A Church that knows how to party!

We’ve reached the end of the road.

And it’s not such a bad place to reach on Pentecost Sunday.

When Felicity pointed out John Pritchard’s little book, Going to Church, a User’s Guide, she commented that she thought it might contribute to a series of sermons.

The blurb on the back was promising.

The book sets out to be a ‘route-finder through the mess, the mystery and magic of the church, written by someone who fully understands the problems but is confident about the value.”

John Pritchard, the Bishop of Reading, looks at the Church as it is, the Church as it is meant to be and the Church as it might become.

It is in the second part of the book that he asks the question, What’s the Church for?

That’s not a bad question to think about this Pentecost Sunday as we celebrate the birthday of the church.

Without apology he says at the outset that he is going to set the bar quite high in answering that question.

“The primary taks of the Church is to worship. We come to church for all sorts of reaons, some of which hardly bear repeating in respectable company, but the Church itself, the Church as a whole, the Church in its pure, uncut form is there to worship God.”

“If the Church’s first task is to worship God, its second task is to join in God’s mission. The last five words are important. The mission is God’s and it’s something we join in rather than construct for ourselves. God’s very nature is to be missionary because mission is the outpouring of God’s love into the world. We are simply called to join in with What God is doing. It follows that the God of mission has a Church, not the Church of God has a mission!”

What’s the church for?

The third answer John Pritchard gives is ‘Community’

Again, how important it is for us to think of Church as ‘community’ on Pentecost Sunday.

John Pritchard speaks of the growing frustration with our fragmented, individualitic, consumer-oriented ways of living at the start fo the twenty-first century.

“It has been the genius of the Christian faith to emphasise the importance of local congregations, wherever ‘church’ has sprung up. When people become Christians they very rarely do so on their own; they have been known, loved, accompanied and encouraged by a community of faithful people – the local church.

“Community is the Church’s mode of existence. Communities are the human expression of divine love, showing us what God wants for us and valuing us for who we are. It’s in a community that people know our name.”

Worship – Mission – Community: these are the three strands that are woven through the fabric of our church life.

It is in the third part of his book that Bishop John looks to The Church as it might become, and outlines ten things he would go to the stake for in any church.

As I run through the themes we have explored about church over the last few weeks, can you work out what you think the tenth and final thing is that John Pritchard would go to the stake for in any church?

Ten things to go to the stake for in any church …

A church that takes God seriously
A church that takes our humanity seriously
A church that takes the world seriously
A church that prays
A church that sees itself as a learning community
a church with a sense of humour where they laugh a lot – mostly at themselves
A church where love is all around
A church where everybody participates
A church that looks to the future

So what could the tenth thing be?

The first clue is today Pentecost.

The close friends of Jesus had dwindled in number and were literally holed up in an upper room in Jerusalem fearful of what happened in the crucifixion of Christ, in awe at his resurrection, and now fearful of what lay in store. The doors were locked for good cause.

What happened that fiftieth day after resurrection day defies description. There was a sound like the rush of a violent wind, that filled the entire house where they were sitting. There were divided tongues ‘as of fire’ that appeared among them.

All of them were filled with this unseen yet very real strength, power, of God. The helper, the advocate, the counsellor, the strengtener, the comforter promised by Jesus had come upon them. They had a strength from beyond themselves and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Beginning to speak in other languages, they rushed from that place … and they made quite an impression.

Bewilderment, amazement, astonishment are just three words Luke uses to describe the reaction of the crowdx. Some were perplexed and some simply sneered and poked fun – they are filled with new wine!

But it’s only 9-00 in the morning, said Peter.

What was it about those people who that day saw the birth of the church in its worship, as it joins with God in mission, and supremely as community?

Something special.

And another clue in that passage we read from Luke 15.

We’ve told the story so often to children, it’s so firmly fixed in our minds that it is easy to lose the point of the story as Luke records it in Luke 15.

Jesus was on a journey.

And on his journey he ate.

With lots of unexpected people.

There was a joy in that table fellowship that prompted him to tell stories about the banquet they would share in heaven.

As he journeyed towards Jerusalem he spoke a lot about banquets. He ate a lot in the company of all sorts.

And not everyone approved.

For some of the Pharisees and Scribes this was the last straw. Tax-collectors of all people. And sinners – that’s an all-embracing word for you – wre coming near to him and listening to him.

Shock, horror.

And the grumbling began. This fellw welcomes sinners and – this is the worst horror of all – This fellow welcomes sinners and … eats with them.

So and that little word ‘so’ is important.

It is in response to the sneers at the company Jesus kept not least in those meals and banquets that Jesus told them this parable.

Notice the point of the parable.

‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.

How many sermons have you heard preached on that wonderful parable.

Isn’t it a glorious picture of the Good Shepherd’s love for his lost sheep.

There’s a wonderful animation of it on the church web site!

But is that the point of Jesus’ parable as Luke records it here?

Or is there something more?

That something more is the clue to the tenth thing John Pritchard would go to the stake for in any church.

6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

It’s the shared joy of that shepherd who cannot keep his joy to himself but wants to share it with all his friends and neighbours.

In at number 10 comes A church that knows how to party.

Bishoip Jack Nicholls is quoted by John Pritichard as having a simple formula for a successful church – prayer and parties. That takes a lot of beating.

Prayer was in at number 4.

John Pritchard confesses that parties are an unlikely tailpiece. And yet, he asks, why should the be?

Jesus often paints his picture –parables of the end of time in terms of a heavenly party, a banquet where the most unlikely people are sitting at top table, but the food is great (and just maybe the speeches are short!!)

Partying together is a subconscious way of echoing this image in the present as we do in communion.

Parties say: it’s good to be alive, life is for celebrating, and this is a group of people I want to be with.

So … it’s good to party just for a few moments after church over coffee maybe.

It was good to party last week at Brunel Manor, not least with our very own version of Highbury’s Got Talent.

We’ve got another party coming up in a month’s time on 4th July when we are going to have a church picnic in Pittville park.

And maybe there are other parties to come to along the way …

As John Pritchard says, Our Local church, believe it or not, is the place where we’re given an appetizer for the Banquet at the End of Time. We might as well get in the party mood!

A Church that looks to the future

We have reached the ninth thing that John Pritchard, the Bishop of Reading, would go to the stake for in seeking a church to join.

A church that looks to the future.

It is a theme that plays for us today in two ways.

The first is the way that John Pritchard envisages and it relates to something that was shared at the Church Meeting on Wednesday evening, and something that was launched at the May Assembly in Leicester yesterday.

The second has to do with the start of Christian Aid Week and speaks very much to us as we set about the task once again of collecting for Christian Aid.

“It’s important,” says John Pritchard, “that the Church walks into the future holding on to the thread of tradition. The problem comes when it walks into the future backwards. We need to be looking expectantly to the new generations, the next leaders, the next steps towards realizing the vision God has given. This means particular attention being given to children and young people, and those who have been drawn in towards the edge of the Church’s life.”

That’s what was introduced to the Congregational Federation Assembly yesterday, something Becky shared with us at the Church Meeting on Wednesday.

Child Friendly church is an initiative that has been greatly valued in a number of churches in the last couple of years, and now it is coming to the Federation. It invites us to reflect on what we are doing with our children and young people, and how we can ensure that their voice is heard in the life of the church.

A small group have worked through a questionnaire and it is greatly encouraging to see how much our activities with children fit in with the good practice advocated in this scheme. A number of things were identified and action has already been taken to address those.

Copies of that questionnaire were passed round at church meeting and if you would like a copy there are copies available to have a look at.

In addition the children have a questionnaire to fill in – and Becky would really like parents to help the children to fill in their responses so they can be drawn into the plans.

In addition to the questionnaire Becky has drafted two short documents that are really designed to get us thinking about the place of children in our church, then to embed the good practice we have developed so that it can be passed on and finally to ensure that we give our children and young people a voice in the life of the church. In particular, the draft document outlines a way of involving the children in the big decisions a church has to make from time to time.

Catch ‘the vision for work with children and families at Highbury’ and let’s adopt the ‘strategy for hearing children’s voices’.

That’s part of the way we shall be a church that looks to the future.

It is for John Pritchard not only children that are part of that future. It is also those drawn into church life. How we draw people in and in particular how we enable those exploring the faith to come closer to that faith is all important.

“Nurturing new disciples isn’t an optional extra,” writes John Pritchard; it’s maintaining an effective maternity ward for the kingdom of God.”

He poses a number of key questions: “where are young people heard in the church’s life? What proportion of the budget goes on children and young people? Is there an adult nurture course running regularly – once or twice a year? How do the church’s plethora of contacts turn into active nurturing of those interested in exploring issues of faith? If we’re playing hardball the message is this: grow or die.

It is a powerful challenge that he shares with us.

But his insight for us today is only part of the story.

The reading we have heard is a reading all about the future. The ultimate future in God’s glory. That selection of verses from Revelation 21 and 22 is a powerful vision of the glory we look to at the heart of our faith.

We need to be a church that looks to the future with that confidence that is contained in these wonderful words.

God himself will be with them;* 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes.Death will be no more;mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

That city of God in that heavenly vision has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25

On either side of the river of life that flows through the city of God is the tree of life* with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3

It is a wonderful vision of the future. Hold on to that vision and we shall be a church that looks to the future.

But we are mistaken to think that it is simply a vision of a future glory ahead of us.

It is the kind of vision of the future that can shape the here and now.

It is exactly in this sense that this vision of the future plays out for us at the beginning of Christian Aid week.

The youngsters have been thinking of toilets. Or at least, they have been thinking of the lack of toilets in some parts of the world. And the difference Christian Aid partners can make in providing sanitation and water where it is badly needed, not least in Nairobi in Kenya.

A Church that thinks of itself as a learning community

For the first twenty-five years of my ministry I was immensely involved in the committee work of the Congregational Federation. For the whole time we lived in Shropshire I would go to and fro to Nottingham to Council meetings, Christian Ministries Committee, Pastoral Care Committee and to meetings of the Training Board.

It has been good over the last six years to have handed the reins over to others.

I miss the car journeys I used to make to Nottingham from Shropshire. As often as not I found myself in the company of one of our senior ministers, Norman Sedgeman. What was good was to sit at the feet of a senior minister and learn from his wisdom.

It would have been fun to have done such a journey around about now in the lead-up to a General Election. In one direction we would discuss theology, and we would not see eye to eye on everything. And in the other direction we would discuss politics a subject on which we saw eye to eye on even less.

On each journey he would ask what I was reading, and I would ask likewise of him. He may have been in his 80’s but he was passionate to learn more about any and every subject under the sun. He would always have some book or other on the go. On the return journey he would ask, so what have you learned today? Friend Norman was always on the lookout for something new to learn. Not a day should pass without learning something new!

It made for stimulating conversation. And a profound impression on me.

If I sense the gift I have in ministry is that of a teacher and a pastor, I have throughout my ministry been very much involved in the business of teaching and learning.

I am passionate about teaching and equally passionate about learning.

It is exciting on Saturday afternoon at the Congregational Federation’s annual assembly we shall be celebrating 30 years of our training course. There will be a cake to cut, a book telling the story to buy, insights into our new Foundation Degree and the launch of our new initiative, Growing Disciples. It promises to be an exciting day … and still time to come along if you would like to join in the celebrations.

It excited me to see John Pritchard, the Bishop of Reading, say in his book Going to Church - A User’s Guide, that one of the ten things he would go to the stake for in any church that was worth joining was this …

A church that sees itself as a learning community.

A learning church, he says, is on the move. It isn’t satisfied; it knows that the kingdom of God has not arrived in its midst, but that, as in nature, growth is the only sign of life.

I once listened, John Prtichard goes on to say, “at the start of a conference to an African who had been a bishop since he was 30. Now over 60 and hugely respected all over Africa and beyond, he said he had come to the conference to learn about being a bishop. Such humility becomes us all.

How can we be ‘a church that sees itself as a learning community’?

I find myself coming back once again to Ephesians, and to a passage that follows on from what we read last week, and leads into what we read two or three weeks ago.

14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Paul takes the analogy once again of the body. This time, however, he thinks of the way the body grows. He marvels at the way a babe learns and grows into a chid, and the way the child grows up. The body is something that grows. That is the thrill of the analogy. So, when Paul uses the analogy of the body in order to understand the nature of the church. He doesn’t simply use it to speak of the way all the different parts of the body are different and contribute to the whole. He also uses the analogy to challenge us to think that the church is not a static organisation, but a growing organism.

For Paul that growth is a growth that happens in a particular direction. He speaks of growing towards maturity, but the maturity he thinks of is a maturity that is in Christ.

We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

For Paul we learn and grow as we see the truth in Christ … but we seek the truth only as we speak the truth in love.

Working together as a body with all its different parts growing into that maturity in Christ is a wonderful, dynamic, growing process that promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

For Paul the learning that is at the heart of church life is shaped by Christ, expressed in love, and involves growth.

So where does that learning take place in our church?

It starts in the hearts of each one of us. We each must ask whether we have the humility of that African bishop and the openness of our friend, Norman Sedgeman. Learning then happens in our own reflections. Praying, reading the Bible, reflecting on it.

You can just squeeze in Songs of Praise with our evening service – or tape it if you want. It is one that our David Waters, who grew up in church here, and spent a year with us as a volunteer was working on around the time of Mark and Denise’s wedding. It’s very much his baby as it marks the 250th anniversary of the Royal Society and explores faith and science.

Are we open to learning in the way we reflect on what we see?

Then we learn in our conversations in the church family. Learning is something that goes on. But then we have a particular focus for our learning. At the heart of our worship is a place for teaching – that goes right back to Acts 2 when from the outset the church met to listen to the Apostles’ teaching. If teaching is at the heart of our worship in the sermon, then learning needs to in the hearts of all of us. Open the Book, our House Groups, Prayer Groups, Hyper-space, Junior Church, Hy-Tec, Transformers, - so many specific places where the focus is on learning. Learning from each other, learning from God.

But we must not imagine that the kind of ‘learning’ Paul had in mind was something simply cerebral. Just head learning – learning of information, ideas, thinking.

The kind of learning Paul had in mind was the kind of learning that actually shapes the way we lead our lives.


17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ!

Paul lived in a world of conflicting life-styles. Ephesus was a sea-port and significant centre of Roman culture and life. Hosting one of the seven wonders of the world, the temple to Diana, Artemis, was a focal point of one of the great fertility cults of the Roman empire.

Paul was passionate that the Christian way was not just something to learn about, it was something to live. He was passionate about that set of values that would make a world of difference only if people took those values to heart. That was the way of life that he saw in Christ, and drew from Christ. And it is such a different way of life from the excesses of that Roman world in Ephesus.

He is adamant …

Where is that alternative way of life to be learned?

Paul comes back to Christ, to Jesus.

20That is not the way you learned Christ! 21For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.

This is where we reach the crux of the matter for me.

We must constantly return to Christ. It is in Jesus, his teaching, his ministry, his healing, his suffering, his death and his resurrection, that we have the measure of the teaching and learning that is at the heart of the life of the church.

Look to Christ and you will see the shape of what church should be, the shape of what our own Christian life should be.

21For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. 22You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 3and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Renewed in the spirit of your minds, clothed with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in Christ Jesus, in true righteousness or justice, and holiness.

John Pritchard concludes by saying, “If a church thinks it has arrived, that’s a sure sign that it’s dying. I long ago realised that one of the great joys of ignorance (of which I have huge expanses) is that there’s always so much to learn.

“So it is in a learning church.

“Its members are committed to deepening their faith, their knowledge, their skills, their spirituality.

“They’re being shaped into the community of God’s growing people.”

I would add, “they’re being shaped into the community of God’s growing people” and into nothing less than the body of Christ.

A church where everyone participates

A sermon preached at Highbury's Gift Day

Giving is right at the heart of our church life at Highbury. On two occasions in the year we have a special focus on giving. One is at Harvest when we share our giving between mission at Highbury and our commitment to the wider mission of the church, usually a mission partnership we are involved in in another part of the world.

Our focus at Gift Day is on the mission of the church here at Highbury, and very specifically again this year, funding the post of Pastoral Assistant.

We do not have any other sources of funding. We are who we are, we do what we do together, and we can afford what we can collectively afford together. All of us are invited to plan our giving through our giving scheme. That ensures a basic, you could call it, biblical, fairness. Each of us is encouraged to give as we are able. “Each of us must give as we have made up our minds, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide us with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything you may share abundantly in every good work.”

At Gift Day our giving involves a financial commitment. But giving at church is much broader and deeper than that. It is about giving of ourselves to another, to the wider world, and most importantly of all to God.

In my sequence of sermons prompted by John Pritchard’s book, Going to Church – a user’s guide, at the eighth thing he would go to the stake for in any church.

A church where everybody participates.

“There’s a church in Nebraska,” he writes, “which has only one resident. Elsie Eiler is in her seventies and is the town’s registered mayor, clerk, treasurer, librarian and licensee. She collects taxes from herself, grants her own alcohol licence,and single-handedly repairs the town’s roads. She says: “Some day this town will just be memories, but I like it here.”

“Some churches seem to be heading the same way, because there’s only one person who matters – the vicar, or the churchwarden, or the organist.

“The old do-it-all-yourself, command-and-control model of church life ought to be dead and buried.”

That is something I want to say a big AMEN to.

It is something that goes right to the heart of church life here at Highbury.

It is what we are about.

Everyone counts in the church family. Everyone has something to do.

A year ago we came up with a new way of working that has meant that each Tuesday morning we have a ‘team meeting’. Becky and I meet first for half an hour, and then we are joined by Sue, our Church Secretary, Roger, the Treasurer, Felicity with whom I share so much two of our Pastoral care team, Peter who does the room bookings – we just review the week.

Yesterday our Deacons met reflecting on the ideas more than fifty of us came up with at our Annual Meeting.

On Thursday evening we had Morton Brown room full of people who share in our visiting scheme.

Children’s work … in so many ways ours is a church where everybody participates.

But let’s just check ourselves for a moment.

I want to come back to John Pritchard’s book, It spoke to me not simply because it rang a chord. I also found it a challenge. All the way through. The kind of book that makes you take stock of where you are. And maybe think through where you are over again.

In ‘a church where everybody participates … ‘The old do-it-all-yourself, command-and-control model of church life ought to be dead and buried.”

I say a big AMEN to that.

But I then read on to the next sentence.

“It is, however, one of the aspects of church life most prone to resurrection.”

That was the sentence that caught my eye this week.

I hear in those words a warning note.

Felicity and I have been here nearly 19 years. The continuity that is reflected in that period of time was seen at the three churches day when our deacons met with the PCC’s of St Michael’s and St Luke’s as a strength. It is encouraging to hear that that’s the way it is perceived.

But alongside that sense of continuity is a danger we must all be aware of.

It is now more than two years since Becky joined us. She is entering into her third year. That’s great – we have benefited so much.

And on this Gift Day we reflect our commitment not just to Becky personally but to the concept of the shared ministry that is reflected in the appointment of a Pastoral Assistant.

But there is a danger. We have paid employees who will do that. We can leave it to them.

It is a question that we need to pose ourselves – do we leave too much to those who are paid in ministry? It is a question we need to pose ourselves.

And I believe it is a danger we need to avoid.

Let me take one specific example we need to give thought to. Becky has been appointed to focus on work with children and family. The work she has done in that area is immense. One major project is to enable a transition for those older ones in Junior Church so that we can extend and develop and also to reach out to others in the wider community. She has helped us work through that issue immensely. One key element has been Transformers. We share the work with St Luke’s. Effectively its leadership has been shared between the two paid employees – Wes the youth and children’s worker at St Luke’s, and Becky, our Pastoral Assistant.

It is wonderful that Wes’s wife, Becca, has been accepted to train for the Anglican ministry and they are therefore moving to Bristol to take up that training from September. That means Wes won’t be around. How do we support Becky in developing that work? That is an important and pressing question for us.

It relates to this wonderful vision of a church where everyone participates.

For me one of the great passages in the Bible that prompts our thinking along these lines is in Ephesians 4.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

I hear that appeal from Paul reaching out through the Ephesian church, down through the century to us. He begs each of us to be the people we are called to be.

As we explore this theme there should be no pressure.

Above all, there should be no sense of pushing square pegs into round holes. We are each of us to lead the life to which we have been called.

I love those characteristics – these are the characteristics of the kind of leadership, the kind of belonging that we all need to share – humility, gentleness, patience, love – the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

As each of us takes these words seriously, in whatever position we are in, then our church has the makings of a church where everyone participates.

This is, as John Pritchard suggests, not something for discussion. It is something that is the very essence of what ‘church’ is. This kind of unity, these character marks are not up for discussion as far as Paul is concerned. This is the very essence of church.

4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

That’s the basis for a church where everyone participates.

But. And there is a But.

Each of needs to recognize we are the people God made us to be.

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Who we are will shape what we do as we recognize what we are passionate about, what gifts we have, and what kind of a personality we have.

11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

At this point Paul homes in on one set of four gifts. On other occasions he enumerates many more gifts. We need to be aware of the great variety of gifts there are.

I guess this is one of my favourite passages because it includes the description that I have always felt describes best my gifts. As a pastor and teacher. The passage is a favourite ... and I come back to it today.

But interesting it contains within this passage the very challenge posed by John Pritchard’s comment.

Let’s see again what Paul goes on to say …

11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

Even at that very moment that Paul celebrates the very thing I feel called to I am challenged to return to the notion that no matter what our gift is everyone of us needs then to be concerned to share it for equipping everyone for ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

There has to be that empowering dimension to the kind of ministry I am called to that works towards involving everyone.

This is how John Pritchard puts it …

Leadership will be dispersed throughout the church’s life, although it will have a clear focus in the leadership team and the one who has been given final responsibility.

The bottom line for John Pritchard is this. I believe it needs to be the bottom line for us as a church too and for me in the ministry I share.

God is present in the wisdom and gifts of all God’s people, and the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts.

A church with a sense of humour where love is all around!

I hesitate to follow on from Becky’s fun with the children. It was great fun seeing her re-telling of the story of Noah's ark with so many unexpected animals.

And as for the joke about opening the door ... that was one she had not actually run past me before the service!!!!

I must say I have enjoyed John Pritchard’s book, Going to Church

Among the ten things the Bishop of Reading would go to the stake for in any church is

A church with a sense of humour where they laugh a lot – mostly at themselves.

It’s very sad when people feel that on entering a church they have to take off their personality and leave it at the door. You catch a glimpse of that when young men, unaccustomed to church and dressed up uncomfortably for a baptism or wedding, are clearly enormously relieved to get outside, where you can almost see them shake off the formality and resume normality. Laughter in church would be deeply odd to them. But laughter is a gift that belongs to our humanity. It’s God-given and one of our greatest pleasures – as well as being good for our health. Humour should be alongside holiness as the ‘ground bass’ of our church life. Sometimes as I watch the Church acting out its protocols like vintage Gilbert and Sullivan, I think God must be hooting with laughter (if you’ll excuse the anthropomorphism) As if our formalities mattered.

Laughter is a gift that belongs to our humanity

My problem is … I am not good at telling jokes!

So I want to move on … to another of his statements and one that is very timely in the week when we are going to have our Visitors’ meeting.

John Pritchard is also adamant about another of the things to go to the stake for in any church …

A church where love is all around.

… even when it has to be expressed in forgiveness. Love is the litmus test of a church’s life. It tells you whether it has got the Jesus gene or not. Love is the projection of God’s life into the world and so it is one of the very few things that increases the more you give it away.

In each of his letters Paul comes to a point at which he seeks to apply the thinking behind his Christian faith to practical everyday living, not least the kind of living that is so necessary in a church family.

Coming towards the end of Ephesians that’s exactly the kind of thing he reflects on.

Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.

Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

There is so much that is precious in what Paul has to say.

I like the way that passage begins.

So then, putting away falsehood let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.

Paul has a very strong sense of belonging when it comes to the church. On a number of occasions he speaks of everyone who belongs to the church as if they were members of a single body. And in that body the seemingly least important members are just as important as the seemingly very important members.

But here the analogy he uses is a little different.

He is adamant – we are members of one another.

We belong to each other. We are part of each other.

When one hurts we all hurt.

That sense of togetherness is bound together by a sense of love.

How that works out in our church is key to the life of our church family.

We have a wonderful collection of church directories from about 1900 to about 1930. Not unlike in size or content the directory we continue to publish. One difference is that the church directory includes a listing of all the members and adherents with their addresses … and it includes the visiting district they are in and the church visitor.

Isn’t that fascinating.

Our present scheme of visiting districts goes back 50 years, but 100 years ago the church family was divided into visiting districts.

That notion goes to the heart of what we do to bind ourselves together as a church family.

Every 6 months the church visitors meet together for an evening when they compare notes and someone with a particular experience or speciality feeds in thoughts and ideas that can help build up the whole work of visiting. On Thursday we meet as church visitors and Deacons and will be joined by a friend of Kate Blazey who works with older people and is going to share with us on the support we can give and share with those who have dementia.

Someone who has been a visitor for quite a number of years is Katherine Stanley – she is going to say a few words about what it means to be a visitor.

Reflections on being a Church Visitor by Katherine Stanley

When we moved to Cheltenham, nearly 38 years ago, we visited some other churches and after a few months settled into Highbury. When new to a church, you don’t realise the organisation behind is, so I didn’t know all about the Districts and the Church Visitors, but I did know that every month a dear little old lady brought us our Highbury News. We lived in Beechurst at the time, and it was Marion Darvill, for those people who remember her.

Well, when thinking about what I was going to say this morning I realised that this dear little old lady, was probably about the age I am now!!!

After some years, I was asked if I could become a Church Visitor. As I enjoy meeting people I said yes.

Highbury has 12 geographical districts, each district having one Deacon and 1, 2, of 3 visitors, so that every person in Highbury can feel some connection with the church.

In this church, we have our own building, but this ccanot exist without people, because the people are the church, drawn together on Sundays and during the week as well so we are all connected through our Christian faith.

It is up to all of us to help each other feel welcome in our church, and the Church Visitors have a special tool to help them – it’s called Highbury News. This is a really valuable link, because as well as giving all the news about Highbury it enables the visitor to make contact with everyone in their patch, thus strengthening the Christian connection of love and care.

Another way of promoting the family feeling in Highbury is the way that the Visitors themselves have a meeting with the Pastoral Care team, usually twice a year, when there is a special theme, and the opportunity to hear about concerns in all the other Districts. I can assure you that no confidences are betrayed, but it is an extra way of helping that Christian family feeling.

It is interesting to see the kind of dynamic Paul envisages in a church family where we are all members of one another. It is not all sweetness and light, all cooey and lovey dovey.

Be angry … he has space for anger, but do not sin. That’s an interesting qualification. Maybe there are times when we can be angry – even with each other. But there is a line beyond which we not cross in our anger. When it turns bad – turns to sin.

Then comes that very wise advice – advice to be taken to heart in any family and in any church family.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

Interesting isn’t it the injunction about thieves giving up stealing. Isn’t that an interesting insight into the makeup of the church Paul knows he is writing to. It is not a repetition of the injunction ‘do not steal’. Paul envisages that a church family will be made up of a mixed bunch.

There is room for the thief – but the thief is to stop thieving and to share with the needy.

Then Paul comes back to what is said, what passes the lips …

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

That’s a wonderful measure of how we speak one with another, what we say to each other, and the tone in which we say it.

Building up – edifying. Words that give grace!

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

Things you do can make others not so much angry, as sad.

And they can make God sad.

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.

Those are the negatives … but in place of the negatives paul then lists the positives. They are the things for us to take to heart in our conversation with each other, in our visiting scheme in the whole of our church family life.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

What it all boils down to is that we be imitators of God, as beloved children, and that we live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for , a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

I love those words …we are called to live in love.

That’s what church is all about.

That’s worth going to the stake for.

John Pritchard recalls a doctor who once said that he’d been in general practice for 30 years and he’d never found anyting as effective as a prescription of love. “What if it doesn’t work?” he was asked. “Double the dose,” he replied.

Churches need to be places where such prescriptions are given out endlessly and inexhaustibly. If people don’t experience something different about the quality and character of loving in a Christian community, you can’t blame them for not taking their enquiries further. “God is love, and those who live in love live in god, and God lives in them (1 John 4:16). That sounds like a cast-iron argument to me, says John Pritchard.

At the heart of our church family life, at the heart of that church visiting scheme

Let’s live in love as Christ loved us.

Tears on Easter Morning ... but more beyond

Our theme for the Sundays leading up to Easter and through Holy Week has focused on the tears.

Jesus wept at the death of his friend, Lazarus.

Jesus wept when he saw Jerusalem. "Would that you had known the things that make for peace, but you did not."

Peter wept when be betrayed Jesus three times.

The women of Jerusalem wept as Jesus passed by.

The women who had accompanied watched and wept as he was crucified.

What I like about the Christian faith is that it is realistic.

It does not offer an escape from a world of weeping.

Instead, our Christian faith, offers us a way through that world.

Through Holy Week we have laid bare the cross at the front of our church. It has cast a shadow on the wall.

That shadow is a reminder to us that at times we all have to walk through the valley of the shadows.

But in the valley, in the darkness of the shadow, God is there, in Christ to accompany us along the way of weeping.

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.

It is only through the valley of the shadow that we can reach the glory of resurrection victory.

But that resurrection victory is assured ... and it is one we may share.

Yet even in the moment of resurrection victory there is still weeping.

Mary Magdalene weeps in the garden.

The two on the Road to Emmaus are 'downcast' and saddened with, maybe, tears in their eyes.

There is weeping on Easter day too. And the presence of Christ is with us in the weeping.

In our prayers we remembered those we know to be sad in bereavement. But we also remembered those who are in places of conflict, not least in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, in Palestine and Israel. Especially as we received greetings from friends in Bethleehm and the Scout group we have partnered with. A reminder that Bethlehem has been closed off this Holy Week to those wanting to worship in Jerusalem. And we shared the tears of those who were bombed in the Good Friday bombing attacks in and around Gaza.

Our commitment is to heed the Christians of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, of Israel and Palestine who through the Kairos Palestine document urge us to support them in their commitment to peace and to oppose those bent on violence, not least the violence of the settlement regime in the West Bank.

We walked again the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross, the Way of Weeping, following the stations of the cross we had set out in the church.

Even on Easter Sunday we walked through the way of weeping to the cross and beyond to resurrection glory. And in doing that we shared that confident faith that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Nothing in the present or the future. No height, do depth. Nothing in life or in death. Nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Way of Weeping

Watching those aspiring Dorothy’s, anticipating Andrew Lloyd Webber additional songs, brought it all back to me … the very first time I saw the Wizard of Ox, in the 1000 seater Picture House on Leicester’s Granby Street. It’s funny how you associate certain films with certain cinemas – Jason and the Argonauts with the Saturday morning cinema club at the Cameo in Leicester, not that my parents would allow me to go very often, The Planet of the Apes at another flea pit, the City Cinema in Bangor – complete with a patch on the screen, Ben Hur at the 2000 seater Odeon Cinema, can’t remember the film but do remember the double seats at the other cinema in Bangor, and then there was my first visit to what was a brand new idea – multi-screen cinema – the intimacy of a small cinema, large screen … and at Leicester’s CineCentre Franco Zeferrelli’s Romeo and Juliet. I was I think in the sixth form and I went with my cousin John.

That particular occasion sticks in my mind and has become for me a bit of a benchmark. As the film came to its dramatic climax I vividly remember how there were audible sobs first from one person, then another. It seemed half the cinema were in tears. I guess it was the intimacy of the small cinema – it was almost catching. Almost, but not quite. Then someone called out from the other side of the cinema in an inimitable Leicester accent, ‘will someone pass a bucket’.

At that while half the cinema were in floods of tears, I joined my cousin and the other half of the cinema in fits of laughter.

I think over the years I have changed sides. I have become more emotional. When Felicity and I went to see My Name is Khan a film exploring autism and the meeting of Hindu and Muslim post 9/11, a film in which Bollywood meets Hollywood in Hindi with English sub-titles, I found tears coming to my eyes.

I felt quite emotional at the last day of the Day Centre on Friday – it was good to have a good number of folk from Highbury there at the last of a series of services that began 19 years ago at our first Christmas here, that I have shared with very few exceptions with Frank Guppy on the organ. I do hope a good number of people can come to the celebration on Saturday, 17^th April when we will say a big thank you to the staff who have worked there.

Though I get emotional, there is still something inside me that feels uncomfortable about those tears.

It is significant for me that tears are at the heart of Holy Week. During our pilgrimage we walked the Via Dolorosa, following in the footsteps of Jesus as it were through the streets of Jerusalem from the place, there or thereabouts, where he was condemned to death, to the place, there or thereabouts, where he was crucified and buried. We are going to create a set of stations of the cross around the church and open the church from 10 to 11 and from 6 to 7 each evening through to Good Friday. I think of it as the Way of the Cross. But the Via Dolorosa is the Way of Weeping.

The women of Jerusalem weep. There are women at the foot of the cross who weep. But it is not only women who weep.

Peter vows to follow Jesus to the bitter end if needs be. He follows as far as the courtyard of the High Priest’s house and there he denies Jesus three times. The cock crows and he breaks down and weeps bitter tears.

He is not the only man we see weeping.

There are two occasions when Jesus also weeps.

He weeps at the death of a friend.

And he weeps at the plight of a city.

Jesus journeys to Jerusalem down the Jordan valley through Jericho, at 1500 feet below sea level the world’s lowest and most ancient city and up to a small village on the heights of the mount of Olives, called Bethany. That was the village of Mary and her sister Martha. There is a wonderful, homely painting by an older contemporary of Vermeer, Hendrik Martensz Sorgh, that is said to have been the inspiration behind Vermeer’s only remaining religious painting. Christ at the home of Martha and Mary. It captures that moment when Martha, busy in the kitchen, loses her patience with her sister Mary who is sitting at the feet of Jesus. The moment when Jesus commends Mary’s prayerfulness. It is a wonderful picture, not at the moment on display in the Art Gallery. The friends of the Museum and Art Gallery have arranged to have the picture brought out of the store and have invited me to do a talk on Wednesday, 12^th May. It captures a moment of happiness and joy and maybe a moment of tension in that home.

Drawing near to Jerusalem, Jesus arrives in Bethany, and makes once again for the home of Mary and Martha. There they and their brother Lazarus prepare a meal for Jesus. As you might expect, Martha served and Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard and anointed Jesus’ feet, wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

Not long before, however, the house had been filled with the stench of death.

Lazarus had been severely ill. Martha and Mary had summoned Jesus. But he delayed. And Lazarus died. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went and met him and she said to Jesus in an almost accusing tone, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” A conversation ensues. And it is to Mary that Jesus says words that have become wonderful words, treasured by those who have followed in the footsteps of Jesus ever since.

“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.” Then Jesus looks Martha in the eye and asks her, “Do you believe this?” It is Martha, the doer, who is the one who makes that wonderful profession of faith. “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

So, what of Mary.

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, exactly the same question Martha had posed. The haunting question … if only …’ “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Judaeans who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him? They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

Then comes in the AV the shortest verse in the whole Bible.

Jesus wept.

If Jesus wept at the death of a friend, we should not be surprised if in such circumstances we find ourselves weeping. Tears are not to be bottled up. Tears are to be shed. More than that tears are to be shared. Jesus came alongside Mary and those many others who had come alongside Mary and Martha and he shared their tears.

Holy Week is important to me at the most personal level. At the heart of my faith is the conviction is that this wonderful world being explored so marvellously by the youthful, David Waters lookalike, Professor in his series on the solar system, is the creation of God. I passionately believe that there is something more beyond the world we can see, that helps me to make sense of life in the world that I do see.

My Christian faith, however, takes that world with all its pain and its suffering seriously. And it says that we must come alongside one another in those times of suffering and share the weeping, share the concern. The reality is we cannot escape the tears. Holy Week is the time to remember the tears, and come alongside the suffering. We can only reach the joy of resurrection victory, the life that is beyond, by going through the valley of the shadow, by going through the tears, by travelling the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Weeping.

That’s the personal dimension to my faith. It is something for each one of us. For each of us there is a wonderful hope beyond of resurrection.

But faith cannot be individualistic.

There is a bigger dimension too.

And that also becomes apparent through Holy Week.

Jesus weeps at the death of a friend.

He also weeps at the plight of a city.

There in Bethany Jesus is very aware that the authorities, the powers that be, those who are colluding with the conquereing Romans who have built up a power base by ‘devouring widows’ houses, are out to kill Lazarus and to kill him.

So it is that he sets off to make his entry into Jerusalem. It was Passover time. That meant that the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate, would have come up from the Roman seaside capital of this unruly province in Caesarea Maritima and taken up residence in the Herodion palace to keep law and order in the city. He would have ridden on horse back, accompanied by cavalry. There is a description of the kind of sight that would be later in Acts as 200 horsemen make that journey. Pomp and ceremony were the mark of Roman power in collaboration with the Herodian dynasty and the powers of Jerusalem.

And Jesus chose to ride in on a donkey. It was a massive prophetic statement. That he was coming not as a warrior king, but in peace … humble and mounted on a donkey, as Zechariah had said, ‘he will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall command peace to the nations …”

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognised on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

It really is so. Coming down the Mount of Olives there is a spot where the ancient city of Jerusalem suddenly appears … coming down a little further there is a church – built in the shape of a teardrop. And on the terrace in front of that church, overlooking the temple mount, is the church of Dominus Flevit. The Lord wept.

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Bethany is now separated from Jerusalem by the wall.

The East Jerusalem where so many settlements are proposed not for Israeli citizens but exclusively for Jewish people is the part of Jerusalem where Christian as well as Muslim Palestinians live and where we attended the East Jerusalem Baptist Church.

Those Christian people in East Jerusalem through the Kairos Palestine document ask us as fellow Christians to support them in the condemnation of those settlements on Palestinian land, to support them and their church communities where, in their words, ‘most of their young people are active apostles for justice and peace … where their ‘various Christian institutions make their faith active and present in service, love’, where they are engaging in dialogue between the three relilgions and actively working for reconciliation once justice has been restored.”

Through the tears and the pain they look to signs of hope.

As Jesus did then, we too weep, If you even you had only recognised the things that make for peace.

Our commitment must be to stand with those who work for peace.

Jesus wept.

He weeps at the death of a friend.

He weeps at the plight of a city.

And not just that particular city.

I got hold of David Baldwin’s little book, The Holy Land, A Pilgrim’s Companion. It has a photo of that view of the old city taken from inside the Dominus Flevit church.

Opposite that photo is a prayer written by a URC minister, who has often contributed to our prayer handbook, Donald Hilton.

We finish with the words of that prayer …

Lord Jesus Christ,

Today we share your tears for the cities of the world;

-still we have not loved the things that make for peace.

We weep for the divided cities:

Where brother fights with brother,

Where anger feeds on hatred,

Where prejudice blinds the eyes of compassion,

And even religion divides,

Where children are taught to hate

And old men relish ancient wrongs.

We weep for the cities of oppression

Where iron law imprisons freedom,

Where thought is curbed and conscience stifled,

Where the questioning spirit is called a traitor,

Where art and civilising truth grow barren

And each must think in manner as his neighbour.

We weep for the cities of poverty:

Where children live, but die too soon,

Where eager hands can find no work,

Where hunger rules and aid is short,

Where mothers clutch uncomprehending young,

And where the little we do, we fail to do.

We weep for our cities, for our town, and for ourselves;

We have not learned the things that make for peace.

Lord, turn tears to love,

And love to work,

Turn work to justice,

And all that makes for peace.

Amen.

What would Jesus pray?

“I think of you every night in my prayers.”

When I heard that said by someone not so long ago, I found it humbling. In a strange way I find difficult to describe it is good to know that someone is thinking of me in their prayers each night.

One or two people say that to me from time to time. This person had said it before. As it happens they are as often as not people who don’t get out, because they can’t get out, are not so active because for various reasons they are not able to be active. But they have a special gift that is particularly important in the life of a church family, in the life of this church family, and in each of our lives. They have a gift of dedicated, committed prayer.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we knew of someone who remembered us each night in their prayers. The good news of our faith is that we each of us have someone, someone very special who comes alongside us, a soul-mate, a particularly close friend … and who prays for us constantly.

You can dress it up in the high-falutin words of Christian doctrine which tells us that Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, on the third day was raised again to life and sits at the right hand of God the Father – and there he intercedes for us.

I prefer a simple picture … of Christ praying for us day by day.

What would his prayer be.

I want to go back to that Last Supper. It wasn’t the brief re-enactment that has become for us the Lord’s Supper, it was a whole evening – a celebration of the Passover among a group of friends who had become an extended family. After all Passover to this day is a family gathering where all the family come together.

The meal goes on through the evening. Luke describes some of the different cups and the bread that is shared.

But as the conversation goes on unexpected things happen. No sooner has Jesus shared the cup than he speaks of the one who will betray him. Then, Luke tells us there is an argument among the disciples as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

²⁵But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. ²⁶But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. ²⁷For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

Was this the moment when as John tells us Jesus got up and washed the feet of the disciples?

He then speaks highly of the way he treasures the friendships he has built up with this set of people …

28 ‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials; ²⁹and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, ³⁰so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Then Jesus singles out Simon Peter. The big fisherman disciple Jesus has given the nickname of Rock – dependable, solid as a rock. But he doesn’t use the nick-name – he uses the name Simon.

There is a tone of lament in what he says as he recognises that following Jesus is not straightforward, that times of testing come … and those times can be bleak and fearful.

31 ‘Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, ³²but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’

I find that a remarkably moving moment in the course of the supper Jesus shares with his friends.

First, is the realisation that no one can escape the times of testing. They come. They are pretty bleak. Satan has demanded to sift all you like wheat.

What time of testing do you experience?

What time when in that footprints poem it feels as if the footprints are yours and yours alone – that you are on your own.

Think for a moment of that time of testing. Maybe it is something that is happening now, maybe it is something that has happened recently, maybe it is something has happened a while back.

Jesus suggests that time of testing, that time of sifting, that painful, dark time is something that comes to all.

Then comes the moment that is, it seems to me, to be so treasured.

It is a moment that is to be treasured by Simon Peter, to be treasured by all the others around that table, to be treasured by each one of us.

I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’

I think that is a remarkable prayer.

It is not that you will escape the testing times. It is that your faith will not fail. There are going to be moments over this testing time of passion tide when faith is tested to the limit. Jesus himself experiences that testing. Later that night in the Garden of Gethsemane when he knelt down and prayed, ⁴¹Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed,⁴²‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’

Luke tells us that Jesus found strength in that moment of praying …

³Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. ⁴⁴In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]]

This is his prayer for us … that our faith not fail.

One of the great things of this Passion tide is simply to re-live the story, walk with those disciples and with Jesus on the way of the cross. It is what we are going to set up through Holy Week as we invite people to follow in the way of the cross and reflect on this story. It is powerful.

Powerful, not least to see what happens after a prayer like that is said.

What happens is not an instant cure, an instant answer. It is a journey, a process, and a very difficult path to tread.

⁴⁵When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, ⁴⁶and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’

But the time of trail comes … and the party arrives to arrest Jesus in the garden.

Some strike out in his defence – but Jesus says, no more of this and heals the ear of the slave of the High Priest one of the disciples had attacked.

54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance.

Why.

That took some doing, it took some courage. Maybe that prayer of Jesus stuck with Peter.

I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail;

Peter had been adamant in response.

And he said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!’

So here he was.

⁵⁵When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. ⁵⁶Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, ‘This man also was with him.’ ⁵⁷But he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ ⁵⁸A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, ‘You also are one of them.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I am not!’ ⁵⁹Then about an hour later yet another kept insisting, ‘Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.’ ⁶⁰But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about!’ At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. ⁶¹The Lord turned and looked at Peter.

What a look that must have been!

A look that sees into the deepest recesses of the heart.

And then Peter remembered.

Jesus said, ‘I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.’

At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. ⁶¹The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ ⁶²And he went out and wept bitterly.

Passion tide is a time of weeping.

These are the tears of a faith that has failed.

It had seemed to be the structure that would hold his life together. A direction, a power. And now it had crumbled.

It had collapsed.

At that point Jesus is mocked, beaten, blindfolded, struck, and insulted.

And then comes a brief phrase. In verse 66. When day came.

In other words Jesus is mocked, beaten, blindfolded, struck and insulted and left alone over night.

Within sight of the Temple mount, the dome of the rock glistening in all its gold in the distance, is a house reputed to be the High Priest’s house. And beneath the first century ruins a dungeon.

You catch the solitariness of Jesus – at that moment.

The words of Psalm 88 have a power to them.

O Lord, God of my salvation,
when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry.

For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;
I am like those who have no help,
like those forsaken among the dead,

You have caused friend and neighbour to shun me;
my companions are in darkness.

One of our number pointed out a connection. It was by the fire that Peter betrayed Jesus, heard the cock crow and broke down in tears.

It was by the fire that Peter met with the risen Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee who three times asked him, Do you love me.

Coming out of the dungeon we found ourselves beside a wonderful sculpture of Peter and two servants, and on the pole beside him a cockerel. With the gold of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple mount in the distance it was a very moving moment.

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We come back to the prayer.

There is a second part to the prayer Jesus prayed for Peter … and maybe that’s the second part we need to take to heart.

I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’

That’s the power of this prayer.

It is the power of this prayer for us as well.

We do let ourselves down, Christ down, God down … but there is someone praying for us. The prayer Jesus prays for us is so special. He knows us as we are … and he loves us. His prayer is that we once we have turned back we may then strengthen our brothers and our sisters.

Maybe it is the one whose faith has been sifted, who has faced trials, who has been through that time of testing is then hen better able to be a strength to others.

So thank you to all those who have said to me … I pray for you each night.

Though the one I was thinking of at the start was our friend Maurice.