Friday Five

KATHERYNZJ at RevGalBlogPals posted this week's 'Friday Five' challenge, on the theme of 'lifesavers':

'...dramatic or fairly common - what have been/are your lifesavers?':

1) Your lifesaving food/beverage: I would have to say water, though that sounds a bit boring. Coffee comes a very close second.

2) Your lifesaving article of clothing: my bra!

3) Your lifesaving movie/book/tv show/music: lifesaving book - the Bible; lifesaving music - rock! If I had both of those with me on a desert island, I would be fine.

4) Your lifesaving friend: at the risk of shocking him and even surprising myself, I would have to say my husband.

5) Your lifesaving moment: the moment my mom told me who Jesus is. I had been told many times before by many people, but that particular time, something different happened.

Four months in

Two weeks in a row without preaching, so I can’t post a sermon, but thought it would be a good idea to ponder a bit on the past four months. Has it really been that long? Actually, I can hardly remember life before ordination, now. I feel like a different person… in a good way!

I’m really happy with the way things are going. There are plenty of challenges and opportunities, and now I have a greater confidence that God is with me, equipping me to tackle more than I could have imagined when I started training three years ago.

Getting to know people in the parish has been amazing. I’m so grateful for the warm welcome people have shown to me since I started my curacy. And many have been so open, often sharing very deep issues. It is interesting to note the differences and similarities between my new parish and my sponsoring parish. I can appreciate different things about both parishes now.

One of my greatest challenges so far has been visiting people in their homes. Initially the summer holidays seemed to conspire against me; many people weren’t at home when I called and my timing seemed to be off. But now the parish schedule is picking up apace, so time is the main issue. There seems to be so much that sidetracks me from making pastoral visits to parishioners, and I often feel guilty about that. Sermons and service prep are two things I spend a lot of time on, along with continuing education sessions for curates, lots of various meetings, and study days. But I know that visiting people is very important, so that’s one area I hope to improve over the next four months!


Memorable experiences from the past four months:

*A weekend away with the youth group – a chance to play table tennis!
*Leading the informal service on the theme of ‘Community’
*Leading the Harvest parade service – the church was so beautifully decorated
*Taking my first funeral – most new curates have an understandable anxiety about the great privilege and responsibility that goes with this ministerial occasion
*Involvement in the music group – playing praise songs on my guitar with a group is something I love
*Seeing my ex-fellow-ordinands at IME sessions and sharing our experiences
*The amazingly harmonious PCC meetings! (I'm assured they've not always been that way)
*Speaking to the Ladies Fellowship about my life so far – that was a bit daunting
*Attending a conference for evangelical women clergy (Awesome)


and looking forward to:

*The parish ‘away day’ for Growth Action Planning, and all that comes out of that day
*Advent and Christmas for the first time with this new parish
*Getting involved with the local primary school, the sea cadets and the RNLI
*The Alpha course and the new toddler group, both starting in January

I suppose there is a lot more I could say on reflection, but many things are confidential in this line of work and so I have to keep it fairly general here. I'm just really thankful for this job, which isn't really a job. I pray for strength and endurance to go for the long run. And I pray for the people of my parish. May God bless us and keep us all.

St. Luke's Day

When I was in high school, I was entirely put off the subject of history because I had the most boring teacher. But over the past few years I have just become fascinated by history. Whether it’s read from a book, or dramatised in a film, or watched on a TV programme with the latest in computer graphics, history can really help us to understand why we are who we are. And these days when the focus seems to be about how we’re ‘feeling’ in our ‘individual present moment’, we need to remind ourselves of the past – not to wallow in nostalgia, or pine for how things used to be, but in order to remember our identity within the big picture; in other words, as Christians we need to be reminded of our past so that we can remember our future. It’s a trite but true expression that history is ‘his story’ – its God’s story and we are in it. We, as God’s people, have a past, a present and a future.

Today is St. Luke’s Day. Luke, the gospel writer, was amongst other things an historian. He was most concerned about recording accurately the historical events that took place which led to the birth of Christianity. Luke’s gospel is the first volume of a two-volume book which Luke continues in the Acts of the Apostles – over these two volumes the first 60 years of Christianity are covered, and together they make up the largest contribution by a single writer in the New Testament. Luke makes clear the continuity of Christianity with the Old Testament - between the story of Jesus and the history of Judaism - of Jesus as the fulfilment of all God’s promises; and Luke makes clear the inclusive nature of the gospel for Jews and Gentiles and especially for outcasts. So Luke is hugely important to us as Christians.

I can remember about 11 years ago, being driven into re-reading the gospels, after an extraordinary experience of God’s love and his grace. And with what really felt like ‘new eyes’, I re-read Matthew and Mark’s gospels; but then as I got into Luke’s gospel, for some reason I became increasingly uncomfortable the more I read, and I didn’t understand why. I told the Rector about my discomfort and he nodded slowly with an air of great wisdom and suggested that I persevere with it, so I did.

Gradually I began to recognise that Luke’s gospel was revealing to me a lack of discipline in my life. Was I going to be able to cope with the ‘cost of discipleship’, something Luke consistently emphasises throughout his gospel? The grace of God is free, but that doesn’t mean it is cheap – discipleship is costly, and Luke wants us to be aware of that. He urges us to carefully estimate the cost to be sure we can finish what we begin that very moment we say ‘yes’ to the call of Jesus to follow him.

Luke addresses both his Gospel and the Acts to someone called ‘Theophilus’, which means ‘Lover of God’. If we really love God, this is what we need to do, Luke says. It’s in Luke’s gospel that Jesus says ‘No-one who takes hold of the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ He also says, ‘…those who do not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciples’ - ‘those who try to keep their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will preserve them’. Whoa! Wait a minute! Am I gonna be able to follow through? Am I even willing to follow through with what I’m opening myself up to through faith?

It’s costly discipleship: it’s not about legalism or about formalism. It’s about following him. It’s about trusting him so fully that we are willing to give up all those things that we use as security props; to go out to where he leads us and bring his peace into the lives of others - not OUR peace, HIS peace. Our peace usually means not having our lives disrupted by the interruptions and problems of other people. His peace comes from awareness of who he is, and who we are, secure within him. His peace comes from our relationship with him and our trust in him that if we dwell in him he will dwell in us and he will be with us through all the burdens of life and he will help us to bear each others burdens, and he will bring us through to a new place of peace which will last for all eternity. He leads the way; keep close to him.

It’s the call of Christ followed by a response of obedience to Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the 20th century German theologian and martyr, who has given so much to us through his writings, says that "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. … There is trust in God, but no following of Christ." And this is related to what Bonhoeffer calls ‘cheap grace’: "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance; baptism without church discipline; Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."

I think Bonhoeffer and Luke are on the same wavelength, and so is Paul, who writes with a sense of great urgency in the reading we had today from his 2nd letter to Timothy. This letter was written towards the end of Paul’s life, and the clock is ticking. Ever since Jesus sent out the 72 disciples, through the time when Paul wrote to Timothy, and right up to today, this very day – we never know how close to judgment day we have come. Paul doesn’t mince his words with Timothy or gloss over the cost of following Christ to proclaim the kingdom of God. And Luke was with Paul at this time; Paul writes that many have deserted him, but Luke was still with him. Luke and Paul are on the same wavelength. They wanted to reach as many people as possible with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Wherever we go, we need to reach as many people as possible with the good news of Jesus Christ. We have a hope, and we have a future! It may be difficult and uncomfortable; it may be painful at times, but if we have been called to be part of God’s church, we have been called to proclaim ‘Jesus is Lord’, and to do it without being distracted by trivial things.

The Lord sends out 72 disciples ‘like lambs into the midst of wolves’, and they are told not to bring anything with them! Most of us set off on journeys worrying about the things we may have left behind! The lesson from the reading is that we just need to focus on the mission that Jesus has given us and not be distracted by petty things - to depend on him for our security. And if we look a bit further in chapter 10, we find that the 72 disciples returned from their mission full of joy because of what Jesus was able to accomplish through them.

As today is St. Luke’s day, we remember his emphasis on the cost of discipleship, but let’s remember that Luke also highlights the great joy it is to be a Christian. From the beginnings of Luke’s gospel, in chapter 2, v. 10, Luke describes the story we remember each year at Christmas, with the angels bringing ‘good news of great joy’. The parables of Jesus in Luke’s gospel end on a note of great happiness and rejoicing: the lost sheep and the lost coin are found; the lost son returns to his father; and ‘there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents’.

In chapter 12, Luke reminds us of how much God cares about us: ‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows’. In other words, we won’t be sold on the cheap! On the contrary, we have been bought with the precious blood of Christ!

And at the end of Luke’s gospel in chapter 24 v. 52 after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples returned to Jerusalem ‘with great joy’, because they knew the risen Christ. And after the Holy Spirit came, Luke reports to us in Acts that they had glad and sincere hearts and they were filled with wonder, amazement, courage and boldness. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? As we become part of the church, wouldn’t we like to have ‘glad and sincere hearts’ and to be ‘filled with wonder, amazement, courage and boldness’?

How can we have more of this? By hearing the call to obedience and trusting in God. Listen to Luke in Acts ch 5 v.29-32: ‘We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead… God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.’

So on St. Luke’s day, I urge you over the coming week to read (or re-read) Luke’s gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, and to prayerfully explore the cost of discipleship and the joy of living the Christian life. As a church, let’s talk and pray about our struggles, hopes and fears as we work out how to follow Jesus more closely. And let’s ask the Holy Spirit to increase in us a greater trust and reliance on Jesus, because I believe that the Spirit today is moving in the Church to bring a deeper awareness of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, so that our participation in HIS story as Christ’s body will be renewed for the sake of his kingdom, which is very near. Amen.

Jesus wants to save Christians

I picked up a new book the other day at a conference:
Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell and Don Golden. I wanted to summarise the book here in the blog, but since I found such a good concise review of it on Amazon I thought I would just post that here instead, because this person has said all that I would have said:

Using the story of the Israelites and their journey from Egypt (in slavery) to Sinai (how to live in freedom) to Jerusalem (how they failed) to Babylon (the consequences), Bell begins to outline how we as Christians, and the church, should live in this world and seek to change the world for the better.

This is not about empire building, such as some Christians (particularly in the US think) but being people of change within the empire, like Jesus, and seeking to bring change from within.

It's challenging and written in Bell's refreshing style (often one sentence paragraphs!) and I found it is exactly the sort of 'manifesto' for describing what type of Christian we are to be, and what the church should be like, and should be doing (caring for the poor, fighting injustice, introducing people to Jesus).

I really recommend this relevant book. It has given me a clearer view of the big picture. It suggests that the Church as a whole is currently in a kind of 'exile' because we have failed to be faithful and obedient to God, and we are suffering the consequences. Examples given by Bell and Golden of the wrong way the Church has taken include backing the machinations of war and systems of greed way out of proportion to our levels of care for the poor and needy of the world. Harsh accusations, but if we are really honest with ourselves, there is truth to it. It could be excused by our ignorance, perhaps, but is that really a good excuse? And are we really that ignorant? Or do we just want to be comfortable and safe? I'm guilty, too.

According to Israel's repeated cycle, the next stage for the Church is to cry out to God in repentance. I don't know if we're ready for that. I don't know if we're ready for the sacrifices that would entail.

Fall (otherwise known as Autumn)

My answers to questions from Friday Five at RevGalBlogPals:

1. Share a Fall memory

It has to be the leaves. I grew up in a household with five children in Northern California where we did have the season of Fall. All five of us would muck in and do the raking of the leaves each week. We had several large trees on our ¼ acre – I can remember maple, walnut, and plum – there were a lot of leaves. First we would rake them into a maze shape over the front lawn. Sometimes we would shape them into a floor plan with several rooms. We’d play in that for a while, then rake them into a huge central pile and jump into it. Sometimes I would get pretty severe allergies raking the leaves, and have to go inside while the others had all the fun.

Second memory was carving pumpkins in the kitchen - the smell, the texture, the seeds, the competitive nature of my stepsister to carve the best one (and hers always was the best one).

2. Your favourite Fall clothes, past or present?

I love sweaters (or as they say here in the UK, ‘jumpers’). I prefer autumn over summer for clothes as they hide a multitude of… chocolate. When I was younger, I liked to mix contrasting colours, so I might wear bright orange on top and purple on the bottom. I see my daughter doing the same thing, nowadays.

3. Share a campfire story, song, experience, etc…

We camped a lot when I was growing up, usually in the Sierra Nevada mountains or foothills. It was mainly in summer, though, not in Fall. But definitely, s’mores were a regular feature (my English friends won’t know what s’mores are – they consist of a toasted marshmallow stuck between two ‘graham crackers’, which are like digestives, sort of, and also with a piece of thin chocolate in there, which melts due to the marshmallow – yum - I want some more...). That, and catching crawdads from Lake Tahoe using raw bacon on a string. And singing around the campfire. My stepfather played guitar and had a lovely voice. Folk songs: Blowin' in the Wind, Tom Dooley, Camptown Races, If I had a Hammer, Scarborough Fair, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Alice's Restaurant - you get the picture.

4. What is your favourite thing this time of year?

The colours of the leaves. And it is a pretty good show here in England, so long as we don't get too much wind.

5. What changes are you anticipating in your life, your church, family… whatever…as the season changes and winter approaches?

Every day is bringing changes at the moment. Over the next month or two I anticipate doing things I’ve not done before in church ministry terms, and becoming more experienced in the things I have already been doing. In family life, we’re gearing up for my son to take the 11+ in November and deciding which schools to put in which order on the preference form. My husband and I celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary in October. And I really must get out into that neglected garden…

Bonus: what food says ‘Autumn’ at your house?

For me, it is squash and pumpkin. But I’m the only one in the house that likes squash and pumpkin.

Sermon for Morning Prayer with Baptism

Mark 9:30-37

With sincere apologies to fans of Strictly Come Dancing,
it’s X-Factor season!!!

Everyone knows what the term ‘X-factor’ means: that hard-to-describe quality that makes the difference between someone who’s ordinary and someone who’s great. I love watching the X-Factor programme, especially when one of the contestants belts out an amazing voice. I have to admit, it sometimes even brings tears to my eyes! You can feel their joy of singing and practically taste the hope they have to make it big one day doing something they just love to do.

I like watching the contestants as the weeks unfold and their talent improves. Confidence builds and so does their hunger to win the coveted £1 million recording contract. To win, they have to be better than the competition. They have to be the best.

We human beings, we enjoy competition, don’t we? Sports, business, academic success – even just keeping up with the Jones’; we love to succeed, and we admire greatness in others.

In the bible reading from Mark’s gospel, which we heard this morning just before Eve was baptised, the disciples of Jesus (who were very human beings) were enjoying a fair bit of competition with each other along the road to Capernaum with Jesus.

“What were you arguing about on the road?” Jesus asked them. And of course they had to hang their heads in shame on that one. They had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest disciple of them all. I can just picture these guys, the disciples, behaving a bit like overgrown schoolboys, puffing their chests out! They’ve been taught by none other than the Son of God for months and they still didn’t ‘get’ what he was on about! It seems at every turn their journey with Jesus held surprises for the disciples.

Jesus turned upside down their idea of what it means to be the greatest at following him. Instead of needing to be the biggest to be the best, Jesus tells the disciples they need to be less full of themselves. He asked them (as he asks us) to look out for other people who might need a helping hand - - a hand to shake in welcome; a hand to hold in times when the road of life gets tough.

In baptism we begin a journey that lasts a lifetime and beyond. It is a welcome into Jesus’ family, and we’re a family who are called to serve our neighbours. It isn’t a competition of who is the greatest at serving others, but we do have our own version of the ‘X’-factor –ours is called the cross-factor - and we’ve all been given the prize! It’s the priceless gift of a relationship with the creator of all things. It is an incredible journey with an incomparable travelling companion who really does have the X-factor: Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for you and for me.

The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant when he said the cross had to happen, and they were afraid at the time to ask him about it. But we can ask him about it. We can come to the living God in prayer and ask him what his dying on the cross meant for all of mankind (yes, even for Simon Cowell!). And we can ask him in prayer what his rising to life again means for us.

The X-Factor contestants improve over the weeks by disciplined practice. It isn’t rocket science, but it isn’t easy, either. If we want to grow in our Christian faith, we have to put into practice the disciplines of prayer and reading our bible. And through prayer and the bible, we come to learn more and more about the love of God, which is the meaning of the cross and the resurrection.

Today marks the beginning of a journey for Eve. Baptism and the Christian journey are about new life and new beginnings – we walk in newness of life, by the grace and mercy of God, because of the ‘cross-factor’. So welcome to the journey, Eve. And welcome to the Family of God.

Loving God, thank you - for the gift of new life, and for the joy of knowing that you promise to be with us throughout the journey. Bless Eve today on her baptism day. And throughout her life, bring Eve, and all of us, to a deeper understanding of the cross and the resurrection, and of our relationship with you, as we travel through this life. Amen.

Facing the GAP

Last night I went to my first Deanery Synod meeting. We had a speaker from the diocese talking about GAP. For those who don’t know, GAP is the Growth Action Plan process that the diocese is asking all parishes to undertake. I have to say, I left the synod meeting feeling discouraged. It wasn’t the speaker – as one of the diocesan Mission Development Officers, he was enthusiastic, informative, and encouraging. Can’t fault him at all. It wasn’t his presentation – a good speaking style and the right mix of speaking, visuals, books passed round, and time spent in group discussion.

No, it wasn’t the speaker or the presentation - it was us. I don’t exactly mean the ‘us’ who were present at the meeting, I mean all of us. Christians. The Church. OK, this is a rant. I might as well be up front about that. I feel frustrated (to put it mildly) that we need this GAP process in the first place. It all just seems like common sense to me: ‘SWOT’ analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relationship to growth and mission); ‘Vision’ (this is obvious, isn’t it?); and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, resourced and time-related steps to take).

The speaker pressed home the need for churches to be clear about what a healthy church actually is, because so many people have never really been in a healthy church. That made me feel sad. I mean, what is wrong with us?! There is no health in us! It is sad, but it is really a symptom of the churches’ failure to follow Christ, to be Christ to others and to see Christ in others. Please don't get me wrong - I include myself as part of the problem.

Here are the marks of a healthy church, taken from The Healthy Churches’ Handbook by Robert Warren, which I heartily recommend:

- Energized by faith
- Outward-looking focus
- Seeks to find out what God wants
- Faces the cost of change and growth
- Operates as a community
- Makes room for all
- Does a few things and does them well

The ‘faith’ mark is essential because without faith, the other six marks won’t be based on the right foundation. To get from here to there begins with individual faith and motivation, but it is essential that the whole body (of a parish) is brought to the place where it can begin to function and move forward as a whole body. I guess I’m not very patient with all this, and probably I’m rather naïve, being relatively new to church leadership. But what is our problem?! I think the problem is that we aren’t really willing to put God and his mission first in our lives. The result is that we are failing to carry out his mission. And all around us are the results – people have turned to false gods and false prophets. Once again, like the rebellious Israel, we have got to repent – to turn back to God. And pray.