What it means to be a child-friendly church

On the second Sunday of the month our youngsters meet together for Breakfast and for Sunday Special.  This morning they were looking at the 'C' of commitment following on from the Summer Holiday Club that had sailed the 'C's on a cruise ship!    A number of the helpers described what they were 'committed to' and what they were 'committed to' at Highbury.

In the first part of the service they shared a wonderful collage they had done of the verse from 1 John 4 that challenges us to 'Love God and love each other'.

We then launched our Operation Christmas Child appeal for shoe boxes with a short video clip 

We then took up the theme of this year's Operation Christmas child 'From death and despair to Good News and Great Joy' and shared a wonderful passage from Isaiah 60.

Arise, shine; for your light has come,
   and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 
For darkness shall cover the earth,
   and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
   and his glory will appear over you. 
Nations shall come to your light,
   and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 

The sun shall no longer be
   your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
   give light to you by night;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
   and your God will be your glory. 
Your sun shall no more go down,
   or your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
   and your days of mourning shall be ended. 

Grow up or enter the Kingdom

Aspiration

Achievement

Attainment

Adulthood

So, Jesus, who is the greatest

in the Kingdom of Heaven?

Challenge

Change

Choice

Childhood

Unless you change and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven

So ... grow down!

And if you want to welcome Jesus ...

Welcome a child!

How do you get your kids through church without them ending up hating God?  That’s a massive question and I guess it’s one that every generation has grappled with.   At first sight it’s a question for parents and for people leading children’s work and youth work in church.

But that would be to miss the point.

Actually it’s a responsibility all of us share.   And it’s nothing new.

On Wednesday, 6th November RobParsons and Care for the Family are coming to the Town hall for a regionalevent that will ask exactly that question.   It is something for all of us to take to heart – and for all of us to reflect on.   By all accounts it promises to  be a good evening – have a word with Carolyn or with Tom after the service to find out more.

When we got our Child Friendly church award it wasn’t just because of eth work we do with children, but it was because of the way we work as a whole church family at being friendly towards children.

You can see that commitment to children and working with children at every stage in the church’s history.   It is right there in the gospels.  Indeed it is there in the one chapter which records Jesus speaking about the church and actually using the word church.

Matthew 18 is a key chapter in tracing Jesus’ understanding of what it means to be church.

And it’s mostly about children.    And what Jesus says gives pause for thought.

Among the buzz words in education are words that are all about getting to the top, being the best, reaching goals.

Aspiration

Achievement

Attainment

Adulthood

 Everything is tested down to the last detail, data driven analysis of performance in the classroom is geared to getting the best out of every child.  But I sometimes wonder.

Everything about growing up is just that.

It’s about growing up.  Reaching adult.

And then it’s all about the drive to get the top.

In many ways it all counts.  It is all important.  It’s dangerous to do it down.

But on the other hand, reports this week, suggest something in our education system isn’t working.

Jesus seems almost maverick in the response he gives to his disciples when they ask the question that our education system asks of every child and of every school – who is the greatest?

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

There’s something very counter-intuitive there.

More words come to mind …

Challenge

Change

Choice

Childhood

Unless you change and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven

So ... grow down!

Curious – maybe unacceptable.  Maybe not helpful.  Or maybe liberating!

Maybe we should value children not just for their potential but for who they are.

And maybe we should do the same for adults too.

Welcome a little child and you will welcome Jesus.

Jesus then goes on to speak of the way we must care for our children.

6 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!

Tomorrow we will be remembering Daphne.   She came to Cheltenham when her husband Reg and her brother David moved here with the National Coal Board Research people.   Daphne’s husband specialised in research into the gas chromatography – analysis of breaking down gases into their constituent parts.  Nowadays it is a mainstream scientific activity – then it was groundbreaking stuff in the development of smokeless fuels.

When we were marking Rosalind Franklin’s contribution to the discovery of  DNA Margaret instantly recalled her as one of the team contributing so much to research into carbons and into coal.

We may have virtually our coal mining industry but we continue to depend on coal.  Now coal is imported and we rely on the dangers of mining from far off Rissia, far off China.  And occasionally we hear of mining disasters.  But they don’t grip.

Maybe they should.

Mary Michael has brought the Aber Valley Male Voice Choir to  Highbury on a number of occasions. IN recognition of the support she and Margaret her sister have given to the choir they have been made Vice-Presidents of the Choir – a great honour.  And today the choir are marking the anniversary of this country’s biggeset mining disaster.

One hundred years ago an explosion in the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd near the home of the Aber Valley choir took the lives of 439 lives – some boys as young as 15 and 16.  The mine owners were found guilty and asked to pay fines and compensation which came to the derisory sum of £24.  The widows received the last pay package their husband had earned calculated to the precise moment of the explosion and not a penny more.

In 1901 81 our of 82 men working down the mine were killed in an explosion.

Mary asked us to play the recording of the song with its collage of photos that the choir have specially commissioned for the opening of a national memorial to those who  have lost their lives in mining.  Here.  I want to play it because it reminds us of the children whose lives are lost today in mining and in many industries we depend on.  Let’s remember that 40% of our energy comes from coal – and the largest producer by far of the coal we depend on is Russia where there have been 290 deaths in accidents in the last ten years.   Coal continues to take its toll … but at a distance.   We think of children impacted by those disasters – and with our flowers and produce Paula prompts us to think of the orphans of Syria.

He haunting words of the song ask ‘where have they gone?  Where have all the young men gone.

The song invites us to walk through the valley of the shadow, the valley of tears.

Deep in our hearts we will remember them

Aber Valley Choir – Senghenydd – the Song

Forever young they sleep in the midst of time

Deep in our hearts we will remember them

Deep in our hearts we will remember them.

In Matthew 18 Jesus speaks of what church is all about.

And for Jesus it is all about children.

Matthew 18:10-14

10 ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. 12What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.

How easy it is to trivialise the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

Here it has a powerful message.

It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost!

Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones …

And then comes a wonderful thought, filled with mystery and yet filled with promise

For I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.

Song: The Lord’s my shepherd I’ll not want

Welcoming our Pastoral Ministry Leaders

Commissioning Service for Pastoral Care Ministry Leaders

6^th October 2013

At Thursday’s Church Meeting we agreed our new structure for Highbury.

At its heart is a vision …

That Highbury should be a place to

Share Christian friendship,

Explore Christian faith and

Enter into Christian Mission

With Christ at the centre

And open to all.

As people feel at home in our church family and share a faith in God and in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour we very much hope they will become fully part of our church as church members and be involved in one or more areas of church life in what they do and in prayer … everyone has a part to play including those not able to get out and be active through prayer.

In all we do as Church members our aim is to Love the Lord our God with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves.  In all we seek to do we rejoice in the forgiving love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, knowing that when we fail we do not give up but go on in the strength of God.

Church Members, meeting together at our regular Church meeting shape Church life and set the future direction of Church life here at Highbury.

In our new way of doing things we are going to put in place a team of Ministry Leaders who will be Church Members who are called and gifted to serve the whole Church and to lead a particular area of Church Life.

It is great that we have people who are willing to serve the church in all six areas of church life we have identified.  Over the next three weeks the Deacons will be interviewing people for the post of Worship Ministry Leader, Youth Ministry Leader, Discipleship Ministry Leader and Mission and Outreach Mission Leader.  Carolyn, our children’s worker will become our Children’s Ministry Leader.

Knowing that David and Betty, Phil and Joyce were going to finish co-ordinating our visiting scheme we followed through our new process and at our July Church Meeting appointed Lorraine Gasside and Diana Adams to do a job share and be our Pastoral Ministry leaders.

Today we welcome them and commission them to that work.

It is good for us to remember that all who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ are called to serve one another in his name.

Jesus calls us all to share in a life of discipleship: it is for us all to respond to that call in faithful obedience.

Jesus said, “If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest.

Lord Jesus, we hear your call: help us to follow

Jesus said, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have set you an example.

Lord Jesus, we hear your call: help us to follow

Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Lord Jesus, we hear your call: help us to follow

Jesus said: “Go to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples and I will be with you always, to the end of the world.”

Lord Jesus, we hear your call: help us to follow.

You have redeemed us and called us to your service:

Give us grace to hear your word and to obey your commandment

For your mercy’s sake.

Amen.

As we belong to the fellowship of the Church, we all have a part to play in the life of the Church.

Together with all who proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord we are a royal priesthood, God’s own people.  We are all called by God to proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into h is marvellous light and to live out in our lives the love of him who first loved us.

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

We rejoice today that Lorraine and Diana are to be commissioned as Pastoral Ministry Leaders

We have called you as a Church to build up Christian friendship through pastoral care that is open to all and seeks to meet the needs of each.

We have asked you

to build on our current pastoral care network of visitors

to develop pastoral care that responds to specific needs

to identify and respond to those in need of pastoral support.

to help people in Church to provide pastoral support, with care and sensitivity, to individuals or groups through training

to provide prayer support through prayer network, in Sunday services , prayer meeting and in other ways

to develop links with and involvement in the hospital chaplaincy team

Diana, I ask you to reaffirm your profession of faith:

Do you believe in God and in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?

I do

Do you promise, as you are able, to fulfil the responsibilities of Pastoral Care Ministry Leader jointly with Lorraine here at Highbury

With God’s help, I do so promise.

In the name of Jesus Christ and on the authority of the Church Meeting I extend to you the right hand of fellowship recognising that God has called you to serve the fellowship of the Church here at Highbury as Pastoral Ministry Leader.

…

Lorraine, I ask you to reaffirm your profession of faith:

Do you believe in God and in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?

I do

Do you promise, as you are able, to fulfil the responsibilities of Pastoral Care Ministry Leader jointly with Diana here at Highbury

With God’s help, I do so promise.

In the name of Jesus Christ and on the authority of the Church Meeting I extend to you the right hand of fellowship recognising that God has called you to serve the fellowship of the Church here at Highbury as Pastoral Ministry Leader.

…

May God richly bless you in the ministry which you now share with us all.

In all you do take to heart the words of Paul in Ephesians 4:1-7 and  11-13

I urge you, then—I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you.   Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. 3 Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 there is one God and Father of all people, who is Lord of all, works through all, and is in all.

7 Each one of us has received a special gift in proportion to what Christ has given.

It was he who “gave gifts to people”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. 12 He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. 13 And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.

The story of Jairus’s Daughter and the Woman on the Way

Jesus took three with him and the girl’s parents

A Hy-Spirit Song

Offering and Dedication

Fun activities for all over 3

Not alone in all we do

I once read an article by a Social Worker who worked over in Oxford.   He was passionate about Social Work, passionate about helping people, passionate about making a difference.

He spoke movingly of his job – he felt what he was doing was representing wider society and acting as it were for the wider community in helping, in caring, in making a difference.

What he said rang true for me and particularly for the part of my work that has to do with pastoral care.

I am passionate about the pastoral ministry I share.  I am passionate about helping people.  I am passionate about making a difference.

In many ways I can see the point of what he went on to say about ‘representing society’.

It’s much the same in church.

In pastoral care, when I visit I feel that I am representing the wider Church family here at Highbury and acting as it were for the wider community of our church family in helping, in caring, in making a difference.

I feel passionate about what I do.

Everybody who has shared in pastoral care in the life of the church here at Highbury, I sense, has shared something of that passion.

As I arrived Olga and Joan co-ordinated our visiting scheme, and then Phil and Joyce, David and Betty, took on that work.  Through the years as we have met as Church visitors there’s a very real sense that we are all sharing in that work.

It was wonderful when Lorraine and Diana came forward to offer to do a job share as our Pastoral Care Ministry Leaders – they are as passionate as anyone about pastoral care, passionate about helping people, passionate about making a difference.

And very much part of our church family.

Very easy to go with that article on Social work and see what our Pastoral Care Ministry Leaders are doing as representing the wider Church family here at Highbury and acting as it were for the wider community of our church family in helping, in caring, in making a difference.

That sense of being part of a wider community gives the kind of framework that anyone involved in any kind of caring needs.  The sense of being part of a wider organisation, a wider team.  Good to know that the work of caring is shared by that wider community and what you are doing is helping to make that wider community’s care more effective.

All that applies in any kind of caring will apply in seeking to carry out pastoral care in a church context too – the importance of knowing our limits, when we can refer to elsewhere for help, knowing that there are others who are part of that team in caring in a church family too.

BUT

And for me it is a very real BUT!!

And I share it with you at the point at which you are taking on this particular role in the life of the Church family here.

For me there is an extra dimension in the pastoral care I feel very much called to, that kind of pastoral ministry that you are taking on in the life of the church here at Highbury.

It is something very specific to the faith we share.  It is something that everyone of us who is involved in caring in whatever context that may be would do well to remember and bring to mind.

It is what I would find would sustain me if I were in the shoes of that Social Worker and it makes for me the difference between finding this kind of work ‘do-able’ and finding this kind of work simply overwhelming.

In pastoral care I am passionate about helping, I am passionate about caring, I am passionate about making a difference,  I do feel I am part of a wider church family and so representing that wider caring church family … but there is something more as well.

I sense that the love and the care I am seeking to share is the love that God is sharing.  There is a presence with me, a strength I can draw on to sustain what I am doing.

I feel I am in the position of those three friends of Jesus as they arrived in Jairus’s house.

When Jesus came to the house Peter, James and John went in with him.

Pastoral care is about going into see someone knowing that Jesus is present there as well.

All through the conversation, all through all that I share, I want to hold on to that picture.  That Jesus is there – it is his love reaching out to this person and his love reaching out to me – it is his love reaching out to us.  Through the words and the care I show it is the love Jesus has that is the care that matters, the help that counts, and it’s that love of Jesus that can make all the difference.

Sometimes, one of the great privileges of pastoral care that I have had over the years is that people have asked me in to share with them as someone is very ill indeed, maybe in hospital.  I would love to stay.  But I cannot.  As I come away, in my mind’s eye, I sense that I may come away but Jesus remains.  He is still there.  In my mind’s eye I can see myself leaving at the door maybe of the ward – and I say one more fare well, good bye – God be with you.  And there is a sense in my mind that God in Jesus remains even as I leave.

I find bringing that mental picture to mind a help.

But it is not just a picture.

There is a very real sense that this is something real.

And it is where we cannot sustain such a ministry as this without a strong sense of the reality of the Holy Spirit, what gives our faith its real three dimensional feel to oit.

John 14:15-19 and 25-27

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is  in you.

18 “When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. 19 In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live.

 “I have told you this while I am still with you. 26 The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

27 “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever … When I go you will not be left all alone

This is the wonderful promise I hold on to in the pastoral ministry I share.

This is the wonderful promise to hold on to as you take up this role of Pastoral Minsitry Leaders here at Highbury.

This is the wonderful promise for each of us to hold on to whenever we are involved in caring for others.

360       Father, hear the prayer we offer

Two sides of the same coin

One of the ideas we have in setting up the new framework for the life of our church is to really build up that sense we have of sharing in a team ministry, and sharing together in the work we do in the life of the church.

That’s very much at the heart of our pastoral care.

Diana is going to share an invitation to an evening in a couple of weeks time when we shall be exploring how we may together develop the pastoral care we share in church.

Diana

How can we release that sense of the presence of God with us – we do that through prayer.  Lorraine has been co-ordinating our prayer chain and will say a few words about that as well.

Lorraine

A team of pastoral carers and prayer – are two sides of the same coin

Song     In Christ alone - Hy-Spirit

            Prayers of Concern

373       What a friend we have in Jesus

            Words of Blessing

What's the point of celebrating Harvest?

The previous blog contains notes from our morning service for our Harvest weekend.  In the evening service we had a much more 'traditional' harvest service with lots of the old favourite harvest hymns!

We had a lovely tea with Hy-Way on Wednesday over in the Tewkesbury Park Hotel – first, June came up with the request for Fair waved the golden corn for Harvest … and then my passengers, Olga and Joyce made a request for the favourites and Olga said from Congregational Praise including Mr Moxley’s Oxfam hymn.

So I thought let’s have a rest from Acts and think about Harvest.  The very word itself is an Old English one and the custom of celebrating the harvest goes back to time immemorial.

That fount of wisdom Wikipedia describes 16^th century customs including ‘reapers accompanying a fully laden cart, a tradition of shouting Hooky, Hooky, and one fo the foremost reapers dressing extravagantly, acting as ‘lord’ of the harvest and asking for money from the onlookers.

There’s a play by a contemporary of Shakespeare, Thomas Nash first performed in October 1592 ‘that describes several of these features’ called Summer’s Last Will and Testament.

Maybe we should get Alan to use his contacts and get Morris Men to join us.

From a church point of view it was well established among our forebears by the time they travelled on the Mayflower to America when in 1621 they celebrated their first harvest at Thanksgiving – a custom that has become a major festival in the States.

And over here, harvest festivals as many of us grew up with with their displays of produce, their baskets brought to church gogest back to 1843 when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited people to a special thanksgiving servie at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall.  That then produced some of those favourite Victorian harvest hymns – come ye thankful people come, Fair waved the golden corn and most of the others we are going to sing this evening.  Though the German We plough the fields and scatter is from the pevious century the translation we love is from this century.

But of course in celebrating Harvest we then put the roots back very much into the Bible where the whole rhythm of the Jewish year is built around a succession of harvests.  I like that idea … and it has always appealed to me.  Many of the Jewish harvests are ealier in our calendar year – this is the time when the Jewish people have just celebrated the start of their New Year.  I like to think of Harvest as in some ways the start of the year.  It’s the start of a new school year, a new session at church, and we mark something that celebrates the goodness of God in creation.  Then we come on at Christmas to celebrate the Incarnation, in Holy Week and Easter the death and resurrection and at Pentecost (itself a harvest festival) the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  It is a pattern that takes us to the very heart of God, Creator, Redeemer,  Sustainer, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Turn to one of the classic Jewish accounts of harvest and you will find many of the customs we have grown up with find their roots in the kind of passage we read from Deuteronomy 26.

Indeed, that chapter provides us with one of the classic readings we share on Harvest Sunday.

I can remember in the first Harvests Felicity and I shared with the folk in Yorkshire where the traditions were very strong  this was the pattern we followed – I grew up with it too.

26When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5you shall make this response before the Lord your God

It’s a lovely picture – that’s morphed from produce actually grown, to fruit and veg bought from the shops, to tined food we offer today.  But basically it’s the same idea.

The gift is accompanied by a wonderful statement of faith in this passage that is recited by everyone.  I guess we sing our faith in our tradition and the hymns we sing sum up the faith we share.  But it’s good to speak our faith.

This is one of the earliest statements of faith –

It’s an account of all that God has done for his people – all they have is His and so they return something of what is his and say a great big ‘Thank you’.

‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, 7we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’

Then comes a wonderful moment … the gift is presented to God and the indebtedness to God for all the people have is acknowledged.

You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11Then you, … shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

I think it is a wonderful thought.

Let’s just pause at those last words –

You shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

This is the point where if we are going to do a traditional Harvest Service we need to push on a little beyond the produce of the gardens.   We live far from the land – in our houses and flats and rooms.  Think of all the bounty in your house – is it something you take pride in – the fruit of a lifetime of labours.  You have earned it?  Harvest encourages us to think of all the bounty we have in our house and recognise it comes from God.  How indebted we are to God.

Did you notice I left some words out of that last sentence.  Deliberately.

This is what Deuteronomy 26 verse 11 actually says …

Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

This is one of those special moments in the Books of the Law when something remarkable is glimpsed.  It’s very easy to think of the occupation of the Promised land, that land flowing with milk and honey, resulting in a land peopled only by Jewish People.  Read more closely in the Torah and in the later books of Joshua, Judges … and you will find there is another strand.  One that is sometimes overlooked.   There are in the land foreigners – and the foreigners remain.  And the purposes of God is that Jewish people and foreigners live together sharing the land.  And sharing the produce of the land, the wonderful bounty the Lord your God has given you.

This catapults me back into our reading of Acts.  In Acts 10 and 11 and through to 15 we are at that moment when comes the realisation that the Good news of Jesus is all inclusive of Jew and Gentile – that all are included in the people of God.   This is not a denial of the Jewishness of Jesus and Peter but the fulfilment of a strand in the Old Testament that goes back to this kind of passage in Deuteronomy 26 which affirms the place of the foreigner in the midst.

But this also touches the focus of our Harvest this year when we are supporting Middle East concern – one of the big issues in the Middle East has to do with the capacity for different peoples to live together.  With the exception of the Crusades and of the last fifty years Jew, Christian and Muslim have lived side by side in the Middle East.   In Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Israel they have lived side by side.

There are moves to prise those peoples apart – throughout the Middle East – we see it in the scale of persecution of Christian people.  We’ve seen it in horrific ways in Pakistan last Sunday.  How important to pray for the people of those lands.  In amongst those prayers the prayer that people can live side by side with the foreigner in the midst.

There’s a danger of a backlash – here as well.  Maybe it’s because it’s Leicester and that’s where Felicity and I grew up, but I found it very moving hearing the Neurosurgeon in the hospital in Dublin describing his reaction to the arson attack on his Leicester home which resulted in the death of his wife and his three children.  He was a devout Muslim … but it was moving to hear the way he was so pleased there had been no violence in response to what had happened.

It’s very easy to slip from praying for persecuted Christians to an Islamophobia and a Xenophobia on our doorstep.  And that, it seems to me, this kind of passage is urging us to resist.  The alien in our midst is part of us.

What do you do with all that’s offered …

Well this passge sets the precedent that we have taken to following in our harvest festivals from as far back as I can remember – so well over 50 years!

When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns, 13then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me;

We have reaffirmed the importance of the tithe – planned giving of a proportion of your income, we say disposable income – we suggest a twentieth for Church on the assumption that another 20^th will go to charitable giving making a tithe in all.

In this instance the giving is for the Levites, the aliens, the orphans and the widows, so that  they may eat their fill within your towns.

This is what underpins our support of CCP foodshare in our harvest today … and also what underpins our use of our Harvest collection that goes on a mission project in Highbury and this year for Middle East Concern in the support they give to Persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

It is an expression of solidarity.

The passage finishes with a renewed commitment to the covenant relationship the people have with their God.

I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments: 14I have not eaten of it while in mourning; I have not removed any of it while I was unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God, doing just as you commanded me. 15Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

Concluding Exhortation

16 This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. 17Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. 18Today the Lord has obtained your agreement: to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments; 19for him to set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honour; and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.

Maybe our harvest should finish with a renewal of our commitment to follow in the ways of God in the living of our lives that all we do may be to his glory.

Praying for the Middle East

On the last Sunday of September we always celebrate Harvest.  Just as a new school year is beginning it seems good to start our 'Christian' year with creation and a celebration of God our Father, before moving on to Christmas, Holy Week and  Easter as we celebrate the birth, life and death and resurrection of Jesus, rounding off the year with Pentecost and our celebration of the Holy Spirit and that strength, unseen and yet so real, that is nothing other than the presence of God with us, guiding and empowering us.

At Harvest we have one of our special collections of the year and always share it between Highbury's mission project, supporting a children's worker for our work among children, and a project linked to the world church.

This year we have been supporting the work of Middle East Concern.

At our Harvest Supper we were introduced to the work they do throughout the Middle East and North Africa and in this morning's service we focused particularly on Syria.

It was good to have our focus for prayer in the Middle East over Harvest Weekend and to have a particular focus for our prayers.

At our Harvest Supper a suggestion was shared that would be good for us all to do this week ... and on into the future too.

So much is happening in the Middle East it is very difficult to know how exactly we should pray.  This is one suggestion and thought, not so much for a prayer time, but rather at those moments when we are confronted on the news with all that's happening.

Each time we hear mention of one of those countries we are so concerned for in the Middle East, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and so on … in that moment say to yourself, “There’s a church in this country and I can pray for them now.”  This is the kind of thing those churches are asking us to pray for …

• Pray that we maintain a good witness
• Pray that we won’t be anxious
• Pray that we stand firm in the faith
• Pray that we will know God’s peace
• Pray that we will be courageous
• Pray that we will be able to reach out to others in need and do the right thing

There are more pointers for prayer at Middle East Concern's web site - click here.

This morning in our Service our focus was on Syria.  It is through the personal contacts we were hearing about this morning with church leaders in Syria that we are asked to pray the following in our prayers for Syria …

• Comfort, healing and support for the bereaved, wounded, displaced and traumatised
• Syrian Church involved in meeting humanitarian needs to have the resources to do so
• Christians in neighbouring countries supporting the 2 million plus registered refugees and (probably) as many unregistered
• Christians to remain in Syria wherever possible
• A political breakthrough.

Offering ourselves in the service of God and of other people

Our service today was a special service, welcoming people into Church Membership, celebrating our children's and young people's groups at the start of a new school year, presenting Bibles to some of our young people and then thinking of the way everyone in the church family has something to offer God and to offer other people in the life of our church ...

Call to Worship

Lord Jesus Christ

help us to lead a life worthy

of the calling to which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness and patience,

Bearing with one another in love,

Making every effort

to maintain the unity of the Spirit

In the bond of peace.

Hymn:  33  Now thank we all our God

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Church Membership

Highbury is a place to

share Christian friendship,

explore Christian faith and

enter into Christian mission

with Christ at the centre

and open to all.

Highbury Congregational Church is affiliated to the Congregational  Federation, a fellowship of independent Churches who come together to share resources and to support each other.

We are committed to each other by belief in the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

We trust in our Lord’s promise to be with His people who meet in His name.

We affirm the scriptural right of every Church to maintain independence in the ordering of its affairs according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We recognise the oneness of all Christians within the rich diversity of the world-wide Church.  We seek the unity for which Christ prayed by the means He wills.

We are partners in God’s mission with the Churches of the Council for World Mission, a world-wide mission partnership, and with Churches Together.

We worship, work and serve with all who love our Lord to realise His Kingdom in the world, and to help people everywhere to know the joy of His companionship.

God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation: there can be no other foundation.  Jesus said, “Where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.  I give you a new commandment to love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

1 Corinthians 3:11, Matthew 18:20,  John 13:34-35

Church Members are called to

• Worship God regularly with the whole Church family
• Remember the covenant with God in the Lord’s Supper
• Read the Bible and pray regularly
• Share in the life and work of the Church Meeting gathered together in Christ’s name.
• Witness by the power of the Holy Spirit to the truth of the Gospel through what they are, what they do, and what they say.
• Give their gifts of time, service and money to the work of the Kingdom as they are able.

In all they do they rejoice in the forgiving love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, knowing that when they fail they do not give up but go on in the strength of God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  Love your neighbour as yourself.    Mark 12:30-31

Questions for Church Membership for

Karen Waldock and Charlotte Armstrong

Do you believe in God and Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?

Do you promise as you are able to share here at Highbury in the church’s worship, in its mission, in prayer, in church meeting and in giving so that Highbury really can be a place to share Christian friendship, explore Christian faith, enter into Christian mission with Christ at the centre and open to all?

I do

Prayer

Going deeper … a time with the children

I am going to get the children to tell me what happens when they go out to the back

Starting with the all together time … then going into their groups

I will then have some fun with the titles of their groups … but at the same get them to say they do Bible stories and hear what Jesus does

Bubbles – I will get some bubbles and talk about fun together and great stories

Splash – little bit older – a bucket of water and I will splash the youngsters and get them saying more stories

X-Stream – I will threaten to pour the bucket out as a stream – and then maybe get someone to throw the bucket of water down the slope by the front door – we are beginning now to launch out think more – how the good news goes out into the world

M:Ocean – getting older and out on the ocean the big world – big issues, big feelings …

And then introduce D:per – going deeper

I will then suggest that actually we are all basically doing the same thing – in the main part of the church we tell Bible stories, stories of Jesus … and we are making connections – listening out for what God is saying to us and his word for us … what we can do about it in our world.  In a sense we are all going deeper.

All of us are using one basic course book – and actually it’s the same one.  It’s the Bible.

Stories at a children’s level – but then we need to go deeper – and as you find out the Bible re-pays reading and really getting to grips with …

So for those in M:Ocean we present a Bible, the Youth Bible that helps you in going deeper – but the idea is that you will be continuing to use it as a real tool

Presentation of the Youth Bibles

And we all of us need guidance.

I will briefly tell the story of the Ehtiopian Eunuch and the question he asks …

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get ready and go south  to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This road is not used nowadays.)  27-28 So Philip got ready and went. Now an Ethiopian eunuch, who was an important official in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia, was on his way home. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was going back home in his carriage. As he rode along, he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah

k*. 29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that carriage and stay close to it.” 30 Philip ran over and heard him reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah

He asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

31 The official replied, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit in the carriage with him.  

Reading:  Acts 8:32-35

The passage of scripture which he was reading was this:

“He was like a sheep that is taken to be slaughtered,

like a lamb that makes no sound when its wool is cut off.

He did not say a word.

33 He was humiliated, and justice was denied him.

No one will be able to tell about his descendants,

because his life on earth has come to an end.”

34 The official asked Philip, “Tell me, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?”

35 Then Philip began to speak; starting from this passage of scripture, he told him the Good News about Jesus.

A Hy-Spirit Song

Offering of Money Gifts for the church – everyone remain seated

Reflections and Building up the Body of Christ

I grew up with Bible stories.  I love telling Bible stories to children.  But as I come back to them they connect more and more with the adult world I am very conscious of.

That came home to me forcibly last Sunday.  On Sunday evenings I am preaching through the Book of Acts and last Sunday I arrived at chapter 9 – which describes the encounter Saul who was to become Paul had with the Risen Christ on the Road to Damascus.

When I was a child Damascus was from off time and in a far off place.  It is right at the forefront of our minds.

Read again the account and it is a brutal time when the first followers of Jesus are facing persecution – indeed Philip is on that road to Gaza because of the brutality of the persecution that is going on.  We were reflecting on the way Christ meets us in the middle of dark times.  And out of those dark times God brings unexpected good.

Paul makes a fleeting visit back to Jerusalem but there is then a 14 year gap which he spends initially in his home town of Tarsus – maybe he is taking time to get his head round this business of following Jesus and all it means, taking time to ‘go deeper’

He emerges after those fourteen years going again to the very place where he had been involved in brutal persecution of followers of Jesus and has a private meeting just with the leaders of the church there.  Maybe understandably they are very ‘iffy’ about him.  Not at all sure about him.  Then they see the genuineness of the work he is doing (verses 7-8) and then comes a wonderful set of verses that we use as the inspiration and model for our understanding of what happens when we welcome people into church membership of our church here at Highbury.

Cephas is just the Hebrew form of Peter – this is where we get the phrase ‘pillars of the church’ from.

Reading;  Galatians 2:9-10 (NRSV)

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. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

All are welcome at Highbury

But as we get to know people and

Recognise the grace of God at work within them

We then welcome them into church membership and extend the right hand of fellowship to them.

We recognise that each person has a job to do – Paul’s was to go to the Gentiles.

And all have a challenge to remember ‘the poor’, those most in need, the most vulnerable around us.

Every single one of us has a job to do.

And this morning we are going to have a second offering.  When twe ook our offering I deliberately got everyone to stay sitting down – usually we make a think of our offering – we are offering our gifts but we are also offering ourselves in the service of God and of other people.  Today we are going to take that seriously and so we are going to have a second offering – and this time we are going to offer ourselves in God’s service.

In a moment we are going to sing … as we prepare ourselves to make our offering – I am then going to give us space to write our responses to on this form together.

Hymn MTS 2 Be still for the Presence of the Lord

Name: 

As I stand and offer myself in the service of God and in the service of other people I feel prompted to commit myself to serve at Highbury in the following ways ...

1)  Please write in a couple of sentences what you have to offer Highbury.

2) Please identify which area or areas of the church’s work you are drawn to ...

Worship

Children’s Work

Youth Work

Discipleship

Pastoral Care

Mission and Outreach

3) Much goes on behind the scenes - please tick what kind of support you feel able to give in what we have described as the ‘support services’ Highbury needs at the moment and for the future ...        

•           IT

•           The Church Office

•           Membership records and master list of Church Members and Adherents

•           Operations diary and room booking

•           Practical arrangements for Sunday services and occasional services

•           Sound and Vision

•           Housekeeping

•           Hospitality and catering

•           Publicity, advertising, leaflets and web site

•           Production, collection, collation and distribution of Highbury News

•           Maintenance and security of the building and grounds, car park, and Manse

•           Development of the building and environment

•           Health and Safety

•           Safeguarding

•           Disability Awareness and Inclusion

Now we make our offering – this time as the plates are brought to the front we will all stand and offer ourselves anew in the service of God and in the service of others here at Highbury

The Offering and Dedication Prayer

There is one body and one Spirit,

Just as we were called

to the one hope of our calling:

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all.

To each of us was given grace

according to the measure of Christ’s gift

to build up the body of Christ.

May all that we offer help us as a church family to build up the body of Christ here in this place.

Amen.

A quiet song from Hy-Spirit to lead into

In a moment Jean is going to lead us into our prayers for our church, for people in need and for the wider world.  In our prayers we are very conscious of the situation in the Middle East, not least in that city of Damascus.   We are conscious of persecution in so many parts especially of the Middle East – we are supporting this month the work of Middle East Concern in its support of Christians in the Middle East facing persecution.  Our harvest collection will be shared between our work of mission and the work of Middle East Concern – our supper that weekend will be a Middle Eastern Supper from our friend Bassam from Palestine  and Ian will be joining us to help us think through How we Pray for Christians in the Middle East.   He will join us again that Sunday morning too.  Tickets for that supper for £7-50 are available from today.   There won’t be fun and games but our children are very well aware of what’s going on will be thinking of it as they see reports on the news and thinking about it at school – so it may well be that they and especially our older children would get something very valuable out of this evening.  Ian has said – we only hear the bad news – but actually their research shows that there is much that is good happening too as churches are growing and making a very real difference in their contribution to peace and to justice.

Prayers of Concern

Hymn 430  How firm a foundation

Words of Blessing