Going to the heart of the faith - I believe in Jesus

Welcome to our services today and a special welcome to any worshipping with us for the first time. 

In the run up to Easter I am exploring what for me goes to the heart of the Christian faith. 

For me, the God I believe in is a great big God, nothing less than the God of Creation. I don’t see any conflict between science and religion. The world of science opens up wonderful insights into the wonders of the universe – the God of creation is more wonderful still! To believe in the God of creation helps me to put in perspective the troubles I am all too aware of in the world around me. It also challenges me to care for the world we find ourselves in. But focusing on the God of creation only gets me so far in my faith. 

I am a Christian. 

For me, my faith finds its focus in Jesus Christ. Jesus open up a way of life to follow that is based on love for all, bringing healing into hurting people’s lives. The more I discover about this Jesus through my reading of the Bible and in fellowship with others who share this very special faith, the more he opens up for me the presence of a God who is not just the God of creation, but much more, the God of love.  

This Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday and we have a special evening with a difference as the orchestra and chorus of the Harpsichord Collective present Vivaldi's much-loved 'Gloria'. Louise Cawte of St Luke’s who is the inspiration behind this evening comments, “This jewel of baroque music is a great hymn of praise in a number of short sections, with beautiful melodies and catchy rhythms. The orchestra will also perform some string music by Vivaldi and Bach's magnificent double concerto for oboe and violin.” Admission is free, with a retiring collection for SolarAid.

These are very rough notes of the service we shared ...

Welcome and Call to Worship

457 All hail the power of Jesus’ name

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Do you leave your mark?

Can you tell things people have done?

Cleaning – flowers arranged

John’s story – in prison wants to know if Jesus is the one … and so sends his disciples – Jesus sends word back – look at what’s been happening, look at what I’ve done …

Work out the answer for yourself.

John’s story

Reading: Luke 7:18-23

A Hy-Spirit Song

Activities for all over 3

Drawn into the Presence of God

In the run up to Easter I am exploring what for me goes to the heart of the Christian faith. For me, the God I believe in is a great big God,

nothing less than the God of Creation. To believe in the God of

creation helps me to put in perspective the troubles I am all too

aware of in the world around me. It also challenges me to care for

the world we find ourselves in. But focusing on the God of creation

only gets me so far in my faith. I am a Christian.

More and more, over the years, I have found myself coming back to Christ and the Jesus who is at the heart of the faith.

If all you’ve got is some sense of God, the God of creation then there are big questions that have no answer – and they cropped up when I went into school on Tuesday morning – why is there so much suffering in the world?

If God is all powerful, all loving, how does he allow suffering to happen?

I do find it helpful to turn to the story of Job – and sense that you have to live with unanswered questions.

But is this the only picture of God we can have.

Is there another way into the God who is so important.

This is where Jesus comes in.

I have always found Holy Week to be one of the most powerful weeks in the year.

I have found it helpful to mark the stages in the week.

Palm Sunday, Maundy  Thursday, the three hours of Good Friday.

I found that for myself.

One Good Friday our youth group met together at 12-00 and we had a bread and cheese lunch – and we listened to a concept album that had just been released. There was no stage musical at that point. Just a double LP. Jesus Christ Superstar.

It put big questions about the identity of Jesus into the mouth of Judas – it prompted so much discussion.

The story itself is so powerful – told from different perspectives in the Gospels.

Just the biblical texts.

The Passion Play was such a moving experience at the Millennium

Maundy Thursday we basically read an extended part of the text and share in the Lord’s Supper.

And on Good Friday – the sayings at the Cross.

And a prayer walk through the town.

For a number of yeas I went up to Prinknash after the walk of witness – most memorably on the Day of the Good Friday Agreement. Driving back came the news the agreement had been signed.

I am one of those who is drawn to digging away at the Jesus of history -0 and that is a project that can be done. It’s been exciting to do that in all sorts of ways – not least in the project I am doing at the moment.

Jesus teaches such a powerful way of living – love God, love neighbour, love enemy too.

He makes that love real in bringing healing into hurting people’s lives.

And somehow in his presence those who follow him sense he opens up a window on to God that shows God to be a god of love who draws us into the closest of relationships with him.

Our Father …

The most wonderful of prayers.

Those who follows him sense that he brings that god of love close to them.

This is the god of love who is there through suffering, there even when he doesn’t appear to be there, the God who draws us to him in the middle of the suffering.

A very different kind of God.

 For me, my faith finds its focus in Jesus Christ. Jesus opens up a way of life to follow that is based on love for all, bringing healing into hurting people’s lives. The more I discover about this Jesus through my reading of the Bible and in fellowship with others who share this very special faith, the more he opens up for me the presence of a God who is not just the God of creation, but much more, the God of love.

                                                 

One of the books of the New Testament where that comes home to me is in the letter to the Hebrews.

It’s one of the later books of the New Testament – wrongly attributed to Paul in the AV, it is an anonymous letter.

It is a considered reflection in the light of the Jesus of history, but also the risen Jesus whose presence is there with us and whose presence is made real as we gather together in his name.

In Jesus we meet with the reality of God. These words are up with the opening words of John’s Gospel as they confront us with the imprint of God in the life of Jesus.

Hebrews 1:1-4

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors

in many and various ways by the prophets,

but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son,

whom he appointed heir of all things,

through whom he also created the worlds.

He is the reflection of God’s glory

and the exact imprint of God’s very being,

and he sustains all things by his powerful word.

When he had made purification for sins,

he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

having become as much superior to angels

as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

That’s quite some statement

Jesus bearing the imprint of God – the reflection of God’s glory.

A HySpirit Song

The writer goes on to speak of the greatness of God.

There is a sense of the distance of the awesomeness of a great big God.

But Jesus is the one who draws us intot he presence of God and draws God into our presence.

Hebrews is built around the thought world of the Hebrew Scriptures – our Old Testament.

Jesus is seens as the one who is the great High Priest – the bridge builder – pontifex – bringing us to God, God to us.

The High Priest is just like God – but also just like us …

Hebrews 4:14-16

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus has experienced humanity at its worst – and is there with us in the worst humanity can hurl at us.

And that is so important to hold on t

That then has implications for us …

The writer explores the imagery and the thinking around the Templea s the place of God’s presence. Then imagines that we are invited into that presence.

We can enter into the presence of God – by the new and living way opened up for us by jesus.

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We can enter into the presence of God

We approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

We hold fast to the confession of our hope

And we provoke one another to love.

At the heart of such a faith is faith – we have to trust and believe …

We act on that faith.

Hebrews 11:1-3

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

The rest of the chapter goes through the great people of Faith of those Hebrew Scriptures.

With such faith … we need to focus on

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

That then makes a differencve in the living of our lives …

Hebrews 13

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in honour by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence,

‘The Lord is my helper;

   I will not be afraid.

What can anyone do to me?’

 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.

461 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

Prayers of Concern

456 Christ is the world’s true light

Words of Blessing

Retiring Collection for Highbury

Music: Alan Berry & Hy-Spirit

Going to the heart of the faith - I believe in a great big God!

Text of the week: I knew of you then only by report, but now I see you with my own eyes. Therefore, I melt away, I repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:5,6 

Welcome to our services today and a special welcome to any worshipping with us for the first time. Any talk of spring is premature. So unpredictable has our weather become that we may yet be in store for the depths of winter! And yet snowdrops are out, the crocuses have been in bloom for a fair while and we’ve had the first daffodil in bloom in our garden. The first signs of spring are there. In the lead up to Easter we are going to reflect on what goes to the very heart of our faith in the God of creation, in Jesus and his power to bring about a new creation in the lives of each one of us and in that unseen yet so real power of God, the Holy Spirit who bears fruit in the living of our lives. 

This Tuesday our Explore group will be creative in another craft evening. At the same time if you would like to join in planning some of the services that are coming up then come along for a worship planning evening. 

Then on the 13th February, Shrove Tuesday, we have an evening with a difference as the orchestra and chorus of the Harpsichord Collective present Vivaldi's much-loved 'Gloria'. Louise Cawte of St Luke’s who is the inspiration behind this evening comments, “This jewel of baroque music is a great hymn of praise in a number of short sections, with beautiful melodies and catchy rhythms. The orchestra will also perform some string music by Vivaldi and Bach's magnificent double concerto for oboe and violin.” Admission is free, with a retiring collection for SolarAid.

If you want to see a recording of this service please email minister@highburychurch.co.uk to receive a link.

Welcome and Call to Worship

137 All things bright and beautiful

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Learning to live with losing!

The Story of Job

Reading: Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
   and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 
Day to day pours forth speech,
   and night to night declares knowledge. 
There is no speech, nor are there words;
   their voice is not heard; 
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
   and their words to the end of the world. 

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, 
which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
   and like a strong man runs its course with joy. 
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
   and its circuit to the end of them;
   and nothing is hidden from its heat. 

Song: Our God is a great big God

Activities for all over 3

Going to the heart of the Faith - 1 - I believe in a great big God

Forgive me for being personal! But I’m going to be!

From now till Easter I want to share what goes to the heart of the faith that’s important to me. We’ll dip in and out a bit. Other things may crop up.

I’m going to begin with the God I believe in.

The God I believe in is a great big God. He’s higher than a skyscraper, he’s deeper than a submarine, he’s wider than the universe, he’s beyond my wildest dreams …

That’s the way the song puts it. You can put it in more philosophical terms. The God I believe in is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.

The God I believe in is the God of creation. The bigger you release the universe to be the bigger the God I believe in is … for the God I believe in is the God of all creation.

It’s here in Cheltenham that I’ve become fascinated with the world of science. If you were to talk to people in the previous churches I was minister of I didn’t talk much about science at all. It was only here that I was introduced to the wonders of the world of science. And I find it an inspiration.

It’s one of the things I have shared in my assemblies at St John’s – as a Christian I see no conflict between science and my faith. And for the first time I have been invited in to talk with the Year 6 class who are doing science and religion at the moment – they’ve got lots of questions to put me on the spot with … so think of me as I go in on Tuesday morning.

They are going to be asking me questions about Genesis and about evolution. It’s a great place to start.  But it’s not the only place in the Bible that has to do with the world of God’s creation. The Book of Job has to lots to say as well.

One of the CWM mission partners who joined us for a while way back suggested we should read the Bible with our heads, with our hearts and with our hands. Lucy Winkett says much the same in her foreword to this year’s Fresh from the Word – well worth reading again. She suggests we must read the Bible with our heads, our hearts and with our feet.

The Book of Job is one of those books I have come back to at different points along the way of my journey of faith. First, I came to it with my head … as a study of a text. I had studied literature at A Level – and grappled with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, great novelists, Henry Fielding and Joseph Conrad, Mary Barton, George Eliot.

Job is one of a number of books in the last part of the Bible with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that you can think of as Wisdom literature – they are in a way the most philosophical books in the bible. They make you think about life, its meaning, its purpose and how to cope with its dark side.

And in Job life has a very dark side.

Job is the classic person who has done no wrong and can do no wrong. Everything is right in his life. And so in what I think is the closest you come in the Bible to Greek drama, a fun story sets him up so that everything goes wrong in his life. First he loses his property, then his family and finally his health. Until he is all alone in the dark in abject pain, forsaken and forlorn.

And then in turn come three friends. Each says much the same thing in subtly different ways. And what they say is just the classic religious thinking of the time.

As a generalization it has some truth in it. If you do what God wants you to do then on the whole things will go well and work out. If you do what God does not want you to do then things will go badly. It’s all right as a generalization – you can see it works.

Their mistake, however, is to turn the generalization on its head and work backwards. They look at Job and see that everything has gone wrong in his life. They then reason that it’s when you don’t do what God wants that things go wrong. They then conclude that Job must have done stuff that God did not want him to do. And so their advice to Job is – change your ways, acknowledge your wrong doing and then everything will go well for you.

But Job is adamant.

He has not done anything wrong. He has done exactly as God wants him to do.

And yet, and yet … everything has gone wrong, his whole life has fallen apart. It’s something he cannot understand.

Three times each of the friends comes to Job – and all the time Job is adamant.

A fourth friend comes with variations on the same theme in what he has to say.

And then you reach the climax to the book. A remarkable climax. Job finds himself in the great open spaces – it’s as if he goes out to the wild countryside, to the top of the mountain.  And there he senses the immensity of the God of creation.

And the voice of God speaks to him out of the whillwind

From Job 38 to 41 there are four chapters. And it is simply God putting question after question to Job. The questions highlight the immensity of God.

And the questions follow a remarkable structure …

It’s basically, the heavens above, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea.

Reading

Job 38:1-7, 31-33, 39:1-4, 41:1-2,31-34

42:1-6

 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 

² ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 
³ Gird up your loins like a man,
   I will question you, and you shall declare to me. 

⁴ ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
   Tell me, if you have understanding. 
⁵ Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
   Or who stretched the line upon it? 
⁶ On what were its bases sunk,
   or who laid its cornerstone 
⁷ when the morning stars sang together
   and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? 

‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
   or loose the cords of Orion? 
³² Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
   or can you guide the Bear with its children? 
³³ Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
   Can you establish their rule on the earth? 

‘Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
   Do you observe the calving of the deer? 
² Can you number the months that they fulfil,
   and do you know the time when they give birth, 
³ when they crouch to give birth to their offspring,
   and are delivered of their young? 
⁴ Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;
   they go forth, and do not return to them. 

‘Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish-hook,
   or press down its tongue with a cord? 
² Can you put a rope in its nose,
   or pierce its jaw with a hook? 

It makes the deep boil like a pot;
   it makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 
³² It leaves a shining wake behind it;
   one would think the deep to be white-haired. 
³³ On earth it has no equal,
   a creature without fear. 
³⁴ It surveys everything that is lofty;
   it is king over all that are proud.’ 

The climax of this part of the drama of Job comes in 42-1-8 it is as if Job is able to look from a new perspective with new eyes.

Job 42:1-8

Then Job answered the Lord: 
² ‘I know that you can do all things,
   and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 
³ “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
   things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 
⁴ “Hear, and I will speak;
   I will question you, and you declare to me.” 
⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
   but now my eye sees you; 
⁶ therefore I despise myself,
   and repent in dust and ashes.’ 

And he is able to live with unanswered questions.

in the fun of the drama – then we revisit the original set up and as in the best of stories everyone lives happily ever after.

In my head I could see and it meant something to me that we live in a very complex world, beyond our understanding. In the world of God’s creation we can encounter the other, the immensity of the Great big God I believe in … and realise that we se only a tiny fraction of the much bigger picture that is God.s  And so we too can live with unanswered questions.

That was in my head.

Three years into my first church in Yorkshire, my father had long awaited major heart surgery that we all thought would give him a new lease of life. He didn’t come home from hospital. Before his surgery he passed on to me something his father had passed on to him – timely in the context of what has happened in the medical world this week. My grandfather had said to my father, and my father said to me … we all make mistakes, in your work if you make a mistake you can say sorry and try to make up for it. If a surgeon makes a mistake on the operating table there’s no going back. I wasn’t with my father when he died. But I did have the opportunity to see the surgeon. And I passed on what he had said … though I have no reason to believe any mistakes were made.

I read the Book of Job again … and it went from my head to my heart.

Three years into my ministry here in Cheltenham my mother died in circumstances that have again been in the news this week. She was knocked over crossing the road by a car going 40 mph in a 30 mph speed limit zone. It happens to all of us … but ever since I cannot make light of exceeding the speed limit.

My Mum and Dad were by no means perfect – but on the other hand they still had lots to give – that day my mum had just been to visit a home run by the free churches of Leicester for elderly people – she chaired the committee … and we ended up having her 80^th birthday cake that had already been baked at the wake rather than the birthday party.

Again, I found myself reading the Book of Job – indeed shortly after that we did a Bible study series on it, dramatizing it in our imagination.

The world can be a pretty messy place. But delve into the wonders of the world and it puts things in perspective – go up on the mountain top in your mind’s eye – see the super moon, watch the lunar eclipse livestreamed by NASA, see the immensity of nature’s awesome power in the volcano in the earthquake in the storm. There is something beyond our understanding in the world around us …

Encounter this God who is a great big God and somehow, you see the mess going on all around in a different perspective. It’s not that any of the difficult questions are answered … but there comes a point when it is possible to live with unanswered questions.

From my head to my heart. But I was invited to read these chapters from Job again only last September. I met again the great big God I believe in, the God of creation. But this time there was something for me to do.

In these 4 chapters there are 64 questions. In the week of nature watch, the super blue moon, in the wake of those awful storms and news of earthquakes and volcanoes, many of those questions now have an answer.

Such is the ingenuity of humanity. Science has a good idea about what happened at the beginning, what happens in the depths of the ocean, how the weather is formed. Cameras have recorded in remarkable detail the intimate lives of the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.

But what has humanity done to the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.

Let’s try an experiment. Let’s give a voice to the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that are mentioned in these four chapters. What would they say to us, human beings living in 2018?

A time to share

People shared three responses

1.      What have you done to us?!

2.      Don’t eat meat!

3.      There are too many of you!

More than any of his previous series, Blue Planet II highlighted the damage done to the oceans by humanity and our obsession with things plastic. The Prime Minister, Mrs May, presented the President of China with a boxed set of Blue Planet II together with a specially recorded message from David Attenborough.

To believe in the God of creation is to be challenged to care for the creation we have received so that we can hand it on to the next generation. It’s a theme that comes out in Genesis … and here in Job, as I read the verses in chapter 42 I heard something of that message speak to me as well.

I knew of you then only by report

But now I see you with my own eyes,

Therefore, I melt away [I yield]

Repenting in dust and ashes.

Encountering the living God of creation my problems can be seen in a new perspective, but they also prompt me to do something – with my hands, to walk the talk with my feet – and to care for the earth beneath, the heavens above, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.

a Hy-Spirit Song

Prayers of Concern

154 O Lord my God!

Words of Blessing