.10

Jesus was an epiphany of what it means to be a true human being, walking in perfect obedience and love of God. Someone who had mastery over the natural order and could commend sickness, demons and death to depart.

He drew back the curtain in much the same way as Elijah prayed his servants eyes would be opened when surrounded by his enemies. (2 Kings 6.17)

I stood in the place of Thomas on the 1^st January 1975 when at the age of 24 I said, ‘my Lord and my God’ and became a Christian.

Once having made such a declaration the question then is; how shall I now live? One of the most important aspects of growing as a disciple of Jesus is to meet regularly with others disciples.

Proverbs 27.17 declares, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’

This is what is happening to the infant Jesus Community as outlined in our reading from Acts.

Not too many people today would argue that this is a blue print for how a Christian Community should live. Although there have been some brave attempts over the years to do just that, the Anabaptist in particular. Of course to some degree Monastic Communities do operate in this way.

And it is from Monastic Communities that valuable lesson are being learned, or perhaps we ought to say, re-learned as to how we can be the People of God in this 21^st century.

There is a whole new movement being called New Monasticism which is influencing many churches. The argument being that we need to shift from being Church Congregations to become Faith Communities.

Faith Communities that are committed at the core and open at the edges. Faith Communities that are both evangelized and naturally evangelizing. Faith Communities that hold a Common Rule of Life and a Pattern of Prayer. (Which is made so much easier today with electronic communication.)

By far and away most people are brought to a Thomas like confession through a friend. What better place to draw them into the heart and love of God than a Faith Community of which you are an active member.

Just as Jesus pulled back the curtain and let us see a glimpse of what it means to live as an authentic human being, so the Church is meant to show how authentic human beings can live together and bring a blessing to the world.

‘The gate of heaven is everywhere - our role is to help open the door... to roll away the stone and unleash the energy and wonder of the risen Christ’.

Thomas Merton

The Church is the means by which God brings a blessing to the world; ‘the Church of God doesn't have a mission in the world, but the God of mission has a Church in the world.’

So what is God’s mission – nothing less than to bring about the redemption of the whole cosmos?

And we are invited to participate in this noble venture – you are invited and I am invited because as Michelle Quoist puts it…

‘You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work in this particular place and at this particular moment in history.’

Without God we cannot, without us God will not.

Jesus’s death and resurrection wasn't a tragedy, or part of God’s plan when everything went horrible wrong. In a way that is beyond our comprehension, in the deep mystery of divine economy Jesus was always part of God’s plan.

"The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things," he (Jesus) said. "He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead."  Luke 9.22

‘Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’

So, let me ask you this…

Are you able to declare as did Thomas, ‘My Lord and My God?’

Perhaps you are on the journey towards that belief and that is absolutely fine. 

Because if you thought making a decision about choosing a life partner or a house or a car or anything else you care to name was important – they all fade into insignificance when compared with making a decision to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.

Embracing such a belief is a game changer like no other. Or it ought to be if we take it seriously enough.

There are plenty of accounts in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles about people whose lives were turned around because they declared their belief in Jesus.  And that is still happening today across the world, maybe not so much in our own country, but certainly across Africa and China and many other places.

In some ways we have lost the dynamic, lost the passion, lost the drive. We have lost the expectation that people will come among us and in so doing will encounter the living God, an encounter that offers them life, and life in all its fullness.

Let me ask you this simple question as I draw to a close…

Where are you this morning in your relationship with God?

Augustine of Hippo wrote...

‘Jesus Christ will be Lord of all or he will not be Lord at all.’

How true is that in your personal life and how true is that in the life of this church?

As you ponder on that let me close with some beautiful word from His Holiness Pope Emeritus Benedict XV1

And only where God is seen does life truly begin.

Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.

Each of us is the result of a thought of God.

Each of us is willed,

Each of us is loved,

Each of us is necessary.

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,

By the encounter with Christ.

There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.

Sermon for Palm Sunday 2015 Wetley Rocks

Palm Sunday 2015 Wetley Rocks

A farmhand named Fred was overseeing livestock in a remote part of the Derby Dales when suddenly a brand-new BMW 4x4 advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the farmhand, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?'

Fred looks at the man, obviously a ‘city type’, then looks at his peacefully grazing animals and calmly answers, 'OK, Why not?'

The ‘city type’ parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 mobile phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. 

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.

He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the farmhand and says, 'You have exactly 896 cows plus calves.'

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my animals,' says Fred. 

He watches as the young man selects one of the animals and looks on amused as he stuffs it into the boot of his car.

Then the Fred says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you what your job is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'

'You're a Civil Servant or some such thing working in a government department', says Fred.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the ‘city type’, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required.' answered the farmhand. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a flock of sheep.  

Now give me back my dog.

There is a long history of a certain kind of rivalry between rural dwellers and city types.

Jesus was a rural dweller, from the North as well.

Remember these words spoken by Nathaniel;

‘Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth?’

So perhaps we should see the Palm Sunday story in this light. Crowds of pilgrims would have been flocking into Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, one of the obligatory pilgrimages to the Temple for all male Jews.

We can easily imagine the crowds hustling and jostling in the hot sun, fractious camels, overladen donkeys, and kids running hither and yon. We can see groups of pilgrims who on approaching the city would lift up their voices singing the ancient Songs of Ascents from the Book of Psalms. A veritable riot of colour, smell and sounds.

And the Roman Soldiers, hands held close by their gladius, the short swords that could be used to great effect, watching nervously for any sign of trouble. 

And here is Jesus, riding on a donkey. The only time we have any record of him having done so. Those from the North know this man well, he is one of theirs, and so it is easy for them to get caught up in the triumphal shouts that are soon bouncing off the city walls. Hallelujah, correctly translated as ‘save us.’  This is one of their own.

But the sophisticated city types are not best pleased about this and call for a halt to it all. Jesus knows exactly what he is doing; he knows how this riding on a donkey was powerfully symbolic.

‘If they keep quiet,’ replies Jesus, ‘these stones will start shouting.’

Remember the forerunner, John the Baptizer, he had said, ‘Do something to show that you really have given up your sins. Don't start saying that you belong to Abraham's family. God can turn these stones into children for Abraham.’

Some years earlier someone else had ridden into the city, in all probability mounted on a splendid horse, he came at the head of an army and marched right up into the city and into the Temple causing a huge affront.

Although he grudgingly backed down and removed the Roman Standards from the Temple precinct.

We are reaching the peak of a titanic struggle, the clash of two kingdoms. The kingdoms of the world represented by Imperial Rome and the Kingdom of Heaven, represented here by Jesus. We will watch this drama unfold as both Pilate and Jesus come toe to toe.   

This cheering crowd of rough Northern folk who welcomed Jesus will be prevented from entering into the courtyard where only the right people are allowed in – the right people who want nothing to do with this Northern messiah – ‘can anything good come from Nazareth.’ Easy enough for them to pick up the cry ‘crucify him, away with him.’

So, let me ask you this morning, to which kingdom do you give allegiance?

If you haven’t given that much thought before now, then you ought to do so, and now is a good a time as any.

Imperial Rome may have long gone, but new worldly kingdoms have arisen that demand our alliance, obedience, demand our time and money and energy, our efforts.

Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

Perhaps it is time we began to really shout out – Hallelujah, save us! Save us from our madness that puts profits before people. Save us from a world in which we have child soldiers killing adults, very often their own parents.  Where young girls from our own schools are lured away to join a fanatical extremist group bent on murder and mayhem. 

Save us from a world where we still have hundreds of people in slavery and being trafficked.

But save us not by airlifting us out of it all. Not by taking us away to some dreamy heavenly realm with clouds, harps and angels.

But rather save us by indwelling us with your mighty power – the power of the Holy Spirit.

Save us by our wholeheartedly welcoming you not into Jerusalem but into our hearts and lives.

Save us that we may partner together with each other and with God that we may evidence a realized Lord’s Prayer, where God’s Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven!

It is time to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Hallelujah indeed! Lord save us!

Captain's Log February 2015

Everything is new and different, and presenting a challenge. That includes a new lap top and lay out…

We are now living in a Methodist Manse! Because of what was being offered we decided that we would accept the salary package rather than the stipend package. However this did mean having to either buy or rent a property. We made a trip to Stafford to look around the area in October and managed to get a feel for the place. However, the Estate Agents told us that if we were looking to rent in January there was no point in looking at anything until December. So we made the long trip back to Stafford in early December. We looked at a few houses but nothing was suitable, either too expensive, too small or in the wrong place. I had a text from a friend Revd Sheila Foreman (Methodist) who knew a Methodist Minister in Stafford who had served sometime in Horsham.  I contacted him and left a text message.  He came back the next day and said they might be able to help as they had a Manse coming available in Stafford. There is a story behind how the Manse became available and all I will say is please pray for P and her family who have suffered an awful bereavement.

Although the house is four bed-roomed it is considerable smaller than our previous house. So we have been culling, sifting and sorting and making daily trips to the tip and charity shop. We still have a long way to go and two of the bedrooms are full of stuff acting as ‘storerooms.’  We are also outside of the town and our nearest Coffee Shop (Costa) is a 40 minute walk away. We have visited our local Anglican Church. As lovely and welcoming as the people were we do not feel particularity drawn there. We also paid a visit to the local Methodists who were amazingly friendly, warm and delighted to see us. We have visited St John’s Littleworth, a couple of times now which is about 3 miles away. This looks more promising, although making that journey is a bit of a pain.

We also made a trip over to Oswestry to visit my sister-in-law Alison. We joined her for worship at Hope Church, had some lunch, then a few hours chatting back at her home in Pant. The Service isn't until 10.45 so it was not that difficult to get over there and back in a day. This is great to know as this was one of the attractions of moving here.

On the work front it is going amazingly well so far and I have been deeply impressed by the warmth and friendliness. There is also a very rich, deep thread running through everything that the Diocese is committed to growth, both numerically and depth of spirituality and discipleship. There is an honest assessment that we need to do things differently and face tough decisions.  A number of new key appointments have been made, and mine is one of them. There is quite a buzz about the place. Initially I have been trying to get out and about and meeting as many people as I can.

Licensing on the 17^th January in the Bishop’s Chapel Lichfield. 

Bishop Jonathan behind, with Archdeacon Mathew and Bishop Geoff flanking me. I am working closely with both + Geoff and Matthew.  On this occasion it was wonderful to have the support of Jane, Captain Andrew Smith CA and Jennie Davies who had traveled up from Brighton.

I am missing running by the sea but have found, very close by, a canal.

I have now got a few routes of various lengths established.  

We had Tabitha visiting us recently and had a great time together exploring Lichfield - such a rich city with a diverse and fascinating history.  

So we are all set for another adventure - 'Make it so...' 

Advent One 2014 All Saints Patcham ~ transcript of sermon

All Saints Patcham Advent One 2014

Isaiah 64.1-9 & Mark 13.24-37

Have you ever taken a sauna, perhaps trying to outstay someone? Then coming out you enter a very cold shower or sometimes an ice cold plunge pool, or perhaps in Sweden roll in the snow! Or perhaps you took up the Ice Bucket challenge that was going around in the late summer months.

This passage from Mark has that effect – or at least it should if you are paying enough attention!

We have missed some of the earlier passages and jumped straight into Mark’s Gospel part way through Jesus’ outlining the future.

This is shocking and brings us up with a jolt, or at least ought to.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical year with Mark as the guiding principle Gospel for the year ahead.

I would encourage you to read Mark, learn and inwardly digest.

So, why have we jumped in here and not taken the more logical step and started at the beginning of the Gospel?

Well there are good reasons for that; however Mark’s Gospel is so dynamic that wherever you jump in it is like a slap in the face.

Mark begins and offers no birth narrative but plunges straight into Jesus’ public ministry with a startling announcement – an announcement that has everything to do with today’s reading and the season of Advent.

Mark opens his Gospel speaking about John the Baptizer making a straight road, a highway for the Lord.

Familiar words from Isaiah chapter 40 and set to wonderful music and words by Handel in The Messiah, ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’

Then Jesus’ first words set a challenge both then and now.

‘At last the time has come!’ ‘The Kingdom of God is near!’ ‘Repent and believe the Good News!’

We need to bear in mind that Jesus would have heard evangelist announcing good news of the advancing kingdom as he grew up.

These evangelists, tellers of good news, would have been dispatched from Rome and called to announce some glorious military triumph or the Emperor’s birthday or some such good news!

And here is Jesus announcing another kingdom, another Lord and inviting people to make a choice.

What the Kingdom of God will look like and how its citizens should act, Jesus will go onto teach and demonstrate over the new few years.

Back to where we jumped into the Gospel with Jesus talking about the last things, the end of the age, which seem to suggest that a new age was about to dawn.

This passage must be read in the context of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70AD.

It is way beyond our comprehension to even begin to understand what this meant to Jews at that time. Scripture after scripture from their prophets told of this time to come, principally Daniel and also Isaiah.

The Jewish historian Josephus recalls the horror of the final invasion, the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple under the hand of Titus, Vespasian’s adopted son.

This was indeed the end of the world as far as the Jewish nation was concerned.

No ‘ordinary’ language could begin to describe it and so Jesus turns back to the prophets Isaiah and uses his words;

‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give out its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

Not to be taken literally but as dramatic poetry.

And then from Daniel 7.13 – ‘At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.’

This reading from Daniel is the Son of Man coming to God after being subjected to suffering and now being vindicated

Following Jesus’ suffering and death there is a resurrection bringing vindication.

God’s new age has dawned; the Kingdom of God has been established up earth.

That same clarion call goes out to the four corners of the earth, ‘The Kingdom of God is here, repent and believe the Good News.’

However this is a now and not yet Kingdom.

And underlying the apocalyptic language that Jesus uses in Mark we need to hear and heed the message of Christ’ second coming.

In particular the final verses we heard from Mark’s Gospel.

‘Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly let him not find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone, ‘Watch.’

Imagine if you will Downton Abbey, and Lord and Lady Grantham have been away and have a long journey back home and have told Carlson to be ready at any time for their return. As a diligent and dedicated Butler Carlson would make sure everything would be ready for their return at what ever hour.

A silly illustration but I hope you see the point I am trying to make.

The keyword for Advent is ‘Watch,’ a time of waiting and reflecting.

An earlier tradition considered what are commonly known as the ‘Four Last Things’ – heaven and hell, death and judgment.

That would certainly knock the edge of early Christmass jollification.

Today the four Sundays of Advent are most often focused on the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John the Baptizer and Mary.

From the Patriarchs like Abraham and then the Prophets, culminating in John the Baptizer as the Prophet of Prophets, God reveals His plan for the redemption of the cosmos. And miracles of miracles that plan included God squeezing himself into human form and sharing our life with us. He finds Mary, as a willing God bearer, the Theotokos.

Jesus born of Mary comes amongst us as we will hear from the Prologue to John’s Gospel, as the light of the world.

 Further on in John’s Gospel (14.46-48) we read...

"I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.  "If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.  "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.…

This encapsulates the two Advent themes, Jesus coming as Saviour and then coming again as judge, when the secrets of all hearts will be opened.

And you and I as members of the Body of Christ now upon earth are called to be light bearers.

This season of Advent affords us the perfect opportunity to reflect on how well we are doing as bearers of the Christ light. Perhaps we might think back to the parable of the wise and foolish virgins with their lamps trimmed and oil at the ready for the coming of the bridegroom. We need to be alert and watch because we do not know the day or the hour when the master will return.

We have already seen and will continue to see lights decorating homes, shops and streets.  But however bright those lights are they cannot hide the darkness that remains in the world. Were thousand still die of hunger, were nearly one in four women across the world suffer abuse, were nearly 80 medical staff have died trying to treat and bring comfort to sufferers of Ebola. Where in our own country Food Banks have become normalized and we are seeing cases of rickets returning.

Sad to say, it is more often the case as a song writer once put it;

 ‘The world is living in the dark because the Church is asleep in the light.

Let us pray…

To make our weak hearts strong and brave, send the fire!

To live a dying world to save, send the fire!
Oh, see us on Your altar lay our lives, our all, this very day:
to crown the offering now we pray, send the fire!

William Booth

Captain's Log October 2014

Two months until my time with the Diocese of Chichester comes to an end and I continue to say farewells to numerous groups and people as well as other ongoing ministry. 

Older People was the focus of a PCC Away Day held at Bell House, Chichester. This was linked in with their MAP which had engaging with ‘older people’ as part of their mission. I haven’t really focused

 on older people before and so this was an interesting challenge.  The morning was given over to four 30 minutes sections. Each section introduced an aspect of engaging with older people (60+), a short discussion and then one action point from each of the four groups. We then voted on the action we liked best. That gave us four action points and a number of subsidiary action points. We focused on, Music, Golden Memories, Change and Decay (in all around I see) and Spirituality. In the afternoon we brought all of this into the context of the overall mission strategies and the MAP.

This, by the way, is going to be the main focus of my new appointment, helping parishes with the Mission Action Plans and Growth Strategies.

One of the things I will miss is the coast and it was great to be able to take part in a fantastic Harvest of the Sea at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Brighton. This is a very large open church building which was filled with all manner of things appertaining to fishing. This included fresh fish for sale after the Service.

Germinate was a one day Rural Conference organised by the Arthur Rank Centre and attracted 200 delegates. I had the delight (and somewhat daunting) challenge of presenting a Rural Evangelism Workshop – two forty minute sessions back to back. The ‘rural church’ seems to be finding a prophetic voice and discovering new ways of being church and engaging with communities. Check out this link for material.  www.germinate.net/go/germinate .

Everybody Welcome – I have been working alongside St Peter’s Bexhill going through this excellent course. They have been presented with some real challenges especially from the ‘strangers’ reports.’ 

http://www.everybodywelcome.org.uk/

One of the things I hope to pick up quickly when I move is a regular Quiet Day. If you have the opportunity of taking some time out like this I can highly recommend it.

Visit to Stafford - towards the end of the month Jane and I had an extended weekend in Stafford. First it was a weekend spent with my sister-in-law Alison who moved up near Oswestry a couple of years ago. It was great to join her at Hope Church in Oswestry. On ‘welcome’ - top marks to Hope Church as we were approached in a gentle manner, they had picked up we had come along with Alison.  However I still took (for interest) the Welcome Bag, a little paper bag with an array of items including a chocolate bar and a CD introducing the Church and other helpful material. Then on Monday/Tuesday we began a bit of a house search. This is all very scary as there are so many things that need to mesh together if this is to come to good and we can feel settled quickly. We are currently looking to rent so we need the right size house, remembering we have lived in Vicarage size houses for the last twenty years so have built up Vicarage sized furniture! There is also need for a study/office space alongside all the resources I have built up over the years – that includes a two berth caravan. The price has to be right as well, because alongside paying rent we are now going to be responsible for Council Tax and Water Rates. Currently we only have the one car and so something else we are looking for is accessibility, not only for various obvious facilities, like cafés, shops, doctors and dentist, but a good supportive Church.  All of this, plus arranging removals, has to come to good by the end of this year with a move planned for the first week in January!