More than a handshake

Maybe it’s because I am the age I am … if the troubles started in 1969 and lasted until the Good Friday Settlement they occupied most of my adult life.

Maybe it’s because I have a particular fondness for the symbolism.

Maybe it’s because it’s because it’s been in the football news recently – a ritual in a football game that goes without notice until one player refuses to do it with an another …and it becomes such news.

It is so familiar, I find myself doing it all the time.  I take it so much for granted.  It somehow made me sit up and listen to discover it could be so much to the fore in the news this week.

When the Queen shook hands with Martin McGuiness I found it remarkably moving.

So much remains to be done in Northern Ireland.  Disturbing to think there are no fewer than 80 so-called peace walls dividing communities.  Disturbing to think that the youngsters of Northern Ireland are for the most part educated in sectarian schools where they never meet youngsters from the other side of the religious divide.  I have always felt, and still feel, that maybe the one big initiative the churches could take in Northern Ireland would be to withdraw from education and integrate the schools.

So much remains to be done to seal a fragile peace.

And yet, and yet … it was so moving to see that handshake.

There is something very special about a handshake.  In our churches we use a handshake as we welcome people into membership of the church, we use a handshake often when we appoint people to office in the church.  And it always riles me when people regard it as ‘just a handshake’.  There’s much more in what we do.

The handshake has a very special place in the Bible and in the New Testament.

What is described there is a very particular handshake – and a very particular symbolism.;  It is one I think we could all take to heart and take into our selves.

Saul of Tarsus had been very much involved in the persecution of the followers of Jesus in the very early days of the church.  So much so that he was the one to look after everyone’s belongings as they were involved in stoning to death the first so-called martyr of the church, Stephen.  It is that determination to do away with the followers of Jesus that sends Saul in pursuit towards the Syrian city of Damascus.

Then it is that he encounters Christ for himself.  And it is a life-transforming experience for Paul.

He spends time with the believers in Damascus before himself having to flee the city under cover of dark in a basket that is lowered over the wall.

What happens to Paul next is not very clear.  At some point very early on is a long period when he takes time to reflect.

In one of the first letters he came to write as he set about the task of travelling the Mediterranean world spreading the Gospel of Christ particularly in the Gentile, Roman world, he reflectee on that period and how it came to an end.

It was for fourteen long years that he had time to himself, time to reflect, time to take stock.  And then he went up to Jerusalem – to the very group of believers he had been so instrumental in persecuting.  He went in the company of Barnabas who had been such a wonderful source of encouragement to him.

Clearly there was a lot of dispute and ill feeling – a great difference of opinion that emerges.  He describes the tensions there are as he meets with those acknowledged to be leaders.  And then there comes that wonderful moment when those who were acknowledged to be the pillars of the church recognise something special in Paul.

The moment of recognition, the moment of commissioning is sealed by a handshake.

when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

It’s the model we use in welcoming people into church membership as we extend the right hand of fellowship to them.

We get to know people.  Then we recognise the grace of God at work within them, then we welcome them by giving the right hand of fellowship – then there is a task to do and a challenge to remember the poor.

It is a wonderful framework.

The handshake that binds us together is a handshake that has something very special about it.

It is linked with the recognition of the grace that had been given them, and is described as the right hand of ‘fellowship’.

Both grace and fellowship are favourite words of Paul’s.  Indeed the word ‘fellowship’ occurs mostly in Paul’s letters.

With one other word they go to the very heart of our faith.

All three of those words are brought together by Paul in a prayer he includes at the very end of the 2^nd letter to the Corinthians.  That’s the prayer that we use at almost every service in the words of blessing we say together at the very end.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What is special about Christ is the grace he has which reaches out to people before ever they have done anything to deserve it, with a love that is free and all-forgiving.

What does it mean to have such grace in our hearts.

Maybe it was not without coincidence that the Queen’s visit to Northern Ireland took her to Enniskillen.

It is twenty-five years ago that Gordon Wilson ‘held his daughter’s hand as they lay trapped beneath a mountain of rubble’.  Marie, a nurse, died.  He later said it was something he had struggled to live up to, struggled to live out, it was simply something that came to him and he blurted out in an interview.  But what he said registered with so many, with my generation.

I have lost my daughter, and we shall miss her.  But I bear no ill will.  I bear no grudge …. That will not bring her back …. Don’t ask me, please, for a purpose…. I don’t have an answer.  But I know there has to be a plan.  If I didn’t think that, I would commit suicide.  It’s part of a greater plan … and we shall meet again.

[Source:  Johann christoph Arnold, The Lost Art ofForgiving (Plough Publishing House, 1998)

We say it glibly at so many of our services.

But maybe it is as we repeatedly say it, as we come back to it time and time again, that slowly it takes root in our heart … and if this ‘grace’ of our Lord Jesus Christ seeps more deeply inside us, maybe, just maybe it will come out in a graciousness we can extend to others.

Five letters, one word

A name, a trait, a gift

Grace

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

Transforms and renews

Beyond all our imagining.

If we are religious … and I guess that’s something that brings us together, then the way we think of God will shape our view of the world, our attitude towards others and the very  people we are.

For me, more and more, I want to come to God not by arguing from first principles some philosophical notion of God.  I wasn’t to start with Jesus – with his teaching, the things he did – his whole life.  As I grapple with the grace of the one who I regard as Lord, this Jesus Christ, then that begins to give God a shape.  And it is a wonderful shape.

Three words, each so short

And yet so filled with meaning.

God                is                 love

That is a remarkable claim.  And it shapes my understanding of God and my readiness to seek to rebuilt, to renew, to re-order things.

Those were troubled times in the 80’s.

Within the year the Lockerbie disaster happened.  The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was asked to preach at a memorial service.  What he had to say was forthright … in some ways prophetic.  Very powerful and it went to the heart of the Christian faith.  It was doubly powerful, because he himself had been through tragedy in the six months before with the tragic loss of his wife and a time of bereavement he had struggled with – in fact this was his first public appearance.

He was forthright in what he said as he allowed those little words to resonate deep within him …

“Justice, yes; retaliation, no.

“For, if we move in the way of retaliation we move right outside of the fellowship of the Christ’s suffering, ousdie of the Divine consolation. There is nothing that way but bitterness and the destruction of our own humanity.”

The genuineness of what he had to say struck home, so much that when the Dunblane killings of children took place seven years later, he was the one the families invited to speak at that memorial service.  [source: Guardian Obituary by Brian Wilson, June 2005.

Maybe we need to say it over and over again, so that when we need it those words have become part of us …

The love of God

cleanses and heals Deep down within.

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

The Love of God

And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

Fellowship is that close sharing that binds us together.

I think Paul knew how big a thing that is.

It’s massive.

I loved the phrase he coined – the right hand of fellowship.

But read on in the way he uses that word in his letters and you get the feeling that he knew it was not something possible to achieve just in your own strength.   It’s something that calls on a strength and a power from beyond ourselves.

That’s what we draw on when in our Christian faith we realise that we cannot get by without that strength that is deep within, that stregnth that is from far beyond, that strength that is none other than the Holy Spirit of God.

Ten letters, one word

A simple handshake

Fellowship - not just among friends but

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit

That binds us together and together with God.

The Good Friday of the Good Friday agreement is one of those occasions that sticks in my mind.  Would they, wouldn’t they sign.  We were on tenterhooks.  We shared our Good Friday service in the town centre.   Our free churches joining together.

I then joined the community at Prinknash for their Good Friday service.  And coming out I tuned into the radio – and then it was that the news started to come through.  The peace agreement had been signed.

There is still a long way to go.  As too many of the interviews suggested, there is still too much cynicism around.

But I for one was deeply moved to find so much significance vested in such a powerful symbol.  I want to capture the spirit of that in the living of my life …

Five letters, one word

A name, a trait, a gift

Grace

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

Transforms and renews

Beyond all our imagining.

Three words, each so short

And yet so filled with meaning.

God is love

The love of God

cleanses and heals

Deep down within.

Ten letters, one word

A simple handshake

Fellowship - not just among friends but

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit

That binds us together and together with God.

Love - the ultimate question

I’ve always thought of it as a list.

A kind of ‘to do’ list.

The ultimate ‘to do’ list.

A variation, if you like, on ‘the ten commandments’ – another ‘to do’ list.

Let love be genuine

Hate what is evil

Hold fast to what is good

Love one another with mutual affection

Outdo one another in showing honour.

I don’t know about you, but I find ‘to do’ lists so helpful.  There are so many things to get your mind round, write them down, make a list and start ticking off each thing that needs to be done.

These are the things to work at.

When I came to this passage again this week, I saw it in a different light.

Not so much the ultimate ‘to do’ list, as the answer to the ultimate question.

Let me explain.

Jesus takes the ten commandments down to two:

Love God

Love your neighbour.

Those two commandments have one word in common.

That’s the word Jesus comes back to in his parting words to the disciples.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.

Be it in pastoral care, be it in care of others in need, what counts is love.

So let’s go back to this passage and see it in a new light.

That’s exactly what Paul is getting at.  Love is what it is all about.

Let love be genuine.

But that gives rise to a question.  And that’s the ultimate question Paul sets out to respond to in this passage.

What is genuine love?  How can we make sure love is genuine?

Maybe, that’s what Paul is getting at.  This is what it takes for love to  be really love, the kind of love that really is genuine …

There’s a love that pretends

And a love that’s true.

Help us to see the difference

And know that true love

Seeks the good

Honours the other

Serves the Lord

Rejoices in hope

Waits in patience

Keeps at prayer

Gives in need

Welcomes the stranger

Rejoices with those who rejoice

Weeps with those who weep

And seeks to be at peace

Father's Day - celebrating Hy-Speed at Highbury

Sunday 17th June was Father's Day.  For eighteen months we have been running a men's event once a month on Saturday evening called 'Hy-Speed'.  It's a great space for men to come together with their youngsters and meet up ... and it's all based around Scalextric Digital Racing.

If you want a taste of Hy-Speed go to our Web site, read all about it on the Congregational Federation's Web Site or see the video that was made to celebrate our winning a Community Award from the Congregational Federation.

Father's Day seemed a great day to have an awards event, enjoy some racing and build in a service too!  Carolyn, our children's worker shared thoughts during the service.  Here are her rough notes!

Father’s Day Hy-Speed Event

9.30 Racing and Breakfast (cooks and washing up)

10.30 Service and Awards

11.15-12.30 Racing and Café

Service ideas:

Racing…

Olympics…

Sports Day (the closest most of us will get!)

·        Run some races/physical challenges with dads and children

Highlight of some people’s yr, the Fathers’ Race. Serious training and high tension followed by punch-ups!

A lot at stake; pride, standing, status in the playground/school gates.

‘My dad’s bigger than your dad!’

Bigger car, stronger, taller, faster, richer…

·        Bible- ‘last shall be first and first shall be last’ Matthew 19:30, Matthew 5:3-12

What do children really want? The biggest, fastest, richest dad?

Care for the family parenting tips; ‘Kids want 5 minutes, not £5.’

‘Quality Time’ was a fashionable phrase around parenting but Reg Bailey, the chief executive of the Mothers’ Union, (who is actually a dad!) claimed, ‘Kids don’t want quality time, they need you all the time.’

Children grow up fast. What will your legacy be?

·        Toy Story 3 clip (growing up, leaving home)

Being a parent is challenging. Constant test of values, patience, boundaries, role models and love.

·        Rob Parsons: I may be ashamed of some of the things you have done, but I will never be ashamed of you.’

·        Father images in the Bible. The lost son- ‘I was there waiting all the time.’

This is a powerful inspiration for parents, but goes further than that. God is saying this to all of us,

‘You were still a long way from home when I saw you. My heart was filled with pity. I ran, threw my arms around you and kissed you.’ Luke 15:20

AWARDS

·        Which race are you in? (recall Sports day)

·        The rat race? (images for these)

·        The human race?

·        The race for life?

·        The race against time?

·        Or, the one race that really counts…

·        2 Timothy 4:7-8

‘I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day – and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear.’

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

It goes back many centuries before the time of Christ.  The idea of a Jubilee Year.

It would be a year that gave people the chance to start all over again as debts were written off and slaves freed.

It was a year to catch the imagination … but it never quite worked!

It appears at the beginnings of the Bible in Leviticus 25.  It then appears again in Isaiah 61.  And as Jesus begins his ministry the idea appears again.

Reading:  Luke 4

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour

Good news to the poor

Freedom for the prisoners

Recovery of sight for the blind,

Set the oppressed free

The Year of the Lord’s Favour – that’s it – the Jubilee Year.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that’s what the Jubilee was all about!

It really is a special year – as much as anything it is a celebration of the achievements of the Queen as an individual.  Not many people can claim to have been doing a job for 60 years … and still to be going strong with the kind of gruelling schedule the Queen has chosen to undertake in this Jubilee Year.

She has made the Christmas Day message her very own – some have been about current affairs, current issues, some about her family, initially idolised, latterly going through the very same strains and stresses any other family experiences.  On the threshold of this Jubilee year it was fascinating to hear a Christmas Day message that was such a clear declaration of the Christian faith that has meant so much to her and continues to mean so much!

She quoted a favourite Christmas carol and made it her prayer for each of us listening in …

In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,

Descend to us, we pray.

Cast out our sin,

And enter in.

Be born in us today.

The Queen went on to say,

It is my prayer that on this Christmas Day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.

What would that mean for us?  I wonder?

A chance to begin all over again?

I think there’s a clue in two visits the Queen has made to Cheltenham.  And I am choosing those visits carefully.

In 2003 she came to the races and unveiled a bust to the Queen Mother.  It emerged then that months before the coronation the Queen mother had brought the uncrowned Queen Elizabeth secretly to Cheltenham – they watched the races from a landrover parked next to the Water Jump.

That wasn’t her first visit to Cheltenham.  Fifty-two years before she had come as Princess Elizabeth.   It was as GCHQ was about to move to the town, its buildings were going up.  Hence Princess Elizabeth Way with all its flats and houses that were built for the arrival of those moving from Bletchley Park and London.  During her visit Princess Elizabeth planted an Oak Tree.

Sad to say when the new GCHQ building went up the Oak Tree had to  be felled.  No matter, when the Queen came to Cheltenham for, I think, the fourth time, in March 2004 to open the new GCHQ building she unveiled a plaque in Hester’s Way Park to commemorate the Oak she had planted … what became of the oak.  Other oaks planted – Felicity thought in Cox’s Meadow, maybe in Hester’s Way.

There’s a wonderfully powerful image there of the acorn and the oak.  Small things that make all the difference.  That could be said of much the Queen has done … the small things that count and are remembered.

It’s in doing small things that make a difference that we bring good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind and set the oppressed free.

It is a lovely picture of the tree that has to be felled – but from it an acorn brings new life.  It is an irony of our celebrations that we are marking not the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation, but the sixtieth anniversary of the accession.  And that has a sadness as well as a joy to it.  For it is out of sadness that a new reign begins.

Jesus doesn’t talk of oaks and acorns … but he does talk of a grain of wheat.  Speaking of his own death and resurrection, and of the resurrection victory we all may share he invited us to picture a grain of wheat.

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains but a single seed.  But if it dies it produces many seeds.

Even in the sadness of dying, death and bereavement there’s a new beginning in the eternal love of God.

The story of that original Oak planted by Princess Elizabeth is also symbolic of the way new beginnings come from endings too!

When Philip Smith, the vicar of St Aidan and St Silas realised the Oak originally planted by Princess Elizabeth had been felled he rescued some of the wood.

St Silas and St  Aidan has been home to a wonderful project that has been on the go for twenty years and more, Network Crafts.  Providing word working experience initially for people who need to develop skills, maybe in unemployment or in retirement.  They have crafted candle holders and a table that takes pride of place in the church.

That’s the hope at the heart of the faith that has meant so much to the Queen down through all these years.

Between that visit to Cheltenham and GCHQ in 2004 and the next in 2009 the construction company responsible for what had been Europe’s largest building project at the time had presented to the town a wonderfully playful piece of public art in Hester’s Way Park.

Cheltenham’s very own stone circle.

There’s GCHQ, affectionately known as the Doughnut.

And from it goes an avenue of stones to a much smaller circle of stones.

What would a time team special in a thousand years make of these two circles side by side?

Created by …, and known as the Listening Stones, it really is a stone circle worth visiting.

It’s got all sorts of codes I don’t recognise … but maybe some here would.  And newspaper cuttings.  I am told there are Bible texts … but you will have to find those for yourselves.

But one stone is highlighted.  The Inscription is marked out in red.

It is a stone that brings me back to the Year of the Lord’s favour, making a new start and in particular to that Christmas Message of 2011 with its Prayer for Peace

Lead me from death to life

From falsehood to truth

Lead me from despair to hope

From fear to trust

Lead me from hate to love

From war to peace

Let peace fill our heart,

Our world, our universe

Peace Peace Peace

That prayer at Christmas 2011 is one very much for the whole of this Jubilee Year.

It is my prayer that on this Christmas Day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.

The message of the angels that is right at the heart of that prayer is the prayer we would pray together

Glory to God on high

And earth …. Peace

It brings to mind the words of Jesus … I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in  darkness but will have the light of life.

For the Diamond Jubilee Philip has written a hymn.

This morning over on Coronation Square they will be singing of the Jubilee on Coronation Square.

We come to crown God sovereign
in Coronation Square
A time for celebration

in jubilee displayed.
We come as different people
each noble in God’s heart.
We come to serve our neighbour,
for all to play their part.

Our gracious Queen we pray for
and thank God for her care.
She rules with love and service,
her people everywhere.
A commonwealth of nations,
a family of grace.
We come as loyal kinsfolk
all equal in this place.

This day of national homage
is one of hope and cheers.
A time to honour duty,
for grace of sixty years.
We are a royal priesthood
who in our Lord we trust.
O God we raise our anthem,
please save our Queen and us!

Philip Smith 2012

We may not be other there with them, but we can be with them in spirit and use those same words too.

In that coronation service at the heart of the service was a moment when the Queen was anointed with oil.

That too is an ancient biblical tradition.  In the Old Testament anointing was always for a specific person and a specific role – prophets, priests, kings.

Jesus’ brother James speaks of the great value of anointing with oil in times of illness when he that when someone is ill he can call those who are senior in the life of the church and ask them to share in anointing with oil and to share in prayer for healing and hope.  Something very moving to share.

Jesus himself felt anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed.

The wonderful good news is that this anointing of the Spirit is not just for the one or the two, not just for those in extraordinary positions, it is something for each one of us.  We too are anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor and share that wonderful message of the love of God in Christ.

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the  power of the Holy Spirit.

We all of us are called to live for other people …

That’s the life we are anointed to, that’s the hope we look and it is a wonderful hope to share.

May the God of hope fill each one of us with all joy and peace as we trust in him, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit, be the presence we need

The Spirit meets our every need

Come, Holy Spirit,

Be the presence we need

In the darkness of uncertainty

Be the light of our lives

In moments of doubt and despair

Be the fire in our souls

In times that are dry and devoid of feeling

Be the dew that refreshes and renews

In days of turbulence and conflict

Be the dove of peace beyond understanding

In days of weakness and fearfulness

Be the wind of unseen strength

Come, Holy Spirit,

Be the presence we need.

I feel very much betwixt and between.

I have to confess to being a touch cynical about the torch and its arrival in town as Wednesday drew closer.  But in the event it wasn’t a disappointment.  It was great to have a presence organised by Felicity, Helen and the Scout Group on Pittville Park complete with face painting and bunting and to be joined by others from Highbury too.  It seemed as half of Cheltenham was out – a wonderful sense of bringing people together and such a happy coming together of people from all over the town.  And the other half were at the Race Course to welcome the flame.

There’s something inspirational about the planning that has gone into the Torch Relay that slowly over 70 days brings communities together the length and breadth of the land.  The seed of a thought was sown in one of many emailings that came out from Morethan Gold and I think from the Methodists that it’s good to share in prayer.  It was a couple of hours before the official presence that the open top bus went through that’s travelling the route with prayers and praise.  It may just be a moment’s prayer but as news comes day by day of the torch’s progress around the country a moment of prayer.

And next weekend is the Diamond Jubilee Weekend – an extended holiday, again a sense of communities coming together – and again we’ll be doing our bit with a Big Diamond Jubilee lunch.  Again the Queen touring the country through the year, the flotilla on the Thames.  A sense of celebration.

And this is the lull between whiles.

Or is it?

This is the Day of Pentecost.

It’s one of the great festivals of our Christian year.

A day of great celebration.

But it’s no longer a bank holiday.  It’s no longer a festival occasion.  It’s in our hands now to do with it as we will.

The Day of Pentecost is one of those moments of transformation when things change and all is different.  It’s the moment when the followers of Jesus sense collectively and individually that the risen Christ may no longer be seen and heard and touched and felt with the senses, but his presence is going to be as real and as strong and as powerful as ever.

It’s exactly what Jesus had been talking about with his closest friends at the last meal they shared together.  He had promised them they would not be alone, they would have another Helper, a Strengthener, A Counsellor, an Advocate – it’s  a word so difficult to translate and yet so rich with meaning.  I like William Tyndale’s word – another comforter to be with you for ever.  And that is the spirit, the breath, the wind, the unseen strengthening power of God deep within and all around – and the Spirit of God will be with you.

The great thing about the Holy Spirit as the story of the early church unfolds in the New Tesatment is that the Spirit’s presence is a presence that is real and unique for each person and for every person.  Every one has gifts from the Spirit of God, suggests Paul, each person who follows Jesus is prompted by the Spirit and will bear fruit in the living of their lives in that love, that peace, that patience and that joy that the Holy Spirit develops deep within us.

As I was preparing for this morning’s service my eye fell on a hymn.  It’s a hymn that invites us to think of different ways of thinking of the Holy Spirit and then to see the Holy Spirit coming deep into our lives at that point at which we need the touch of God in Christ by the unseen power of the Spirit most.

In a moment we are going to sing that hymn very much as a prayer.  But first, I want to take out of the hymn each of its images.  And I want us to take these few moments in the quiet of this place to turn to God in prayer and to see the touch of the Holy Spirit upon our lives.

Come, Holy Spirit,

Be the presence we need

In the darkness of uncertainty

Be the light of our lives

In moments of doubt and despair

Be the fire in our souls

In times that are dry and devoid of feeling

Be the dew that refreshes and renews

In days of turbulence and conflict

Be the dove of peace beyond understanding

In days of weakness and fearfulness

Be the wind of unseen strength

Come, Holy Spirit,

Be the presence we need.

Spirit divine, inspire our prayers

This church was less than two years old when that hymn was first sung.  It was Good Friday, 17^th April, 1829.  A call to prayer had gone out a couple of months before – it was made by ministers of Congregational churches all over London.  That day was to be a day of prayer for ‘a revival of religion in the British Churches’.

There was an excitement in the air.  There was a passion for sharing the Gospel of Christ.  It was the passion that led to Congregational churches grouping together in order to make a difference in people’s lives.  It was the passion that prompted people to plant this church here in what was a new town rapidly expanding at that time.  It was the passion Andrew Reed had in planting a church that was to open a couple of years later in London, and to found a home for orphans in London that was to make its mark in London society.

Maybe that should be our passion too.  And we can capture something of that passion in the words Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:8-17

With the unseen yet real stregnth of God in the power of the Spirit at work within us then we shall have that kind of unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another tha tPeter speaks of.  We shall seek a tender heart, a humble mind and instead of repaying evil for eveil will repay with a blessing. 

The key to living the kind of life that draws people to the love of God is in verse 15

In your hearts sanctiry Christ as Lord.

That’s something that we cannot do in our own strength. That’s the whole point of the wonderful good news we celebrate on Pentecost Sunday.  It is only by the power of God at work within us that we have that Holy Spirit of God to make a real difference in our lives.

With that in our hearts – then our lives will be shaped by the love of God in Christ.

But still on occasion we need words to explain why it is we seek to do as we do, and who it is we seek to follow in our lives.

Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.

Then it is that we shall capture the passion, share the vision and fulfil our calling together as a church to share in the mission of Christ.

Living Stones and the Living Stone

The Aquatic Centre and the Velodrome met with full marks when a group of architects toured the now-finished Olympic venues for the first time.  Not quite so keen on the main stadium.  But on the whole they lived up to the expectations of Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics when he said they should be ‘steeped in a sort of gravity that need not necessarily be austere and need not exclude joy.”  He wanted them to attract visitors “on a pilgrimage” and “inspire in them a respect due to places consecrated to noble memories and to potent hopes”.  [Robert Booth, writing in the Guardian, 17^th May 2012]

80 years ago on Friday, it was raining.  But many had gathered to lay the foundation stone for this building.  I visited one of those who was present on Friday afternoon.  Eileen Hodgkins of Salem Baptist Church, whose husband Charles, a minister, died just before we arrived in Cheltenham was a girl of about 12 and was present at the laying of the foundation stone.

The measure of this building as of those Olympic venues is whether it works.  When you see the range of activities that have taken place here in the past week I think you can say with a resounding yes that this building does work.  We have gathered together here for worship and in a very special service we gave thanks for Joan Barnes her faith in God and her commitment to love and service of other people.  Hy-Spirit were practising this morning, the choir on Friday evening.  Toddlers have been making wonderful crafts,  and we have been working with children through Bubbles, Splash, X-Stream and Transformers, with young people through M:Ocean and Hy-Tec, and had them all together for a Sunday Special.   Cubs and Scouts have met in the last week, though it wasn’t a week for Beavers, and the Guides met too.  There was even an impromptu meeting of Hy-Speed who have gone to a national meeting today, will b e meeting next Saturday and who are having a special awards service on Father’s Day we can all join in.  We have hosted Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, the Glos and Worcs 4 x 4 response group, an upholstery class, a bridge class, a couple of heart-to-heart exercise classes, a community café, an Orchestra and a Rock School and yesterday a coffee morning for Maggies Cancer Care Centre.

There were some impressive buildings around in Jesus’ day.  When Peter made his great confession of faith and said to Jesus, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus responded by saying to him You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.

Peter took that saying of Jesus very much to heart …  it wasn’t just that a statement of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ and the Son of the living God was the rock on which the church was built … Peter recognised that the Church needs to be built on nothing less than Jesus Christ.

“Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by people, yet chosen and precious in God’s sight.”

He spoke of Jesus as ‘the cornerstone’ the ‘headstone’, he might have thought of Jesus as the foundation stone.  He is the one that holds everything together.

“Come to him, a living stone, and like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house”

What a thing to challenge us to be.

Are we prepared to see ourselves as living stones, and are we prepared to ‘let ourselves’ be built into a spiritual house.

Just look at the brickwork in this place.  It has its own beauty.  It was great shortly after arriving at Highbury to meet someone who had been a bricklayer who had worked on this building.  He used to sit part way down the side there – and had been a life-long official linked with a football team in the local leagues.  The bricks all fit together, and rise to make a building that can be put to such good use.

But it’s the people who make the church.  And we need to let ourselves be fitted together into the whole building for the good of other people.

What does it take to do that?

We each of us need to be prepared to channel God’s presence and God’s love into people’s lives.  That’s what Peter means when he says we are to be a holy priesthood.

You cannot set one person aside to do the job of channelling God’s love as a priest, no, says Peter, we all of us are priests – our task is to channel God’s love.  We don’t offer up sacrfices, but we offer ourselves in the service of others.

How do we let God’s love flow through us?  What is the sacrificial service we are called to share?

Peter is extravagant in what he has to say.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,  God’s own people and as such we have a task to do.  We are to proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.

It’s the way we live our lives … it’s the little things that count and make all the difference.  Actions speak louder than words.  But … Peter goes on to suggest that it is important that we be ready to give an account of the faith that is in us.  Why do you hold those values?  Why do you do those things?  Can we give an account of the faith that is in us, of the hope we share.  Peter insists we do it in the gentlest of ways.

Christian Aid week is a tangible way of expressing our concern for the wider world.  Our support for justice and for change in the wider world is important too.

An opportunity coming up in a fortnight – to invite people to our Big Jubilee Lunch – it should be a great gathering and an opportunity just to share with people around us too.

What opportunities do you reckon there will be in this coming week to share the light of God’s presence?

Our thoughts and prayers are very much with Sharon and the team out in Bolivia – good to have some news and updates from them.

We have been thinking of Elaine and the medical work she has been doing with PRIME, a Christian partnership in international medical education in the Middle East

 It's been good to receive news of Sharon and the work getting under way in their visit to Bolivia.

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christo" (sic)

Greetings from Bolivia!

We arrived in Cochabamba to a welcome party which included Suzanne, Sabia (The Pastor´s wife and Director of the nursery where we are working), Janet, a local woman who does a great deal and Hugo, the nursery caretaker. We felt like royalty!

Friday was spent at Suzanne´s house doing orientation which included a traditional Bolivian meal in town. Our accommodation is a comfortable room in the nursery, sharing a bathroom with the caretaker´s family and, during the day, all the children. Suzanne and staff have made our room very comfortable. The teachers had made a beautiful poster for the wall containing the scripture verse quoted above.

Use of the bathroom is interesting, a choice of two: upstairs or downstairs. First we made several visits back to the room for something we´d forgotten....!

Yesterday we were treated to royal treatment again, when we were presented to all the nursery children. Every class sang a song for us and we sang for them too!

In the evening, we were presented to the women´s group, who were wonderfully welcoming. We were asked to say something about ourselves and there was a particular ripple of appreciation around the group when we told them we brought greetings and prayers from our churches. Over the weekend we attended a retreat for Latin Link Bolivia's members and families - 22 in all - on the theme of "Who am I and where am I going?" We were glad to start getting stuck into the decorating on Monday, which will be our main task but look forward to supporting some literacy work at the church and enjoying the children. Suzanne is hoping to take us to see some of the Freehands work later in the week. Work on the outside of the nursery will follow when tarmac on the road outside is finished, allowing the necessary equipment to be delivered. At the moment, we are concentrating on the downstairs toilets, working around the children. More details next time.....

Every morning, we wake to the sound of water being pumped to the rooftop tank and eat our breakfast to the sound of children arriving!

Much Love,

Sharon, Sue, Sue and Christine.

And that brings us back to where we started and the approach of the Olympics and the Paralympics.

It’s arriving in town on Wednesday – the Scout Group are going to be gathering from 5-00 in Pittville Park near the café ready to watch the flame as it passes by.

A praise bus – an idea of a chain of prayer.  As you watch the flame and follow it going round the country – it passes through so many different communities.  Within 5 miles of practically the whole country.  Let’s uphold the people of those communities in our prayers.

This week we have prepared car stickers that people in lots of churches will be putting on their cars – the churches of Cheltenham – with more than Gold – and Jesus who says, I am the light of the World.

Maybe just a statement from the churches of the town.

We have a message of good news to share that brings light into the darkness of our world and of people’s lives and makes all the difference.

As we come to Jesus Christ, the living stone, and let ourselves be built into a spiritual house, then maybe it’s not just the building that has some use but we who come together in this place can make all the difference.

It is not jus that we are consecrated to noble memories and to potent hopes.  But we have something to share that can make all the difference.

This week thoughts inspired by the Olympic buildings, next week, thoughts inspired by Wembley!

A huge door of opportunity - the mission we share

Open wide the wide door

When doors close

Other doors open

Help always to remember!

You have set before us an open door

Which no one is able to shut!

Help us to see

            the door you have opened for us

and give us the courage to go through it!

Then, we pray,

help us to open wide the door

for other people that they might enter,

find faith

and know your wonderful love.

When one door closes another door will open.  I’m a great believer in that, though I guess like anyone else I need reminding of it at times.

I’m also a great believer in pushing at doors to see whether they will open or not.  Nothing ventured nothing gained!

Towards the beginning of the book of Revelation John the Divine writes letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor.  Real churches, it’s possible to visit each of them.  I have visited four of them, albeit a long time ago!  Each had different needs, and each letter is written differently.   But maybe there’s significance in the fact that there are seven letters, seven the number of wholeness, of completeness – maybe these are letters written to the whole range of churches, to every possible church you might ever find.  And among these letters you will find words of comfort, words of challenge no matter what church you belong to.

Writing to the church of Philadelphia St John the  Divine has a wonderful image that he shares.  It’s a picture that excites me.  It’s as if he is saying to this church – you have a wonderful opportunity before you, a great chance to do wonderful things – seize the opportunity.   Push on the door, and you can be sure it will open.

Actually, John the Divine doesn’t quite say that.  His vision is even more exciting.

Look, behold!  I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.

Wow!  That’s some vision.

To belong to one church is to belong to the one church world-wide – and together we are the body of Christ called to bring God’s love into a world of need.  And as we are called to do just that we must look … and see that God has set before us an open door, which no one is able to shut.

This is exciting stuff!

When we came up with all those words describing what makes Highbury special and grouped them under six headings, one cluster of words was grouped around our Mission.  That’s our focus through the month of May.

Mission goes to the very heart not only of what we do as a church, but at what we are as a church.

Out-going, outward looking, cares for community, community minded, charitable giving, mission orientated, the world

I love the range of words people came up with.

Interestingly, it was Paul who had already found the image of ‘the door’ a very powerful one to describe his work of mission.

It all began in Antioch.  Among those who were prophets and teachers were Barnabas and Saul.  The church was led by the Spirit to set apart Barnabas and Saul to travel through the Mediterranean world to take the good news of Jesus Christ.  Setting off for Cyprus, and mixing with non-Jewish people Saul, named after the first Jewish king, starts to be known by the more Greek-sounding name of Paul.  And his momentous workhas begun.  He and Barnabas travel throughout Cyprus and then on to what is now mainland Turkey visiting another town with the name of Antioch, and then on to Iconium, Derbe, Lystra before retracing their steps and returning to Antioch in Syria.

They can’t wait to report back on what they have done … Paul and Barnabas are excited.

they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.  

Acts 14:27 

The work of mission is all about opening doors for people so that the can come to faith, and then live their faith in Jesus Christ.  That’s exactly what we are about in our mission today.  It’s about finding ways to open doors in people’s hearts so that the can come to faith.

I love the way Eugene Peterson translates this verse in the Message Bible. 

they got the church together and reported on their trip, telling in detail how God had used them to throw the door of faith wide open so people of all nations could come streaming in.  Acts 14:27 The Message.

 But for Paul, faith has to be lived out in actions.  Much later on his missionary travels he has journeyed all through what is now Western Turkey and crossed over into what is now modern day Greece and visited Corinth.  Paul never forgot the people he visited and the churches he set up.  He continually remembered them in his prayers, wrote letters to them, and often re-visited them.  As he gets to the end of the first letter to the church in Corinth he describes the way he intends to visit them again.  But he has been delayed in  Ephesus, where he is writing the letter from.  He explains why in 1 Corinthians 16:8

⁸But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, ⁹for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.  

1 Corinthians 14:5-9

 A wide door for effective work.  Again, I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it. 

MSG© 16:9 A huge door of opportunity for good work has opened up here. (There is also mushrooming opposition.)

Faith and work, faith and deeds.  In the task of mission those two go inextricably together.  As Paul says ‘all that counts is faith active in love’.  It’s fascinating that around this time Paul became very focused on raising money from the wealthier churches of what we think of now as Greece to support the famine stricken churches and people of Judea and Jerusalem.  A very practical expression of faith active in love.

Our Christian Aid Collection is very much an expression of that faith active in love.  Collectors are needed for Christian Aid week.   Bags are available and the list is there for us to sign up to.

A door of opportunity has opened for Sharon to share with a small group from St Luke’s, Sue Pestell, Sue Garcia and Christine Lodge  in a mission visit to Bolivia.

Sharon shared with us all that she looks forward to doing as the group visits Cochabamba and the Broombush Nursery.  We look to hearing all the news, not least through Facebook and the Blog Sharon will be keeping.

She specially asked for our prayers for safe journeying, good health, the project they will be sharing in and families back at home.

This visit is exactly the kind of thing Paul and Barnabas were doing – in visiting and supporting the work across the world.  It’s a tangible way of sensing we are part of that world-church.

Our prayers and our blessing go with you.  We will be thinking of you in our prayers – we are there for your family while you are away.  Please take our love and blessing and prayers to all the people you will be meeting as well.

My reflections today are very much with you in mind.

I want to share these words of Scripture with you and for you as you set off for Bolivia this week.

From Revelation 3:8

Behold!  I have set before you an open door that no one can shut.

May you come back with your faith strengthened seeing for yourself the way God is at work, using you and those you will be visiting  to throw the door of faith wide open so people of all nations could come streaming in.  Acts 14:27 The Message.

And in all the work you will be sharing … may you find that A huge door of opportunity for good work has opened up here.