from John Williams

Dear Friends,

“Don’t worry!”  How often do we hear that said, or even say it to ourselves?  It’s so easy to say, but it’s not always very helpful, especially if someone is genuinely worried.  Someone once humorously commented that the things we worry about seldom actually happen – so don’t worry about them.

It has been said: If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry: just spend your energy doing what you can.  If it’s not fixable, then there is no point in worrying: it will achieve nothing.

Jesus tells us not to worry and puts God at the centre.  In the Sermon on the Mount he says “Do not start worrying ‘Where will my food come from? Or my drink? Or my clothes? ……. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things.” (Matt 6:31 - 32)  And surely our Father knows about everything else that we need.

St Paul also puts God at the centre and as a bonus gives us something practical to do.  “Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)  Why the thankful heart?  When we thank God we remember his past faithfulness and are reassured that he will provide in the future.  After all, He does not change.

William Barclay sums up these verses with the words: “The way to peace is to take ourselves and all whom we hold dear, to take all life, and to place them and ourselves and it trustingly in prayer in the hands of God”.

John Williams

from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

This weekend sees the annual Heritage Open Days, described by the organizers as “England’s largest festival of history and culture!”  All sorts of places welcome visitors to buildings or behind-the-scenes areas that are not usually open to the public, encouraging us to engage with part of our past.

The word “heritage” is not the same as “history”.  As we note the relationship between “heritage” and “inheritance”, we see that we are thinking about what is passed on from one generation to the next.  Our heritage is not a mere curiosity, to be wondered at but which has no relationship to our present.  Rather, it is what has made our setting what it now is.

For us, even the idea of “heritage” is not enough to understand the meaning of our history.  The Christian faith has certain historical moments as part of its story: Jesus’ life belongs in the annals of history, and moments within that life are of particular significance.  When we share bread and wine together, we do so because of what Jesus did and instructed on a certain evening in a certain place.  We have inherited a tradition – a word which refers to something that has been handed on – but it is more than a remembering of the past.  As our Jewish friends have done in their Passover celebration for centuries, we bring the past into the present, and understand that God is doing something now because of our commitment to share in what he has done before.

Amid all the everyday things that we have to do, we need to acknowledge that we live as we do both because of our inheritance, and because of our commitment to a God who was before time began, and shall be after it has come to its conclusion.  We look both backwards and forwards, because God’s work in our past is for our future also.  May the God who was, and is, and is to come, help us to see from his perspective.

Wes

from Kim Tame

Dear Friends,

As autumn rains start to make their appearance, and the acres of brown countryside start to show little patches of green, a verse from Isaiah seems relevant;

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth."  (Isaiah 55:11)

Ancient people knew well that their very lives depended on a reliable cycle of weather, and these days we can see the result of destructive human activities.  Rain that brings life can also be wild and stormy, bringing turmoil and destruction. We take it for granted at a price.

Biblical metaphors can still remind us that God's activity may seem like the weather; unpredictable as the wind, life-giving like the rain; welcome refreshment after a time of heat and drought.  Yet God's work carries on with purpose.  It accomplishes what God wills, even when we can't understand it, at all levels of life; for our lives as much as the whole universe.

The weather is not personal; it is the same for the just and the unjust.  Yet this verse is encouragement; what we do is not measured by visible results.  We are the sowers, not the controllers of the harvest.  The rain does its work, and seeds - even those that have lain dormant - will grow.  Trees and grass recover from drought.  And seeds we sow now - literal and metaphorical - have their future fulfilment.  Seeds of hope, grace, encouragement, kindness and love will bear fruit in their own time.

In this Sunday's service, we will be thinking about Jesus' parable of the unforgiving debtor.

from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

I am writing on the feast day of St Gregory the Great.  Gregory is remembered as the pope who sent St Augustine to reintroduce Christianity to the southern part of Britain.  We can leave the church history lesson for now, and take a look at one event from Gregory’s life.

While still a monk, Gregory left Rome intending to cross the Channel as a missionary.  However, while he and his companions had paused to eat and rest, a locust landed on the bible that Gregory was reading.  “Look at the locust” said Gregory, but he wondered if it might be a sign from God.  He decided that the Latin word “locusta” sounded like “loco sta”, which means “stay in place”, so he waited.  In less than an hour a messenger arrived from the pope calling him back to be the ambassador to the imperial court at Constantinople.

We might think it very odd to regard a single locust as a sign from God, but this story presents Gregory as someone who is attentive to God.  Are we listening out for what God is saying to us?  Sometimes we need to be open to the possibility that God is speaking to us, and ready to hear no matter what method God chooses.  If you have ever thought that God does not have anything to say to you, or that God would only communicate in a 'proper' way, look at the locust.

Sometimes we think that we have a monopoly on divine wisdom: we hear a suggestion but doubt that anything good can come from that source.  We tell ourselves that we have good reason, even when we only have a thinly-veiled prejudice.  Yet the good may come from the most unexpected quarter, if only we will allow ourselves to see it.

As our new Methodist year begins, and as we give thanks for the ministry of St. Gregory, let us listen for what God is saying, whatever channel God uses.  And look out for the locust!

Wes