From cold bodies to warm hearts…

As I write it’s snowing. Some excitement there for many children - though I’m not sure there’ll be as much as they might want for tobogganing, snowball fights and the creation of snowmen/women/creatures. But I’m feeling cold - and wondering if I will get the car out of the Vicarage drive and down Church Bank so I can take this to the printer…

January is perhaps the most difficult month for many people - short, dark days and long nights drag on… the cold… leaving Christmas behind. But for me there’s the prospect of moving on. February itself isn’t exactly enticing - it might be even colder and more wintry! But in the middle of February we start Lent - and that’s a season not exactly to enjoy, but one which helps us find our feet and restore a sense of equilibrium.

The celebration of New Year on 1^st January is a relatively recent innovation in our country. Until the 18^th century our country started the New Year on 25^th March, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Birth of Our Lord - that’s a real new start in terms of God’s relationship with his people! Other cultures and religions have their own New Year - in the North-East quite a lot gets made of Chinese New Year for example. And of course the Church’s New Year is actually Advent Sunday. But by now that’s the wrong side of Christmas!

So I’m glad that the beginning of Lent gives us another opportunity to make a fresh start. Traditionally it’s a time of discipline, rather than simply “giving things up.” Listen to our bodies, treat them with the respect they deserve - find the benefit in our souls. How do we waste our time? Is there a better way to spend it? Now we can make another attempt to deepen our spirituality by prayer, study, learning together. It’s a useful time-frame of just over six weeks in which to do it. It’s a reminder of those 40 days in the wilderness which Jesus spent listening to the voice of God.

What do we hear? Look for the opportunities you can share at St. Cuthbert’s in worship, time for prayer and study. In thinking about a Lent Course we can use, I’ve finally opted for one from Us, the mission agency we support. There’s a free study booklet, there’ll be meetings in which to join. There’s the opportunity to learn from Scripture, and also from the lives and work of people round the world - and to ask questions about our own call, the requirements of justice, and our hopes for the Church’s contribution and growth. And may Easter find us with hearts which are warmed by the redeeming love of Christ!                         

 

Martin Jackson

From the February issue of our Parish Magazine - click and find it!

Listen... from Samuel and Nathanael to Benedict and us

The Bible readings we have today are about asking and listening - about being ready to ask and being ready to listen.  What’s going on with this young boy Samuel, an apprentice priest at the Israelite shrine of Shiloh in the days before the building of a Temple in Jerusalem? What does Nathanael have to learn from Jesus? Are we ready to ask and listen?

I started thinking about this because I wanted to know more about Samuel - like what does his name mean? There’s some uncertainty… What we have is the story of how he came to be born. His mother, Hannah, hadn’t been able to have children - and it caused her real pain. In her desperation she’d been to pray at the sanctuary in Shiloh. She promised that if she had a child she would dedicate him to God’s service, but she was so upset that she wept as she prayed - and Eli the priest thought she was drunk. But she told him what she was asking for, he blessed her and she had a son. “She named him Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked him of the Lord.’”

There’s some disagreement whether the name “Samuel” does mean “asked of the Lord.” But I wonder if it matters. The “el” bit of the name in Hebrew does mean God. And Hannah had certainly asked God for help - and she persisted with her prayer even when things seemed hopeless and people thought the wrong thing about her.

But there’s something more. In Hebrew the name Samuel is Shmuel. The first words used by Jews in prayer are Shema Israel… “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might…” They’re the words which Jesus uses when he sums up all the commandments of the Law. Love God… love your neighbour… but first, Hear - Listen.

Samuel’s mother had asked for his birth - she had listened for an answer from God. And Samuel needs to learn how to listen for the voice of God and to ask what he should say and do if he is to be faithful as his servant. Hannah learns the way of sacrifice - she gives up Samuel for the service of God. Samuel needs to learn how to say hard things. We discover that if we read on beyond the point at which today’s reading ends: Eli the priest needs to be told that things are not right in what he is doing - nor in the way his sons are living. And Samuel can only play his part if first he learns to listen - and to ask of God how he should act. So three times he hears his name called - three times he gets up and goes to Eli. But only then does he realise that it is God who is speaking to him - only when he asks does he find out what he must do.

The story of Samuel is one of those Old Testament stories which I learned as a child. Perhaps you did... But we need to see that it’s not merely a story from the past - 3,000 years old. It invites us to look at ourselves - what do we hear? It invites us to ask - what does God want from me?

As part of my prayer discipline this year, I’m trying each day to read part of the Rule of St. Benedict. It’s an ancient Rule drawn up in the middle of the 6^th Century for those monks who followed Benedict in the community life which he established. It’s a way of life still followed by many thousands of monks and nuns - but it has a still wider application to any Christian who wants to ask, how can I serve God and get on with other people? Actually that’s the whole point of the Rule - serve God and manage to live in harmony with other people, even the most irritating of people. The Rule has 73 chapters - but it’s also divided up so that you can read a short section each day and get through it in four months. The idea is that those who follow it should read it three times a year. We’ll see how I do…

But actually all I want to do now is tell you what the first word of the Rule is. It’s “Listen…” “Listen, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher…” That’s where we all need to start. Be faithful in this says Benedict, and you’ll realise his aim:

“… what we mean to establish is a school for the Lord’s service.”

Benedict sees that if we’re to grow as Christians we need to be faithful as disciples - and that starts by listening so that we may learn.

Today’s Gospel reading takes us to the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Jesus is calling his disciples. We’ve missed the call of the first three. They’re Andrew and another disciple whose name we don’t know. Jesus simply invites them to come and spend time with him - and they go… they listen. Then Andrew goes and gets his brother Simon and takes him along too. At the point we reach today, Jesus has found Philip and called him to follow him - that means to be a disciple, to listen and learn. And he does. It’s something that Philip wants to pass on, so he goes looking for Nathanael and asks him to come and meet Jesus. But Nathanael is doubtful - he wants to write Jesus off: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip has to persist: “Come and see.” It’s a simple encounter which brings Nathanael to recognise how God is at work in Jesus. He simply needs to place himself before Jesus. And then he realises how Jesus already knows him - Jesus is looking already into his heart.

How ready are we to make that encounter? - to be ready to be quiet and listen? The priest and psychoanalyst, Maggie Ross, has just published a book called, “Silence - a user’s guide.” She has her own way of living - as a hermit, not in a desert or out in the wilds, but at the top of a house in a city. It’s her way of trying to understand her life and the lives of others. What are we doing when we come to church? She says of herself:

“I go to the eucharist as often as I can find one that isn't just a lot of noise. This is extremely difficult to find; so often I have to settle for the least worst of the options.”

And she goes on:

“There are a lot of hungry people out there. The churches are full of noise. There is an idolatry of spiritual experience. The situation is dire.”

I think hers is a pretty extreme position. Hermits themselves are probably not the easiest people to live with - and that’s a good reason for them to be hermits. But there’s a valid point in what she says. Do we just go out looking for what is superficially attractive? Do we stop to ask ourselves what we are truly looking for? Have we already made up our minds - like Nathanael - as to what we want to find? Are we taken in by the words, the music, the warm feelings… what she calls “the noise”?

I hope people come here to St. Cuthbert’s / St. John’s and find warmth, music which they like and words which speak to them. But there’s that other element also which is so important - that I bring myself here to meet God.

What am I looking for? Who am I looking for? Am I ready to listen?

 

 

 (1 Samuel 3.1-10; John 1.43-51)

 

 

 

Paris marches: Feast of the Baptism of Christ

This is the season of Epiphany. An “epiphany” is literally a “setting-forth”, something that reveals a truth.

So the Feast of the Epiphany shows Christ’s divinity recognised by the wise and powerful who come upon a vulnerable human child in Bethlehem.

Today’s Feast of the Baptism of Christ shows God’s own recognition of Jesus as he comes up out of the water and the Holy Spirit descends upon him.

 

What do we see of how God is working in the world?

It’s hard to ask that question after the terrible atrocities in Paris during the last few days. After killing 11 people in the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, the murderers went out into the street and at point blank range shot a policeman as he lay on the ground. They made their escape shouting that Mohammed had been avenged. The man they left lying dead was a Muslim. How did they think they were doing God’s work? Or the other terrorist - perhaps with an accomplice - who killed a policewoman later in the day and went on to kill four other people in a supermarket chosen, it seems, because it sold kosher Jewish food? Today people will march in Paris in what might be the city’s biggest ever demonstration to show their opposition to the terror which has broken out on their streets and their solidarity with those who have been its victims.

In the midst of this we need to see what goes unreported. In Nigeria in the same week, the terrorist group Boko Haram has attacked more communities in the north of the country - I’ve seen estimates that they killed over 2,000 people. Yet it’s barely been noticed here. It’s been going on for years - but nobody marches for them here.

What can we do or say? A cartoon in the aftermath of the first attack put it well: One man with a gun says to another, “Be careful, they might have pens.”

 

The pen is mightier than the sword. It doesn’t mean that it will keep people safe. But it exposes those who aren’t ready to enter into argument and disagreement by peaceful means. Not only Muslims but others besides will find reason to take issue with Charlie Hebdo; it has carried illustrations which are grossly offensive, blasphemous and obscene when it comes to depicting Christian targets. But there must be ways of response other than violence. God does not need us to defend him with bullets, bombs and rocket launchers. God does not need us to take hostages to bargain on his behalf.

The God of Jesus Christ takes the way of humility and peace. John the Baptist tells people about the coming Messiah, that “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” To remove the Master’s footwear is the job of a slave - and John does not count himself worthy even to be a slave. Yet Jesus comes to him for Baptism. God’s way will be in acknowledging the message of John the Baptist. John counts himself unworthy to remove the sandals of the Messiah,… and Jesus will wash the feet of his disciples.

John the Baptist comes with a message - and it leads to his death. Jesus comes and accepts the Baptism of John - and it shows that God’s purpose is to be worked out by being human, bringing healing, exercising humility, making no demand other than love, and loving us himself literally to his death.

In all the posturing of religious extremists we need to ask, where is that word Love in their vocabulary? With those who defend the right to free speech the same question needs to be asked. How can we treat each other as human beings worthy of respect? When will people be ready to treat each other with humility? In self-giving love God humbles himself to share our humanity in Jesus. He comes, the baby of Bethlehem worshipped by shepherds, wondered at by wise men, now baptized by John. And his way is affirmed by that voice from heaven: “You are my Son…”

We are his children too - all of us. Let us listen to him.

 

 

 

from a homily for the Feast of the Baptism of Christ;
find the whole homily here.

 

An army of angels, not men - Homily for Christmas Night

(Isaiah 9.2-7; Titus 2.11-14; Luke 2.1-20)

To save you from waiting any longer for the Christmas cracker jokes at the dining table, here are some to have you groaning now.

One you can use any year:

Many people will stop everything at 3pm on Christmas Day to listen to Her Majesty’s annual address to the nation. But what does the Queen call her Christmas Broadcast? The One Show!

 

Here’s one with perhaps a certain generational appeal:

 

Why did Harry Styles fail at being Santa?

Because he can only use the chimney in One Direction.

But here’s the most vicious I’ve come across yet:

Father Christmas is forced to have an official from the Aviation Authority check his sleigh to make sure it’s airworthy. The official checks out the sleigh on the ground then sits beside Father Christmas for a test flight. Suddenly Father Christmas notices the official has a revolver in his pocket. ‘What’s that for?’ he asks. ‘You’re not a hijacker are you?’ ‘No,’ replies the official. ‘But we have to see how you handle this craft when you lose an engine on take-off.’

The Christmas story begins with a call from officialdom:  

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered.

 

The Emperor proclaims that everybody within his dominions has to take part in a census. Count your subjects and you can tax them more efficiently. The Gospel reading tonight tells us this is how the birth of Jesus came to take place in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph might have been living in Nazareth but that’s not the original family home - so off they go to Bethlehem. And there Jesus is born, as the angels proclaim to shepherds in their fields:

To you, in David's town, this day
is born of David's line
a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;
and this shall be the sign:

There’s a certain irony in this - or a sense of history not going full circle but entering into a spiral. Joseph is descended from King David whose home was Bethlehem - so to Bethlehem he goes with Mary to be counted in for the census. Read the story of King David in the Old Testament and you find that almost the last thing he did was to declare a census throughout his lands of Israel and Judah. Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea, but David gets it into his head that it’s God’s will to count his people. Not only does it tell him how big his Kingdom is. It tells him of the power at his disposal: 800,000 soldiers able to draw the sword in Israel and a further 500,000 in Judah.

It’s rather frightening to think that in such a small country so many men could be mobilised for war. The Emperor Augustus wants to know how many subjects he can tax. King David wants to find out how many he can call on to fight. In fact David comes to regret what he has done as an act of self-aggrandisement. He’s putting his own power and prestige above the honour due to God. He’s forgetting that his authority and power come ultimately from God - they are not his to use in just any way he might decide for himself.

But don’t these actions of a Roman Emperor and an Israelite King tell us so much that’s true of our world today? Without revenue - without tax - how is a government to provide for its people?... though most of what we’re hearing in the news these days is of how our political leaders plan to reduce the deficit, rather than meet the cost of health and social care. And the numbering of King David’s troops has its echoes in all our concerns for national security in a world where so many people suffer from capricious violence and oppression fomented by those who possess the weapons of force and are able to direct people willing to use them.

The censuses called by King David and the Emperor Augustus are reminders of the ways of earthly rulers. They get their way because of the temporal powers they possess. But born in the line of David’s descendants - born in Bethlehem because of Emperor Augustus’s command - Jesus enters the story to reveal a new sort of Kingship. The hope of the Jewish people was that a Messiah would rise up amongst them as their leader - and that he would be born of David’s family. One King had led them for a short time to be a united people, victorious on the battlefield. Another King, they hoped, would lead them to bring freedom from being a captive people. Now Jesus is born - one whose name translates into a promise that he would save his people.

But Jesus comes as a Saviour with a difference. Born in the poor town of Bethlehem with an animal trough for his first bed, he has no trappings of royal kingship. When wise men come from the East looking for a King whose birth has been heralded by a new star in the sky, they go to Herod’s palace in Jerusalem. But he is not there. They need to travel on to humbler surroundings in a village on the city’s outskirts. And while the Emperor Augustus allowed himself to be proclaimed a god, Jesus comes - the Son of God - but laying aside his divine prerogatives to be born as any one of us, the son of Mary.

Wise men will visit the child of Bethlehem - in due course. But the first visitors to the new-born king are not royal courtiers, but shepherds, called from fields where they had tended their flocks. Shepherds were the outsiders of their day - not only economically poor but spiritually on the edge as well, unable to keep the ritual requirements of their religion. But they are the ones who first hear the message of Christ’s birth - and hear it from an angel, a messenger of God. They might be the last people who would expect to receive a divine revelation…  And then there’s a whole host of angels before them. The Bible’s word for “host” perhaps translates better as “army” - an army of angels; and they bring a call to follow a new King.

It’s a call that we need to hear as well. God has touched this world in a way that had never been done before. He wants to establish his ways not by force but by the changing of hearts. Because in Jesus we see how divine power can make itself able to enter into the fullness of humanity:

Welcome, all Wonders in one sight!
   Eternity shut in a span.
Summer to winter, day in night,
   Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great little One! Whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.

God looks on us now with the eyes of a child. The manger is at such a height that kneeling shepherds may look into the eyes of God. May we too look - and learn what it is to be his people, and he our King.

 

Christmas Near You!

Our Christmas entry from "A Church Near You" - the site itself is worth a look!

 

Christmas Eve Carol Service

An all age service - carols, readings, candles & handbells!

Wednesday 24th December 2014 at 6:00 PM for 1 hour

 

Midnight Mass of the Nativity

Welcome the Christ Child at St. Cuthbert's

Wednesday 24th December 2014 at 11:30 PM for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Sung Eucharist of Christmas Day

An all-age service with Holy Communion; this service replaces the usual 10.30a.m. Sunday Eucharist

Thursday 25th December 2014 at 9:30 AM for 1 hour

 

Eucharist for New Year's Day

Thursday 1st January 2015 at 11:00 AM for 40 minutes

 

 

Read all about it!

Sorry there's been a delay in getting the November issue of our Parish Magazine online. It's now up in the ether and you can find it here. Lots of articles, much to look forward to, a record of events and this month's Calendar - and you get to see it in colour.

There have also been updates to the pages which accompany this Blog. Please take a look!

Loss and thankfulness…

Last month I wrote about my father’s final prolonged illness and death - and the support I’ve found in our parish. Sadly sickness and bereavement are an ongoing part of pastoral life - or rather they are part of life, not something to be hidden away but taken together with life’s richness and its causes for thankfulness.

In September our congregation has had cause to mourn - first the death of Jean Burt, then Irvine Macnair, and (as we go to press) Olive Booth. These are real causes for sorrow and we share their families’ sense of loss. Each of them had been ill for a long time before they died. We have to acknowledge the reality of suffering.

But with it goes thankfulness too. Bereavement brings grief - but it’s important not to let go of all that is a cause for gratitude in the lives of our loved ones. As I stood by Olive’s bedside just a couple of days before she died, I was struck by the memory of how she had gone with me to sit by the bedside of another parishioner month by month as we had shared in Holy Communion - and how that went along with healthy doses of laughter enriched by her particular sense of humour. So much she had brought into the lives of other through the long years of her life - we mustn’t let it go when our loved ones need all our care and caring, and seem to recede from us.

So too with Irvine. The last time I spent with him was not only a time for prayer but an occasion for a quick check on the practicalities of getting the Parish Magazine distributed! We know how much he brought into the life of our church from being Treasurer to mowing the grass through organising after-church coffee - and much more, but above all by being there. His life in the community touched so many - professional work as an anaesthetist but also voluntary work for hospital and hospice, enjoyment of music with the Gramophone Society - or just being out and about with the dogs! Most of us knew less about his army service, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel; that he had his “wings” as someone who could parachute in to give aid as needed - or his gift for improvising in the field.

At a funeral I’m always aware there’s so much more we could say. We need to be in touch with the richness of life - and that includes our own. When things seem bleak, we need to recognise the cause for gratitude. Then we might see life as a gift - and the Giver is God.

Martin Jackson

From the October issue of our Parish Magazine - find all its content here