#GodWithUs

I have a shocking confession to make, before I became a Curate, I never kept Advent. I know right, how can I be a Priest?




Well as a family we often went to Grandparents, who didn't go to church on Christmas day, yet it wasn't the Anglican church alone which made me appreciate Advent and Christmas (though it certainly helped marrying into an Anglican family). I think there were 3 things:

1. Happy Birthday Lord Jesus- My parents are Christians and Christmas was never about Father Christmas, we celebrated Jesus' birthday. So though we didn't always attend church on Christmas day (This varied depending on where we were) Jesus was always central. We appreciated what we had been given and not just getting. My children are not bothered by Father Christmas, they get excited they enjoy it without having a view of God something like Santa (are you good enough to earn God's favour, does God actually care or he is dispenser of stuff that we want). God is far more generous we get his love and forgiveness which we don't deserve.

2. 12 Days of Christmas- No not 12 days of bargains before Christmas but the 12 days starting on Christmas day. This is something Cath continues to remind our children, it isn't over on Christmas Day, which is good news for them as they live in a vicarage. It involves having family to stay with us and going to see other family, enjoying a break (Subject to weddings and what day Christmas falls on I usually have a week off after the Christmas service is over). Which reminds us that it isn't all about a big meal and presents. God's generosity is bigger than we can imagine, so generous he comes to our world and gives himself.


3. Christmas is for sharing- It was my time at Bangor Community Church. The church I was part of as a student at University. I used to stay around to help with the Christmas meal, we held this at first at Bangor Cathedral, I haven't always been part of this, but this year we are helping with the Christmas meal here at Christ Church. Christmas day service is usually a small gathering, people away at family, or having attended midnight services or Christingles or Crib services on Christmas Eve. Yet for me I have felt a longing to serve on Christmas day (yes the day when I am literally exhausted), can I sit down and enjoy this feasting while others are alone or hungry? I don't have a big enough hall or facilities to feed everyone, but lets give what we can and not what we can't. The good news of Jesus' coming was for sharing, Angels shared it with Shepherds and was Good News of Great Joy! It truly is for sharing, that we can know Peace, with God, with each other and know peace in our own lives.

Advent has become a need for me. Christmas season is a time of countless services, school visits, and visiting. If I don't have advent the time of preparation then when Christmas day arrives I can become resentful, I sit here today with little voice, and low energy. You see Advent reminds me again and again I need to carefully prepare myself, not by buying presents for my nearest and dearest, writing cards (sorry if I missed you out), but by checking my heart and life, am I responding like Mary who said "let it be", Joseph who named the baby Jesus, the shepherds who left flocks (there livelihood, income and purpose in life), the Wise Men who journeyed long (yes they don't arrive till epiphany but there's always one or two of us who are late). When I do check my heart and life I realise how much I am in need of the Saviour born that Christmas morn.

I also spend a lot of time listening to music over Advent and this song spoke to me:

It is the lines:

From seed to Sequoia
and
From Bethlehem seed to Calvary Sequoia

The Sequoia is a huge tree many of which are very old, they are strong and  seem when you stand below them to stretch to the heavens. Christmas stretches from that first Advent to the final Advent through the cross.

For me then Christmas is a great gift, the Son of God come to earth, but one labelled with a cross of love, with a message, yes you can know peace, yes you can know forgiveness, but one day we will meet face to face, be ready.

So this Christmas may I say "Merry Christmas" but also get ready.

The Sheep and the Goats

The Sheep and tha’ Goats- Harvest
07.10.12          Bawtry

A note to the reader:

These are my sermon notes, they are not entirely polished, i occasionally miss bits out and add other bits as I feel lead during a service. However, no one sermon can fully express the gospel. I hope they are helpful.

Intro

Today is our harvest service and I think we are doing three things today:

1.      Reminding ourselves that God is Lord of the Harvest

2.      Responding to his word (which includes our offering)

3.      Celebrating his harvest (INVITATION)

There is a disconnect for us living in 2012 in Bawtry. 100 years ago many of the congregation here would have been involved with growing food and all would have been reliant on the harvest. A good harvest and there would be much rejoicing:

Tearfund and organisations like them remind us that in other places harvests make a massive difference. It is life and death to them.

SO what question is Jesus answering in Matt 25. 31-46?

Let's look back at the question the disciples asked Jesus.

Matt 24. 1-3

“…When will this happen, and what will be the sign of the end of the age?”

Jesus says:

*Day & hour unknown *Prepare *Talents

It seems that on that great and glorious day it will not all be rejoicing…people will be held account for what they did with what God gave them…

This isn’t popular. Maybe you think this morning how could God judge anyone?

You may think that if God is good then all people will be welcomed in?

Or maybe you think why would God want anything to do with me after things I have said and done?

Two Visual Aids:

Use the large eraser:

I stand here today as a person who messes up who makes big mistakes or mis-steaks as it says on the eraser. So I don't stand as one who is perfect, but somebody who knows how much I am in need of Jesus Christ to be my Lord.

Pull the large throne like chair to the front of church, ask people who they think sits in judgement on them.

The Judge:

But let’s take sometime this morning to consider what Jesus says on this matter. This is one of the hard sayings of Jesus because we don’t like to think that anyone judges us but I would argue that judgement is something which goes on everyday in our lives.

Who is it who sits on the throne in judgement on you and me?

Let’s look at who he isn’t first:

If your house-hold is anything like mine, then the television is switched on on a Saturday night and you hear the familiar refrain “Strictly Come Dancing” or maybe “X Factor” you have four judges in strictly and four in X Factor.  In X Factor the bias is obvious, their act comes on and the judge says “that was amazing, that was the performance of the show” and the next act comes on, maybe they are better, but the judge says “it was a good performance but you just lack the X Factor”.

Even Strictly the bastion of the BBC has bias. There are four judges and each seem to have four different criteria.  One gives an 8 and another a 4. How can it be so different?

Judges who are biased who pursue their own ends.

If I asked you what is the greatest threat to our world today I am not sure what you would say. But it is not global terrorism, global warming, the next pandemic, even the economic crisis, it is our selfishness. And the Bible has a word for it, it is sin. Sin has “I” in the centre of it. That is what it is when we put ourselves on this throne.

But as I stand here this morning I am well aware of my own sin. The choices I make the way I live my life “I know to do good and yet do not do it…there is no health in me”

You see the X- Factor and Strictly judges are biased and so am I, I think that I am doing better than the next person (give an example)

We are reminded this morning that he is Lord of the harvest but he is also  Lord of all. This passage helps us to understand this.

Who is the Judge?

Jesus uses the words Son of Man glorified. He became one of us, was tempted in everyway but was without sin. He lived the life, he stands as judge having first lived this life out in all its fullness.

3 days later he was crucified, they mocked him and hung a sign around his next which said "Jesus Christ, King of the Jews" but he knew who he was.

This is the one who judges us...

The Sheep

The judge is not somebody who dosen’t know us, the passage shows he does. The sheep are on the right and the goats on the left, they have not been mixed up, he hasn't made any mistakes. There are no stray sheep on the left, or rogue goats on the right. He knows us, he knows exactly what we are like.

 “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;”

This is what God had always intended, before the world was created his invitation is come to him…

Isn’t it obvious the sheep see the needs in front of them, they don’t think what is the angle this person has in trying to get money out of me. How much of this money actually gets to the person in need, they purely responds to the needs they see. God sees the heart.

·      

        When did we see you…

Goat

I have worked in some big companies and the day arrives when the chief executive is due to visit. Maybe you are a teacher and you remember the Ofsted visit. The office is cleaned the rubbish is shoved in cupboards. Someone goes to Marks and Spencers and buys some nice cups and some posh biscuits. There are always biscuits when the boss comes. Shoes are shined, name badges are positioned to cover the coffee stains on the tie. Office politics are laid aside to be picked up again when the boss has gone and the image of a well-oiled machine all working in harmony is portrayed.

But God is not mocked he sees that…

When did we see you…

Those on the left say But if we had known it was you Jesus, we would have brought you into our home, we would have given you a shower, put fresh clothes on you, made you a meal got the biscuits out. If we had just known it was you. But the king is not mocked he knows the heart.

He doesn’t like white washed tombs, instead he saw their actions. If we are truly Christians we will love one another, we will forgive one another we will show mercy .

A vision of community

One of the reasons we find judgement so difficult is because it reveals our dependence we are used to being in charge of ourselves, we value independence. But this passage reveals again that we are not actually Lord of our own lives. We all serve something. The church is meant to be a community which loves one another. As forgiven people.

It is meant to be a community that is actually serving Christ and from this we go out to the world.

Something that was spoken nearly 2,000 years ago still resonates with a lot of the church across the world who are poor and imprisoned but the King is also one who has suffered himself. He is not someone who has always sat in his ivory tower and looked down without care and compassion and love in the world but it is king who when we  look in Matthew 26 and 27 we see he was hungry, and he was thirsty, he was a stranger even to his friends, he was naked and he was beaten. So he knows what suffering is about he is a king who's gone through it.

He is also the King who is first judged for us.

So as we celebrate this harvest today, we also realise that we are people who mess up, who want to be Lord of our own lives, but the Lord of the harvest is the glorified Son of Man…

Coffee and Ritual

The one treat I have indulged in is a coffee machine (thanks M&D). I think it is going through the ritual of making a coffee which is satisfying. Grinding the beans, and smelling the fresh grinds, running the water through the system twice. Brewing the coffee the aroma rising and then steaming the milk. It cannot be rushed or you end up with a luke-warm coffee.

It is anything but instant, and I don't always have time to do it. When I worked as mortgage adviser I would be in back to back meetings and would not always have time for a break, sometimes missing lunch or only having a snatched break but I liked making the customers a cup of tea as I had to go down stairs and boil the kettle and brew the tea or make the coffee which gave me time to think and clear my head from the last appointment.

As a trainee priest we have a lot of ritual in the Church of England but I am beginning to feel the need to emphasise the pauses within a service, that we might stop and prepare ourselves as we go. In fact this was a bit of the conversation I had with someone from church on Monday. In life leaving and entering are important, in our services our children leave the service and come back in for communion and we have a start and a finish, so some of my thinking over the last few days has been on this.

However back to the coffee for a minute sometimes you need tools to assist you and it takes time to do these things well. My lovely wife bought me this espresso cup:

You may have noticed it says Grumpy Mule on it, I think she may be referring to the occasional morning when a coffee seems to be an essential before saying hello.

It will take time before I have worked through some of these things and even with the right tools I still need to slow down and not rush and rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal more of Jesus.

I enjoy coffee and I think it is great hospitality to be able to offer it to visitors, a warm welcome and fresh cup of coffee I think are essential! I hope that our rituals may be life giving because God is the author of life and Jesus came to bring life and life in all its fullness...






Coffee drinks illustrated - Lokesh Dhakar

Cycling as formation...

5 Things which irritate me when cycling:

• Other cyclists who don't have lights in the dark
• Cyclists who jump the lights
• Slow cyclists who cycle in the middle of the cycle lane
• Cyclists who overtake pedestrians when there is no space for them to pull in causing me to break hard
• People who think it is funny to jump out in front of me

Other than that I love cycling to college in the cold and wet... and of course I am a great cyclist ;)


Formation is the word which could be replaced with character building but with one key difference. From a Christian perspective life transformation starts with God. Often this comes in humility and confession of sin. Cycling, just like driving with my family, is formational ie patience can be stretched. Jesus said it is out of the abundance of our hearts that our mouth speaks, things will always irritate us, especially with 5.30am starts to the day, or a 3 year old asserting themselves. I cannot excuse myself, but need to continue to be prepared to listen to the things God highlights and others highlight.

Still, I have a new bike which makes my journey in to college a bit easier. It is a shame to put the old bike to rest but having sheared of the pedal, and damaged the bearings, the cost of repair is just not worth it. So I had another formational experience of trying to put together a bike carrier in Ikea car park

Dialogue or Monologue?

A couple of weeks ago we had to argue for either monologue or dialogue for preaching. Now my stance is there is no such thing as a true monologue in a sermon because:

• The preacher is in a dialogue with God. Prayer and mediation on the verse are part of this after all as we read the scriptures we too are challenged.
• As no preacher is an island (to borrow from About a Boy) reading commentaries etc is engaging with other voices too.
• Because it is a lectionary reading, it is a community decision rather than choosing my particular favorite verse.
• If we are reading scripture and engaging with scripture people will respond and that may be because of the sermon or not.

I know many see dialogue as between the preacher and the congregation in the delivery of the sermon, people breaking into small groups to discuss or some other way of feeding back or interaction. However not all contexts allow for this, but the sermon can still be dialogue if the preparation is not done in isolation, so with that in mind even though my next sermon will be a monologue in delivery the preparation is not.

So with that in mind does anyone want to input into my sermon on Matt 25.31-46?

wordle on Matt 25.31-46 

Matthew 25:31-46

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Catching Light

A friend has kindly allowed me to share this poem she has written on the theme of light. Have a read and let me know your thoughts.


Paul

After the eclipse, the king decrees
that whoever brings him rays of light
will receive the hand of his youngest daughter.
Subjects try, but let's skip to three brothers.


The first draws papers from a box inlaid with gold
proving that the speed of light through glass
is the refractive index n of the material.
The king says, oh my head, my head!


The second lifts a photo from his silver casket,
which displays, against ferocious blue,
a line of raindrops clinging to the royal oak.
Very pretty, yes. What use is that?


The third opens the casket made of lead:
two pitted stones, one powdery moth.
Sorry I thought..The princess laughs
for the first time since the decree. The king does not.


Daybreak. Light glides across the capital's slate roofs.
The sun cuts busily between the curtains
of the king's bedroom. He huffs and turns,
dragging the queen's share of the quilt with him.


Meanwhile, the daughter staggers home
along a towpath, arm in arm with the third brother
Look! He says. Bright as a flare, a kingfisher
dives into the canal. The princess shields her eyes.


(c) Carol Beadle 14.10.11.

Light

It is coming to that time of year when the nights are closing in, and sometimes we forget that the dark cannot extinguish the true light…

(John 1:1-18 ESV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
                

This is my attempt at curating a reflection on light for the 31st Oct. I will post once a day on this theme. Then if you look back by selecting the label light it should bring up all the posts on the 1st Nov (All Saints Day) then you will see the full picture.

Thanks

Paul

Work Life Balance?

Dilbert comic strip for 10/12/2011 from the official Dilbert comic strips archive.

The temptation to develop a culture of long hours is just as much a temptation for the church as it is for the work place or home (there is always something else which needs doing, as I look at a pile of washing). Scott Adam paints the picture well, the culture for a business is set by the manager of your place of work, they are the first in and the last to leave, commitment to your job is measured in hours (and not effectiveness just look busy), others expect if your target has not been met that you stay until it has been (though if you have spent 8 hours not getting there will another hour or two really work?), then you get the rare breed which understand you have a life outside of work, which means there will be times when a need will arise for late working or an early start but this will be done by negotiating rather than enforcing contract hour directives (most places I have worked have a maximum number of hours to be worked in a month or week and any hours between 7am and 7pm).

The temptation when things are going wrong is to pour more time into the issue, that somehow if we stare at the same screen the figures will miraculously change or by ringing the same 200 people we will get a different response. Work life balance is something which I always hear, in church and at work. At work we are reminded that we need to balance work and home life as both affect each other (just go to work after a row with your nearest and dearest or come home after a bad day at the office) yet in my experience this is largely lip service and I don't think the church at times is any better. As an ordinand (someone training for ordained ministry in the Church of England) the question turns on me, how am I allowing God to form me in his likeness? I can be an an activist frantically rushing to save the world one person at a time, which in reality fulfills a need to be wanted or a messiah complex. Jesus is Lord has been the declaration of the Church down the ages and though Caesar is no longer the competition, I am faced with the same temptation but to place myself as lord.

Bonhoeffer in Cost of Discipleship, points to the call to follow Jesus by saying Yes to God, which if we take Sabbath as part of God's pattern means taking time out from work (even as a priest). Jesus is Lord means not accepting a cheap grace which molds God in our own image but allows God to mold us in to his. I tend towards working longer and harder to get a job done, which means I can so easily circumvent prayer and taking time to read scripture for scriptures sake. If Jesus is Lord then that means that neither work or leisure are God. He is.

The Mission of the Triune God: Plenary

Dilbert comic strip for 09/22/2011 from the official Dilbert comic strips archive.:

Fortunately the plenary wasn't like this, Ben and Michael did a good job, they summarised the issues and pointed the way forwards. Loving the juggling picture of how we often drop one of the balls and neglect the fullness of the Trinity (is it fully possible to appreciate the fullness of God?),  in our Theology or worship. It is one of those mysteries, but I am looking forward to Sarah Coakley's Praying the Trinity, which should be a good read.

'via Blog this'

5 Holiday Thoughts

1. Never give your children an Ice Cream prior to a journey on a winding road...(will the car ever be the same?)

2. Going to the beach involves the same logistics required to mount an invasion

3. Holiday reading is a great excuse for leaving the academic books at home and reading a newspaper everyday and reading your Bible without having to think about a sermon or assignment in the back of your mind (which is great).

4. Is a week ever enough?

5. A sign on a church near where we stayed said "We preach Christ crucified" but who is this sign for? And what does it really mean?

"I am leaving you with a gift--peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid" (John 14.27 NLT).