Month	Day	Time	Worship Item
August	1st	10:30am	Morning Worship led by our Minister
	8th	10:30am	Morning Worship with our friends from Kerzenheim
	15th	10:30am	Morning Worship with communion led by our Minister
	22nd	10:30am	Morning Worship led by our Minister
	29th	10:30am	Morning Worship led by Steve Wood

Top

Sunday August 1st 2010 'True Prosperity'

Ecclesiastes 1. 2, 12-14; 2. 18-23 and Luke 12. 13-21

It's been interesting being in East Anglia for this last week at harvest time. Driving along the country lanes, Martin and I were reminded of the scale of the fields in Norfolk, the vast size of the areas the combine harvesters cover, and the lack of hedges and trees in many places. On the way back to and fro each day between our accommodation and the conference centre we kept passing one particularly large wheat field which, on Monday, looked pretty close to being ready for harvesting. Because we had heavy rain several times during the week, things never dried out enough for the crop to be cut and gathered, though. Despite that it wasn't hard to imagine how much the farmer involved would be hoping to get the field dealt with as soon as conditions allowed. When we passed it for the last time yesterday it looked as though some of the wheat was starting to discolour and show signs of losing its earlier freshness. Nobody wants to end up harvesting a crop that's gone past its best – even if, in our climate, there must often be a high risk of that very thing happening. What we saw reminded us that, despite our distance from the land, our society still depends on the work of those who grow crops and harvest them for the benefit of everyone.

And that leads on to thinking about today's parable of Jesus, the story of the Rich Fool as it's sometimes known. Like the story of the Good Samaritan, when Jesus explains how we should identify our neighbour, this story is told after someone in the crowd asks Jesus to behave as a rabbi should and give a ruling about behaviour. In this case, the questioner wants Jesus to enter into that trickiest of family issues – the way an inheritance is divided out. How many of us can share painful stories about family differences – even total breakdown in relationships – that began over the question of who inherited what? In the cupboards at the manse I've got about a quarter, or perhaps less, of a lovely Victorian dinner service that was handed down through my mother's side of the family. Presumably it got divided up because nobody could agree on who should have it and as a result several people got a few plates and a number of serving dishes – not enough to serve a meal with but enough to be a frustrating reminder of the original item in all its wholeness.

In this case, Jesus doesn't get drawn into the potential family dispute but, with typical energy he redirects the question of who gets what to a new set of issues. He knows that many of the people around him in first century Palestine are living close to the bread line – people who struggle to have more than one set of clothes or anything stored away for the future if the family's main earner dies or is ill. He probably understands this insecurity at first hand – he may well have been his family's main bread winner after the death of Joseph, and before the start of his public ministry at the age of 30. Jesus' reply is not an answer based on land rights, on inheritance rules in the Judaism of his day though – his answer is based on something totally different, on the Kingdom of God.

The rich fool, the farmer in the parable is behaving in a way that is completely human but totally foolish in God's eyes. We'd all like to put away things for the future that make us feel secure and safe. We all hope to be able to hand on things to the next generation, things that show we have been important and made a mark on the world. 'Me' and 'mine' do matter to us and perhaps we think setting aside things for the future means we'll be there to see them being used. But in fact life is precarious – even though the life expectancy of our generation continues to grow – and we can't guarantee our future any more than the people of Jesus' day could. In the parable, the man behaves in a totally self centred way. He fails to remember one of the cardinal teachings of Jewish hospitality in the past, that you should not harvest to the very edge of your field and remove all of the crop. Instead you should leave some of the grain around the edges of the field so it can be gleaned by the widows, the orphans, the strangers in your midst, for whom it means the difference between life and death. Think of Ruth and her mother in law in the Old Testament, as widows and foreigners, gleaning at the edges of the fields and surviving on the grain which has been left for them and others on the edges of society. The rich fool of the parable is not about to leave anything for anyone else to glean – he's planning to gather all he can for his own purposes and if that means he needs to start building a new barn to house it all then so be it. His view of what he has is that it's there purely and simply for his own use – the fruit of his labours is not there to be shared or invested back into the community – he is simply building his kingdom. True, he may be working hard to do it, but his sense of the world ends at his own finger tips and he has no interest in those around him, in their needs, or in any questions of God's justice for those less fortunate than he is. The idea that you 'can't take it with you' hasn't occurred to this man and, says Jesus, he's going to find out that truth much sooner than he realises.

So if God doesn't want us to build the 21st century equivalent of larger barns, what does God require of us in terms of our investment in the world around us and in the future of our community? How are we to embody God's Kingdom of justice and joy, where greed is no longer present and insecurity about the future doesn't need to suck in all our energy? What does it mean to live in this new way as individuals and as a church, both here in Wilmslow and beyond? This past week Martin and I have been at a summer holiday and conference in Norwich, organised by an international organisation called the Focolare Movement, which is based on living the ideal of unity. Although the movement has its roots in Italian Roman Catholicism during World War Two, it has grown over the last 60 years to be both ecumenical, worldwide and to embrace dialogue with people of other faiths and none. Anyone who shares the ideal of building unity can be part of the Focolare Movement. It's always interesting when you attend an event year after year, seeing the familiar faces turning up again and noting the changes in people. The exciting, energising bit is seeing the youngsters growing and developing. Some of those who were babes in arms when I first attended one of these events back in 1995 are now teenagers with plenty to contribute and offer. They grow taller – of course – and some tower over their parents now. They grow in understanding, creativity and love too – it is very touching to see them putting into action the things about building unity that they've had modelled for them from their earliest years in their families and faith journey. At one of the first sessions a young man in his 20s was given the significant task of telling the story of how things began – and he did so from what he'd heard over the years, what he'd read and what he's come to discover for himself at first hand. Because he'd been invested in he was able to hand on something of real value.

At the same time I noticed this week how the parents who, 15 years ago, were struggling around with buggies and bag loads of equipment for small children are now able to return to being part of the sessions or can take a lead in the event in different ways. They no longer look as though the best thing one could offer them is the chance to go and have a lie down for a few hours, because they're so exhausted. Perhaps the more challenging thing I noticed, spiritually, but one that's just as significant was those people on whom the years are now taking their toll. Some people who, in the mid 1990s when I first became involved, were energetic, up front leaders are now looking older, greyer and more care worn. One or two folk came without their husband or wife this time, having been bereaved in the last year. A number of older folk now find the crush of people, the noise and bustle, the general busyness of the event leaves them feeling tired or useless, where once they were able to help organise and lead. That's a great challenge to living the Kingdom of God too, for in God's economy we're not valued according to what we bring but according to who we are. In God's way of doing things it isn't what we have in the bank, or how large our barns are, but the quality of being we embody that matters most. I know this is a lesson many of us need a great deal of grace to learn – that we don't matter to God simply because of what we've amassed in terms of resources and achievements, but because of the love we received and the love we've shared with others.

So if we want to invest in the future in the right way as God's people here, we don't need to worry just about stewardship of resources but about investing in people. Being able to invest in the next generation is ultimately more in tune with God's way of doing things than putting money on deposit or treasures in barns. And that investment is not so much about physical things as about offering our time, our interest, our stories and our listening. What would the world look like if we conducted our international affairs and economics on that basis, I wonder? Is there a way of relating to the growing economies like Brazil, India and China, that isn't based on the insecurity of our lost colonial past but can build community and partnership rather than defensiveness and competition? Things don't stand still and, as the rich fool in the parable discovered, we none of us know what the next day will bring. What matters ultimately is that our values are based in the God who loves us, the God of justice who cares for us and all people deeply, the God who longs to see our hearts expanded and our needless anxieties calmed. Investing in the future of our relationship with this God, and bringing others to know God's love, will bring us far more happiness than continual building of new barns in which to put things that won't last anyway. Our values, our love, our glimpses of God are things that can be handed on and will last in ways nothing can touch or change. These are the things to hold onto – the things that really matter.

Top

Sunday August 15th 2010 'Standing the Test'

Jeremiah 23: 23-29 and Hebrews 11: 32-12:21

How do you get people to feel better about the future when their confidence is low and they're facing persecution from the world at large? You remind them of the great figures who've gone before them, that's how. You tell them once more the encouraging, hope-filled tales of the greats from the past, the people who went through these same pressures years before and came out on top despite everything. You get them to see that things have been tough before – that they're not the first ones to face trials and challenges. In this way you build them up to face the present with strength as well as realism and you send them out to meet the future with renewed hope that the pressures are not going to overwhelm them. And that's exactly what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is doing in today's second reading. It's a pep talk about faith for a group of early Christians facing persecution, who are genuinely scared for their own lives. They're very far away from being able to see God at work in the world around them. The challenges they face are not bringing out the best in them but undermining what they believe and causing it to crumble in a very worrying way. So the writer – and we're not sure who he is though we assume the fact his letter is to the 'Hebrews' means his audience is made up of newly converted former Jews – goes through a long list of those greats they'll know and recognise from the past, heroes and heroines of God's people over the ages.

We hear first about a list of those who led forces into battle on behalf of God's people in the Old Testament. There's Gideon, who many centuries before the kingdom of Israel at the time of the Judges had destroyed idols and been part of an army that attacked a much larger Midianite force. There's Barak, who led the Israelites to a bold victory over the Canaanites, with a little help from two women – Deborah and Jael. Next comes the famous warrior Samson, who led the Jewish forces to defeat the Philistine army. After him Jephthah is named, who led the Israelite forces against the Ammonites. Finally we're reminded of King David, his son and successor Solomon and the prophets. What's remarkable is that all of these individuals had flaws – some more glaring than others. King David is both credited with writing some of the greatest hymns of faith in the Bible, the psalms, and is known for making disastrous mistakes both in his marriage and his relationships with his children. All these characters, on closer observation, have obvious faults. They were faithful, it's true, but they were none of them examples of perfection. All of them had their blindspots, their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The story of Samson, who would lose all his strength if his hair was cut, is just one example of a hero whose weak spot would be his downfall. But despite these failings the letter writer sees these figures from the past as potential sources of strength for today's followers of God's way.

So that gives us a first piece of advice to offer to Abby and Hannah, as they take the next step on their Christian journey today. There are role models in the past, people of faith who tried to do what they thought God wanted like the people mentioned in Hebrews 11, but they won't have been perfect any more than the rest of us are. In fact, some of them got a considerable number of things wrong alongside the things they got right, others of them spent a lot of time having doubts about what they were doing, and others again only did what they did because they had good, supportive people around them who made sure they stuck at it once they'd started. Whenever someone takes a step of personal faith within the life of the church, such as baptism or church membership, that event happens within an act of worship with the presence and support of the other members of that faith community. Abby and Hannah may find within all of us their models of faith, but they won't find us to be perfect – far from it. As they get to know us better, and as they move on in the future to meet other Christians in other places, they'll no doubt find the strengths and weaknesses in their fellow believers. For some people, that growing knowledge of their fellow Christians builds up into a collection of disappointment and letdowns that eventually stops them feeling like going to church or being part of a congregation at all. If we expect perfection of one another we're bound to get let down at some point. What allows a church community to keep growing, despite the faults and weaknesses of its individual members (and I include ministers in this), is the ability to keep focussing on the God who calls us to journey together. Coupled with that is the encouragement to start again, when we've made a mess of things, and the grace to seek forgiveness from one another and from God who makes new beginnings possible. Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, David, Solomon and the prophets didn't get everything right but they were people of faith who they took the risk of trying to follow God. When we, too, take the risk of trying to do what we think God wants of us our faith can grow – and our mistakes, which are inevitable and human can be part of our growing.

The dramatic, gory list of persecutions which Hebrews 11 outlines, conjures up for us Old Testament stories of personal bravery such as Daniel in the lions' den, of individuals who were cruelly mocked for their faith in God like the prophets very often, of people who overcame their weaknesses and made them into strengths, of those who were imprisoned for what they believed, and those who lived lives of hardship and extreme simplicity because they believed God required this of them. It's easy to say that Abby and Hannah are not going to face similar trials today, but in reality the experience of becoming a Christian in our 21st century culture is far from being an easy option. Being laughed at and misunderstood by your friends for your personal beliefs is something many young people of faith have to encounter. Having to decide what difference your faith makes to the choices you make, when there are a limited number of people around you who share your outlook on life, is a lonely place to be. Today's reading from Hebrews 11 suggests this isn't new, but something God's people have found over the ages – 'The world was not worthy of them', it says in verse 38. It's always been tough, being a follower of God, and other people are not necessarily going to give you a medal or single you out for some special award because you've chosen this path.

That's one very good reason why it's important for Abby and Hannah to be part of a Christian community where they can find support from other believers, gain energy from worship, have friendships and a place where it's safe to ask questions and discuss their faith in all its aspects. Our willingness to be honest and open about our faith – our own struggles and questions as well as those things we may find easier to accept – is a large part of what we offer to one another within the life of the church. Sometimes a person will say or do something we find brave or difficult, and we may ask them 'Didn't you find it hard?' Almost every time I've asked that of someone about a decision they've mad based on their Christian faith, I've found out that the person concerned went through a time of struggle and indecision before they decided to take this step. We should never assume everyone else has got everything all sorted out, or got incredibly strong faith – they probably have just as many wobbly moments, doubts and questions as we do, but they've decided to take a step into the future with God even so.

And this brings us to the dramatic climax of the reading from Hebrews. After a long list of brave deeds and remarkable people, the writer comes out with the jaw dropping statement that even so, none of those people received from God what his contemporaries in the 1st century Christian community had been given. God had a better plan up God's sleeve all the time, in the coming of Jesus the Messiah. The early Christians were lucky enough to be alive at a time when that plan had reached perfection, and because they knew the story of Jesus' birth, his life and ministry, his death and resurrection they were able to understand things that could never have dawned on all those brave people of faith from the past. It's knowing Jesus that makes it possible for their faith and ours to be complete in a way that those earlier believers couldn't have known about. Jesus is the one who's shown us how to live in the way God wants – who has pioneered things for us. He's also the one who can help us to perfect our faith, not in the sense of getting everything right but of completing the story told by God's people over the centuries, of making it a rounded whole.

If you take this idea seriously then it helps you to understand the Old Testament differently, as being a record of what God's people did before they had the advantage of having met Jesus. It also means the next step for Abby and Hannah is partly to do with getting to know Jesus better, which is one of the most uncomfortable and exciting experiences that life can offer. Looking back, I think that's the stage of faith which I found it hardest to grasp when I'd begun my own journey with God. For me, things came to life when I discovered ways of praying that allowed me to use my imagination and meet Jesus as a real person, in conversation with me.

Not that the results were necessarily comfortable or easy to understand – I discovered that God in Jesus seemed to both love me far more than I'd expected or thought I deserved, and at the same time to ask of me things I didn't think I could do. Going back to the gospels, though, that seems to fit with the Jesus we meet there. That's the other part of taking a further step in faith that matters for all of us too – the testing out of things we've decided against the God who emerges from our reading of the Bible. Combine this getting to know Jesus and reading the Bible with trying to pray and you'll find it hard not to discover more about God. We all have our own faith journey and we give special thanks today for one another and for those who choose to run their race alongside ours.