A Mission Focused Church

Felicity and I will be starting our sabbatical on 1st May and returning on 1st September.

That means this will  be the last of my sermon posts until September.   Some of our visiting preachers may well share their sermon notes with us ... you can have a look to see some of those sabbatical sermons by clicking here.

Our sabbatical was planned a couple of years ago as part of the process of re-structuring the church and moving towards a ministry team in church life.  With that team now in place for more than a year the hope and prayer for this time is that the church family can come together and grow together. 

Our Worship ministry leader, Shirley Fiddimore, has planned Sunday morning services that are going to focus first of all on what it takes to be a missional church, and then to focus on the people who are an inspiration to us in the faith we share. 

During May we have asked those taking our services to reflect on what it takes to be a mission focused church. 

Paul Davies will be speaking from his perspective as a retired GP who has entered into ministry and contributed especially to the work of the Congregational Federation’s Pastoral Care Board.   Suzanne Nockels is the minister of two churches in Sheffield and also spearheads the Federation’s Learning Church initiative.  She will be spending Saturday, 16th May with our Ministry Leadership team and then joining us for services on Sunday.  

Pam Dix is an old friend of Highbury and has played a big part in inner city mission through our Stapleton Rd church in Bristol.  Dee Brierley Jones brings her experience as a head teacher and in different forms of ministry, not least sharing with Shirley in taking communion into care homes and doing a regular programme on Cotswold Hospital Radio, Radio Winchcombe and elsewhere. 

While she was training for ministry at Mansfield alongside Mark  Evans, Elaine Kinchin did a short pastoral placement with us at Highbury.  Elaine has been in our prayers as she has had to take early retirement on health grounds.  Her son, Oliver, is minister of our Padfield church in Cheshire and getting involved tutoring on the Congregational Federation’s courses. 

Nick Gleich is an old friend of Highbury. 

On Sundays in June we will again be thinking about what it takes to be a mission-focused church.  Wayne Hawkins is well-placed to get us thinking about that challenge, working as he does as Regional Secretary for the European Region of the world mission partnership we are part of, the Council for World Mission.  He will be leading a Parade service in the morning and staying on to share in our evening service too.  Wayne’s wife, Lesley, is Diana and Dick Adams’ daughter and, all being well, we look forward to welcoming Thomas and Samuel too.

By the time she joins us this month Barbara Bridges will have finished her time as President of the Congregational Federation.  As Minister of our Morton in Marsh Congregational Church Barbara is one of our near neighbours.  Nigel Lindsay will be joining the Hy-Speed team on 21st June and staying on for the evening service too: Minister of our church in Wimbledon, Nigel is a former social worker who now spends two months of each year out in Kenya supporting a mission project his church is committed to.

Adrian Wyatt spent a life time in the police service before training on the Federation’s course for ministry.  He is a mission enabler in the South West and will get us thinking about being a mission focused church.  We will also be welcoming Dee Brierley Jones once again this month and also Kev who twenty-five years ago with Jenny was instrumental in getting Hy-Tec, our youth group, off the ground.

Do remember those who will be joining us this month in your prayers and may the thinking they share help to shape the life of our church here at Highbury.

Karen, our Discipleship ministry leader has put together a course asking a question that goes to the heart of our faith, “What’s so amazing about grace?”

He couldn’t get by without it.  His followers noticed.  They wanted him to teach them how to do it in the way he did.  And what he shared that day goes right to the heart not just of the Christian faith we share but of the mission we are called to, the mission we support in our Gift Day.

For all the differences there are between Mark and Luke there’s something about the prayer Jesus taught us to pray that gets to the heart of what our Christian faith is all about.

Call it the Lord’s Prayer and there is the realisation as we pray it that we look to Jesus as our Lord and our Saviour.  For me more and more the Christian faith hinges on Jesus and his way.  At a time when religion seems to be at the heart of so many of the conflicts raging in our world, I don’t want to hold a brief for the religion of Christianity.  I want to focus on Jesus, the way of life he mapped out, the healing he brought to hurting people and the window he opens up on to the God who is love.

Call it the Family Prayer and there is a very real sense of belonging to the world-wide family of the church that stretches down through the centuries.  That means when one part of that family rejoices we all rejoice and when one part of that family hurts we all hurt.  We cannot help but feel the hurt of those in the world-wide family of the Christ who are facing such difficult times at the moment. How important to be with them in our prayer.

Call it the Prayer of the Kingdom and there is a challenge in these words to the mission that is at the heart of all we do.  It’s not used much, but it’s the one that catches my imagination.  After all, the whole of Jesus’ message is about the kingdom of God … and this prayer goes to the heart of that message and in a way says it all.

No matter what we call it, the call to us all is to pray it!

It gets to the heart of what it means to be a mission focused church ... it gets to the heart of the Christian faith.

At a conference in the Tantur Institute in Bethlehem with Christian, Muslim and Jewish speakers on Reconciliation we were told when we arrived to expect the call to prayer to waken us and to give a pattern to our day.  Don't be fearful, we were told.  Take it as a call to prayer.  After all Islam took its pattern of daily prayer from the Christian Church and from the Jewish tradition.

One of the finest introductions to Islam by a Christian is Kenneth Cragge's The Call of the Minaret.  In that book he takes the parts of the call to prayer and uses them to go the heart of Islam.  He suggests we should take to heart the call to prayer and think of the Lord's prayer as going to the heart of our faith.

For me it is one of those wonderful passages that does just that.

Those opening word of this prayer say so much.  Faith is something very personal to each one of us. It’s something for me.  And yet it’s more than that … it’s something I share with others.  It draws me into a movement of people who share the same values, it draws me into a family of people who care for each other.  And so the prayer begins not with ‘my’ but with ‘Our’.

God is the God of creation, the cosmos, the God of the universe.  Awesome and mighty, distant and far, that beyond which nothing greater can ever be thought of.  And yet there’s so much more to God than that.  The God I believe in has a love for us all that’s more intimate than anything.   It’s the love of a parent for their child.  And so the prayer begins Our Father.

Heaven is not so much the place we go to when we die – in the thinking of Jesus and his contemporaries.  Heaven is where God’s rule is perfect and complete.  Read through the Scriptures, especially as the Prophets challenge the kings of the Old Testament to rule in the way God wants … and you have a glimpse of what God’s rule is like in heaven.  Read through the Sermon on the Mount, the parables Jesus told and you get an idea of what this rule of God is like.  It’s where justice is done, those who hurt are healed, where those in need are cared for, where young and old are looked after.  There’s a strong sense of justice in the picture of God’s rule that emerges from the Bible.  And there’s a strong sense of peace – it’s where the lion and the lamb lie down together – in God’s rule.

And the wonderful message of Jesus is that this rule of God is breaking into God’s world.  It’s here and now, not there and then and so we pray

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

And so we pray God’s will be done, God’s rule be real here and now.

It’s something that some people have to learn the hard way.  In the last few weeks I have found myself in conversation on a number of occasions with people facing the difficulty of an addiction, for whom each day is the day that counts.  Not the record of what happened yesterday.  Not the fear of what may happen tomorrow but this day.

Talking with Robert about the chaplaincy work he does at the Sue Ryder hospice and sharing with people who face the reality of their impending death, suddenly each moment, each day becomes all important.

It’s today that matters … not yesterday, not tomorrow

And so it is for today we pray.

That’s the wonderful insight in that line of the prayer that says

Give us this day our daily bread.

Praying this prayer each day gives a rhythm to our lives.  And it is important.

I like the older words – like the words of the 23^rd Psalmm they seem to me to catch something of the rhythm of the English language at its best.  The heart beat is there in the rhythm of the words. 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

It’s another passage where you can weigh words.  Trespasses is a long, three syllable word.  Trespass is when someone strays away from where they ought to be to somewhere they should not go.  It’s weighty, it matters.

And the reality is we all do it.  It’s perverse.  We get it wrong.  And so in this prayer is the acknowledgement we do … and the need we have of that touch of forgiveness.

No sooner are we thinking of the forgiveness that is ours that can enable us to have fresh wind and start all over again … than something else comes to the fore.

How important this is in the teaching of Jesus.

The love we receive from God in that wonderful forgiveness is a love we are called on to share.

Forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

It’s hard, sometimes too hard.  But that’s what it takes … we are called on to share this love of God and so we seek to forgive.

Some modern versions replace trespasses with ‘sins’.

Say the Lord’s Prayer in Welsh or in Scotland in English and the line reads ‘forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors’.

Wow – that’s a powerful challenge too.  Debt has been a problem from time immemorial.  Fascinating to see how the ancient world in the times of the Old Testament responded to it.   Think of everything as God’s – we are looking after the things we have.  Where people get into debt there’s a maximum term – after seven years, the slate is wiped clean and people begin again.  At the fiftieth year a year of restitution.

Do-able?  It was the campaign back in the 1990’s the jubilee debt campaign to wipe clean the debts of some of the poorest nations in the world – it was practical politics.  The work Christians against Poverty do in addressing the issue of debt in our society is helpful – practical ways of managing debts and finances.

It’s difficult to know the way to take – temptation can be very real – to stray into places that are not good to go to – the darker side of the internet is only a click away.

The way of the world seems too often to beckon.

And so we pray for guidance.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

How hard it is to see the goodness of God in a world where evil prevails so much … and so we pray for protection.

The prayer reaches its climax.  And the words sore …

Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory

Forever and ever Amen.

No matter what may befall, no matter what may happen, God’s rule, God’s Kingdom, God’s power, God’s glory is forever.

This is the prayer to pass on down through the generations.

This is the prayer to play a big part in the living of our lives.

This is the prayer that shapes the way we lead our lives and the mission we are called to share.

No matter what we call it, the call to us all is to pray it!

The Inspiration of the 23rd Psalm

It’s almost upon us … and it seems so long in the planning.

It must be three years and more since we had a Deacons day over in Warden Hill.  We dreamed dreams and shared visions for the life of our church.

One of the many visions we shared was to build up a team ministry to help lead the life of the church here at Highbury.

It was the start of a process that resulted in us a year ago re-shaping the life of the church here at Highbury.   We moved to a smaller Diaconate and introduced a shared Ministry Leadership Team.

The idea was that we would let that Ministry Leadership team bed in with a new way of doing things and then arrange for Felicity and me to have a sabbatical.

Now, the moment has arrived.

From 1st May Felicity and I will be on sabbatical.  That means that we won’t be on call as we usually are, and we won’t be taking part in the day to day life of the church from now through until 1st September.  We have a number of projects we are planning to pursue which we will share on our return.

Now is the moment when our new Ministry Leadership team comes into its own.

The Deacons arranged for me to have what they called an ‘exit interview’ – it was great to share that on Wednesday evening.  I expressed my hopes and fears for the sabbatical on a personal level … and my hopes and fears for the church.

Let’s make these four months a really purposeful time in the life of the church.   Things will be happening from the lunches to the community café, from the film club to Sunday Specials – it’s really important to support them!  Explore is going to do a new course put together by Philip Yancey, an inspiring author.  It goes to the heart of the Christian faith – What’s so amazing about grace?  Well worth coming … but also the kind of thing that we can invite others too.

In our Sunday services we are looking forward to welcoming people who we hope will get us thinking about the life of our church and the faith we share.

One of the priorities we have set ourselves as a church is to grow in our mis-sion and outreach.  As this sabbatical period begins that’s what we are going to focus on.  Shirley has invited those who are joining us for our Sunday services to share with us on what it takes to be a mission-focused church – I am going to share a little more about that next Sunday.

In July and August we are asking those who take our services on a Sunday to share with us stories from the Bible, from history and from their own lives that have been an inspiration to them.  So let Helen Roberts have any stories you might have of people who have inspired you so that we can tell them on the Notice sheet!  And Sue more stories for Highbury News!

We start by welcoming back Mark and Denise Evans.  It’s five years since a crowd of us shared in their wedding.  Mark was one of our youth leaders at Hy-Tec and served the church as a Deacon before going on to train for the ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford.  Having now been in Newport, Isle of Wight for three years Mark and Denise will be sharing the stories of people who have been an inspiration to them.  Vince Carrington has been Minister of our church in Taunton for many years where he has also played a big role in Christian mission in the town, not least through Street Pastors.  Janet Wootton is the Congregational Federation’s Director of Studies and has a passion for her faith which is infectious.   Robert Pestell is a good friend of Highbury’s and now works as chaplain at the Sue Ryder Home in Leckhampton.  Dee Brierley Jones will also be joining us this month too.

In August once again we have invited those joining us to share their stories of people who have inspired them.  Jason Boyd is Minister of our Witney church: he has recently completed a PhD focusing on preaching and the impact it has on the local church.  Graham Adams is also joining us for the day at the end of the month.  After a ministry at Lees Street in Manchester Graham has moved on to become lecturer at Northern College, the college we have links with in Manchester.  As we welcome Graham and Sheryl we will be thinking of Graham’s parents, Diana and Dick.

As we prepare for the Autumn and its new challenges Karen Haden will be inviting us to grow in our faith and discipleship as she shares with Shirley Fiddimore.  We will be welcoming our own Martin Evans and Dee Brierley Jones and also extending a welcome to Andrew Cox from the Hester’s Way Baptist church.   Judi Holloway from Witney will also be joining us at the end of the month when we shall also be extending a warm welcome to Michael Garland, vicar of St Mary’s church, Charlton Kings.  Michael is very involved along with our own Janet Wootton in the Hymn Society.

With all sorts of things going on through the summer, my hope and prayer is that it can be a time when as a church family we can go from strength to strength.

If you need help or have to contact someone from church at any time, then please contact one of our Ministry leadership team, one of the Deacons or one of our Church officers - they will be pleased to be able to help.

For this Sunday and next I felt I wanted to share two passages: next Sunday one that underpins my vision for a mission focused church and today one that is my inspiration.

The first passage is the 23^rd Psalm.

I make no bones about it – the 23^rd Psalm in the Authorised version – I think it’s one of those wonderful passages – it’s one to commit to memory.

I think of the gentleness and the grandeur of God, for the Lord God almighty is my shepherd

I think of Jesus the good shepherd who seeks the lost and who knows every one of his flock

The Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd.

The LORD is my shepherd;

     I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down

     in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

he leadeth me

     in the paths of righteousness

     for his name's sake.

There’s the gentleness of Jesus as he cares for us in those green pastures.  There’s the wisdom of Jesus as he leads u in the paths of righteousness, the paths of justice.  And it is so very personal – The Lord is my shepherd, he maketh me, he leadeth me, he restoeth my soul, he leadeth me.

There is something so very wonderful and personal in the faith that is ours.

I love the words of this translation for there is the rhythm of the heart beat that is the very essence of the  English language in these words – it’s captured brilliantly.  The Authorised Version influenced by Tyndale and Shakespeare weigh words and give them weight.

So may single syllable words – and the longer words have additional weight.  We move towards them.

Yea, though I walk through the valley

     of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

That goes to the heart of my faith – it’s not about escaping the difficult things, the pain, the sadness, it’s discovering in God’s presence, in the presence of Chrsit with us strength for the journey through the valley.

Thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy

     shall follow me

all the days of my life

     and I will dwell

in the house of the LORD for ever.

Do you notice something there?

IT breaks the rules of grammar.

I shall, you will – is the normal rule.

But the best writers know when to break the rule.

And this is one of those moments

When you say he shall – it’s particularly emphatic.  He shall do that means he really, really will do it!  No doubts!

When you say I will – that’s particularly emphatic.    I really, really, shall do that – no doubts.

Surely goodness and mercy

     shall follow me

all the days of my life

     and I will dwell

in the house of the LORD for ever

Let’s read the words of the Psalm together – one of the lovely things Angela Ashwin does in her prayer book Woven into Prayer is to add at the end of the Psalm that is read a prayer based on the Psalm.  We will read her prayer for this Easter season after the Psalm.

Hymn 729 – The Lord’s my shepherd

There’s a hidden strand in this Psalm that also means the world to me.

In the Old Testament when there is talk of shepherds the thought is of the king and the ruler.   So much so that when everything collapses and the people of Israel are carted off into exile Ezekiel the prophet pores over all that has happened in the history of the people’s kings and he comes to the conclusion they have been bad shepherds. 

Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them—to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. 4You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them.

What an indictment – Ezekiel has a vision of God as the Good Shepherd

Ezekiel 34:11-16

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

This is what finds its fulfilment in Jesus the Good Shepherd

He seeks the lost, brings back the strayed, binds up the injured, strengthens the weak – he is stern in his woes to the rich, the fat and the strong.

He feeds his people with justice.

That’s there in this psalm too.

The 23rd Psalm

The LORD is my shepherd king

he leadeth me

     in the paths of righteousness and justice

     for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley

     of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

That valley is not just the valley of sad bereavement – it’s also the valley of awfulness that happens in the face of those who are hell bent to destroy faith, not least Christian faith.

There is a real sense of defiance in the words

Thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God, we face the powers of darkness – but sure in the knowledge that God’s victory is assured.

Our task is also to  seek the lost, and I back the strayed, and bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak, - maybe to speak truth to power against those who abuse power.  Above all our commitment is to feed them with justice.  What was it the Samaritan showed to the man who fell among thieves … but mercy.

Surely goodness and mercy

     shall follow me

all the days of my life

     and I will dwell

in the house of the LORD for ever.

Seven whole days not one in seven

There is a power in praise that lifts us out of ourselves and into the presence of God.  It’s not something to do only when we feel like singing the praises of God. It’s something to do when we don’t feel like it.  For it is then that God lifts us out of ourselves and into his presence.  There is a therapeutic power to praise that we neglect at our peril.

There is a wonder in worship that has the potential to shape the whole of our lives.  To spend time in worship is not simply one activity among many we squeeze into our busy lives.  To spend time in worship is to discover something that can give a shape to the whole of the rest of our lives.

Take time to worship, take time to praise and discover that the very worship we share, the very praise we offer can become the warp and the weft of the rich tapestry of our lives, the life-blood coursing through our veins, the breath of life itself that gives life to us day by day.

In conversation with the woman at the well in a village in Samaria Jesus spoke of a time that was coming and was in truth there when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Maybe, we worship the Father in spirit and in truth when worship and praise become part and parcel of the very way we lead our lives. Stanley Spencer, one of the artists in the wonderful exhibition at the Wilson, Still Small Voice, had exactly this sense of the presence of God in the ordinary, everyday things.  ““When I lived in Cookham I was disturbed by a feeling of everything being meaningless.  But quite suddenly I became aware that everything was full of special meaning and this made everything holy... I observed this sacred quality in most unexpected quarters.”  Join Hy-Way in visiting the exhibition on Wednesday, 22^nd April.

Seven whole days Seven whole days, not one in seven, I will praise I will worship Seven whole days, Not one in seven I will love God I will love neighbour Seven whole days, Not one in seven I will live for God I will live for others Seven whole days Not one in seven.

There is a power in praise that lifts us out of ourselves and into the presence of God. It’s not something to do only when we feel like singing the praises of God. It’s something to do when we don’t feel like it. For it is then that God lifts us out of ourselves and into his presence. There is a therapeutic power to praise that we neglect at our peril.

So, a pattern of prayer that includes praise – a frame of mind that gives thanks for the wonders of the world, counts your blessings and gives praise to God has a therapeutic value.

Even in the darkest depths … is there something to thank God for is a wonderful starting place.

Any thoughts to share?

What things can you praise and thank God for – maybe share with the person next to you.

But even more than that simply consider God in himself – the story of Jesus and give praise to God.  It’s quite deliberate that we meet for worship on a Sunday – there are signs of the first followers of Jesus meeting on the first day of the week to meet together for prayer and worship, for praise and celebration was the day of resurrection – so focus on Jesus, on his life, the love he shared the resurrection victory he won for us.

This activity, meeting together for worship, Sunday by Sunday is then something that gives us our bearing for the week that is to come … it is something that we can inject into the life we lead so that our praise and our worship gives a shape to the life that we lead.

There is a wonder in worship that has the potential to shape the whole of our lives. To spend time in worship is not simply one activity among many we squeeze into our busy lives. To spend time in worship is to discover something that can give a shape to the whole of the rest of our lives.

However that worship and that praise we do on a Sunday is something then that permeates the whole of our lives.

In the second part of ours ervice we are going to sing three hymns by someone who found the power in worship to shape the whole of life.

A high flyer who made it to Parliament and moved in the highest circles in the land, George Herbert gave it all up to become a humble parish priest and through his life tried to work out what it is ithat is important in life that gives shape to life as a whole.

He gloried in the presence of the risen Christ with us, a wonder that worship is all about –

King of glory, King of Peace,

I will love thee

Such glory, such peace as Jesus gives prompts us simply to love him in return.

And, that love may never cease,

I will move thee

I will be in touch and share my deepest concerns with you

Thou hast granted my request,

Thou hast heard me.

Thou didst note my working breast,

Thou hast spared me.

You have helped me, you have forgiven me, you have restored me …

That’s what we focus on – the glory, the peace of Chrsit.

So then …

Wherefore with my utmost art,

I will sing thee

And the cream of all my heart

I will bring thee

I will bring my very best to you in praise and worship.

Though my sisn against me cried,

Thou didst clear me

You have cleared my in spite of all my failings, my weaknesses and my sin.

And alone, when they replied,

Thou didst hear me.

you are the one to hear me, to forgive me and to love me.

So then what shall I do?

Seven whole days, not one in seven,

I will praise thee;

In my heart, though not in heaven,

I can raise thee.

It’s in my heart through that praise that I shall sense your presence.

Small it is in this poor sort

To enrol Thee;

E’n eternity’s too short

To extol thee.

Time is to short to understand Christ fully – but I will praise you with all my heart.

426 King of glory, king of peace

Take time to worship, take time to praise and discover that the very worship we share, the very praise we offer can become the warp and

the weft of the rich tapestry of our lives.  Wonderful image – in the prayer book we have been using this year.   The whole of life shot through with praise.

Praise becomes the life blood coursing through our veins, the breath of life itself that gives life to us day by day.

In conversation with the woman at the well in a village in Samaria

Jesus spoke of a time that was coming and was in truth there when

the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Maybe, we worship the Father in spirit and in truth when worship and

praise become part and parcel of the very way we lead our lives.

Stanley Spencer, one of the artists in the wonderful exhibition at the

Wilson, Still Small Voice, had exactly this sense of the presence of

God in the ordinary, everyday things. ““When I lived in Cookham I

was disturbed by a feeling of everything being meaningless. But

quite suddenly I became aware that everything was full of special

meaning and this made everything holy... I observed this sacred

quality in most unexpected quarters.” Join Hy-Way in visiting the

exhibition on Wednesday, 22nd April.

Stanley Spencer – in the ordinary every day a wonderful spirit of praise.

It’s in the ordinary, every day things that we find God’s presence is so real.

Possibly play Sara Iles’ lightbulb moment – walking humbly with God.

Seeing God in everything – in the ordinary every day – importance of the Hustings and questions to ask of our parliamentary candidates.

Indeed to see God in everything in the tiny things gives us grounds for praise and thanks … but also a way of shaping our lives.

That’s what George Herbert felt too …

Teach me, my God and king in all things thee to see,

And what I do in anything

To do it as for thee

All may of thee partake

Nothing can be so mean

Nothing is so tiny or insignificant as not to be done and so be improved with this attitude in mind – For thy sake.

George Herbert was fascinated with science – and in this poem that has come to be a hymn a special fascination with astronomy, with the eye glass you can simply look at and wonder at, but if you use it to look at the start then the heavens you espy!

He was also fascinated with alchemy

The tincture that makes all things different – is to do it For thy sake.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine

Who sweeps a room as for thy laws

Makes that and the action fine.

The most menial of tasks – do it for God’s sake and it becomes something special.

This is the famous stone

that turneth all to gold.

For that which God doth touch and own

Cannot for less be told.

Hymn 433 Teach me, my God and king

Prayers of Concern

Hymn 3 Let all the world in every corner sing.

Words of Blessing,

He is risen - an Easter Celebratioin

Jesus Christ is risen

He is risen indeed!

Jesus Christ is risen

He is risen indeed!

Jesus Christ is risen

He is risen indeed!

155 Jesus Christ is risen today!

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Much has happened in the church gardens this last couple of weeks – a place of beauty with so many signs of spring, a place of prayer with so many signs of the Easter story.

And all around us the hand of the gardener.

Has that tree come into blossom yet?

Almost … and more still to come.

The story of that first Easter Sunday is a wonderfully moving story – it’s the story of some women and a gardener.  But was it really a gardener?

The Women and the Gardener – from John 20

A Hy-Spirit Song for Easter

John 20:19-23

A wonderful moment of peace and of greeting - we are going to share our Easter Greetings – with a handshake – and a greeting for Easter – or maybe a sign of peace

Easter Greetings

161 The day of resurrection!

There’s a treasure hidden in these words – one of the earliest accounts of the Easter story … not in the Gospels but towards the end of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, in one of the great chapters of the New Testament, the chapter on resurrection – 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Two ways to look for the treasure of Easter …  Andrea is going to lead the younger members of the congregation – as they have a treasure to seek and to find!

While I want to go in search of the risen Jesus in the words of this passage with the rest of us …

In search of the Risen Jesus

Andrea leads the Easter Egg hunt

It’s one of my favourite passages … and it’s one that contains within it one of the finest treasurers imaginable.

It’s good news.  There’s no other description for it. It’s good news!

And someone passed it on …. and passed it on … and passed it on … and passed it on … and passed it on to us today.

Pause a moment and reflect on the people who first passed on the momentous message of Easter to you – I wonder who passed the message on to them …

Think of those who have passed the message of Easter on since then – people who have re-told the Easter story, people who have brought it to life, maybe when facing the reality of death, and the hope of resurrection.  The words of the story come alive once again.

So what shall we do with it?

Simply, receive it.

David Suchet in one of this Easter’s Easter programmes, In the footsteps of St Peter has about him a little of the detective Poirot as he pieces together something of the story of Peter.   When he comes to the last supper and the moment Jesus washes the feet of st Peter, David Suchet finds himself in a shoe-shiner’s chair recounting the story of an occasion when filming in the states and there’s a man shining shoes and a woman beside him. The woman accosts David Suchet and offers him a shoe shine – No Thank you, he says, only for her to point to his shoes and say your shoes are dirty.  They need a shoe shine.

Do you know the story of St Peter having his feet washed by Jesus; no, I don’t, said David Suchet.  She proceeded to tell him of the way Jesus insisted on washing Peter’s feet.  At first Peter resisted – but he needed to learn the lesson that he had to be willing to receive.  That’s the lesson you need to learn, she said.  You need to be ready to receive what my husband is willing to give – and what’s more, she said, my husband needs your money.

The way David Suchet told it was pretty good.  You need to receive.  Not always easy.

That’s the key to this Easter message.

Receive it as a gift.  Receive it as a treasure.  Receive it as something to transform the life you live today.  Receive it as something to transform the life that lies ahead of you.

Receive it not as one gift among many: receive it as the one gift that gives shape to the whole of your life.

Stand up and be counted … for once you receive this gift, this is where you stand, this is who you are.

It amounts to nothing less than the blessing of God in all the wonder of his love: it amounts to nothing less than salvation.

This is what we have received.

This is what we hand on.

That’s the whole point of what Paul is writing here … once  he had received it, there was nothing else for him, but to hand it on.

And so too with us – what we have received, the heart of the Easter message, is something for us to hand on.

That Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures … and he appeared to so many … and then he appeared to me.

It’s the treasure of forgiveness – we don’t get it right, we make a mess of things, we get it wrong, we get a fresh change to make things right again.

The resurrection appearance of Christ is one that we too can experience – the risen Christ is a sense of the presence, a reality that we find in fellowship together, in the quiet of our lives, a friend, an unseen presence, a reality there with us.

Jesus Christ is risen.  He lives in the love we share with each other and in the love we share with the world.

He lives with us and in us and for us.

What a difference this resurrection makes – Paul takes a whole chapter to develop his thinking about dying, death and the resurrection that follows – and the way he finishes the chapter is a challenge to us all in the living of our lives.

thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

A Hy-Spirit Easter song

Prayers of Concern – Karen Waldock

167 Thine be the glory

Words of Blessing

Retiring Collection