Maundy Thursday: Be Still

 

Be still

Maundy Thursday Communion

Welcome to our Maundy Thursday Communion.

As we prepare to share in communion please be still in this place and seek once again the presence of God with us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus promises, “Wherever two or three gather together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

As we gather in his name Jesus is present with us.

In this place, at this time we are each called to be Jesus to one another.  The service will proceed unannounced … please join in reading all the words of Jesus and the other prayers that are in bold print.

 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.  ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

5 Be still

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

The Table is Prepared

 When it was evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’

During supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’   … After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, … ‘If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you…. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

19 It is a thing most wonderful

 

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.

 

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, to be with you for ever.  This is the Spirit of truth, I will not leave you alone; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

 

Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

 

I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’

 

22 Just as I am

 

While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and blessed it

 

Blessed be this bread to our use and

Blessed be ourselves to your service  Amen.

 

after blessing it he broke it, and gave it to the disciples,

 

When we receive the bread we hold it and pray

 

and Jesus said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ 

 

We take the bread

 

Then he took a cup, and gave thanks

 

Thanks be to God our Father who loves us with a love that will never let us go.

 

Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus our Lord who loves us with a love that forgives and renews

 

Thanks be to God who in the Holy Spirit gives us comfort and peace and a strength from beyond ourselves

 

After giving thanks he gave it to them,

 

When we receive the cup we hold it and pray

 

Jesus said,  ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’

 

We take the cup

 

43 There is a green hill far away

 

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

 

Now to him who is able

to keep you from falling,

and to make you stand without blemish

in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 

to the only God our Saviour,

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, power, and authority,

before all time and now and for ever.

Amen.

When's a house of prayer not a house of prayer?

My house shall be a house of prayer.

But you have made it a den of robbers.

When we came up with things that were special about Highbury worship and prayer figured large. 

Relevant – challenging

Peaceful – praying – praying church

Down to earth - Prepared to problem share

Good singing – teaching focus on word of God

A place to learn – Christ centred

This is for us what makes Highbury special.  This is for us what is so important about our worship.  And it is something worth sharing.  It is something special.

But beware.  Even the most special of places can become tarnished.

As Luke tells the story of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey to the acclaim of the crowds he tells of that moment known to all who make the journey from Bethany and the Mount of Olives into the city of Jersualem when he catches sight of the temple.  That is the place that is so special in the whole story of the Jewish people.  That place of the presence of God.

It is nothing less than a house of prayer.

Yet as he rounded that bend, came near and saw the city with the temple towering over it in all its speldour, Jesus 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!

This was not the age old temple of great Jewish tradition.  It was a newly re-built temple that had yet to be finally completed.  It had taken a massive workforce, paid a pittance, and had to be funded by an extortionate taxation system and coinage system that had filled the outer courts of the temple with money-changers that were part of a system that had done so much to destroy all that should have been so special about that place.

When he entered the temple, he began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said,

It is written

My house shall be a house of prayer;

But you have made it a den of robbers.

This Palm Sunday I want to reflect on what it is that can so destroy a house of prayer, and what it is that makes prayer come alive.  In doing that, I feel there is something for us to take to heart collectively here at Highbury and individually in the hearts of each one of us.

As Holy Week unfolds Luke tells of the way Jesus is drawn back, day after day to the temple.  There it is the powers that be among the Herodian hierarchy that take issue with him time and again.

Jesus singles out the scribes, those who have responsibility for copying out documents of state, the scriptures, comments on the scriptures.  Because they have control of the production of written documents these are the ones who have power in their hands.  And power corrupts.  Think of the power News International has had in its stranglehold of the news media and the way that power has corrupted.

In the hearing of all the people he said to the disciples, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’

He looks up and finds himself standing by the treasury where what Luke describes as ‘rich people’ – the ones who hold power in the city – make a show of putting their gifts into the treasury.

Then he sees it.  In front of his very eyes he sees how they devour the widows’ houses.  The poverty stricken widow who has but two coins to her name is required to put everthing she has.

This injustice angers Jesus – this amounts to devouring widows’ houses.

Truly, I tell you, with anger in his voice, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.

This is the first reflection on prayer.  The mistake the scribes made was to separate out their prayers and their worship from what they did with their lives.  Splendid prayers are no good if not lived out from day to day, from hour to hour, from minute to minute.

It is so easy for fine worship to disguise oppression and injustice.  “God is spirit,” Jesus had said to the woman of Samaria as they sat by the well, “and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

For a house of prayer truly to be a house of prayer there must be prayer, but prayer must spring from the depths of our heart, prayer must issue in the way we lead our lives and prayer must spring from the very lives we lead.

As Michel Quoist, the worker priest of the middle years of the last century put it

If we knew how to listen to God, if we knew how to look around us,

Our whole life would become prayer.

For it unfolds under God’s eyes and no part of it must be

Lived without being freely offered to him.

… Words are only a means.

However, the silent prayer which has moved beyond words

Must always spring from everyday life,

For everyday life is the raw material of prayer.

My Father’s house will be called a house of prayer

When prayer is lived.

Jesus has the capacity to read the signs of the times.  He knows that such a system, rotten as it is to the core, cannot survive.  He speaks of the destruction that will befall the very temple itself.  Earth shattering events will happen within the lifetime of that generation.  How true his words came to be as the temple itself was destroyed 40 years later.

When first I studied the gospels in the late 60’s and early 70’s I used to think 40 years an incredibly long period of time.  I now realise how short a period it actually is.  It’s a bit like EF Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful writing just 40 years ago telling us that endless growth and the rush towards ever bigger institutions was not sustainable.  The system would collapse … and 40 years on we can see so much of his analysis coming to pass.

Then we reach the next reflection on prayer.

When things are falling apart and the system is itself destroyed for us to be true to the house of prayer that is so special to us we must in Jesus words

Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

In difficult times prayer is of vital importance – it is the life-blood we need. 

My Father’s house will be called a house of prayer

When prayer is resolute

That next moment of prayer in this Holy Week comes on the Thursday.  And it happens at a particular moment.  As Jesus gathers his closest friends around him and shares in the Passover.  Jonathan Sacks in Thought for the Day on Thursday spoke about Passover.  Quintessentially, it is a family festival.  More than that it is a family festival where the youngest child in the family takes centre stage and is the one to ask of the senior the key questions that speak of freedom.

He spoke of it as a family gathering.  For Jesus this was his family.  Luke speaks of Jesus ‘giving thanks’ before the first cup, giving thanks before breaking the bread, and doing the same with the cup after the meal.

For us ‘church’ is family.  And breaking the bread, sharing the cup is one of those moments when as ‘family’ we gather together, with our youngest ones often coming back to join us.

It’s all very well saying that prayer is something that permeates the whole of life.  If we don’t set aside times when our prayer and our worship finds its focus in the brokenness of the Christ who comes alongside us in all our suffering, then we are in danger of losing that spark of prayer.  Jesus treasured that Passover and in those words instituted that communion which we too can share this evening with the choir, and on Maundy  Thursday in the most special of ways.

My Father’s house will be called a house of prayer

When prayer is shared

Then comes that most personal of moments as this week unfolds.  When Jesus came out and, as was his custom, went to the Mount of Olives.  And there he enjoined his closest friends to pray.  And he too prayed.

For them it was too much.  They couldn’t keep awake even for an hour.

And for Jesus this was the point of deep down despair and yet through the agonizing honesty of his praying, also the moment that releases for him the strength of God in all his unseen power and love.

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ [[ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]]

Whatever you make of angels, that is one of those special moments in the story of Holy Week.  It is when he is at his lowest that he opens his heart to God his father, and bares his soul.  And it is at this moment that a strength from beyond himself is let loose in his soul.  An angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.

My Father’s House will  be called a house of prayer

When prayer is personal

This place is special for us.

It is for us in so many ways, a house of prayer.

But for this truly to be a house of prayer

We need to be people whose lives are lived and shaped by the prayer that springs from the heart.  The most heavenly of inspiring services is of no earthly use unless the prayers we share are lived out in the lives we lead.

For this truly to be a house of prayer

We need to be people who keep alert in the face of the world and its troubles, seeking in prayer that strength to enable us to hold fast in our commitment to Christ Jesus our Lord, no matter what may befall in that troubled and troubling world.

For this truly to be a house of prayer

We need to be people who come together as Christ’s family honouring most of all the youngest among us and as we break bread and take the cup we need to remember that Christ is with us at the point of our deepest suffering and we can truly give thanks.

For this truly to be a house of prayer

We need to recognise that there is nothing that prevents us from succumbing to the darkest depths … but in those depths as we cry out to God there will  be a strength from beyond ourselves as the angels come and minister to us.

Come on Maundy Thursday and share as church family together.

Come on Good Friday and at the foot of the cross, reflect on the presence of Christ with us, walk with us in silent prayer through the town and in the peace of St Mary’s hear again the words of Jesus from the cross.

And then come the day, join us to celebrate the victory of Christ in resurrection glory, a victory we all may share.

Malawi and our Mission Partnership

On Sunday morning we welcomed members of our Brownies, Guides, Beavers, Cubs and Scout groups and their families.

Our service began with a time of praise.

We moved on to share a time for friendship, celebrating the friendships our youth organisations have, and the friendships we have in church.  We welcomed Dorothy and Dina and their family into church membership.

We then welcomed Candi and Andrew and their family from our Congregational Church in Kingswood, Wooton under Edge.  Candi had been part of a group of seven people from Congregational Federation churches in the UK who had visited partner churches in Malawi.

We reflected on the way belonging to one church means that we belong to the one church of Jesus Christ world-wide.  Candi reflected on the experiences she had had and the impact those experiences had on her own Christian journey.

Our service finished with a time to share, as we shared our gifts not only for our own church but also for that mission partnership, and shared in prayers for one another and for the world.

After the service I interviewed Candi as she recapped some of what she had shared with us.

The Warmth of a Welcoming Spirit

It was Carolyn who spotted it.

I hadn’t noticed.

When we looked through all the words people came up with to describe what’s special about Highbury someone noticed no one mentioned God and Jesus.

I had thought to myself that that was something to do with the way we asked the question.  What’s special to you about Highbury?

We then wondered whether you could actually ask the question differently.  And that would make for a very interesting time of reflection.]

What’s special to you about God?

What’s special to you about Jesus?

Then it was that Carolyn pointed out something she and Pete had spotted.

Actually, the words we came up with reflect the way we think about God.

Take all those words we came up with suggesting that Highbury is welcoming.

Accepting, Welcoming, exuding warmth, all are welcome, friendly, warm and friendly.

Those are all words you could apply to God.

We value this spirit of welcome because this is the God we believe in.  The God we believe in, made real to each of us in Jesus is an accepting God who accepts us as we are.

The God we believe in is a welcoming God who welcomes all no matter who they may be.

The God we believe in is friendly, speaking through Jesus, not only to those closest followers of his long ago, but also to us, I call you my friends.

And take one more of those words and phrases.  Warmth.  We thought of it as what for us makes this place, this fellowship special.  Warmth.  And I love the phrase someone came up with ‘exuding warmth’.

Where does the warmth come from?  Where does this welcoming spirit come from?  If we want to build on this warmth of welcome, if we seek to exude warmth, where does that warmth come from?

Today is a day when we have been invited to think about the wider fellowship of churches we are part of in the Congregational Federation.  One of the things that makes us special as a fellowship of churches is that there is no organisational structure to tell us what to do, to organise us, to instruct us.  We are a fellowship of churches sharing a passionate faith together, pooling resources together.

On Tuesday we had our usual team meeting and then welcomed a team of mission support workers who work in the different areas of our Congregational Federation.  They were meeting together to pool ideas, thinking, resources to help work at developing and building up our churches.

One initiative launched last year is to build up community work in our churches, and imaginative initiatives in mission and in outreach.     We have put forward Hy-Speed as just such an initiative to support.  Last night one of those folk who had been here on Tuesday visited Hy-Speed to report back.   It’s great to have been short-listed and to wait to see whether we gain an award.

Among the group of folk coming together on Tuesday was Brian Grist who has been this year’s President of the Congregational Federation.

As his year began he invited us to think of the Holy Spirit and the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and in the life of our churches.

With the help of a woodworker known to Jill Stephens from the Derby area a sculpture was put together in parts made up of flames.  Each flame has been sent to each of the Areas of our Congregational Federation and within our Area it has been journeying round the churches.

It arrived here from Frampton on Severn.  We are invited to remember that church in our prayers.  Set in the beautiful village of Frampton, our church has played a key part in the village community for many, many years, and for the last 21 years or so under the ministry and leadership of John Hunter and latterly also Nick Gleich.  Anticipating retirement, John trained on our training course and then took up the ministry of the church as he retired as Principal of one of the constituent colleges of what was then Glos Coll.  He has been chaplain at Ley Hill Open Prison for all that time.  The church itself has developed a community service.  Recently they have had to cope with a massive outbreak of dry rot and they are now building up their work once again with a newly re-furbished church building.  It’s great to remember that work in our prayers.

We pass the flame on to Longney.  A small chapel in the Severn Vale between the ship canal and the Severn, Longney keeps going with small congregations but very faithful people – it’s the church I support more than any other taking afternoon services there once or twice a term.  When I join them next Sunday afternoon they will be joined by friends from the Parish church in a joint service.  A rural community that 25 years ago had about a dozen farms around in the locality, it has changed beyond all recognition, now having a many-thousand acred farm, managed by a handful of people in place of the individual farms.  Tensions have been great as a farming community has changed into a commuting community.  Our prayers are with them in the changing face of the countryside communities around us.

In all three of those churches there would be a warmth of welcome.

As Brian wanted us to pass round this flame it was so that we could share in prayer together … but he also wanted us to think of something else.  The flame is symbolic of the flames of the Spirit as the disciples are touched by tongues of fire.

Brian wanted us in this year to think especially of the way in which the lives of each one of us, the lives of our churches together can be enriched, strangely ‘warmed’ by the presence of this power from beyond ourselves, unseen yet so very real, the power of the Holy Spirit.

I pricked my ears up  when I heard that was to be his theme.

It rings a bell for us here at Highbury.

It was exactly 150 years ago in 1862 that our own Andrew Moreton Brown, who gives his name to our Moreton Brown Room, wrote round to all the Ministers and Churches in the then Congregational Union.  He wanted people to unite in special prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

What difference does the Holy Spirit make?

Acts speaks of tongues of fire.  Fire gives off a warmth.  I want us to think for a  moment of warmth.

Think of those moments when you feel a warmth.  Not in the temperature of a building, but deep inside.  There are some occasions that leave you cold.  Somethings can send a chill down your spine.  But some things are strangely warming.  You warm to someone.  You are strangely warm deep inside.

The warmth of our welcome is not dependent on the warmth we can generate, any more than the love we share with others is something we can whip up inside us.

The warmth of our welcome will be such as to touch other people when it wells up inside us as God is at work deep within us.

The Methodist Church was founded by John Wesley, an Anglican Minister. Following a difficult and discouraging mission trip to America, he questioned his faith. In 1738, at the age of 34, John Wesley attended an evening worship service in London which moved him deeply. In his journal, Wesley described his "Aldersgate experience:" 

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans.  About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.  

How does such a heart-warming happen?

Let’s pray with expectation.  But then let’s claim the promise of God in Jesus.  This Holy Spirit is something given to us by Jesus Christ.

He makes those wonderful promises that appear in John 14.

Just as he is about to leave his disciples he promises that he will not leave them alone, but he will send another Advocate, another Counsellor, another Helper, another Comforter to be with them forever.  Even the Spirit of truth.

It is a wonderful promise.  And something for us to rest in.  To claim.  Not with a spirit of anxiety.  But with a warmth of welcome.

And then this Spirit that is such a power from beyond ourselves will help us in our groaning in prayer, be alongside us as Paul is convinced in Romans 8  – and ultimately it is that presence deep within that assures us of a love from God that nothing in all creation can separate us from.

As we receive this flame and pass it on.  May we feel the warmth of the Spirit deep within our hearts, may we welcome the warmth that it gives, and may others sense in us a warmth of welcome that comes from God himself, from the God who as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is love.

The Warmth of a Welcoming Spirit

I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.  

We hear again the words of Jesus and take to heart the promise he gives …

 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, to be with you for ever.  This is the Spirit of truth, 

May my heart be strangely warmed.  May I trust in Christ alone.

The Comforter  will be with you for ever… he abides with you, and he will be in you.

May my heart be strangely warmed.  May I trust in Christ alone.

I will not leave you alone.   I am coming to you.  The Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

May my heart be strangely warmed.  May I trust in Christ alone.

The Comforter will remind you of all that I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 

May my heart be strangely warmed.  May I trust in Christ alone

I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.  

What it takes to be a welcoming church

Actually, it’s what you would expect anywhere.

Though maybe there are some differences.

It’s those differences that really matter.

Let me explain …

Since the beginning of January we have started to take a look at what’s going on in our church so that we can build on what’s good, identify what needs to be developed and grow to the glory of God.

At our January Church meeting we asked people to come up with words and phrases that describe what’s special about Highbury.  At our February meeting the Deacons then stood round a set of tables in the Moreton Brown Room and had six sheets of different coloured paper and had the task of putting the slips of paper with those words on on to different sheets.

What was fascinating was the way they clustered together under six very clear headings.  One or two deacons took responsibility for each of those headings and prepared a display or a conversation for our annual meeting on Thursday.  At that meeting it was great not only to hear about the work of the church but see and talk about all that is going on.

Each month, my piece in Highbury News will focus on each group in turn, we will focus our Sunday morning services the same way.  In other settings we will home in on that aspect of the church’s life.  We will try to dig a little more deeply into what makes us tick as a church in that way.

Then over the very last weekend in September we are going to have a church weekend away at home.  We will have all the fun of our weekends away, but closer to home.  And we will think together about what we need to add in to the life of the church so that together we can develop and grow to the glory of God.

And so this month, we start with all those words people came up with to describe what’s special about Highbury that have to do with welcoming.

Accepting, welcoming, warmth, friendly, homely, sociable.

And that brings me back to where I began.

Actually, it’s what you would expect anywhere.

Take the theatre – I caught Simon Callow doing an evening on Dickens at the Bacon Theatre  and Yes Prime Minister at the Everyman.  On both occasions the people who ‘welcomed’ us to the theatre were very welcoming.  There was a warmth of welcome on the part of everyone who greeted us, took our ticket stubbs and directed us to our seats.

Take a café or restaurant.  Tuesday of last week saw a lunch party at Richard’s invitation eating out at one of those bargain eateries Richard has such a knack of finding.– great company, but also, by all accounts a warmth of welcome by those working in that place – as you arrive and as you are waited on at table.

That lunch time Carolyn, Felicity and I had a working lunch with Joy Howells the Area Children’s and Youth worker who had joined us for the day to find out about children’s and youth work here at Highbury.  The folk at the small café on the Strand had joined their daughter as she sang a solo at the Pittville carol service here at Highbury and I made the connecton with them and they were so welcoming.

And that evening Hy-Speed had its Annual General Meeting at the Swan where, once again, the staff were as welcoming as could be.

It’s what you would expect anywhere.

Not that we can take it for granted.  It takes working at.  And I guess we have all had the experience of being put off by the lack of welcome at any number of different places.

We work at it. If you would like to join the welcoming rota then please have a word with Sue, or talk to Lorraine or Sharon.  To welcome people with a smile – and a sensitivity to the different needs people may have – it’s fascinating to look at the guidelines for welcoming that we have explored with disability issues in mind.

And it’s not something you get at every church – as we discovered to our shock at one church that shall remain nameless on holiday last year.

It’s what you would expect anywhere.

Though maybe there are some differences.

And it’s those differences that really matter.

The upholstered bench seats at the Bacon Theatre can be very intimate.  As I sat I was quite relieved to see a gap between me and the next person.  I nodded politely, but then chatted with as it happened it was Richard next to me.  Before and during the interval I found myself standing in a very busy foyer where it seemed as if everyone was talking to everyone else.  I spoke to no one.  And I wouldn’t expect to unless I recognised someone.

The same happened at the Everyman.  There may be arms to the seats in the gallery but you are squashed up against the person next to.  Again, the most cursory of nods.  And the conversation the whole evening was exclusively between Felicity and me.  And that’s what I would expect.  It is the convention in a public place.

There was a lovely warmth of fellowship among the Richard’s group, among the group I was with, among the Hy-Speed group at those eating houses …. But we didn’t engage with people on the tables around us, unless a cursory polite greeting.

That’s what’s different about church.

The warmth of welcome doesn’t stop with the people at the door.  That spirit of ‘welcoming’ is something that happens as much this side of the screen that separates us in here in church from the porch.

It’s good to have a spirit of welcome of one another.  That greets and is open to chat with others.  A sensitivity – it’s possible to be too over the top, to sense when people want to slip in, when they want not to be talking and chatting with everyone.  A sensitivity that is very important to be alert to, but nonetheless does not diminish that spirit of welcome.

For that spirit of open welcome goes to the heart of what we are about.  But it carries with it a challenge.

God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son … and Jesus had a love that reached out to all – from the Samaritan to the woman caught in adultery, from Matthew the tax collector to Zacchaeus the cheat.  One of the very last parables Jesus shared goes right to the heart of the matter:

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

“When was it that we saw you a stranger and we welcomed you?” 

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you did it to me.”

It’s so obvious, we can so easily take it for granted.

At the time it wasn’t obvious at all.

James, the brother of Jesus, could well remember that time he and his brothers came to Jesus together with Mary, Jesus’s mother.  They just wanted a bit of family time together.  It was hard to take.  Jesus was with complete strangers … and they couldn’t get near him.  Word got through to Jesus, Your mother and your brothers are standing outside.  But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

James never forgot that.

Jesus had time for strangers.  To welcome a stranger was to welcome Jesus.

He had been with the disciples in that upper room and seen the risen Jesus, sensed the power of God’s Holy Spirit and those words stuck with him.

“Be doers of the word.”  He wrote in a round robin letter to all Christians everywhere.  A letter that echoes down through the centuries to us as well.

And he was sure the welcome extends to all.  How wrong to show favouritism.

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

No favouritism – we would do well to fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture – the law of the kingdom – You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

A welcome at the door.

A welcome in the church family.

A welcome in the heart.

It goes without saying – are there limits to our welcome.

There is a twist in the tale.

Don’t imagine that the stranger who becomes a friend will simply want to be on the receiving end of our hospitality.  It may just be that that person will have a message for us to heed, a challenge for us to give, a word that will change the course of our lives too.

Are we open to hear the word of Christ for us?

Whoever welcomes one who comes with a word from Christ welcomes Christ himself.  Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you none of these will lose their reward.

It’s the writer to the Hebrews who puts it in a nutshell … in 13:12

Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

The Really Big Question - Where do I belong?

It was  Shrove Tuesday so, there was no question, as one of the helpers at  Transformers I was going to have tea with the youngsters.  The pancakes were delicious!  At the end of the evening we came into church and sat in a circle at the front in the semi darkness of the up-lighters.  It makes a great finish to the evening.

At the first session of the term Carolyn asked the youngsters to come up with words that describe what God is like.  As you can imagine they came up with a long list.  We’ve dipped into that list as the term has unfolded for the God-slot at the end of the evening.  I homed in on the word ‘saviour’.

They knew all about Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent and the story of the temptations.  With one or two prompts from me they told me the story of the temptations.  I made a lot of the way we all know what we should do … but sometimes there’s something telling us to do the opposite.

“Go on, it won’t make much difference.”  “It’s all right it will only be this once.”  And then the little twist in my telling of the tale, and the thing I wanted to get over was that Jesus knows exactly what that’s like.  He’s been through it.  And it’s great to know that he’s with us to give us that strength we need to do what’s right, and what’s even more wonderful, he’s there to help us and with his forgiveness help us to start all over again.

That, at least was the plan.

But with little ones things don’t always go to plan.

One youngster had his hand in the air as soon as I started asking questions.  I was just getting going when I noticed he had his hand in the air again.  I turned to him and asked him what he wanted to say … ‘the burning bush’.  Was his answer.

Yes, fine, I thought.  But not a lot to do with the story of the temptations.  I made an attempt at linking us back into my story – that was in the wilderness and a place where God’s presence was so very real – and Jesus felt God’s presence to be very real.  It just about worked.

Then I went on with my story.  And came to the end when I was getting them to share their responses to my story, when I noticed the same hand in the air once again.  I turned to the keenest of all my listeners expecting him by now to have been wrapped up in the story of Jesus and the temptations.  But no, he was still caught up in the story of the burning bush and determined to say what happened.  The whole point of the story of the burning bush was that we must listen to God.

That’s exactly it, I turned to the rest of the group.  Listen to God … not to the voice of temptation.   That’s the whole point of the temptation story too!

Isn’t it wonderful, how the message comes over.  Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings!

I was already planning to stick with the temptation story today.

Reflecting on that time with Transformers and the way the story emerged as together we reflected on it, I have been thinking more and more of the connections there are with the story of the burning bush.  That’s the start of the Moses story, the temptations are the start of the Jesus story.  That takes place in a wilderness time for Moses, this takes place in the wilderness with Jesus.  That takes place at a time of questioning in Moses’ heart, this at a time of questioning thrust upon Jesus.   It is in that most unexpected of places that Moses has this profound sense of the presence of God that shaped the rest of his life’s work, so too this wilderness experience for Jesus shapes the rest of his life’s work.

The story of the temptations works at so many different levels.

It’s well worth coming back to.

Reading that story in Matthew 4 once again, I have a feeling much more is at stake here for Jesus than simply the temptation to do the wrong thing.

Notice the things that Jesus is tempted with.  At first sight they are in many ways good things.  Look again, and they are not just good things, but they are the good things that so many people looked for in the coming Messiah.

In the wilderness turn stones to bread.  That’s just the kind of thing that happened in the wilderness with Moses and the manna.  People were waiting for a new Moses, the prophet proclaimed by Moses,  who would do equally dramatic things delivering people from the modern-day slavery they experienced at the hands of the Romans.  The Messiah who would be Prophet.

The next temptation takes Jesus to the highest point on the temple.  Don’t think steeples and church towers.  It’s more interesting than that.  Further along the Temple Mount from the Western wall where Jewish people pray, excavations have revealed the incredible destruction wrought on the temple by the Romans in AD 70.  They tore apart the temple buildings on the temple mount and hurled them over the walls 30 feet and more to the ground.  The rubble is still there to be seen.  The massive cracks in the Roman roadway that ran alongside the temple mount are still there.  And one massive, beautifully carved stone has been thrust from the highest point, the pinnacle of the temple.  It is inscribed.  And it makes it clear it is the point where the watchman stood to catch first sight of the rising sun and blow a blast on the trumpet to announce the start of the Sabbath.

The dramatic action Jesus is tempted to do links him with the high-up people of the temple – such an action would give him a claim to be the High Priest so many looked to and displace the High Priests who had been appointed by the Roman conquerors.  This was a massive temptation – to conform to the expectations of the people, scripturally based, The Messiah who would be Priest.

And finally, in Matthew’s telling of the story, up to a very high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour.  This was the power that the people looked for in their coming Messiah King.  A Power that would be instantly seen, that would change the world for ever.

Prophet, Priest, King – this was what Jesus was being tempted with.  But Prophet, Priest, King in the way the people expected.

By the age of 12 Jesus was already listening and asking questions of the greatest teachers in the temple.  For very nearly 20 more years he had been steeped in the Scriptures going as his custom was to the synagogue.  He knew his Scriptures inside out.  He knew the kind of all-powerful, all-conquering, Prophet, Priest and King so many of the  people were looking for.

And he was convinced that he had something totally different to offer.   He wasn’t with those who craved such power.  He was with John the Baptist who spoke truth to power.  And he had gone down to the Jordan, lined himself up with John’s movement in baptism.  And that had been such a wonderful moment in his life.  The heavens had opened, he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, This my Son, the Beloved with whom I am well pleased.

This was it.  The time had come.  His life’s work about to begin.  Jesus knew his Scriptures.  What kind of Son would he make.  What kind of Messiah would it be.

In the wilderness Jesus is not being faced just with temptations to do the wrong thing.

He is confronting the biggest question of all.  The thing that would completely shape all that he did.  The nature of his life’s work.

This is what the temptation is about.  This is where the humanity of Jesus is right to the fore.  Jesus experiences what everyone experiences.  That moment of deep, dark questioning.  What course of action should he take? 

Yes, we can read the temptation story as a story about temptation.  But it is much more than that.  I have a feeling it reminds us that we have to face at some point or other the really big question.  What are we going to do with our life.  Not just what is life about.  What is my life about?  Where do we belong?  Who do we belong to?

The challenge of a choice.  The choice for Jesus.

But there is an insight here that we need to face up to.

Choose Jesus – belong to Jesus and we are likely to face a time of testing just as he did.  The promise Paul holds on to is that we will  never be tested beyond a point at which we can endure.  But there can be no escaping the bleakness of a time of testing.  And those times can come back to.

As we face that prospect we need to be aware of what we are facing.   We too have the kind of choice that Jesus was confronted with.  And we face the same kind of circumstances too.

Who is it doing the tempting?

Put aside all pictures you have of a devilish creature dressed in red and black with pointed ears and a trident.

Put aside that dualistic idea of some philosophical thinking of God and all good, and an equal and opposite force for evil – the Devil and all bad.

The whole of this story is set within the sphere of God.  God is always seen as greater.

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

That’s interesting.  A wilderness experience is inside God’s greater love.  A time of testing and temptation is inside God’s greater love.

So who is the devil?  Try to avoid the pictures.  Try to avoid the philosophising.  That sense of darkness, that sense of foreboding.  That sense of things spiralling out of control.  That sense of powers beyond our ability to influence and shape that cut across the goodness of God.  The sheer brute awfulness of so much that happens in the world is that there is a reality of evil out there, and sometimes very close to hand too.  It’s there.

The story of the Devil in the Bible is a fascinating one.  Because God is always greater.  God always has the last word.  The world of God’s creation is a world where awful things happen – that’s the reality we cannot escape.

God in some way can use even the most awful of things to bring something greater out.  What defuses the power of the devil, is holding on to the greater good of God.  That’s what Jesus does.  He draws on the Word of God that he is so steeped in.  He holds his ground, drawing on the deep source of strengthening his life-time of living the word of God has brought him –

It is written, it is written, it is written …

One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

That’s the key.

• Immerse yourself in God’s word,
• however much you feel tempted tested, torn apart don’t put God to the test,
• worship him, serve him.

Hold on to these key things.

And face off the time of tempting.  See it instead, as the word can be translated, as a time of testing.

You go all through Matthew’s account and come to the end.   And at the very end it is as if Jesus sees the Devil for who he is.  Not the all-powerful force of evil standing over against God.  But the Satan – who in the story of Job is the one who tests Job’s faith.

Later in his ministry Jesus was to encounter such testing again – You are the Messiah, the son of the living God – and when Jesus starts to speak of being a suffering servant messiah, Peter says we will never allow you to suffer at all.  And Jesus says, Get behind me Satan.

On the cross three times if you are the son of God save yourself.  But he holds firm.  Goes through the suffering and into the resurrection victory.

When Jesus is facing arrest, he warns Peter that he will have to face big questions about his allegiance to Jesus – Satan will sift him.  And Peter succumbs and denies Jesus.

But Jesus sticks with Peter.

And Peter comes to the point of realising that the faith that really counts that makes a life of difference is the faith that has been tried and tested and has stood the test of the refiner’s fire.

So what is the big question for us?

First, there is a choice.  Jesus challenges us to make a choice to follow him.  That’s a big turn-around.  And it calls for our allegiance.

To sign up for Jesus, however, then means that we will each of us face a time, and maybe like Jesus, times of testing.  They can be times of very real darkness.  Times when it seems as if the power of the darkness of the world takes away our faith.

Don’t ever think the devil has the last word.  Remember the Satan who sifts.  It’s  a testing, a time of trial.  Hold on to the word of God.  Don’t put God to the test.  Worship God.  Serve God.

And then just as Jesus did you too will emerge from that time of testing.

For the final part of the temptation story is a wonderful thing to hold on to.

Jesus stands his ground.  And suddenly angels came and waited on him.

From the darkness of that awful experience to the tangible presence of the glory of God, what a transformation.  But don’t believe that that is then when all your troubles cease.  That’s only the beginning – for now with the arrest of John, Jesus’ life-time work is just beginning!  So too with us!