from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

King Charles has opened the new session of parliament, amid all the accompanying ceremony and pageantry.  While the words of the King’s Speech and the observance of tradition all give the impression that His Majesty is in charge, we all know that what has been delivered is really the government’s plan for the coming months, and that the king is required to read what is given to him.

All this comes just a week after the elections to local councils, and in Scotland and Wales to the national parliaments.  In such elections, we are in collective charge, as we decide who should be given the privilege and responsibility of representing us.  In contrast to all the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of the state opening of parliament, others have to bend to our will expressed in the silence of the voting booth.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus invited people to decide who should be in charge, as he announced “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  The first Christians proclaimed as a statement of faith “Jesus is Lord!”  By implication, they were shouting that Caesar is not Lord.  We may very rarely feel that we need to stand up for our faith by defying the temporal authorities today, but we do need to know where our allegiance lies.

Most importantly, Christ’s resurrection demonstrates that Death is not in charge, and that the powers that lead to hopelessness are inferior to those that lead to life as life is meant to be.  As we wait in the period between Christ’s Ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we recall the power that enabled, and enables, Christ’s followers to show the world that the reign of which Jesus spoke is a reality in our lives.

In this season of Easter, when we ask “Who is in charge?” it is enough to reply “Alleluia, Christ is risen: he is risen indeed, Alleluia!”

Wes

from John Williams

I do like Isaiah chapter 40.  In the 6^th Century BC, God’s people were in exile in Babylon and the prophet Isaiah was trying to encourage them and prepare them to return to their own land.  They were in the midst of a pagan culture, maybe even tempted to worship foreign gods as idols.  Maybe they had even forgotten who their God was.  In this chapter the prophet was giving them a message of hope.  (Can you read the words “Comfort ye my people” without the music of Handel’s Messiah running through your head?)  His message was based on his realisation of God’s power and greatness.  Supremely for Isaiah their god was the Incomparable God.  Isaiah reminds the people of this by describing their God.

He was the Lord of creation and so much greater than nature in all of its wonder and immensity.  He was supreme among the nations and in control of powerful rulers.  He was a God who was able to work through history – how relevant this thought is today with all the upheavals in the Middle East.  He even commanded the comings and goings of the stars themselves and even knew how many stars there were and called each one by name!

This was their God and this is our God.  Isaiah ends the chapter by reminding them, and us, that for all his greatness and power, God is not remote.  He helps us all, whether we are rising to the heights or plodding along in our everyday lives.  And we, 2600 years later, have more; for we have seen God in Jesus Christ; who is risen and is alive today, helping us wherever we are and whatever situation we are in.

John Williams

from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

What does the month of May mean to you?  Is it just a page in the calendar, thirty-one days of springtime, with a couple of bank holidays to get us through to the summer?  Or does it have a character of its own that makes it, in our thinking, somehow different to April or June?

Thomas Hardy, in his poem Afterwards, wrote “… the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,/Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk …”.  I cannot say that that is what first comes to my mind at this time of the year, but for Hardy it was important not only that he appreciated the fine details of seasonal changes, but that others recognized his awareness of nature.  This man, who died nearly a century ago, is remembered for his novels and poetry, but he hoped to be known as someone who noticed the seasonal emphasis of nature’s handiwork.

This year, most of May falls in the season of Easter.  We recall the accounts of the risen Christ appearing to his disciples, and of their varied responses.  For the first followers of Jesus, Easter is not a time of automatic and unquestioning faith, but of growing acceptance of the new thing that God had done.  Do we stop to see all this?  There is a danger that we brush past those stories which we have heard so often as easily as we travel oblivious to the “glad green leaves”.

Furthermore, we might well ask, when we do stop to take in the enormity of the Resurrection, and the promise of life that it brings?  Does anyone see that we are touched by all this.  Or, in Hardy’s words, will people say of each of us “He was one who had an eye for such mysteries”?

It is May – a time of verdant growth, and of spiritual life.  Do we notice, and can anyone tell?

Wes

from Malcolm Ray-Smith

Dear friends

Seed time and harvest shall not cease - Genesis 6:22

Every year a task I perform is to sort out my stock of seeds to check which are likely to be fertile and reject any that are past their “use by” date. Then I make a list of items I wish to grow so that I can buy seeds or plants to suit my plans.

Seeds come in a great variety of shapes and sizes but they each have potential to produce plants to feed jus or to provide flowers to please us by their scent and beauty. I still marvel that so much potential is hidden in something that appears lifeless until it is planted in conditions that meet its needs. We have to rely on the skill of nursery men in packing seeds that come true to their description on each packet.

Warmth and moisture are important to encourage the seed to form roots and shoots, but the baby plants may need protection from frosts and food to promote development so that the full potential of each plant is encouraged. Gardening uses skills and perseverance to bring crops to maturity. The patience and dedication that the gardener applies to his plot brings rewards in fresh foods to harvest and the satisfaction that colourful gardens provide and flowers and plants to display indoors.

Judging how many plants of each variety is helpful in avoiding disappointments but can also be affected by the impact of weather or the onset of attacks by insects and other visitors.  It is also a matter of pleasing those who cook our food and wish to avoid waste.

Some trees and shrubs take years to grow to their full potential and some can have very precise needs for shelter and or climate. Selecting specimens that are appropriate to our plot is sometimes essential for success.

The bible reminds us that the marvellous variety of plant life is an important part of God’s plan to meet our needs, because he promises that seed time and harvest will not cease.

Malcolm Ray-Smith