Month: October 2024

The Invitation

A Pondering on BIBLE SUNDAY, by my friend, The Revd. Becs Challis.

So, it’s Bible Sunday, this is a time where we pay special attention to and give thanks for the Bible in our lives as disciples….
I’ll be honest, for me I find this easier said than done….

First, the bible that I am currently paying most attention to is the NIV study bible (a big large hardback book) and I’m paying attention not because I am referencing it but because it’s just the right size as a laptop stand on my desk.
Secondly, rather than simply give thanks in my inner thoughts, I want to add “but did it really have to be SO long and SO complicated (not only to read but also to understand)
And I’m not being flippant I am just recognizing my human condition and the fact that actually the bible if I think about it as a “book”, for me is the source of a lot of shame. And I am going to hedge my bets that I am not totally alone in sometimes slipping into thinking things along these lines?

Yet this is actually the one day when many churches will be praying and giving thanks for the bible, so it’s worth us really understanding what we mean when we say that we are paying attention to and giving thanks for, the Bible. So let’s use this time to take away any barriers we may have to connecting with God when we are thinking, praying or blowing the dust off and potentially even reading the bible!

So what is it, that we are actually giving thanks for, and can we put words to the impact that that has had on our lives and those around us?
We’re told in 2 Timothy (3:14-4:5) that all scripture is inspired by God, all of it. – The passages we love, the passages we’ve read over and over again, the verses we can recite and the bit’s we’re less familiar with, those sections we skim over or the ones we’ve never read, those passages that we can’t quite reconcile with our view of God, and those ones that have been interpreted differently and used as weapons against us or those we love…. All of them every word is inspired by God.
The bible is God breathed; all 66 books all 700 thousand plus words are inspired words of God. It is the most sold book (not necessarily most read) but most controversial books in the world.
Yet it’s not a book at all, it’s an invitation into relationship with Jesus, it’s admittedly a very large, dense, wordy invitation. But it is an invitation all the same…

This is an invitation of hope:

an invitation to us here in church.
an invitation to those who we know aren’t here today
an invitation to those who ‘have never’ and ‘will never’ come here….
an invitation to the whole human race, the whole world, to all of us grace gifted misfits[1] that in some way don’t think we are good enough

But what do we do, how do we access this invitation?

Well in Paul’s letter to Timothy there’s a sense of urgency, whatever you do, do something because the Bible is invitation into relationship with Jesus, it is not something to put off for a rainy day.

“Hold fast to what you have learned.”
It might be just one word or one phrase but hold onto it. However, right at the heart of this instruction, it isn’t about gripping tightly with fists closed. Instead, it’s a reminder to hold on with an openness, with a heart ready to receive, a mind willing to explore. The Bible, or “scripture” for Paul, is not a cage meant to confine us. It’s Jesus as light within us, illuminating dark corners, showing us paths of justice, mercy and peace.

The bible, this invitation, is not just to know Jesus, but to be known. This is wisdom for salvation, Paul says – not salvation only in some distant, other-worldly sense, but salvation that reaches into the here and now, into our living, breathing lives on the good days and on those that are more challenging.
The Bible when we let it breathe, has the power to show us how to live in rhythm with God’s grace, in sync with God’s love. – This invitation instead of us reading it, allows us to be read and in turn, to be known.

The interesting thing about invitations is that they generally come with an RSVP, it’s not good enough to just receive the invitation of the Bible we have to respond as well:

In John’s Gospel (5:36b-end) Jesus says:
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

The RSVP to the invitation we have all been given is not found in echo chambers and divisions, or in those voices that are heard louder and more confidently than the rest, it’s not found in words that flatter rather than challenge…
The response, the real response to us receiving the gift of the Bible, the inspired word of God, is to take it in with each breath we take , each pause, each silence each chaotic unplanned moment, each waking minute of every day move closer to Jesus.

And as with all invitations, they generally always come with a +1
For Timothy, and for us the invitation to be in relationship with Jesus is not about how much you’ve read or whether you can quote it word for word, it is about how you respond in the ordinariness of your life. How you embody the Good news in all you say and do. It’s about living life in a way that others can see Jesus through and in you.
So if you do nothing else, just find a way that works for you to connect and engage with the Bible and let God’s inspired breath become part of all of us. This invitation is to a dynamic relationship, one with a God that is very much alive, not a relic of the past covered in dust, but rather, a living breathing divinely inspired word unfolding all around us, calling us to new depths of love and wisdom and inviting us to be shaped, transformed and in turn transform others.

(based on a sermon preached at St. Mary-at-Latton, Harlow. on Sunday October 27th 2024.

[Becs Challis,
Programme Manager Mission & Ministry, Diocese of Chelmsford

The Burning Bush

BURNING BUSH – a pondering on Exodus 3: 1-15 (4-17)

Arresting attention, the bush burned by the wayside,
impossible to ignore, flame beckoning. A sign of glory.
Tongues of fire, like hands waving to excite our curiosity
“Come Near!”
A way of saying, Come and See”; God’s words of calling us.

An angel appeared in the midst of the fire, becoming flame.
Moses didn’t flinch. In those days Angels were common-place and expected.
Doers of God’s bidding, as they still do today but people have a tendency to rationalize away what they prefer not to understand.

Then God spoke, like a friend hiding in a favourite place, waiting.
“Moses! Moses!” Urgent, eager.
Disturbing too because whenever God calls us by Name it so often means that in some way we are about to change the direction of our life.
– Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Mary and Joseph, Mary of Magdala, Peter, Paul….
The well tried and tested vocational call which is not entirely about doing something but
a recognition that we are called to become someone.
“I call you by Name, you are mine.”
We are more truly children of God who comes to be with us.
“Immanuel”.

“Here I am” says Moses.
God invites him to take off his sandals for the ground is Holy.
It is infused with God’s presence.
This is the language of pilgrimage, an intentional journey to the heart of God.
“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

What he hears is that The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, has a plan,
He has heard His people’s cry. They are burdened and brought low by the oppression of Pharaoh.
“I intend to free them” says God, “and you’re going to help me.”
He then tells Moses his intention.

Despite the heat, a shiver of uncertainty and fear works quickly through him.
He would prefer God to be silent just now.

It does not escape his attention that God is sending him to Pharaoh, in whose family he was brought up. How can he stand against the might of Pharaoh?
Like so many whom God calls to some new task or way of life, excuses are sought and made. Moses stutters his way to a reason why it should be others. “Here am I, send someone else.”

When I was at School and I hadn’t done my homework, I would make up not one but usually about three excuses, just in case the first one failed. They all failed of course!
It feels a bit like that with Moses. He’s scared of Pharoh; the people of Israel won’t accept him; they won’t believe God has sent him; he can’t talk eloquently and he stutters; besides which he has a murky past. Oh dear!
It won’t convince God.

But Moses has a point. He really could imagine the peoples’ reaction when he told them of the bush that burned but was not consumed and of an angel suddenly greeting him from the middle of it; and of God suddenly talking to him;
Surely they would think him either mad or drunk!
“Just tell them that I sent you”.
“But they’ll want to know who you are. What could I tell them. What is your Name?”

Oh, that again! They always want to know so much. “Who are you, Lord?”

Precisely that! I am the Lord who will now give you what sounds a bit like a riddle.
“I AM WHO I AM”. So, Moses was to tell them that I AM has sent him.
God reveals who He IS. He is the One who is. He is the heart of all Being.
HE has brought into being the life of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses himself, and of all Creation, including you and you and you ….
The Name of God is forever and He is Lord for all generations. Because God IS, We ARE.

It took a bit more to convince Moses that he was the right person and he probably wished that he hadn’t taken notice of the Burning Bush but he could not deny that God had spoken with him and that God was absolute Being and was with him.

So in everything that followed, Moses could pray as we can pray:

Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour and the majesty;
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you,
and of your own do we give you.

Chronicles 29:14

[Mr G}

Pondering about water

*Mist over Windermere, Lake District, photographed by Gill Henwood.*

The BBC reported last week that a water company responsible for supplying water and treating sewage in Cumbria has been pumping untreated waste into Lake Windermere. This was between 2021 and 2023. It was illegal dumping of sewage and it has damaged the water quality in the biggest Lake in the area. The figure reported is over 140 million litres of waste poured into the Lake at times when this was not permitted.

Britain’s water companies are under scrutiny for the pollution of lakes, rivers, streams and ultimately, the Sea.
One campaigner said that Windermere, the jewel in the crown of the Lake District
National Park is being used as an open sewer.
Hopefully the Water company concerned will be taken to task by OFWAT, the Water Services Regulation Authority and will be sanctioned to act responsibly in service to their customers. and keep our water supplies safe.

*The boy is trying to catch a few drops of water in Gaza.* (Getty Images)

Keeping water safe to drink combined with making it available to those in great need is a different but not unconnected story. The Global Commission on the Economics of Water report that more than
2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 3.6 billion people – 44% of the population – lack access to safe sanitation. Every day, 1,000 children die from lack of access to safe water. Demand for fresh water is expected to outstrip its supply by 40% by the end of this decade. Over half of the world’s food production comes from areas experiencing unstable trends in water availability.
For the little boy in our other picture (reproduced last week in the Guardian Newspaper) it makes no difference how much water is wasted in the Lake District. He could well be dead by the time the balance between making money for shareholders and honest and responsible service to its customers gets sorted out.
In Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Africa and so many other dark places in the world, the basic right of innocent people for clean water is making the situation far worse. So we have to work for a fair distribution of God’s provision of natural resources making them available to all. Failure to do this would be yet another sign of our misuse of the Planet which is not ours to do with as we like but is for all to share.

Loving God, we ask for Your blessings on children,
mothers, fathers, and communities who are thirsty.
Purify, protect, and multiply their water sources.
Strengthen their resolve so they may fully enjoy the benefits of clean water
— essentials like education, gardens of fresh produce, and good health.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heavenly Father, source of living water,
Proverbs 25:21 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.”
Please convict our hearts to help children, families, communities,
and even our enemies to receive clean, accessible drinking water.

[Mr G]

For the beauty of the earth.

*Langdale Pike*s from Grizedale Forest, Lake District. Photo by Gill Henwood

My friend Gill Henwood has sent me the photo posted above. It is a view of Langdale Pikes from Grizedale Forest, in the Lake District.
There is a certain broodiness about it with its different shades of light and dark which is rather in keeping with the extremities of weather at present in the UK.
The Lake District is a microcosm of our weather patterns and it is always wise, when walking in the Lakeland hills, to have a healthy respect for what Nature offers us. At one level we may call it fickle in that the conditions often change quickly. In another sense, it is a reminder that Planet Earth, and therefore its weather, is not something we can control. Sadly, we are messing things up with our human attempts at superiority over everything on earth.
The current preoccupation with the Northern Lights and with rare sightings of spectacular comets, along with other special things such as solar flares, remind us that these amazing displays from the cosmos are not of our making. They tell us, in fact, how small we are in the Universal scheme of things.
Unfortunately, the human race isn’t very good at learning lessons and applying them with humility to our borrowed and temporary life on earth. It was the poet T.S.Eliot who coined the phrase, humankind cannot bear very much reality so perhaps we shall continue to destroy the earth – and, of course, each other!

It would be good, therefore, if the human race might wake up to itself and accept that, as tenants with a life-span lower than many trees, a bit of humility might not go amiss.
As T. S. Eliot puts it in in his poem East Coker, “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.”

A large part of the lesson of humility can be found in contemplating the gifts God gives us through Creation. How can we not look at the scene depicted in the Gill’s photo above and be unmoved by what nature is trying to tell us about the Planet which is our home for the time being.
The light shimmering on the hills and the blue sky quietly folding itself around the clouds offers us a message of hope. It is just as true of a tuft of grass or a tiny flower pushing aside the tar of an urban footpath.
When the warmongers of the Middle East and the Russian invasion of Ukraine come to an end, they will leave desolation but it won’t be long before a blade of grass or a microscopic flower spring to life.
Gill’s photo gives me hope. I have added a few words from a lovely hymn by Folliott Sandford Pierpont. He sat on a hill near Bath and was exhilarated by the beauty of creation which was laid out before him. Inspired by what he saw, he was filled with gratitude to God and he wrote his hymn in thanksgiving.

That too is another clue coming from Gill’s photograph ~ thanksgiving.
When we give thanks for Creation and for God who created it, we find ourself in a different place from lordship, conceit and self-centredness. In fact, thanksgiving, turns our attention towards others, towards providence and therefore towards God as Creator.
The photo is filled with the promise. of light and that is a source of joy and hope. If none of this means anything, then perhaps another thought might help – remember the Dinosaurs!

[Mr G] 14th October 2024

The Beauty of Nature

O God, we thank you for this earth, our home;
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendour of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thorn bush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns forever and ever.

– Walter Rauschenbusch