Text of the Week: Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4
Welcome to our services
today and a special welcome to any who are worshipping with us for the first
time.
It’s amazing how soon it
gets dark in the evening once the clocks go back! It’s not inappropriate that
it is at this time of the year that our thoughts turn to remembrance. All
hallows’ eve on 31st October is followed by All Saints’ Day on 1st November and
followed hard on its heels on the nearest Sunday to 11th November by
Remembrance Sunday. And yet, it can be very difficult actually to think and
talk about dying, death and what’s beyond. That’s what we are going to do in
today’s services.
It’s not possible to approach such a theme without having a
very specific context. Each of us will have our own thoughts as we remember loved
ones and as we reflect on ourselves. And each of us will be different. But we
do have a shared framework that helps us not only in our thinking but in the
help and support we can give each other. We are going to set our reflections on
the theme of dying, death and what’s beyond in the context of the Easter story
of resurrection victory.
After the morning service at around 12-15 you are
invited to join us for a very simple soup and bread lunch in the Café space
when we are going to have the opportunity to chat through the things we’ll be
sharing in our morning service. We live-streamed this morning's service and one of our young people sat with one of our older members in a Care Home in Cheltenham so that she could share in our worship.
Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written
in this book.
But
these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of God,
and
that through believing you may have life in his name.
Hy-Spirit
Song - See What a Morning
Activities
for all over 3
Remember,
remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder,
treason and plot.
We
did our fireworks party on Friday night.
On
Hallowe’en the streets between here and Prestbury seemed to be teeming with
small bands of children in all manner of ghoulish costumes while in here we had
a wonderful Messy Church with all the games you associate and the fun of being
here in the dark – but we were celebrating the light of life.
Next
Sunday we’ll mark Remembrance Sunday.
Maybe
it’s appropriate with the arrival of the dark evenings that this is the season
of remembrance.
But
one day in this time of the year we have in one sense missed out. It’s the day
Hallow e’en is the eve of. If 31st October is All Hallows Eve, the 1st
November is All Saints Day.
The
darkness gives way to a celebration of the light of life – maybe actually we
didn’t so much miss it out as roll it all into one with our Messy Church
Starlight party celebrating the Light of Life.
Miss
out All Saints Day – or that Celebration of the Light of Life and it is so easy
at this time of year to be overwhelmed by the darkness, the sadness, the darker
side of remembrance.
But
actually our Christian faith gives us a framework not just for the living of
life to the full, loving God, loving our neighbour … it also gives us a
framework for dying, death and what’s beyond.
They
are so often taboo subjects not to be spoken of. But they are subjects it’s
good to talk about … especially if you have such a framework!
Dying
It
was great a couple of weeks ago having Felicity’s sister, Angela, with us –
when her husband Jan collapsed at the local Sports Centre in Market Harborough
he didn’t regain consciousness and died a number of years later. In his care
and in his administering the family affairs Angela had a nightmare. She has
been passionate ever since about people making sure they have written a will and done both kinds of Lasting Power of Attorney.
We can now all of us make arrangements for what
should happen when we are approaching our dying day. There are two types of
Lasting Power of Attorney – one for property and financial affairs and one for
health and welfare. Easy enough to fill in online – or seek advice from Age UK
or a solicitor they prompt you to talk about the future with those closest to
you. I do not believe in euthanasia but it concerns me that modern medicine is
able to prolong life in a way that is neither natural nor helpful. And so I
have spelled out, very briefly, my desire to allow nature to take its course
and to have treatment to alleviate pain and distress even if that results in a
shortening of my life. It’s good to make plans ahead – but with that framework
we have I think we have more to offer as well.
It’s
one of the great privileges I have to be able to share with people in those
times as well – and it’s something I believe we have to share. Our faith does
not enable us to escape what lies ahead but our faith offers us a presence and
a strength through all that lies ahead.
To
my mind, the 23rd Psalm says it all –
The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he
leadeth me beside the still waters.
He
restoreth my soul:
he
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I
will fear no evil:
for
thou art with me;
thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou
preparest a table before me
in
the presence of mine enemies:
thou
anointest my head with oil;
my
cup runneth over.
Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me
all
the days of my life:
and
I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
It’s
like a journey – I can accompany someone so far on that journey … but there
comes a point when I can go no further – but at that point there is a presence
– you are not alone
Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I
will fear no evil:
for
thou art with me;
thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me.
That's not just a theory. It's not just a kind of philosophical idea. For me it is rooted in the reality of the presence of the risen Lord Jesus with me. I
couple the words of the 23rd Psalm with the words Jesus shared with his closest friends shortly before he himself died in John 14.
Do
not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe
in God, believe also in me.
In
my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places.
If
it were not so, would I have told you
that I go to
prepare a place for you?
And
if I go and prepare a place for you,
I
will come again and will take you to myself,
so
that where I am, there you may be also.
Death
But
what of death?
What
kind of poem are you drawn to at a funeral – they range from the anger of Dylan
Thomas at the death of his father
Do
not go gentle into that good night.
Rage,
rage against the dying of the light.
…
to the other extreme
Death
is nothing at all …
On
a tiny handful of occasions I have seen the value of that last one ... but I
have to confess I find those words hard.
Death
is something. It’s something massive. A while back they used to say there was a
grieving process you went through – I’m more drawn to the notion that there is
a massive hotch potch of emotions around death and bereavement to work through
and no easy path to follow. Loss, bereavement matters. If Jesus wept at the
close loss of his friend Lazarus we should not be surprised if all sorts of
tears come to us as well. Anger, denial, numbness, a kind of bargaining – if
only I had been there or done that it wouldn’t have happened – guilt – sadness.
And I have to acknowledge it gets the better of me – I’ve found I’ve had to
turn to Cruse Bereavement Care, to Winston’s Wish, th charity for bereaved children, that we will be supporting at
Christmas in its work with children who are bereaved, to SANDS the stillbirth and neonatal deathcharity, to SOBS for survivors of bereavement by suicide. They each provide
help that’s so valuable.
But
our framework gives us something else to turn to.
What's Beyond
If Jesus wept with Mary who
at the loss of her brother didn’t want to talk, he shared something else with
Martha:
‘I
am the resurrection and the life.
Those
who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and
everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11)
I
don’t believe in life just going on. I don’t think in terms of a soul or a
spirit let loose. I look to Jesus…
Jesus
really was crucified, dead and buried. But on the third day he rose again from
the dead. I want to say with Paul,
thanks
be to God,
who
gives us the victory
through
our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15)
Two
pictures I have found helpful. One is the seed – left on the shelf it remains a
seed – buried in the soil a plant comes to life that is so much more wonderful
than the seed.
So
it is with the resurrection of the dead.
What
is sown is perishable,
what is raised is imperishable.
It
is sown in dishonour,
it is raised in glory.
It
is sown in weakness,
it is raised in power.
It
is sown a physical body,
it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15)
And
the other picture is of sleep. - a poem I’ve always been drawn to is John Donne
– I love his defiance - Death, be not proud!
One
short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And
death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!
HTC 169 I know my
Redeemer lives
Through
the valley
We shared a very moving conversation with Janet ( Click to this link to the conversation with Janet and move the slider bar forward to 1 hour 12') who grew up going to church, came back to church when her youngsters were little and then came to make a faith commitment as an adult and no longer as a child that meant the world to her. Over a couple of years she found herself working out her faith and what it meant to her.
From the age of 12 she had had a kidney condition from which she had recovered. Having spent a long time in hospital she was drawn to work in hospitals and became a physiotherapist.
About twenty-five years ago her condition deterioriated to the point at which she knew that she was in the final stages of renal failure and therefore very near death. She found it was the fact that she had worked through what her faith meant to her that stood her in good stead.
At those moments when she found it hard to pray for herself she found it a great source of strength to know that the church family and many more were praying for her.
Seventeen years ago she was called to hospital in Bristol and had a day undergoing tests to see if the donor from whom she was to receive a kidney transplant was 'compatible' with her. All was well ... and she had a kidney transplant.
Janet shared with us how indebted she was to that person who had donated their kidneys, to their family who had given permission for them to be used knowing that in their sadness someone else would have a new lease of life, and to the medical people who made it all possible.
Janet has had a new lease of life, continued to work as a Physiotherapist and continues to this day to be very involved in church. It was moving to hear her describe how her faith had stood her in good stead. Janet urged us all to sign up to the Donor Register, suggesting that if we would be prepared to receive a transplant at some point in the future we should also be prepared to give. You can sign up for organ donation by clicking on this link.
At
our sunrise service this Easter on Cleeve Hill looking over to the Malverns we
began with this song …
Text of the Week: For the gospel reveals
how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to
end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith
shall live.” Romans 1:17
Welcome to our Services today and a special
welcome to anyone worshipping with us for the first time. During today’s
services we are going to mark the 500th anniversary of the
Reformation. It was on the 31st October, 1517 that Martin Luther is
said to have nailed 95 propositions for discussion at the university in
Wittenberg to the university church door. It sparked off discussions that have
been going on ever since. Much that Luther did and much that he stood for we
would not countenance today. But equally much that he did and much that he
stood for go to the heart of our faith. I want to home in on three things that
have meant the world to me and very much help to shape the person I am. Only by
Grace was the title we gave to one of the song books we produced and have used
at Highbury for many years. The modern worship song may not be by Luther but it
goes to the heart of something that’s mean the world to me. It’s the fact that
God reaches out to each of us in forgiving love that makes all the difference
to me. The next thing that’s all important to me is the centrality of the Bible
– that’s supremely where we can hear God’s Word for us today and that Word
makes all the difference. But how we read the Bible is also crucial … and
that’s the third of Luther’s insights that counts for me. At the heart of the
whole of the Bible is Jesus Christ: how important it is to read the Bible
through the eyes of Jesus.
Welcome and Call to Worship
124 Praise to the Lord the almighty
Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
Luther’s Story
Reading; Romans 1:16-17
A Hy-Spirit Song
Activities for all over 3
Romans 5:1-5 – the Congregation
OBG 25 Only by Grace – Hy-Spirit
The Opening of a Closed Book
Hymn: Reforming Christ [Tune:
Woodlands]
Reading: Romans 8:31-39
454 A safe stronghold
Prayers of Concern
112 God whose almighty word
Words of Blessing
At our evening service we explored Graham Adams' new hymn for the anniversary year
Reforming Christ!
The Opening of a Closed Book - Luther at 500
505
years ago in 1512 something remarkable happened in a small town 68 miles South
West of the modern city of Berlin. though few people noticed at the time. A
young monk who had been studying the Bible for seven years at the new
university of Wittenberg and regularly delivering theology lectures was
presented with a closed Bible. Holding it carefully he opened it. It was part
of a solemn ceremony during which Martin Luther’s studies were recognised, he
was awarded his Doctorate and was recognised as a ‘Doctor’, a Teacher who was
able to teach. He was to teach the Bible and straightaway he began with
lectures on the Book of Psalms. He had a way with words that moved all those
who studied under him. The Bible he was presented with was a Latin bible. It
was a translation that had been made from the original Hebrew and Greek in
Bethlehem by Jerome 1200 years before. It was a translation that had stood the
test of time. The second millennium of the Roman Empire had only just come to
an end with the fall of Constantinople in 1493.
By 1512 Latin was still the common language of the church, of
scholarship and of diplomacy throughout Europe.
There
was something novel about that Bible, however. It was just like the Bible that
was placed on the coffin of King Richard III at his burial in Leicester
Cathedral in 2015. It was a printed Bible. It was only 57 years since Gutenberg
produced the very first printed Bible. The invention of printing was the
biggest breakthrough in communications since the invention of the alphabet and
remained so until the intervention of the world wide web less than 25 years
ago. It meant that new ideas could spread … and they did spread like wild fire.
Teachers
at that new university of Witenberg were excited by the potential released by
the printing press. Not only could they line the shelves of their library with
printed editions of the ancient classics that were fast appearing, but they
could also produce wonderful new handouts.
So
over the next four years as Martin Luther worked methodically through the Book
of Psalms and then turned to Paul’s letter to the Romans he called on the
services of the local printing house to produce handouts. Large sheets of paper
with a block of print containing the Latin text of first the Psalms and later
Romans in roughly one third of the page with large gaps between the lines and
very big margins to the side and to the bottom. His students would then take
down at dictation speed his comments on the text and write them carefully
between the lines. Then Luther would dictate a fuller exposition of the passage
in those wide margins on the page.
That young university lecturer had been on a
pilgrimage of faith had already brought him a long way, but it was in many ways
only just beginning.
Born
on the 10th November 1483 in Eiselben and moving with his family to Mansfeld
when only one year old, he was 14 when he went to school in Magdeburg and then
a year later on to Eisenach. His family were proud of his achievements and had
high hopes that he would become a lawyer and a wealthy man. The school year was
shaped around the Christian year with its regular round of Mass and Vespers and
colourful processions on those special holy days that were a regular feature of
the calendar. Music was on the curriculum and Martin Luther, a fine singer,
delighted in singing the Psalms, the Canticles, the Magnificat, the Benedictus,
the Nunc Dimittis and those rich Latin hymns that were part of the church’s
liturgy.
At
18 he began his studies at the traditional University in Erfurt. Steeped in the
philosophical thinking of Aristotle and the great Medieval, his course had a
large smattering of theology but was aimed at qualifying him for the law.
After
one year he received he became a Bachelor in the Arts subjects he was studying
and two and a half years later received his Masters. A high-flying student he
was set to achieve great things as a lawyer when something happened that was to
change his life.
Walking
back to the University of Erfurth from his home late at night on 2nd July 1505
he was caught in an unimaginably violent thunderstorm. Fearing for his life, as
he later recalled, he cried out to St Anne, “St Anne, help me and I will become
a monk.”
The
storm abated. Luther made it back to Erfurt safely. Something had happened that brought him face to face with the
reality of God in all his majesty and awe. A fearful God much to be feared. Within a fortnight he presented himself
at the door of a strict Augustinian monastery in Erfurt and he became a monk.
He now entered into a daily round of worship and prayer steeped in the Psalms
and the Scriptures and shaped by the thinking of St Augustine. Presiding for
the first time at Mass, he was drawn to a spirituality based on the imitation
of Christ that had been popularised by Thomas a Kempis.
The
community quickly recognised that he had a way with words and as part of their
support of the fledgling university in
Wittenberg they arranged for him to teach a term at the university when he was
only 25 in the winter of 1508.
It
wasn’t long before he was back in the monastery at Erfurt. He jumped at the
chance to visit Rome with a fellow Brother to represent the monastery in a
dispute that had blown up. He was fully prepared to be inspired as he had the
opportunity to meet with what he expected to be deeply devout priests in the
heart of the world-wide church of Rome. He was strangely disappointed. He was
shocked at the extravagant building projects, the untold wealth, the flippant
way so many priests rushed through the daily round of services and the
immorality he saw all around him. Nonetheless he sought a deep spiritual
experience as he dragged himself up the steps of Pilate, saying the Lord’s
Prayer, the Our Father, the Pater Noster once on each step. He reached the top
and as he recalled later had a moment of questioning, asking “Who knows whether
it is so?”
He
returned to the monastery in Erfurt in April 1511 only to find himself
transferred almost immediately to the Augustinian monastery in what was little
more than a village of 2,500 people. It was to become the place he was to make
his home for the rest of his life. Wittenberg. The one claim to fame it had was
the brand new University that Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony had
founded only a few years before.
Luther
had moments of deep depression … but there was someone in the Wittenberg
monastery who was a saving grace for him. Johann von Staupitz. As a pray-er and
spiritual director he made his mark on Luther, but he could also see the way
Luther had with words. And so it was that Staupitz arranged for Martin Luther
to study further at the university and acquire the status of Teacher, Doctor.
And so it was on the 19th October 1512 (505 years ago to the day that I am
writing these notes!) Martin Luther was presented with that Latin Bible that
was closed and it was opened in his hands.
It
was 1st August, 1513 that he began those lectures on the Psalms. Steeped in the
great traditions of the church through the centuries he drew out the meaning in
four ways, summed up in a little Latin verse he would quote
("The
letter lets you know what happened, and allegory what you
must
believe; the moral sense what you must do, and the mystical what you may hope
for."
In
the inner turmoil he often found himself in he sought refuge in the Tower Room
– among the Psalms one great Psalm that spoke powerfully to him was Psalm 46.
Psalm
46
God
is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore
we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of
the sea;
though
its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its
tumult.
There
is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God
is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The
nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The
Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come,
behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the
earth.
He
makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
‘Be
still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.’
The
Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
18
months later in April 1515 he turned to the New Testament and to Paul’s letter
to the Romans. It wasn’t long before he reached a passage that was to be for
Martin Luther a turning point. The God he had got to know was a wrathful God
who made great demands on those who followed him. But in the words of Paul he
began to discover a quite different dimension to this God.
The
passage that was to become such a seminal passage for him was in Romans 1:15-16
Once
he had considered the righteousness of God to be something fearful. But now it
began to dawn on him. The righteousness of God was something wonderful.
Something warm. Something to draw us into the embrace of a God of love. It was
not so much the righteousness of a wrathful God as the righteousness whereby
God made us right with himself.
The
Good News Bible captures in some ways what was slowly beginning to dawn on
Martin Luther.
Romans
1:15f GNB
I
have complete confidence in the gospel;
it
is God's power to save all who believe,
first
the Jews and also the Gentiles.
For the gospel reveals
how
God puts people right with himself:
it
is through faith from beginning to end.
As
the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall
live.”
By
the beginning of March 1516 Luther had reached chapter 9 of Romans in his
lectures when there was great excitement at the University. A dispatch rider
arrived with a book that had just been published that was to revolutionise the
study of the Bible and the translation of the Bible. It was the very first
printed edition of the Greek New Testament prepared by Erasmus: Luther
immediately began to make good use of it in his lectures.
Those
lectures were never published by Luther but a number of his students kept the
notes he dictated between the lines and in those large margins. It wasn’t until
1908 that they were re-discovered and published.
Something
is happening in Luther’s heart as he reads Romans – all too conscious of his
own inadequacies, his own failures, his own sinfulness it is in this letter of
Paul that he discovers the mercy of God, the grace of God and the liberating
realization that it is faith that releases that love of God in to the heart.
Let’s
say together as a statement of that faith we share in reading together
Romans
5:1-5
Now that we have
been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. 2He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace,
in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's
glory! 3We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces
endurance, 4endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope.
5This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our
hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.
For
me the worship song, Only by grace captures that insight that meant the world
to Luther and means the world to us.
He
was deeply troubled when he heard that a monk who was effectively a travelling
salesman was selling bits of paper, beautifully printed that promised people
they could get to heaven more quickly when they died – the more you paid the
quicker you got there. Martin Luther was incensed at the way Tetzel was
fleecing people – even more so when he learned that the proceeds of the sales
were being sent back to Rome to pay for the escalating costs of one of those
building projects he had seen for himself less than ten years before – the
re-building of what has become the magnificent St Peter’s. To think that was
being paid for out of the hard earned cash of people in Wittenberg who lived in
poverty!
It was too much. And so it was Martin Luther drew up a detailed riposte to the
whole idea of selling indulgences to get a short cut to heaven. He had printed
95 propositions, theses, explaining how wrong they were and, tradition has it,
nailed them to the door of the castle church near the University.
It
was the 31st October 1517.
Events
unfolded after that very rapidly.
The
young monk turned university lecturer was summoned to Augsburg where he was
interrogated by an Italian Cardinal whose job at that time it was to
troubleshoot problems for the Roman church. For three days they met. Prove to
me from Scripture that I am wrong, said Luther and he would recant. Cajetan
couldn’t. Luther faced the condemnation of Rome – sensing it was dangerous to
stay in Augsburg he fled back to Wittenberg where he faced formal condemnation
by Rome in what was known as a papal bull.
By
now he was lecturing on Galatians and he was drawn to the freedom Paul spoke of
Galatians
5:1
For freedom Christ
has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of
slavery.
For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only
thing that counts is faith working through love.
For we were called
to freedom as brothers and sisters; we must not use our freedom as an
opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your
neighbour as yourself.’
But
it was a freedom that involved serving Christ and serving others.
The
freedom of a Christian was one of three treatises Luther wrote explaining his
views.
By now he was in outright opposition to Rome – Luther was summoned to Worms in
1521 for a council drawn together with representatives from all over the Roman
Empire under its effective Emperor, Charles V. Luther again was challenged to
recant. Here I stand – I can no other was his response as he stood his ground..
With
the powers that be ranged against him, Luther found support in Saxony from the
elector Frederick who had always been supportive of the university in
Wittenberg and he gave Luther refuge in a castle in the Wartburg. He made the
most of three months exile and set to translating the New Testament into modern
German putting to good use Erasmus’s printed Greek New Testament together with
his notes on the text and his modern Latin translation … It was published in
September 1522.
In
the preface to his Greek New Testament Erasmus described his vision – that
people all over Europe would use the Greek text to translate the New Testament
into the ordinary language of the people
Christ wishes his
mysteries published as openly as possible. I would that even the lowliest women
read the Gospels and the Pauline epistles. And I would that they were
translated into all languages so that they could be read and understood not
only by Scots and Irish but also by Turks and Saracens
…. Would that as a
result, the farmer sing some portion of them at the plough, the weaver hum some
parts of them to the movement of his shuttle, the traveller lighten the
weariness of the journey with stories of this kind! Let all conversations of
every Christian be drawn from this source.
People
came to visit Luther and caught the vision – one of them was a young scholar
who had been born here in Gloucestershire, William Tyndale. By 1524 Tyndale’s
translation of the New Testament into English had been published.
It’s
in reading the Bible in your own language that you hear the Word of God – and
when reading the Bible, Luther suggested, you must always look for Christ – for
Christ is at the heart of the Bible. Think of the Old Testament as the manger
in which Christ was laid.
Luther
had by now returned to Wittenberg which was to be his home for the next 25
years before he died. There he broke
with many of the traditions of the church and began shaping things very
differently. The one time monk married Katherine Von Bora. He liked nothing
better than to invite students and friends to his house where he was full of
wit and fun. He loved singing, was an accomplished lute player and wrote hymns
that explained his faith to the tunes popular in the taverns. His first
collection of hymns was published in 1524 and soon after his most famous hymn
based on that favourite Psalm of his, Psalm 46, Ein festeburg – a Safe
Stronghold, our God is still. This was a troubling and troubled time – the hymn
is full of lurid imagery – no matter what may befall yet Christ is with us and
God is our safe stronghold still.
1 A safe stronghold our God is still,
a trusty shield and weapon;
he'll keep us clear from all the ill
that hath us now o'ertaken.
The ancient prince of hell
hath risen with purpose fell;
strong mail of craft and power
he weareth in this hour;
on earth is not his fellow.
2 With force of arms we nothing can,
full soon were we down-ridden;
but for us fights the proper Man
whom God himself hath bidden.
Ask ye, Who is this same?
Christ Jesus is his name,
the Lord Sabaoth's Son;'
he, and no other one,
shall conquer in the battle.
3 And were this world all devils o'er,
and watching to devour us,
we lay it not to heart so sore;
not they can overpower us.
And let the prince of ill
look grim as e'er he will,
he harms us not a whit;
for why? his doom is writ;
a word shall quickly slay him.
4 God's word, for all their craft and
force,
one moment will not linger,
but, spite of hell, shall have its
course;
'tis written by his finger.
And though they take our life,
goods, honour, children, wife,
yet is their profit small;
these things shall vanish all:
the City of God remaineth.
Martin
Luther (1483-1546) tr Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Psalm
46
Using
the printing press his ideas were published and spread quickly in books and
pamphlets.
It
was a turbulent time – passions ran high. National feelings began to emerge.
The Roman Empire was losing its hold across the peoples of Europe – nation
states began to assert their independence from Rome, not least here in these
islands.
Change
was in the air … and somehow change was here to stay. Much about Luther is an
inspiration – much is an abomination. The violence he unleashed, not least in
the suppression of the peasants’ revolt and religious wars that tore Europe
apart, his anti-semitism that played its awful part in a history that
culminated in the holocaust.
What
was it more than anything else that happened that makes me want to celebrate
this 500th anniversary of the Reformation?
For
me it is the opening of a closed book and the fulfilment of Erasmus’s vision
that
The
vision was Erasmus who published that Greek New Testament. That the ploughboy
should be able to read the bible in his own language.
It
was in those lectures on Psalms that Luther found great consolation and a God
who was with him in the dark times – the God who is a safe stronghold still.
It
was in Romans that Luther found the liberating power of God’s grace.
It
was in Galatians that he found the wonder of freedom in Chrsit … a freedom that
involves serving Christ and serving others.
It
was in translating the Bible into German that he did for the German people what
Tyndale, inspired by Luther, did for us in English.
It
is as the Bible has at its focus Jesus Christ that it becomes for us the Word
of God to shape our lives.
And that’s why change is here to stay. One watchword of the Reformation is that
things are always in need of reform. You don’t reach a point at which all is
perfect.
It
is the responsibility of each of us to read that Word of God with Christ at its
centre and then to do our bit in changing things to be in accordance with that
word.
One
final thought … the Bible is that common ground we share as Christians with
each other and it is the common ground on which we can come more closely
together.
The
story of the Reformation is often told as the story of deep division and
fracture for a once united church. I want to tell that story as a story of
renewal that captures the rich diversity of a church truly rooted in the
Scripture, centred on Christ that by the power of the Spirit knows God to be a
safe stronghold in a troubled world.
The
printing press had been only just been invented. The ideas of the reformation
were spread in strongly worded pamphlets illustrated with what can only be
described as blood curdling political cartoons.
We
rarely get the opportunity to go behind the polemic – but just occasionally
there’s an indication of much more listening and much more true dialogue going
on.
The
very first Cardinal to interrogate Luther at Augsburg was Cardinal Cajetan. In
the first third of his life Tomasso de Vio had studied and written commentaries
on Thomas Aquinas – Cajetan’s commentaries can still be found in the libraries
of Monasteries to this day.
The
second third of his life as a Cardinal he was a trouble-shooter for the Pope –
he happened to be in Saxony at the time Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door
of the church in Wittenberg and so he it was who was given the task of
interrogating Luther. “Prove to me from the Bible that I am wrong,” Luther
challenged, “and I will be convinced.”
Interestingly,
within a couple of years Cajetan had written a small pocket book on the Psalms
which he called a Little Breakfast in the Psalms. Then he turned to the study
of the Scriptures and in the last third of his life he wrote a commentary on
the New Testament and the Old Testament up to the book of Isaiah. It took
seriously the Bible and approached it in much the same way as the reformers did
as well.
From
1517 until 1542 there was a lot more dialogue than people sometimes imagine.
Then the Pope and the powers that be in the church in Rome clamped down on
things with the Council of Trent. That led to a close control over doctrine and
the reading of the Bible. Indeed it wasn’t until the 2nd Vatican
Council in the 1960’s that biblical scholarship was given a free hand and
worship was conducted in the vernacular.
Where
churches have come together in a closer spirit of co-operation it is where the
Scriptures are recognized as that common ground on which we can take a stand
together.
We
finish with Graham Adams’ new hymn – which won the Congregational Federation’s
hymn writing competition for this anniversary year.
Reforming
Christ – God’s living, loving Word –
the
Scriptures cradle and attest to you;
speak
to us now, shed tears and light again:
for
you are making us and all things new!
Reforming
Christ! Nail questions to our doors
to
make us think again, to seek your ways;
for
we neglect debate at truth’s expense –
so
shake us out of each complacent haze.
Reforming
Christ! Your faith enthrals my soul
and
forms the righteousness your word enfleshed.
Call
me to work for justice in all realms,
till
church and kingdoms make your will their guest.
Reforming
Christ! Expose what we indulge –
the
things that seem to count, which miss the mark;
so
help us see where faith is funding wealth,
and
shake us to address the gap so stark.
Reforming
Christ! Always reform your church!
Transform
us till our minds conform to you –
Christ
of the nails and faith that’s for the poor –
40 years ago on 15th October 1977 I was ordained to the Christian Ministry and inducted to the pastorate of Harden Congregational Church, Cheltenham.
It was great to have a weekend of celebrations with the church family here at Highbury and with friends and representatives of churches Felicity and I have been part of in those 40 years of shared ministry.
On Saturday evening we had a Messy Church Celebration, with a wonderful meal served to our Messy Church regulars and friends and our Sunday congregations too. It was great to have everyone together enjoying crafts inspired by some of my interests with quizzes, Romans, geology and astronomy too. Joy Howell, our Area Youth and Children's co-ordinator, led a celebration in church that was wonderful.
On Sunday morning the celebration continued as I entered into conversation with Roy Jenkins, Minister of the church I belonged to in Bangor as a student, David Waters who had spent a gap year with us here at Highbury 20 years ago and Yvonne Campbell, General Secretary of the Congregational Federation.
Text of the
Week: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Hebrews 13:8
Welcome to our services
today and a special welcome to any worshipping with us for the first time. It’s
particularly good to welcome all those who have come to share in a special celebration
of the 40th anniversary of my ordination. It’s really a double
celebration for Felicity and me as a month ago we celebrated our Ruby Wedding
anniversary and for the last 40 years we have very much shared in ministry
first at Harden, just outside Bradford, then in Minsterley and Pontesbury and
now here at Highbury. In looking back 40 years one of the chief things I recall
is the passion we shared then for the Kingdom, for the Gospel, for Christ, for
His Church and for the world around us. And I am just as passionate today! So
in our celebrations today we are not going to look to the past. We are going to look to the present and to
the future and share together the vision we have for today and for the future
ahead of us. I’ve invited three people to join in conversation with me this
morning to reflect with us all on our vision for today and for the future: the
Rev Roy Jenkins who as Minister of the church I belonged to in Bangor,
Pen’rallt Baptist Church, took part in my ordination 40 years ago today; David
Waters, who 20 years ago spent a year with us at Highbury as a volunteer; and
Yvonne Campbell who is currently the General Secretary of our Congregational
Federation and who is a member of Wavertree Congregational church and a little
while ago completed our CF course.
Welcome
and Call to Worship
HTC
31: Give to our God immortal praise
Prayer
and the Lord’s Prayer
Jesus
Christ the same … yesterday, today
and
forever
Get
the children to come to the front … or mix of adults … a tape measure I made 37
years ago and it’s really special – I’ve kept ever since.
Let’s
see how tall everyone is.
It’s
a stretchy tape measure – and that’s no good – you need a tape measure that
doesn’t change then you can really know how you are growing …
Jesus
is the same yesterday, today and forever …
A
great reading
Reading:
Hebrews 13: 7-8
Remember your
leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their
way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and for ever.
That
reading means the world to me and the first of those verses has been in the
front of my Bible whichever Bible I have had for the last 37 years – my father
had died … and I found that very difficult to cope with … and very hard to get
back to taking services. The first service – I came up with that story – and I
linked it to the measures in Bradford City centre because still in 1977 the
Wool trade worldwide had its headquarters in the Wool Exchange in Bradford and
there were measures set into the city square to settle arguments
I
could remember the words – but just before the service began in the vestry I
couldn’t remember where they came from – I looked them up in an index – I found
them and went into the service – did the stunt, read the passage and thought
nothing more of it.
I
did the service on automatic pilot – and then got home and it was Felicity who
said – that was a great service, really important – and it had said nothing to
me. I read the passage again – and it was the verse before – that caught my
attention …
Remember
your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of
their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and for ever.
A
Hy-Spirit song
We’ve been a team
together so I’ll ask Felicity to see our prayer before the youngsters go to
have some more fun!
Prayer
by Felicity
Activities
for all over 3
What’s
your vision for today and for the
future?
In
conversation
So
what do you do when your wife lands you in it and you celebrate the 40th
anniversary of your ordination? You can’t help but remember – friends who were
there at the ordination – Euros and Geraint are celebrating 40 years on as
well. Other friends too, Alan Argent this very weekend. 40 years ago Tudur, the
principal of the college where I had trained preached his vision for the church
and my father, who was also a minister preached a sermon challenging me – the
text I remember was from 1 Timothy – where Paul writes ‘to Timothy, my son’.
All
moving stuff.
But
I don’t want to go down memory lane.
Instead
one thing I do remember from 40 years ago that we all of us shared a passion to
change the world, to make a difference and to change people’s hearts. I may by
next year be ready to retire as ‘the minister of a church’ but I am still as
passsionte as ever about the cause, the kingdom, the gospel.
So
want I want to do is to reflect on the vision there is for today and for what’s
ahead – the vision for the church – how we can have a vision. And to do that I
have invited three people from the last 40 years to join me.
It’s
great to welcome Roy and Liz Jenkins, David and Lisa Waters and the boys and
Yvonne and Dave Campbell and Poppy. So .. Roy, Yvonne and David if you would
like to come and join us.
Roy
was minister of the church I attended in Bangor, Pen’rallt Baptist Church – and
because my father had been minister of the church I grew up in and I have been
minister for the last 40 years – the only person to have been ‘my minister’ and
it’s great to know Roy and Liz are there on the other end of a phone and good
to get together albeit very, very infrequently!!!
First
Roy, when you left school you went into journalism. I want to take you back to
28th June 1960 – you were from Abertillery in South Wales a very,
very young pup reporter, I believe when you found yourself responding to a news story that shook the
nation.
Six
Bells – 45 men and boys killed
Six
years later there was another major disaster at Aberfan – when the coal tip
slid down the mountain and 116
children and 28 adults were killed.
For
many people they would have abandoned their faith in God – why didn’t God do
something about it?
But
you didn’t – you gave up journalism and had a call to ministry – so that 8
years later by the time I arrived as a student in Bangor.
What
was it that drove you to faith? And to have a vision for Christ and the
kingdom?
You
were in Pen’rallt and then moved on to Ararat in Cardiff – and you became
passionate about Amnesty International and set up an organization Chrsitians
Against Torture – why did you home in on that particular cause?
From
Arrarat it was to the BBC – and All things considered – 9-00 and on BBC
i-player
Of
all your guests who has been the most inspirational?
I
want to bring in David at this point.
Started
out life as a little one here in Highbury, went off to the wilds of Cheshire
and then 20 years ago this year you took a yuear out having finished school to
join us as a volunteer. And it was quite some year – joining forces with Sandra
Dehn another Time for God Volunteer who next Saturday is getting married – and
Jean and Roger and June and Mary are going to the wedding – to take our love!
It was the height of The Ocracy – our alternative worship Saturday evening
worship time – and you were out fly posting posters and we were getting in
trouble for encouraging you to do that and for the sound levels in the church.
What
happened next?
Durham
for theology
Then
a job with the BBC
Songs
of Praise
Blue
Peter
Documentary
series on the mircales
And
a year in Canterbury Cathedral
The
Saturday morning football programme
And
now you have been head hunted to return to Songs of Praise as a Producer.
Tell
us what’s going to be happening with Songs of Praise?
Of
all the people you have interviewed who has inspired you most?
And
now the third of our guests – Yvonne Campbell. I think we go back a long way –
one of our first CF Youth conferences was at Wavertree in Liverpool – and
that’s your home church.
Tell
us a little of your Christian story …
Our
CF has been going through some turbulent times and you have become General
Secretary with a different kind of brief to visit ans support churches – tell
us a bit about what you are doing.
In
visiting all those churches – what has inspired you most?
How
you can help Highbury as we move on and the church looks for a minister?
What’s
your vision for the future?
David
– what’s your vision for the future?
Roy,
a slightly different question for you …
We
go back 43 years – we shared all sorts of passions then about changing people,
changing the world –
And
we have seen things change – we campaigned against apartheid and apartheid has
finished. Through the cold war we prayed for the persecuted church behind the
iron curtain – I remember we supported in Yorkshire days Micahel and Jo Pollard
who visited churches behind the iron curtain each summer and reported back to
our Bible Society Action group on their travels – then came to Pontesbury – and
then the Iron Curtain came down – John and Joan’s son was there – as the wall
came down. I remember getting Irina
Ratushinskia, a dissident Christian poet from Russia to sign her authobiography
at the literature festival – and as I stood in front of her – said, lamely, we
had been praying for her … and she wrote in the fly leaf – It works!
Back
in 77 – the Northern Ireland troubles
The
Millennium moment – full of hope – our Passion Play taking the story of Jesus
on to the streets of our time.
Even
in the context of torture – under President Obama things seemed to be changing.
And
then everything seems to have gone wrong – since 9/11, Afghaistan, the war in
Iraq, Libya, Syria – is it 2,000 and more people our drone pilots have killed
in the last three or four years – and where we had supposed we could bomb over
there with impunity we are coming to terms with the fact that bombing is going
to be a reality for us maybe for a generation.
So
many hopes dashed.
How
do you hold on to that sense of vision?
What
is your vision.
I
want to come back to a vision that has a focus –
The
collier at six bells colliery head is holding his hands out in a particular
way. But it’s reminiscent of another sculpture – in Llandaff Cathedral – by
Jacob Epstein – of Jesus – with his hands out in the same way.
Christ
is there in the mess of the world. With us in that mess. Accomnpanbying us
through the mess – and our task is to keep at it – love for God, love for
neighbvour, love for enemy – the ministry of reconciliation – with the
inspiration of Jesus at our heart.
A
song – that for me captures that sense of call …
251
I the Lord of sea and sky
A
reading that caught my imagination in the sixth form – Ruth represents Harden
who send their love but have a busy weekend of meetings yesterday and today
Reading:
Romans 12:1-2 & 9-21
Great
to have friends from Minsterley and Pontesbury with us – Ian is going to lead
our prayers of concern.
Prayers
of Concern
510
Jesus calls us here to meet him
The
Lord’s Supper
Communion
Offering & Dedication
Communion
Collection for Langley House Trust and the Knole – the home locally that works
with ex-offenders
Our sermons on Sunday mornings are exploring the way we can make that a reality.
Mapping the Church of the Future
As we re-shape the life of our church and dream dreams for the future of Highbury we are reading through Acts on Sunday evenings. Our series of sermons with the title 'Mapping the Church of the Future' is a 21st Century view of Acts.
