Walking the Way of the Women - a Sunrise Service on Cleeve Hill

First thing this morning our Easter celebrations began on Cleeve Hill shortly after the sun had risen on a glorious, though cold, Spring morning, with wonderful views over to the snow clad Malvern hills.  In our mind's eye we went back to the first Easter and walked the way of the women

It was the women who made it happen.

It was the women who saw it through

to the end.

It was the women who spread the word

The Women of Galilee

He had been down to the sea, up to the heights

Of Galilee

Through cities and villages

And everywhere he went he had a message to share

The Good News of the Kingdom of God

On earth as in heaven your kingdom come

Your will be done

It wasn’t only the twelve who were with him.

There were some women too.

Some had been sick, very sick

And they had been healed, made whole, by Jesus.

Mary, called Magdalene

And Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza

And Susanna, and many others.

They were the ones who made it happen.

They provided for Jesus,

Got everything ready for him

And they saw it through

That Friday afternoon it had gone dark,

Very dark, dark as night.

And the crowds who had come for the spectacle

Saw exactly what had happened.

They had had enough.

They returned home, beating their  breasts.

But his friends, and those women,

The women who had followed him from Galilee,

Stood at a distance,

Watching.

And what they saw, they forever remembered.

Coming towards that place they saw

A good man, a righteous man,

A man who had been waiting expectantly

For the Kingdom of God

Waiting for God’s kingdom to come

Waiting for God’s will to be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

They saw a good man called Joseph

He was coming from Pilate – of all things to do,

He asked for the body, the body of Jesus.

He took  it down, wrapped it in a cloth

Still, those women stood at a distance.

Still they watched.

The women who had come with him from Galilee

Followed.  They looked.

And what they saw they forever remembered.

He laid the body in a tomb carved out of the rock.

No one had ever been laid in that tomb before.

They looked, and they saw the tomb,

They saw how his body was laid.

They returned back to the city

and there they prepared spices and ointments.

And on the first day of the week,

A Sunday morning,

At early dawn when the sun had risen

Those women,

The women who had followed him from Galilee

Made their way from the comfort of their home

To the cold of the tomb.

And as they walked, one question was in their minds.

Who will roll away the stone for us

From the entrance to the tomb?

To the tomb

It was the women who made it happen.

It was the women who saw it through

to the end.

It was the women who spread the word

The Women of Galilee

Still they wondered in the cold of the morning

Just after the sun had risen

Who will roll away the stone for us

From the entrance to the tomb?

And then they reached the tomb

They looked up.

They looked and they saw.

And what they saw, they forever remembered.

They saw that the stone, which was very large,

had already been rolled back

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side;

and they were very frightened.

And then he spoke.  And they listened.

And this is what he said.

‘Do not be afraid;

you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth,

who was crucified.

He has been raised;

he is not here. Look,

there is the place they laid him. 

But go, tell his disciples and Peter

that he is going ahead of you to Galilee;

there you will see him, just as he told you.’ 

It was the women who made it happen.

It was the women who saw it through

to the end.

It was the women who spread the word

The Women of Galilee

And what they saw, they forever remembered.

1     Led like a lamb to the slaughter

       In silence and shame,

       There on Your back You carried a world

       Of violence and pain.

       Bleeding, dying, bleeding, dying.

       You're alive, You're alive,

You have risen, Alleluia!

       And the power and the glory is given,

Alleluia, Jesus, to You.

      

2     At break of dawn, poor Mary,

       Still weeping she came,

       When through her grief she heard Your voice

       Now speaking her name.

       Mary, Master, Mary, Master!

       Refrain

3     At the right hand of the Father

       Now seated on high

       You have begun Your eternal reign

       Of justice and joy.

       Glory, glory, glory, glory.

       Refrain

Graham Kendrick (born 1950)  CCL 3540

To Galilee

And so it was the eleven disciples went to Galilee.

And what of the women?

It was the women who made it happen.

It was the women who saw it through

to the end.

It was the women who spread the word

The Women of Galilee

They saw him.  With their own eyes, they saw him.

And what they saw, they forever remembered.

They looked and once more they saw.

They saw Jesus come.

And as he came, he spoke.

And as he spoke they heard what he had to say.

And what he had to say spoke to them all.

And what they heard

they forever remembered.

“All authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

And teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

And then he gave them a promise.

It was a promise for the eleven disciples

It was a promise for the women

who made it happen.

It was a promise for the women

who saw it through to the end.

It was a promise for the women

who spread the word

It was a promise for The Women of Galilee

It was a promise, they forever remembered.

It was a promise they passed on.

It is a promise that is for us all

It is a promise for men and for women

It is a promise for young and for old

It is a promise for us and for everyone

It is the promise of Easter,

It is the promise of the Risen Lord Jesus

“And remember,

I am with you always

To the end of the age.”

He is with us all

He is with men and women, young and old

He is with everyone now and forever.

Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son;

endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won.

Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,

kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.

Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son:

Endless is the victory, thou o'er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;

lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom.

Let his church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;

for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

       Refrain

No more we doubt thee, glorious prince of life!

Life is nought without thee; aid us in our strife;

make us more than conquerors,

       through thy deathless love:

Bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.

       Refrain

Edmund L Budry (1854-1932), translated by Richard B Hoyle (1875-1939) CCL3540

That promise is for us

That promise is for ever

Remember, I am with you always

To the end of the age.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Will hardship, or distress, or persecution,

or famine, or nakedness,

or peril, or sword? 

No, in all these things

we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us. 

For I am convinced that

neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor rulers,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us

from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Amen

Faithfully Following

With the excitement of the inauguration of the new Pope in Rome and of the new Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury you may not have noticed news of another important event in Westminster Abbey this last week.

To mark the 200^th anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone the new President of Malawi has been over here visiting David Livingstone’s  birthplace in Blantyre in Scotland and his tomb in Westminster Abbey.  The memory of David Livingstone is highly honoured in Malawi – passionate to educate himself at loom, studying to be a Doctor and then giving himself to missionary service as one of a second generation of missionaries going out to Africa through our Mission agency, the London Missionary Society.  That has now become the Council for World Mission and the LMS become the CWM.  The links are important.

It’s not long since a group from our Congregational Federation churches went over to Malawi to spend time with our CWM partners there, the Churches of Christ in Malawi.  One of them joined us on a Sunday morning and reported back on that partnership.  We then got involved in welcoming the Malawi team to Cheltenham for the Olympics planting out that flower bed in the shape of the Malawi flag.  And in the summer, a small group from Malawi will be visiting our churches here and joining us at the International Congregational Fellowship conference.  They will be in Witney staying with Nan who was one of the Malawi team.  They are hoping they can visit us while they are over in Witney.

At our SW Midlands day Nan was saying how good it has been for Malawi since the election of their new President.  When we gave the design of the Malawi flag to the garden it was under the old regime.  By the time the athletes arrived the flag had subtly changed – in the hope that a new dawn was breaking in Malawi.

By all accounts that is happening.

What makes it a remarkbable moment to mark is that the new President of Malawi is a woman.  President Joyce Banda has according to our friends in Witney brought a degree of stability and hope to the country that has brought it back from the brink.

Interesting it should be a woman.   Women have made a big difference in Africa in conflict resolution.  It's less than two years since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, together with colleague Leymah Gbowee, also of Liberia, and Tawakuk Karman of Yemen were  awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."

The part women play in the story of Jesus' mission and in the Passion is easy to overlook, but of fundamental importance.

Luke 8:1-3

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

An interesting mix of women who were as much involved in the work of Jesus as he through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.    Mary called Magdalene – had received the healing touch of Jesus and had been restored to her right mind and to the wholeness – Joanna is the wife of Herod’s steward – interesting that she should come from the court of the Heoridan dynasty, Susanna and many others.  They weren’t just there but they provided for them out of their resources.  These were the ones who funded – who made it happen.  Maybe they organised the itinerary.  Event management.  Significant part to play.

Jump forward to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem … and Luke passes comment on the women in the crowd as Jesus was being taken out to his execution.

²⁷A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. ²⁸But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.”³⁰Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.” ³¹For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’

The weeping of the women.

Images that horrify from Syria that cause us deep and profound concern – of the women who weep.   The weeping woman of Picasso’s Guernica inspired paintings – horror at the war.

Jesus directs their weeping – not at him, but for themselves.  He has wept over Jerusalem – would that they had recognised the things that make for peace but they had not.   Weep for yourselves he says.

Then it is that Jesus is taken out to the cross.  He shares those powerful words

Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.

The promise to the one beside him also on the cross  – Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

And then that final breath, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.”

At a distance there were some watching – who were they?  The women …

⁴⁸And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. ⁴⁹But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

The women who watch and wait and look on from a distance.  And they are the women who had followed faithfully from the first through those towns and villages in Galilee - there is a tenacity here.  A determination not to give up.

Then Jesus is taken down from the cross, laid in a tomb …

⁵⁴It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.⁵⁵The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. ⁵⁶Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.

On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

And again, it is the women who had come with him from Galilee who followed.

Isn’t that interesting – we catch a glimpse of a very real determination to keep on following in the footsteps of Jesus.

It seemed as if everything had failed, all had fallen.  But they have the confidence to keep on going.  To journey faithfully on.

They thought the journeying had come to an end.  But they discovered it hadn’t.

We so often start our Easter readings at Luke 24.  But 24:1 follows straight on from 23:56 – the women who come to the tomb on Easter morning are the women who had been to the tomb at his burial – and these are the women who had come with him from Galilee.

What a remarkable testimony to their doggedness.

It’s a story for us all to take to heart – it’s something too for all of us to take to heart.   The need to journey on, to keep at it – through all the difficulties that all encounter.

Faithfully following ...

Touched with his healing,

Changed by his provision

Lord, keep us faithfully following

all the journey through

Comforted in our weeping

Strengthened in our loss

Lord, keep us faithfully following

all the journey through

Watching, waiting,

Unsure where this way will lead us

Lord, keep us faithfully following

all the journey through

Following through to the bitter end

And beyond to resurrection glory

Lord, keep us faithfully following

all the journey through.         

Luke 8 and 23

Lydia's Story - Our Story

Lydia’s story - our story

A place of prayer

A people to pray with

A God to worship

A willingness to listen

A heart open to the Lord

A grace to receive

A faith to share

A sign of belonging

A welcome home

A sharing in the gospel

A beginning made

An end in sight

A harvest of justice

Through Jesus Christ

For the glory and praise of God

Lydia in Acts 16:13-15 and Philippians 1 3-11

It’s a place I’ve wanted to visit … and I for one will make sure I get to see this year’s extravaganza of an exhibition at the British Museum.  It’s not just an exhibition of wonderful things from Pompeii and from Heruclaneum but it will take you into the world of ordinary people living in those ancient cities.  What excites me about the prospect is that it will give you a wonderful insight into the world of the people who make up the church of the New Testament.  For this was their world.

Peter Oakes, based up on in Manchester, hit upon the idea of writing a commentary on Romans as if that letter wre being read by people at Pompeii.

Just from the first glimpses of the exhibition and a peep at the catalogue it really will be wonderful to see the way they take you into homes and gardens of ordinary people to catch a glimpse of the splendour and of the poverty of those fascinating cities.

We catch a glimpse here in Acts of someone who would be at home in Pompeii and in Heruclaneum.  She was in some ways an ordinary person, but in other ways there was something extraordinary about her.

In Philippi she was an outsider, but she had put her roots down in the city and was a householder.  That in itself is quite something in what was in some ways a man’s world.  Lydia is a householder.  And a person of some standing.

She comes originally from Thyatira over the water in what we now think of as Turkey.  An ancient city which was renowned in the ancient world for producing dyes and therefore cloth that was much sought after.  A distinctive, purple dye.

That’s what brings her to Philippi – as a dealer in purple cloth.

It’s one of those colours associated with Rome and all its splendour.  A colour to look out for in Pompeii!

By the looks of things she was one of the leading women of that area – and with others came to play their part in the churches that Paul was founding and supporting.

But that is to anticipate.

Reading:  Acts 16:13-15

The Conversion of Lydia

 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

Track through that passage from Acts and then put it together with a prayer Paul later prays for the people who belong in that church and you can build up a picture of some of those things that are so important in being part of the body of Christ, the church.

Reading:  Philippians 1:3-11

Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

 I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s gracewith me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

These are the things that struck me in the story …

On arrival in Philippi, a bustling centre of trade Paul waits until the Sabbath comes and then acts on a hunch – he reckons in all likelihood there will be a place outside the city, down by the river that is a place of prayer.

And lo and behold there is.

That’s my first observation.  The value of having a place of prayer.  A place to meet regularly.  For us this is it.  How important to keep this place, to look after it, and to be here when we say we are going to be here – to give a welcome.   A place of prayer.  But this is not the only place – maybe there are other places for us that are important too.  A place for prayer.

The oldest place of continuous worship in the town here in Cheltenham is now known as the Minster, St Mary’s in the town centre – actively working at make it a place of prayer and a centre for all churches in the town – prayers at lunch time each day.  This coming Thursday from 12-30 to 1-30 an hour of prayer – focus on our town.  A place of prayer.

A people to pray with.

Lydia met there with other women – how good it is to meet with others to pray.   Prayer is something intensely personal.  No one has to come between us and God – in any place at any time God is there and we can pray.  But there is value in having people to pray with.  People to share with.  When things are going well to be a support to others.  When things are not so well – to receive support from others.

A God to worship.

They were drawn to God.  I think it’s an interesting element in this story.  Lydia is not a Jewish name – but this is a group of people meeting on the Jewish day of worship, worshipping God.  That worhip of God comes first … and then things follow.   Prayer starts with the worship of God.  Honouring God.

A willingness to listen as the Lord opened her heart – but at the same time a heart that was open to the Lord.  A willingness to listen, a heart that’s open.

What part can we play in the life of the church.  What part can we play in sharing the love of God.  How important to cultivate a listening ear.  A willingness to listen to the thoughts of others, a willingness to listen out for God.

A grace to receive – and a faith to share.

Lydia came to that point when she and all her household with her received the touch of that grace – and shared that faith Paul had spoken of and they were baptised.  They lined themselves up with the movement for transformation, the way of Christ that Paul had shared with them.  A wonderful sign of belonging.

And then a welcoming home – a wonderful hospitality.

As Paul begins his letter he rejoices in the way the people in Philippi had been sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.    This is what it takes to share in the gospel – it springs from a place of prayer and people to pray with.  It’s about having a God to worship and a willingness to learn, a heart open to the Lord.  It’s about reciving grace, sharing faith, belonging and welcoming.

This gospel takes root in the heart and makes a difference.

Following Christ is always a job in process of happening, in the act of taking shape.

It is Christ who is there at the beginning.  It is Christ will be there at the end.  And Christ who stays with us from beginning to end.

And what is the end? 

 A harvest of righteousness – bearing fruit in justice and caring.  And how to get there?

This is my prayer.  That your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best.

Jimmy Carter was the first President in my memory to be very explicit in his Christian faith.  A little autobiography.  Nothing but the best.

What we strive after in church, is nothing less than the best.  We seek to do our best – and make our best, the best so that it really can be for the glory and praise of God.

Changing gifts, changing lives

It was a big issue at the time.

And there was a lot of heartache over it.

There was no small dissension and debate.

And so the church at Antioch despatched Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem where they were welcomed by the whole church.

They then met with the Apostles and the Elders who between them worked through a plan to put into effect.

But before putting the plan into action they put it to the gathered church in Jerusalem.

And so it was that the Aposltes and the Elders, with the consent of the whole church went ahead and carried out the plan.

Acts chapter 15 is one of those places in the New Testament where we draw our inspiration for our way of being the church.

At Highbury we have had what has been for us a big issue to resolve.  There has been some dissension and debate.  That’s great – it’s just as happened way back then.

It was our deacons who have worked on a plan of action for us to take.  But before putting the plan into action it was put to the gathering together of our church here at Highbury:  we had our Church meeting on Thursday evening when we as a Church, meeting together, seek the mind of Christ so that we can shape the life of our church and set the future direction we should take.

And indeed we really did come to a mind in our meeting to take our plans forward to the next stage.  So it is that in our case the team of Deacons with the consent of the whole church will start to flesh out the plans we have for the future of our church so that we rally can be a place to share Christian friendship, explore Christian faith and enter into Christen mission with Christ at the centre and open to all.

The work begins now.

And we shall continue to work on that pattern – at each step of the way the Deacons will be reporting back to Church Meeting and seeking that ‘consent’ as together we seek the mind of Christ.

So what’s the next step now?

It is for each of us to be thinking what we can contribute, where we fit in, what part we have to play in the life of our church.  Will it be a continuation of what we have been doing?  Will it be something new?

That’s something for us all to pray about, to seek guidance for.  And so we have an invitation to pray – think which of the areas of the church life we have identified you have a real heart for – it may be one or two.  Then we invite you to take a bookmark and focus your prayers on that area of the church’s life.  In prayer, seek what it is God may have in store for you to be doing.

All sorts of things need doing and everything is important and counts.

The action that Jerusalem church took was to send a letter to all the churches and Paul suggested to Barnabas who had come down from Antioch to Jerusalem with him and others that they should visit every city where a church had been planted.

But they couldn’t agree!

There was dissension between them.

And what they agreed was actually to go their separate ways.

Barnabas went off with Mark and Paul went on his way with Silas.

It’s Silas I want to reflect on for a moment.

he comes now to play a really important roles as a travelling companion with Paul – joining Paul as he makes the crossing over to what we think of as Europe from Asia Minor as Paul reaches Philippi and what we think of as mainland Greece for the first time.

We know next to nothing about Silas – but what we do know gives us food for thought as we think of the part we can play in the life of the church here at Highbury.

If you track through the references to Silas or Silvanus as he is sometimes called in the new Testament you find him doing different things at different stages of his life with different people and in different settings.

On his travels with Paul he is very much up front, a companion and co-worker of Paul in the thick of things.

But that’s not the last we hear of Silas.

We last encounter him when he is much older with another of the apostles, with Peter as Peter is writing a round-robin letter to scattered churches wherever they may be.

It is almost as if Silas is no longer active  and able to go on his travels, but he has adopted another role.  He uses another gift, something given him perhaps for this later stage in his own life’s journey./  Whereas he had been at the heart of the action joining Paul in his travels facing imprisonment in Philippi up front with all the action, now he plays a back room role, a support role.

You get right to the end of 1 Peter and encounter Silas as the one who is writing out Peter’s letter – and as a backroom worker Silas receives high commendation from Peter.  Through Silas, whom I consider a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you, and to testify that this is the true grace of God.

Silas maybe took to heart something else Peter said in that letter when he challenged everyone, us included.

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.  Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God, whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things, through Jesus Christ.  To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever.  Amen.

Once he had been the speaker – the one up front.  Now he served behind the scenes helping in the writing of the letter.

So what are the gifts to use here in Highbury?  Something you’ve always done?  Or do we need to be prepared to recognise God has different gifts for us to use at different points on our journey.  So what is the gift he has for the next stage of the journey here at Highbury?

Prayer

So much God has given us

So much we have to share

And yet so much changes

At one time a messenger

At another time a companion

At another time a worker

At another time keeping the records

So much God has given us

So much we have to shre

And yet so much changes

Open our eyes, Lord,

That we may recognise

All you have given us and

All we have to share.

        

Silas: Ac 15- 16, II Cor 1:19, I Thes 1.1 Peter 5.10, 12

Jean then invited us to share in a Christian Aid Super Soup Lunch next Sunday to mark the start of our involvement in the Enough Food for Everyone ...  If Campaign.

Each one of us a purpose

I do hope as many people as possible will come to our Church Meeting on Thursday evening – yes, it’s an agm, yes there are reports to receive and decisions to take.

But our Church Meeting is much more than that.

We have a vision for the church here at Highbury that it can be a place where people share Christian friendship, explore Christian faith and enter into Christian mission with Christ at the centre and open to all.

I for one believe that’s an exciting vision to share and an exciting church to be part of.  It’s great that this is a place to have friends, make friends and be friends.  It’s a place not just to receive a package – this is the Christian faith – with all the loose ends tied up, but a plae where it’s OK to ask questions to push out the boundaries, to explore what faith means and the difference it makes.  It’s not just a meeting place, a thinking place .. it’s a doing place too.  And that means that reaching out to other people, entering into mission is right at the heart of what we are about.  So that the love of God in Christ can make a difference in the lives of other people.

Putting Christ at the centre means so many things – it’s recognising that all we do is centred on Christ - that counts for each of us individually and for us all together as a church that we are ‘Jesus shaped’ as people and as a church.

And open to all.  Reaching out to everyone – and welcoming of all.

It think all that’s exiting.

And on Thursday evening the deacons are going to bring a proposal that will share that vision and then suggest that in order to realise it we have come up with a set of structures that can help us move forward together most effectively.

It’s exciting  in itself that our Church Meeting is the place where we can shape the life of the church and set the direction we need to take.  We ask that those who share in making that decision share a simple statement of faith in God and in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour – and then we come together to seek out the mind of Christ for us.  Sensing what it is that Christ wants us to do.

Maybe we will take this structure forward, maybe we will decide to seek another structure … whatever we do will not be the end of our planning, but it will mark the beginning of us seeking to work together to really take our church foreword as the body of Christ where we can share Christian friendship, explore Christian faith and enter into Christian mission with Christ at the centre and open to all.

Whichever way we take there will be work to do over the next six months to set things up more effectively, taking into account all that people have shared.

And it is for each of us to think through – am I in the right place in what I am doing?   Is there more I could do?  Are my gifts being fully used?  Could they be used better?   Where can I take forward my faith as part of the body of Christ here in this place.

The wonderful thing is that God has given all of us gifts to help build up the body of Christ here on earth.  And the wonderful thing is that we all know the rich variety of gifts that everyone here has.

I want to have a look over the next few weeks at some of the people of the early church, some well known, some not so well known and reflect on the gifts they had and the way they used them.   Alongside that I hope we can all be thinking about our gifts and the way we can use them.

What better place to start than with Thomas, not least because this is a day important for us in our church family as we welcome Swithin, Swi, to the church family from one of our partner churches in the Council for World Mission, the Church of South India.  Belonging to Dan’s and Sulo’s and Andrea’s family.  Thomas is the great hero of the Christian church in that part of south India with a very strong tradition that suggests the apostle Thomas set out to the East and took the Gospel over the silk roads and down to the Indian sub-continent where a number of churches look to him as the one who brought the faith to that part of the world.

It was in prayer that Jesus came to the point of calling Thomas as an apostle.

One of the things I cannot help but reflect on as I read of those who took the faith into all parts of the world at the very beginning was that they were a motley bunch, an unexpected mix of people.  And they didn’t really score highly on tests they might have had.  They included a couple of brothers who  were for ever arguing about being the greatest, a couple of freedom fighters who took some persuading about Jesus’s way of love, and not only who as we will be remembering in Holy Week betrayed Jesus, but another who denied ever even knowing him.

And Thomas?  He was the one who was full of questioning and full of doubts.

Jesus appeared to the other disciples in that Upper Room,  but Thomas was not there.  He doubted.  And he has been known as  Doubting Thomas ever since.

Unless I see, unless I touch, unless I know … I cannot believe.

See and hear and touch and feel and know, said Jesus.  And he did.  And he made basically that basic confession of faith we ask of people to this day .. and he said, My Lord and my God.

Jesus worked with Thomas inspite of his being a doubter.

He can work with us even when we are full of questions and doubts.

What he said to Thomas reminds us that being part of this body does not mean we have to have every loose end tied up, every doubt removed – we need to believe – and be prepared to put our faith in this Jesus

Have you believed because you have seen?   Said Jesus to Thomas.

Blessed are those who  have not seen and yet have come to believe.

That’s us.  Rich blessings.

If it began with prayer it continued with prayer too.

Thomas joined the others in that upper room – deep in prayer.

And he couldn’t do it in his own strength.

He needed a power, a strength from beyond himself.  And that was the strength that came up on him and the others at Pentecost in the presence of the Spirit.  It is the strength that is with us to enable us to rise above our doubts and uncertainties and venture to use the gifts God has given us to share with othes this wonderful, life-changing love of God in Christ Jesus.


Prayer

Asking? Railing? Talking? Listening?
Or simply being?
Being in the Presence
And then a job to be done.
A message to share
Healing to bring
A friend to support
And then something happens
It’s all gone wrong, everything has collapsed
Or has it?
Seeing is believing
How much more blessing
In believing when it’s not possible to see
And then being in the presence
There’s a new job to be done!

Thomas: Lk 6:12-16, 9:1-6, Jn 11:16, 20:24-31, Ac 1:12-14, 

It was great to welcome Swithun to our service.  Nephew to one of our members, Dan, Swithun belongs to the CSI San Thoma English Church in Chenai and is involved in youth ministry and mission work.  Belonging to one church is to belong to the one church worldwide: we have links with the Church of South India through our mission partnership, the Council for World Mission.

Swi had shared a lovely song with the children in the first part of the service, and shared another song in the second part of the service which had been written by a friend of his who was quadraplegic - it was all about the way God has a purpose for every one of us no matter what our circumstances may be - his promise of life in all its abundance is something for us all to take to heart.

Swi went on to speak movingly of three things.

God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us.  No one need feel they are outside of God's purposes, each us can be sure that God has a plan and a purpose for us.

Then as we follow Jesus we each need to put our faith into practice and practise what we believe without giving up - how important it is for each of us to persevere, Swi suggested.

The one thing that is so important for us all to do is to share in prayer, for whatever it is we are called to do can only be done with prayer.

It was one of those moving occasions when, without planning, all things came together in our service to speak into all we are sharing at the moment as we are exploring the possibility of re-shaping the life of our church.

We were all invited to pray for the life of the church in anticipation of our Church Meeting.

So much to receive and so much to give

During Sunday's service we shared in Baptism as Susan and Gavin and Zach brought Archie to be baptised. The youngsters from our Transformers Group had shared in the service telling something of the things they had been doing at Transformers.

This is the prayer on the front of our Order of Service sheet.


So much to receive and so much to give

For those who have given us so much
We give you thanks, O Lord
Help us to give in our turn
That others in the fullness of time
May give you thanks, O Lord
For us who have given them so much.
Help us day by day to keep alive
The gifts we have received from you
Strength for the bad days and the good days
Love to sustain and to share
Self-control to guide and restrain


 These are the thoughts I shared in the second part of our service.

I wish I had taken more notice of the stories they told.

But I didn’t.

And I regret it now.

When I was little, and when I was not quite so little too, I got sick and tired of hearing the same old stories my parents would tell.  And when we made those regular visits to when I was very tiny grandparents and then a bit bigger to Aunts I quickly got bored of the same old stories.

I wish I had made a note of them.  I wish I  had taken more notice!

Little things have become more and more important to me as I have grown older.  On the book case in my office – a piece of slate.  Not just any old piece of slate.  I picked it up from one particular quarry in one particular place in North Wales where I knew my Great Grandfather had been a quarryman.

I knew he had grown up on the Marquis of Anglesey’s estate in Anglesey where he had started out as a gardener, before making the crossing over the Menai Straits to work in the quarries of Dinorwic overlooking Snowdon.  Time and again I had heard the story of the way he had seen the first test train go up Snowdon and topple over at the top forcing them to re-design the railway and introduce safety features that have prevented such an accident happening again.

But I didn’t take much more notice of his family story.

I knew we had relatives who were in Patagonia.   But I wasn’t really interested when they visited and met up with my Aunts and my Mum.  It was only after the Aunts had died that it suddenly dawned on me I was the only one in the next generation to speak Welsh and so keep in touch.  I wrote to no avail.

It was with real excitement when I got an email only a couple of years ago from Owen Tudur Jones – whose great grandfather had been brother to my Great Grandfather.  We have been in touch since.  I have learned about the vision Michael D Jones had in 1865 to set up a community where men and women would have the vote, set up on Christian values where Welsh would be the main language.  And they set up their community in Patagonia.  I was amazed to find there are now 20,000 Welsh people in that community, of whom  a couple of thousand still speak Welsh.  It was really exciting in the National Museum of Wales last Sunday afternoon to meet up with someone from Patagonia and chat in the only common language we had – Welsh.

I have come to the point of treasuring the things that have been passed down to me from all those generations ago.  I used not to like my name – Richard.  I knew I was named after my mother’s father.  But I didn’t know the name had been in every generation of my family since the late eighteenth century.  I treasure it now.

And here we are at what is among many other things a family gathering.  Great to have Gavin and Susan’s family here … and friends as well.  And lots of little ones!

It’s a moment to treasure what has been passed on to this point.

But I also think this is a moment for us to think seriously about what we pass on to our children.

What is it we want our children to treasure about us when they get to the age when they look back with fondness at their parents at the adults who were important to them in their growing up?

That’s a question to ask of parents.  But it is also a question for all of us to ask.  Family and friends – what memories of the significant adults in his life will Archie have when he is older.

It is also a question for us in the church to ask.  What memories will Archie have of us?

What is it we want to pass on to our children?

There will be values?  What are the values that we want to hand on?

Question to share

The Bible contains a set of letters written by Paul and those very close to him.  The last three of those letters are written when Paul was getting on in years to a very much younger companion and colleague who was carrying on the work that was important to Paul.  AS the second of his letters to Timothy begins he writes in quite a personal way.

It seems to me he puts his finger on some things that from a church point of view is very important to us in today’s event and says something about what we want to pass on to little Archie and to all the little ones we are involved with.

2 Timothy 1:1-7

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

God himself chose me to be an apostle,

and he gave me the promised life that Jesus Christ makes possible.

Timothy, you are like a dear child to me.

I pray that God our Father and our Lord Christ Jesus

will be kind and merciful to you and will bless you with peace!

Night and day I mention you in my prayers.

I am always grateful for you,

as I pray to the God my ancestors and I have served with a clear conscience.

I remember how you cried, and I want to see you,

because that will make me truly happy.

I also remember the genuine faith of your mother Eunice.

Your grandmother Lois had the same sort of faith,

and I am sure that you have it as well.

So I ask you to make full use of the gift that God gave you

when I placed my hands on you.

Use it well.

God's Spirit doesn't make cowards out of us.

The Spirit gives us power, love, and self-control.

I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice had.

There’s a lovely glimpse of a close family where not just values had been passed on.

Faith had been passed on.

Faith has to do with seeing that there is more to life than just material things.  Faith senses the wonder of the world and senses how much more there is to discover of this world, and how much there is beyond our undersanding, so much more beyond our understanding that there is some being beyond and behind it that makes us the people we are.  Faith looks to God.  And for Timothy as for Eunice, as for Lois that faith found a focus in someone called Jesus who had opened up a way of seeing God not as some superhuman designer of the universe, but rather a God who is in all things, and comes alongside us not least when things go dreadfully wrong and who loves us with a love that will not desert us, such that we can think of this God as Father in the closest possible way.  A faith that discovers God is Love.

At the heart of our celebration of baptism is the celebration of the gift of God’s love – given before we know anything about it, as real as the water.

Paul longs for Timothy to keep alive the gift God gave him – to re-kindle the gift.

Then comes a comment that goes to the heart of what it is that Paul longs for Timothy – and I guess it’s what I would long for those coming after me.

It starts with faith – faith focused on Christ.

Then we have a power, a strength to draw on for the living of our lives.  A strength that sees us through.  One of our older members – Hilda - I don’t know what I would do without my faith.  Not that there were easy answers.  A struggle.  But she did struggle.  And a lovely sense of peace she had in her passing at 97.

Love – a concern for others, a compassion – a care of others that makes a difference.  Not  built on what I can get out of life, but what I can do to make a difference to otherse.

And the final one is an intriguing one.

Self-control.  That capacity to be in control – and not get carried away.  The danger of the crowd.  The danger of being out of control.  An intriguing one.

So what should we do …

I want to come back to where Paul started – I pray that God our Father and our Lord Christ Jesus will be kind and merciful to you and will  bless you with peace!   How important prayer is … and that’s our prayer for children following after us.

The reality is that children like any of the rest of us sometimes have hard times to go through – it’s no bad thing sharing those hard times as we have been doing in  Transformers.

Paul senses it as he writes here.

Night and day I mention you in my prayers.  I remember how you cried, and I want to see you because that will make me truly happy.

So what can we draw on – that brings us back to those promises …

Earlier in the service the youngsters of Transformers had shared with us Promises they have been looking at in Transformers.  This was the reading they shared with those promises in …

At Transformers we have lots of fun and games

Something really nice to eat

And then we come into church

Leading up to Easter we have been looking at a book full of Promises from the Bible.

It’s called ‘The Message Promise Book’.

Sometimes it’s scary in the dark … and the world can be a dark place.

This is a Promise Jesus made.   Jesus said,

“I am the world’s light.

“No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness.

“I provide plenty of light to live in.” 

John chapter 8 verse 12

The period leading up to Easter is called Lent.

Lent is a time to think of all the troubles Jesus went through.

Peter in the Bible makes this promise

“When life gets really difficult,

don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job.

“Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced.

“This is a spiritual refining process …

… with glory just around the corner.”

1 Peter chapter 4 verses 12 and 13

So what do you do with all your troubles?

This is another of the Promises the Bible makes this time in the Book of Psalms

“Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders.

“He’ll carry your load.

“He’ll help you out.”

Psalm 147 verse 3

So what can we do to make the world a better place to live in?

In the Book of Proverbs chapter 11 verse 24 the Bible promises that our world will get  larger and larger when we are generous …

“The world of the generous gets larger and larger;

“The world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.”