Aylesbury Vale Methodist Circuit

Channelling God’s love for all people

Current Sermons from Rev David Jenkins

ISLAND, ISLAND IN THE SUN

A Sermon first preached on 3 August 2008

Island, island in the sun-what a delightful thought for the month of August!

How many of you were born on a Caribbean island?

Any of you looking forward to a holiday on an island this year?

Of course, being in the British Isles, we are all living on an island.

The definition of an island is land surrounded on all sides by water.

Being near to the sea is very important for a lot of people –especially if you once lived on the coast.

We are a maritime nation and sea defence has been an important part of our history- with Sir Francis Drake, Lord Nelson and others.

It may come as a shock to learn that the vision of heaven in the book of Revelation includes the statement “There was no longer any sea”. For people who love the sight of the sea or who want to swim or paddle in it or sail on it, that’s not a picture of heaven to cherish.

To the Hebrew mind, however, if there was no longer any sea that would be a blessing. This is because the sea is the picture most associated with the concept of chaos.

The picture of creation is of God bringing order out of chaos –“In the beginning when God created the heavens and earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

In the biblical narrative there are many times when chaos seeks to reassert itself and God is seen as the one who subdues the raging of the waters.

The story of Jesus stilling the storm, bringing peace and stillness, and of his walking on the waters demonstrates the divine mastery over chaos and is a powerful image of Jesus as the one who brings peace and order to our chaotic existence.

And we have seen where the sea can bring powerful destruction.

I must have been at the ripe old age of 3 or 4 when the great floods of 1953 attacked the North Norfolk coast and became part of the shared communal memory from that time.

The effects of the tsunami, of the floods in New Orleans, of flooding in Bangladesh add to the experience of the untamed sea as a threat to humankind.

Global warming and environmental pollution are not just interesting concepts for people in the Pacific islands. They live with a dread of rising sea levels which could overwhelm and completely remove their homeland.

We may see the thought of living on an island surrounded by the sea of chaos as a vivid picture of life.

Our island home might be our individual lives or our family units. Around us is the sea of economic chaos-rising fuel and food prices, severe challenges to people around the world and washing on the shores of our own immediate world. We want economic stability.

An Englishman’s home is said to be his castle, with the drawbridge raised against all invasion and we may see ourselves being threatened by the sea of violence – of terrorism and crime and conflict. We want security.

We may see ourselves as enjoying the life of the rich, as if in a kind of tax haven in a sea of poverty. We might want to maintain the status quo.

The trouble with an island mentality, being insular, is that we can cut ourselves off from others, becoming indifferent towards them and looking only to our own interests.

Insularity leads to ignorance about the rest of the world.

I have a sister in America who tells me that most Americans aren’t interested in what happens around the globe, perhaps not even in what is happening in their nation as a whole. Each state is so large that the news relating to that state is all that many folk are bothered about.

If that’s right, it’s not only an American problem. Chinese television shows people only what the Government wants them to see. The protests when the Olympic torch was being carried around the world were not seen in China itself.

But of course we pride ourselves in Britain on having a free press and being genuinely interested in the rest of the world. But look how our news is presented to us. On BBC Television news instead of hearing at least two points of view we are frequently presented with the BBC’s own editors on politics, economics and whatever else, giving us, with the aid of graphics, soundbites of what they tell us is happening-virtually telling us what to think.

And British news can be remarkably selective in its insularity, concentrating on some domestic issues out of proportion to global concerns. Within our nation are hundreds of ethnic and cultural islands, commonly called ghettos, with little relation to other groupings. And this can affect us all in our neighbourhoods and in any group to which we belong.

It is important for us in this church not to think of ourselves as an independent island. We need, for our own health’s sake, to relate to other Circuit churches, to churches of other denominations, to people of other faiths and to other community groups.

John Donne was the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral and a leading poet in the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries. One of his imaginative and most famous pieces of writing is one in which he declares that “No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod is washed away by the sea, Europe is the less; and any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.”

These words about our essential interdependence, as opposed to our insularity, are needed as constant reminders and prods towards our involvement in mankind.

There are aspects of our particular islands –of our home, our family, our friends, our church, our country which we will rightly want to cherish, in which we find pleasure and which we want to protect through the threatening seas of chaos.

But the God who brings order out of chaos wants us to look beyond our own immediate shores and to learn to relate with humankind in a depth of committed involvement.

So may we learn to do that.

FUEL FOR THE JOURNEY

A SERMON FIRST PREACHED ON 27 July 2008

Sometimes you run out of petrol; the battery’s flat; the car won’t start.

Some days you get out of bed tired, are sluggish through the day and still tired when you go back to bed.

There are occasions when enthusiasm wanes, compassion fatigue sets in and excuses begin for why all of a sudden we can’t be bothered.

What we need is fuel for the journey.

The story of Elijah is instructive. He was at a high point. The prophets of Baal had been shown to be worshipping a useless sham. The living God had proved his presence and Elijah had shown great faith. Now, the next day, reaction sets in, and the threat of Queen Jezebel to kill him sets Elijah into a panic and he runs for his life.

After a whole day’s journey into the wilderness he is depressed and despairing, frustrated and fed up with himself. He asks that he might die. “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life for I am no better than my ancestors”. Fear and exhaustion have brought him to the brink of collapse, and he has got things hopelessly out of proportion. Where is his faith in God now?

Then he falls asleep. When he wakes he receives food and water. Then he sleeps again. Again there is food and drink for him and the words, “Get up and eat. Otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”

And then the story says, “He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb the mount of God”. That is where Elijah will encounter God in a still, small voice, restoring perspective and renewing purpose for him.

Some of our problems are like Elijah’s-when we let fear and panic take over, rule our life and cause us to lose proportion; when we push ourselves to the limit and neglect the basics of food, drink and sleep.

Also basic to the journey is God’s care, shown in practical kindness and concern; and such care that shows us that we are not alone can be glimpsed on our journeys when we have eyes to see.

We all need encouragement, fresh impetus, energy. You know how our energy levels drop when we are hungry and need an intake of food? Spiritual energy levels fall just as rapidly and are just as dependent on regular intakes of food.

What is the food, the fuel for our journey?

The obvious sources of our spiritual strength include worship. Holy Communion services are described as “a foretaste of the heavenly banquet” and the bread and wine are vivid symbols of “feeding upon Christ, the living bread”. All worship is designed to feed and sustain us.

If we neglect food, drink and sleep at our peril, neglecting worship can also be detrimental to our development.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews comments “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another”.

Studies which in recent years have traced people who once belonged to the church and do so no longer, discover that, in the main, it is not because of some deliberate decision no longer to come, but by a gradual process of drifting away.

Jesus’ parable of the sower speaks of people for whom “the cares of the world, the lure of wealth, the desire for other things, come in and choke the word and it yields nothing”.

When Jesus took Martha to task, it was because she was “distracted by so many things”, and there are far more things to distract us now than there ever were in Martha’s day.

Of course there are pressures of home and work, of many different responsibilities crowding in upon us. There may be times when we long to worship but have to attend to other claims upon us.

But it’s not always pressures or the needs of others that cause us to miss out on worship. How often do our leisure interests take priority instead?

Now, of course, leisure can also be fuel for the journey, and that needs fully recognising. But we need the focus, the perspective, the extended horizons and the mutual encouragement of worship together. This is essential fuel for the journey.

The reading “TAKE TIME” speaks of other kinds of fuel for the journey, including leisure activities:

Take time to think; it is the source of power.

Take time to read; it is the foundation of wisdom.

Take time to play; it is the secret of staying young.

Take time to be quiet: it is the opportunity to seek God.

Take time to be aware; it is the opportunity to help others.

Take time to love and be loved; it is God’s greatest gift.

Take time to laugh; it is the music of the soul.

Take time to be friendly; it is the road to happiness.

Take time to dream; it is what the future is made of.

Take time to pray; it is the greatest power on earth.

We need to take time to play, to read, to laugh, to love and to be loved, to be with friends.

Sport, games, mental and physical play, reading, holidays, days out, laughter, relationships are of inestimable value. How easily we get bogged down if these are missing from our lives! How profoundly we can be lifted when they are present!

The reading also spoke about being aware - and television, radio, films and the Internet can all contribute to such awareness and have their place. They too can be fuel for the journey.

And the reading spoke about three forms of what we might call inactivity- thinking, dreaming and praying. To pause in what we are doing, to be as well as to do, “to take time out” is to find powerful refreshment and wisdom for the journey of the human spirit.

Paul’s vivid picture of “putting on the whole armour of God”, as a way of being “strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power”, reinforces that spiritual qualities sustain us on what is a spiritual journey.

In another letter, Paul warned the early Christians, “let us not grow weary in doing what is right”.

Are we living as effectively in the present as we could?

Are we availing ourselves sufficiently of opportunities to reflect on life?

It’s easy to ignore and neglect our own needs.

It’s easy to convince ourselves that we are too busy to examine life when we may just not want the hard work and struggle of sorting out our interior muddle or facing our own inadequacies. Perhaps we feel that such introspective naval gazing is unworthy of the committed compassionate life to which we are called.

But if the most effectively busy people need such times, how come we don’t?

The more demanding the journey, the faster the pace, the more complex the route, the more we will need breaks along the way, to refuel, to receive food, drink and rest, to be refreshed and renewed.

There are numerous service stations en route - for goodness sake use them!

ON A JOURNEY

A sermon preached by Rev. David Jenkins on 13 July 2008

Do you like going on journeys? They can be very exciting, can’t they? Have you got some journeys coming up that you’re looking forward to?

Do you like those books and films where the main characters are on a journey somewhere? Perhaps it’s Indiana Jones searching for buried treasure; or Star Trek, exploring the unknown; or maybe real life adventures-the team that first climbed Everest, or discovered new continents.

Everyone who follows Jesus is on a journey. When Jesus says, “Follow me”, and we respond we’re setting out on a journey of faith.

It’s a journey where we may face known and unknown dangers, difficulties and challenges. It’s a journey in which there will be many surprises and all the time we’ll be learning new skills and ways of looking at life. We grow and mature as people when we are travelling on the journey of faith.

Many journeys are about searching for something, discovering something, exploring somewhere, and so is the journey of faith. It’s a journey where we seek for truth, where we discover inner healing and strength, where we explore love. And the more we discover the more we keep searching. One journey leads to another. We keep on moving on-not standing still.

The journey of faith takes us on at least 3 other journeys-the journey inward; the journey upward and the journey outward. Jesus himself went on each of these journeys and can help us as we travel on them.

The journey inward involves exploring our own inner being, trying to discover who or what we really are. What kind of people are we growing into? What convictions about life are becoming stronger or weaker? Where do we feel we are becoming more vulnerable and where are we becoming more confident?

Jesus’ inner journey is described at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. He was baptised and this was a tremendous affirmation of who he was –“This is my beloved son”. Then he went into the wilderness. It was a time of temptation and testing that helped to shape life’s direction for Jesus. When he left the wilderness he began his active ministry with the dynamic message, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom is near; repent and believe the good news”.

He travels with us as well as going on ahead of us on our inward journeys-when we are affirmed and valued; when we are tested and tempted; and when we live out our life’s purpose.

For Jesus’ inner journey the wilderness was an important place. He needed time and space on his own.

On our inner journey we will need solitude. That may mean, as it did for Jesus, being right away from the crowds. But could solitude even be found in the midst of a crowd or at odd moments during busy days? Maybe it could, but we will also benefit from longer times of quietness and spaciousness.

It sounds wonderful that-peace and quiet and space for ourselves –and it is wonderful.

But it can also be an uncomfortable place, a searching and challenging place, which may explain why so many people seem to avoid such a place through constant activity and noise and distraction.

Solitude is a place of brutal honesty where we face truth about ourselves. It is a place of losing and of finding- losing compulsion, anger, greed; finding the gentle, healing power that transforms our lives and gives us fresh direction.

As well as the inner journey there is the upward journey. This is the journey which brings us nearer to God; the journey in which we discover that life is not simply about living for ourselves. Are you on the upward journey? Are you encountering God more deeply as life progresses? Is your spiritual capacity being stretched or is it underused? Or are we treating God like some kind of back up resource, an insurance policy to be filed away and looked up if needed?

Jesus’ journey upwards was an ongoing through his life. There were special times of drawing near to God. He made time to pray as an essential priority. The relationship developed into one of mystical oneness and vivid awareness.

And he can help us on our upward journey. Like climbers attached to each other on ropes, we can choose to let ourselves be attached to Jesus and for him to guide and lead us into higher reaches of the spirit and towards wonderful new views of life.

There is the inner journey, the upward journey and the outward journey. This is the journey which brings us into closer relationship with other people, with those who travel alongside us, wanting to know them more intimately, grateful for their friendship and help and hoping to be a good companion to them.

Where are we on this journey? Are our lives making us more aware of other people or more self absorbed? Are we becoming more aware of how much we belong together and of how much we need each other, or are we becoming increasingly self sufficient? Is what we want out of life centred around ourselves? How prominently do other people figure in what we want out of life?

Jesus’ journey outwards led him into close association with a close circle of particular friends, male and female, as well as with a very wide circle of people with whom he came into contact. Significantly he has been described as “the man for others”, and it I through him that we learn how to relate to other people honestly and compassionately.

The journey outwards is one with which we can help us-encouraging us towards sharing insights with others, towards bearing the burdens of others and letting them bear ours. Through his companionship we can discover the journey outwards to include the precious joy of friendship and of what it means to love and be loved.

Where are you on each of these journeys?

Are you making space for yourself-for your inner journey?
Are you making space for God-for your upward journey?
Are you making space for other people-for your outward journey?

With all the different journeys you’ll be on

Make space to reflect

Recognise God’s presence with you
And share with those who travel with you.
May God bless, guide and lead us on all our journeys, Amen.

GOODNESS

A sermon preached by Rev. David Jenkins on 8 June 2008

Almost every day we hear about some fresh incidence of knife or gun crime in which a youngster is murdered by other youngsters. Possible links with heavy drinking and drug taking by some young people increases our concern for a younger generation. The prison population continues to grow to bursting point, with the frightening statistic that up to a third of young men in this country have spent time in prison.

Across the world there are people in positions of power who flagrantly abuse their own people in an attempt to maintain their own power –situations in Zimbabwe and Burma come instantly to mind. The total disregard for human life and decency that we saw with the Stalin’s and Hitler’s of this world continue to be pursued with great cynicism.

But, of course, that’s only one side of how life is. Because television news is based on bad news stories, it is often necessary to remind ourselves of the existence of sheer human goodness.

Goodness is a quality that gets overlooked. It can easily be rubbished and written off. But when we meet real goodness in a person we know that it matters supremely.

As one writer put it, “Nothing is so beautiful, nothing is so continually fresh and surprising, so full of sweet and perpetual ecstasy as the good; no desert is so dreary, monotonous and boring as evil. But often we’re given the impression that evil is fascinating and good is boring!”

Sometimes such goodness does make it into the News broadcasts. When parents of those knifed or gunned to death show understanding, forgiveness or measured wisdom in their statements, then, through their immense suffering, a very different set of qualities come into play.

How can the presence of all that is good in human life directly encounter the sub-culture of violence in which so many people in our society appear to live?

There are some deliberate attempts to engage in such a way. In Leicester the churches have trained volunteers called Street Pastors who wear a distinctive uniform and who are in the vicinities of pubs and clubs in the city centre on Friday and Saturday nights to listen, talk, help and advise the clubbers, homeless and club workers.

Schools have a particularly important role. But teachers can’t be expected to provide what may be lacking at home. And the concentration on testing, league tables and education as training for work rather than a rounded approach to living does not sufficiently impact on deep seated personal problems.

The trouble is that goodness can’t be taught. Neither can it be enforced. Attempts to frame a coherent moral education syllabus have largely been abandoned in the past because of the complexities involved in what seemed to be very simple and straightforward at the outset. It may also be because the majority of our moral decisions lie in grey areas rather than in black and white ones.

Young people need role models, but as a psychiatrist working with disturbed children in Chicago says, “A child will identify with a hero in a film, not so much with any sense of right or wrong, as with who arouses his sympathy and who his antipathy. The question for the child is not “Do I want to be good?” but “Who do I want to be like?”

In an age of anti-heroes when children already have to face a contemporary cult of toughness and brashness, role models who offer a gentler and kinder perspective are desperately needed.

The biggest teacher of all is example. It is at the crux of any attempt to make society better and safer and happier.

And there are icons of goodness as well as of evil. The impact of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, the Dali Lama and others offer a measure of hope to a world which can seem fragmented and divisive.

Goodness has a unique attractiveness. There are people who live in creative, spontaneous and loving relationships and we have been privileged to meet such people. When you meet a really good person you want to be like them.

One man had this epitaph on his tombstone-“He lit fires in cold rooms”. I would like to do that and be that kind of person-wouldn’t you?

How do we get there?

Realise from the beginning that goodness can’t be rushed. Maturity comes slowly not instantly.

Respond to the goodness you see in other people.

Work with each other. Together we can help to give a strong, positive and wholesome foundation for the shared life of our nation and to build the road to a better world.

Sometimes people will say to me, “How’s business going?” What they mean and the way I often reply has to do with numbers of people in church. But the business of the church is not simply about attracting more people to our services, as attracting more people to Christ and to becoming like him. Together we are in the business of producing more saints!

Present THE role model for human life and seek to live by that model ourselves. Millions of people around the world (of all faiths and none) are drawn to Jesus Christ. We recognise in the quality of his life something for which we are all seeking, something for which we all long. The more people who reflect the distinctive quality of the life of Christ and live out his teaching in our lives the more effectively will society be transformed.

If the secret of goodness lies in contemplating Christ, so that we become what we see, let’s not underestimate what an arduous climb and tough journey that can be. In this hard climb upwards, we’ll need more than Christ’s example. We will need to keep company with him. When you keep company with someone you don’t only share each other’s life and concerns, you actually, over a period of time and quite unconsciously, become like the one with whom you’re keeping company. The more Christ-centred we are, the more Christ like we become. And the more we have to offer for the transforming of individual lives and of our society. Our greatest need, as ever, is that of a developing relationship with Jesus Christ.

WHAT ANNOYS ME ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT

A sermon first preached Pentecost Sunday, 11 May 2008

Some people can get annoyed about the least little thing- something is put away not exactly in the right place; somebody says something in not quite the right way; somebody isn’t wearing their clothes in a co-ordinated fashion.

What sort of things annoy you?

I guess we all get annoyed with things that waste our time and spoil our plans- when a machine like a car or washing machine or computer is not working reliably; when people say they are calling to deliver something between 8am and 1pm and they don’t turn up; when you’re phoning about something important and you’re told to press this number and then that, you learn you are about 96^th in a queue, but do hang on because your call is important to us and things of that kind-do they annoy you?

I’m not usually a person who gets annoyed. I have a gentle, unshockable and genial temperament-wouldn’t you agree?

Let me tell you some of the things that annoy me about the Holy Spirit-or at least of how some people talk about the Holy Spirit:-

The number of Christians, including theologians, who speak about the Holy Spirit as It. These same Christians will say they believe in the Trinity. Well if that’s so, no part of the Trinity can possibly be an It! The Holy Spirit is not simply some kind of force or energy, but the God who indwells our life is personal. It wouldn’t annoy me if the Holy Spirit is referred to as a She or a He. In some ways, because God is beyond gender and because humankind, male and female are made in God’s image, there’s a lot to be said for calling the Spirit She. After all the Father and Jesus are obviously male; and if our belief about the Trinity is of a deep inner communion and relating within the nature of God, then male and female descriptions seem to make sense. Perhaps it is to avoid calling the Spirit He or She that some theologians have ended up calling the Spirit It. Well, it won’t do!

It annoys me when people isolate the Spirit from the being of God so that he/She/It is seen as being somehow independent of God, like an agent of God rather than actually God. God is not divided up and parcelled up but is one being. When the Holy Spirit acts, God acts. Our belief is in one God, not God in bits!

It annoys me when people say things like “The Holy Spirit is sadly lacking in our churches”. If the Spirit is lacking, then surely God the Father and Jesus the Son are lacking as well? And if God is sadly lacking in our churches, then heaven help them because a godless church is a contradiction in terms! I guess what people are inferring when they say things like this is that certain kinds of experiences chronicled in the New Testament which were especially associated with the activity of the Holy Spirit may seem to be lacking in some branches of the church. Experiences like speaking in tongues, miraculous healings and spontaneous prophecy are not the normal diet of this church’s worship. We need to recognise the truth of what is being said, that certain manifestations of the presence of God may not often emerge in our worship; but does that mean that the Holy Spirit is lacking? That God is absent from our worship? That the Spirit only works in such ways?

Jesus warned people not to confine the activity of the Spirit too closely. The Spirit is like the wind which blows where it wills. The Spirit’s activity is manifested in a bewildering variety of ways. This was so in the New Testament as well as in our own times. For example one of the gifts of the Spirit according to Paul is administration. This gift, which is so often despised in both the spiritual and the secular world, seems very different from speaking in tongues and prophesying, but it, too, is a gift of the Spirit.

Confronted by the Corinthian church, which was full of enthusiasm and gifts, but which also had people who looked down on those who appeared not to have the gifts they had, Paul needed to spell some things out. People who spoke in tongues looked down on those who didn’t (and that can still happen in the church today, so that you may be given the perception that some are first class and some are second class Christians). Paul made the point that he spoke in tongues more than all of them, but there were gifts to be prized much more than this gift. Some gifts are not for everyone. The gifts each of us has is inspired by the Spirit and has its place. So Paul asks, “Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” When he asks these questions, he clearly expects the answer No. Not everyone has these gifts. There has never been a time when everyone has had all the gifts God brings to human beings. Paul says “There are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit. So the Spirit’s activity is known in ALL we do. The Spirit is not lacking. God is not absent from our life. In our churches there is a rich variety of different gifts. They all come from the same one Spirit of God. Paul says, “All these are activated by one and the same Spirit who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.”

Paul needed to show the Corinthians that they were in danger of missing the best gift of all. He says, “I will show you a more excellent way” and then writes that wonderful chapter 1 Corinthians 13 on love as the greatest and most indispensable of all gifts of the Spirit. There he makes it plain that if we speak in tongues, have prophetic powers, have tremendous faith, give away all our possessions, even sacrifice ourselves none of this would mean a thing without love. If you haven’t got love, it doesn’t matter what spiritual gifts you have. Love is the supreme gift of the Spirit. If a church is full of deeply loving people, how can it possibly be said that the Holy Spirit is sadly lacking? Love manifests itself in a variety of ways, but wherever love is manifested, there is God. As John put it in his first letter, “God is love and those who live in love live in God and God in them.” Where will we find the Spirit most fully, most clearly, most powerfully? Not in the spectacular manifestations of speaking in tongues or prophesying, but in the love shared between people. This does not mean that spectacular spiritual gifts do not have their place among us; they have their place, alongside other gifts. But they are not the exclusive manifestations of the Spirit. They are not even the main manifestations of the Spirit. The essential priority of any branch of the Church is that we seek to grow in love.

This is how John Wesley expressed it:-“The heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else; if you look for any thing but more love, you are looking wide of the mark. And when you are asking, have you received this or that blessing? If you mean anything but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way and putting them on a false scent. Settle it then in your heart; that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing more, but more of that love described in 1 Corinthians 13.”

So I get annoyed if any one grouping, any one understanding among Christian people tries to high jack the Spirit of God and claim some kind of exclusive right to the Spirit. “We have the Spirit; you don’t. We’re in the Spirit; you’re not”. What absolute nonsense! We do not come to faith; we do not have relationship with God other than through the Spirit. We all have the Spirit. We are all in the Spirit.

The things that annoy me are things that people say about the Holy Spirit.

But perhaps I am also annoyed by the Spirit Him or Herself? One of the most annoying features of the Spirit’s activities is not letting us be. Instead of letting us settle down into our own chosen complacent way of life, the Spirit, like a overactive puppy that will not be ignored, keeps prodding us, nudging us, insisting that we do not settle but get up and take a walk-a walk away from what we had determined –a walk away from our own selfish habits and petty compensations – a walk towards seeing and meeting the needs of other people. The annoying thing about the Spirit of God is that, because we are so deeply loved by God, God will not leave us alone, but is constantly working to change us, to transform us into the people God intends us to become. This is one piece of annoyance we should welcome! Because by it we become more what we have it in us to be; we move on in life. The activity of the Spirit is life changing.

May we seek to develop every gift we have been given. May we be open to receiving whatever gift God may give us. Above all, may we set our sights on growing in love of God and of one another. And we may allow the annoyance of being so thoroughly loved that we are constantly challenged to change; to be transformed more fully into God’s image in human beings.

HOPES AND FEARS

A sermon first preached 16 December 2007

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”.

What might be among the hopes and fears of the people of the town of Bethlehem tonight?

What hopes and fears do you have for the future?

Our fears for ourselves might include
·         unforeseen disasters affecting those we love
·         a significant deterioration in our own health or in that of those who are close to us
·         not having the energy or time to do what we intended to do.

Our fears for our nation might involve
·         more terrorist attacks
·         a more polarized and less tolerant society
·         people in power providing short-term solutions to long-term problems

Our fears for our world might be around
·         irreversible environmental damage
·         severe water shortages
·         mass famine
·         infectious pandemics
·         nuclear warfare

If these are among the fears which sometimes surface from our subconscious or which are thrust at us by what we see and read and hear, where do our hopes lie?

Are our hopes often the opposite of our fears? So might our hopes for ourselves include
·         being in committed relationships in which we find ourselves being emotionally sustained?
·         developing our skills and creatively meeting each challenge we encounter?
·         living useful, productive lives which make a positive difference to other people?

And what might our hopes be for our nation and our world:-
·         the healing of the earth
·         the elimination of poverty
·         expanding human potential and advancing civilization

The fulfillment of our personal hopes will depend, to a great extent, on our determination and focus in pursuing them, through, or despite, our circumstances.

For the hopes for our nation and world to be realized all kinds of factors will need to come into play-improved global education, continued technological advances, good governance. We need to see peace, justice and prosperity for all being at the top of the political agenda and being rigorously pursued with clear vision and concerted effort.

But our hopes cannot simply rely on our fellow human beings, when we know that even the best are fallible and inconsistent. Our hopes need a deeper focus still.

“Our hopes and fears are met in thee tonight”. One of the many reasons why we celebrate Jesus’ birth with a sense of gladness and of awe is because the birth of this child is in itself connected with our ultimate hope.

In what ways does the being of Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem help us in rising above our fears and actualizing our hopes?

Jesus’ birth tells us that this world is not abandoned but profoundly loved-“God loved the world so much that he gave his only son”.

Jesus’ birth underlines our Creator’s commitment to human beings, God’s willingness to work with us and through us. So Mary, Joseph and other people are significant in the contribution they make. And so can we be. Our hope is not based solely on human beings, but it doesn’t completely bypass human lives either. Hope is centered in people working in co-operation with God.

Hope finds its rationale in one who comes
·         to lift our lives as Saviour,
·         to act as our inspiration as teacher,
·         to stand alongside us as brother and friend
·         and to lead us towards the future as Lord.

“Our hopes and fears are met in thee tonight”. May we place Jesus more at the centre of our own lives and seek, in his strength, to live out his way more completely in each day of life we are given; and so may the whole world discover its true hope.

A SHARED JOURNEY

A sermon first preached on 26 August 2007 at Cheddington after a LABYRINTH experience set out on the Green in front of the church. This resembled a maze but was in one direction. Along the route were aids to encourage reflection on life in general and the challenges which face our Circuit of churches in particular.

1. Each of us is on our own individual journey. We walked the labyrinth on our own and made our own private reflections.

2. But we are also on a shared journey. We have come together in worship this evening because we recognize our need of each other in walking the life of faith. Our individual journeys intersect with each other. There is meeting. There is recognition –“Here is someone else on the same journey that I am on.”

3. Each church represented here is on a journey; and together as a Circuit we are travelling towards the future.

4. One thing which the Labyrinth made clear is that we don’t travel in a straight line! The life of faith is not a neatly ordered predictable progression. It involves many twists and turns. It may take us in directions we had not anticipated when we started out. As we turn each corner we make fresh discoveries.

5. Any journey, however meticulously we have planned it, involves some element of uncertainty. Who knows what traffic we will meet on the road? Who knows what turbulence there will be in the air, or what storms there may be on the voyage? Although the life of faith does involve some measure of certainty, it is a certainty in God rather than in the direction we must follow.

6. Faith needs to accommodate uncertainty, the unknown, the unpredictable, the way that is less sure, when we walk through marshland in a thick fog or traverse a mountain pass when the cloud descends.

7. Something that the Labyrinth made very clear is that there are stopping places on our journeys. We are not continually on the go; we are invited to rest. The stopping places on the Labyrinth are ones in which we have been encouraged to reflect on some aspect of our travelling. How much do we use the moments of resting to reflect? It is so easy just to travel without thinking of the purpose of doing so or of our destination. We need the stopping places and we need to take the opportunity for thinking and being.

8. The most important discovery we make on our journey is that we are not alone. Not only are we on a group-supported road in solidarity with other pilgrims of faith; but this is a road travelled by the Son of God himself. Has anyone here ever been to Israel? You know how thrilling it can be to walk in a place where you know for certain Jesus would have walked –into the synagogue at Capernaum, along these steps in Jerusalem, along the Via Dolorosa. Perhaps it is even more thrilling to realize that where you are walking, he has walked too. The joy, the sorrow, the anticipation, the fear, the reassurance-he has known from the inside what we are experiencing today. You are not alone on your journey. Jesus, as he promised, is with us always

9. On our individual journeys and our shared journeys; where those journeys intersect with each other; through all the twists and turns of uncertainty, make space for stopping points and reflection times in order to discover and rediscover that we do not travel on our own. John Wesley’s last words remain true for today’s Methodist people –“The best of all is God is with us”. A surer guide than any map or satellite navigation system is the Spirit of Jesus within us and among us guiding us forwards. So “be strong and of good courage, because, wherever you go, the Lord your God goes with you.”

DEATH

A Sermon first preached on 13 May 2007

I thought I’d cheer you up today by speaking about death!

To start with some graffiti- A sign in a maternity unit said, “The first 3 minutes of life can mean all the difference between dying and living”. Underneath someone had scrawled, “The last 3 minutes are pretty dodgy too.”

More graffiti-“Death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down!”

And from a letter to the Daily Mail-“The most dangerous thing in the world is living. There’s 100% mortality rate”.

Of people’s last words, one of my favourites is Lord Palmerston’s, “Die, my dear Doctor? That’s the last thing I’ll ever do”.

A young girl grasped the hand of her Doctor. She knew that she was dying and she said, “Doctor, I’m afraid. You see, I’ve never done this before”.

That’s the trouble about dying-we haven’t done it before; we don’t know what it’s like; we don’t know where it leads.

There are people who have been through what are called near –death experiences, who say that what happened at the moment when the heart had stopped beating was highly pleasurable and positive, and such experiences create a hope that dying may possibly not be as fearful as we have often anticipated.

It may be comforting to consider what one of my Professors at Birmingham University, John Hick called “eschatological verification”-It can work only one way and that is positive. Either the hope of life beyond death will turn out to be true or we shall not be there to find it proved false!

At one stage in this country when death was much more prevalent-when there were many more deaths in infancy and when life expectancy was decades below what it is now, the fear of death may have been a much sharper focus for most people than it is now.

Today it may not be the fear of death that strikes us so much as the intense surprise of its immediacy when we had thought it was remote. It is the absurd but astonishing feeling that this can’t be true, because, we may imagine, although death is something that will happen to me one day, it’s only to other people that it comes here and now.

We may even have the ridiculous notion that because my diary is full of important things I’m going for weeks and months ahead, I can’t possibly die now.

Mind you, there are people like the 95 year old who has pioneered cures for TB who is still active in working for further cures to different strains of the disease, or the theologian, who in his late 90’s, seems to have been so fully occupied that he didn’t have time to get round to dying! And maybe the best possible way of preparing for death, as well as making sure our things are in order and our will is made, is the make the very most of the gift of life while we have it.

At one time people would talk about “the art of dying”, but our modern society may have not developed much background for that.

People may tend to live for themselves alone and to die to themselves alone, and for many the loss of a meaning to life involves the loss of meaning to death. There is a clear connection between the meaning of death and the meaning of life. A Christian Bolivian prisoner, imprisoned because of living out the implications of his faith, wrote from his prison cell, “No one’s death is meaningless if his life has been charged with significance.”

That has a lot to say about why the death of Jesus has come to have such importance for the world-because of the connection between his death and his life as well as the resurrection which followed his dying. It is also that here is not one man dying alone, but one man dying in a solidarity, on behalf of others, which somehow turns his living, dying and resurrection into having a unique meaning for us. Attitudes towards death and dying have been transformed out of all recognition for millions of people because of Jesus’ resurrection.

The New Testament is full of imagery about dying with Christ and rising with Christ, about us not living to ourselves or dying to ourselves, but “if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord, so, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”.

This is the thinking of Paul, who also spoke about “dying daily” and “dying to self”. To die to self is to die to all that is worst in us, to die to all the selfishness and pride which alienate us from God and from other people. In this sense dying to self could well be one of life’s greatest goals. It is presumably what Jesus meant in saying “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. The way to life at its deepest and truest is through the small daily deaths to our self centered ambitions.

Coping with loss of one kind or another affects our lives at many levels and throughout life. At birth we are separated from our mother-we emerge from her womb, the umbilical cord is cut and we pursue a separate existence.

When we first go to nursery, both mother and child may feel an acute sense of loss, and this living with loss continues throughout life for all of us.

But there’s another way of understanding it:-we are growing towards maturity. Frequently experiences of loss and moving on occur together. As we move from one area of the country to another, we experience the loss of all that was familiar, and, at the same time, move on to what is new. Loss and moving on are connected. Not every loss can be compensated for by a corresponding experience of moving on, though. Some losses are devastating to the degree that, although we may eventually adjust to them, we will always be strongly be affected by them. Each loss could be called a “mini-death”. Perhaps it might also be a sign of where life is moving on even beyond this sphere of existence?

Professor Geoffrey Lampe, a theologian, wrote these words shortly before he died-“It really isn’t good enough for us happier people to be simply satisfied with life as we’ve lived it. Is there no room for regret and can there be no scope for improvement? What about that curious sense, which I think grows much clearer with the years, that in so many of the important things in life, especially in one’s relations with other people, one is always just beginning, just now unlearning mistakes, just being led to see things differently, making a fresh start? Isn’t it the case that in spite of all the continuities that we can trace right through from childhood and in spite of all the obvious ruts we get into, we are continually becoming aware that we are different people now from the people we used to be, and we can confidently hope to be different people in the future from what we are now, different and hopefully better people! There is a constant incompleteness about our response to God and our capacity to love other people. This is what Paul describes as our inner selves being renewed each day.

The transformation of ourselves into the image of God cannot be completed in these few years of life”.

Because we haven’t been through it before, we mustn’t suppress our emotions or deny our feelings. That wasn’t how Jesus faced death, as his struggle in Gethsemane makes very clear.

We needn’t deny our own fear and trembling, but in the midst of it we can know ourselves encompassed by the God who is love and from whose love we can never be separated.

To prepare against the fear of death we need to make the most of life: to enjoy life and thank God for it; to do our best to make it possible for other people to enjoy it more; to move through the enjoyment of life into the enjoyment of God and to begin to experience that renewal of ourselves through God’s love which gives us the promise of fuller life to come.

We can live, even with an anticipation which includes excitement.

The Russian novelist Dostoyevsky said, “my life is drawing to a close. I know that, I feel it. But I also feel every day that is left to me how my earthly life is already in touch with a new, infinite and fast approaching future life, the anticipation of which sets my soul trembling with rapture and my mind glowing, and my heart weeping with joy”.

One of my favourite last words is from a priest, who when asked on his deathbed how he was feeling, said, “Excited”!

LIFE

A sermon first preached on 27 April 2007

In a new sermon series on life and death issues, we start today with life.

So what is life? It is the gift of the Living God, source and creator of all life. A picture painted early in the book of Genesis is of God breathing into the nostrils of the first man, who became “a living being”. God is the life-giver.

Jesus is depicted in John’s Gospel as the one who is life-giving. “In him was life and the life was the light of men”. “I am the bread of life”. “I am the resurrection and the life”. “I have come that you might have life and have it in all its fullness-superabundant and overflowing.”

The activity of God’s Spirit is also described as being life-giving. Through every aspect of God’s being there is the creation of life- of energy, vitality and fullness of being. The best way to “get a life” is in relationship with the giver of life. So do you have a life? Is your life connected in a vital way to the ultimate life-giver?

A woman describes an experience she witnessed in a geriatric hospital- “They were all sitting half dead in their wheelchairs, mostly paralysed and just existing. They watched some television, but if you had asked them what they had watched they probably not have been able to tell you. We brought in a young woman who was a dancer and she put on records of Tchaikovsky’s music and started to dance among these people, all in their wheel chairs, which had been set in a circle. In no time the old people started to move. A lady of 104 said, “This reminds me of when I danced for the Tsar of Russia”. An elderly man stared at his hand and said, “Until now I haven’t moved this hand in 10 years”. Even in a lifeless, half-dead situation, new life can begin to awaken.

Whenever we encounter the dead hand of inertia, may we be catalysts who cause movement, the beginning of the blossoming of life. We cannot control the gift of life. We can take hold of it and be led by it to free others from the slavery of non-life, the deadness of mere existence.

Christian Aid’s slogan is “We believe in life before death”. Of course as Christians we believe in life after death, and that will be a theme to which we will be returning in May; but life before death for the millions caught up in refugee camps in Darfor and Chad, in continual violence in Baghdad, in the worst ravages of hunger and poverty, has to be our overriding concern.

While we have life we must share with those who are scarcely living now, to bring them the quality of life which they desperately need. One of the major principles by which Albert Schweitzer lived was what he called “reverence for life”. Such reverence compels us to work to secure the best for all living beings, to combat all the forces which militate against life and justice.

According to the dictionary definition I looked up life is “the condition which distinguishes active animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity and continual change.” According to that definition, life does not stand still. Cardinal Newman once said, “To live is to change”. Life involves the process of continual change. A living person is one who is growing; a living church is not one which is static, but one that is evolving.

In what ways are you developing as a person? In what ways are we evolving as a church? What can we offer here? The encouragement and stimulus that enable people to move on towards true spiritual maturity? The reaffirmation of the value each person has as someone created in the image of God, someone who is eternally loved, someone for whom Christ died? The repeated conviction that we all matter to God and so we must do to one another?

If God’s purpose is to bring life to the world-life with a capital L, life with an eternal dimension, then our role, as the followers of Jesus, the supremely responsive and aware, is to be ourselves so responsive and aware that we, too, are involved in bringing newness of life to others. Our role is to bring to others breathtaking freedom and vivid aliveness; to bring the power of restoration, of healing, of rejuvenation.

What we each need to decide is “Where does this translate into my situation? What can I do to receive the gift of life, and to share that gift? Where can I be a catalyst for change? Where can I be involved as a life saver and a life giver?”

Let us think around these questions and opportunities now in the conscious presence of the energizing, life-giving God, who created all things, who raised Jesus from death and who offers to us all the gift of life everlasting.

PRAISE

A Sermon first preached on Easter Sunday 8 April 2007

If ever there is a day for praising God it is this day.
We celebrate the God who gives life, who brings new life now and beyond death. We adore the God of unlimited love. We praise the God whose purposes are not ultimately defeated, frustrated and thwarted; but have come to fulfilment in ways that we find utterly staggering.
We express our praise of God-through the anticipation and the exuberant joy of our togetherness; through the beauty of flowers, which are symbols of the irrepressible life which bursts through the coldness of the earth; through the gladness of our hymns and the confident affirmations of our worship. Of all days on which to worship God this one is uniquely special.
But there are other ways in which our praise can be expressed, and these ways are not limited to this one day.
We can express praise by the way we see life and by how we live it.
One of the hopes of this day is that our way of seeing life may be transformed into Easter ways.
It may surprise us how much negativity there can be in us. We may be basically positive and cheerful people, but we can still live as if we always expected the worst. This is not to say that we should naively turn our faces away from the horror of the world’s suffering and the possibility of its hurts touching our own lives: it is important that we live with realism.
But if Easter means anything at all deep down, surely we cannot allow ourselves to wallow in the slough of despond. If the purposes of God cannot be defeated, if love is the last word on life, if there is a greater life to follow this sphere of existence, how can we go around with faces that reflect the doom and gloom of negativity, defeat and despair?
But does that mean there’s no room for doubt? After all the first disciples of Jesus, even at the moment of seeing the risen Lord, were not beyond doubting what was happening-and they actually had the evidence in front of their eyes that we don’t have!
If doubt is natural, even on Easter Sunday, is it right that we should be ecstatically exuberant and cheerfully confident?
If suffering and uncertainty are features of our own lives and the lives of those we love, and if we live in a world of profound problems and blatant injustice, how can we be blissfully blinkered and ignorantly indifferent towards the real agony and the considerable fears of our fellow men and women?
Wouldn’t there be something shallow, hollow and uncaring about our happy celebrations when so many of our brothers and sisters are threatened by war, oppression and hunger?
But then, isn’t that precisely the message of resurrection? This is the kind of world Jesus came into- a world of corruption, intrigue and cruelty. What Jesus went through in the last week of his life was the result of a combination of vested interest and greed and moral failure and cowardice. He drained the dregs of the cup of anguish and agony, identifying to the full the worst of what people may go through.
And within days there is a total transformation of fortunes when the crucified one is alive again.
This is not some fairy tale with a pretty happy ending. This is the reality of the experience of the first followers of Jesus which gave them the impetus and the dynamic to bring this same message of transformed life to the needy world in which they lived.
And isn’t that what we can offer too? Isn’t it by our outlook and way of life that we can offer to a world in terrible need what we all need more than anything- a real reason for hoping even in circumstances which appear to be outwardly hopeless?
Our needy world desperately cries out for what we can give- the living message that light is stronger than darkness and love is stronger than hatred.
The mission of the people of Jesus is that we allow ourselves to be transformed by what happened this day and to carry that transformation into the world, expressing our praise by the way we see life and the way we live it, striving for justice, seeking to improve life for one another and holding firm to the greatest news the world has ever heard.
No wonder we praise God today! But may we continue praising tomorrow and the days after that by how we see and think and act-as the people of resurrection.

POTENTIAL

A sermon first preached on 1 April 2007

Whenever someone dies young, there can often be a sense of tragic waste. This seems particularly poignant when a child or teenager dies. What potential they had-what they might have done in their lives. And even if a person’s gifts have begun to be shown and they achieve a great deal in their short lifetime, there is always the question of how much more they might have achieved. What music might Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn have gone on to write if they had not died in their 30’s?
Someone else who died in his 30’s was Jesus of Nazareth. Do we feel about Jesus-how much more he might have achieved, or do we somehow see his dying as the fulfilling of his potential?
Jesus began to show his potential at the age of 12, in his meeting with teachers in the temple, when he listened to them and asked them questions. Even at that age, people were “amazed at his understanding and at his answers”. 21 years later, in the same temple, during the last few days of his life, people continued to be amazed at his understanding and answers. During Jesus’ brief but hugely significant ministry people were aware of a man who taught with a unique personal authority and an extraordinarily perceptive insight into human nature. Jesus’ teaching with its highly memorable word pictures, stories and telling, searching phrases penetrated deeply into people’s minds and spirits and emotions –and they still do. The listener who became the communicator, the student who became the teacher had fulfilled his potential.
He fulfilled his potential in other ways too. From childhood onwards he would observe the skills and learn the techniques of carpentry by watching Joseph. After Joseph died, it was Jesus who became the carpenter and master builder of Nazareth, using and developing the skills of his hands. And the one, “whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe”, was to bring healing to many people’s lives-as those same hands reached out to others in such dynamic and sensitive compassion that people experienced profound restoration. To the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the paralysed, the mentally ill, the diseased, the inwardly tortured, the potential of one who was “good with his hands” had been fulfilled.
Jesus gathered people around him and acted as the inspiration of their lives. From all they learnt by being in his company they were to go out and change the nature of each society they came to. Jesus had done enough to launch the movement which would eventually spread throughout the world and, at its best, raise the whole standard of human relating and possibility. The churches, schools, hospitals that would come into being would play their part in giving to whole generations of people direction, hope and purpose. In the calling and nurturing of his disciples Jesus’ potential was fulfilled.
A premature death? Jesus’ words from the cross included the shout of triumph, “It is finished”. What was finished? His life was over certainly, but had all that he had set out to do been completed? Could he not have given so much more teaching and words of wisdom to guide us? Could he have not brought healing to many mity in trade perpetuates terrible poverty. The world we see is a world in which a dogmatic, uncritical superpower pursues its own agenda, making an increasing number of enemies around the globe; a world in which the seeds of terrorism are being watered and nurtured each day. Instead of celebrating One World, it makes you wonder if there’s any hope for the world.

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One of the most constructive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that m20in which we can use speech is ess itself in many ways. “Actions speak louder than words”. But what if our actions give an ambiguous message? What if our lives do not rise to the heights of integrity? There is still a unique value in what we can say.

A report which came to the Methodist Conference was called “Time to talk of God”. It encourages us to explore the neglected art of Christian conversilding blocks for good.
<0one another more meaningfully about the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feeal reality; to constantly raise ouey hear unless someone proclaims that good news to them?

One of the most constructive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that m20in which we can use speech is ess itself in many ways. “Actions speak louder than words”. But what if our actions give an ambiguous message? What if our lives do not rise to the heights of integrity? There is still a unique value in what we can say.

A report which came to the Methodist Conference was called “Time to talk of God”. It encourages us to explore the neglected art of Christian conversilding blocks for good.
<0one another more meaningfully about the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feeal reality; to constantly raise ouey hear unless someone proclaims that good news to them?

One of the most constructive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that m20in which we can use speech is ess itself in many ways. “Actions speak louder than words”. But what if our actions give an ambiguous message? What if our lives do not rise to the heights of integrity? There is still a unique value in what we can say.

A report which came to the Methodist Conference was called “Time to talk of God”. It encourages us to explore the neglected art of Christian conversilding blocks for good.
<0one another more meaningfully about the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feeal reality; to constantly raise ouey hear unless someone proclaims that good news to them?

One of the most constructive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that m who bring healing to the world..ss itself in many ways. “Actions speak louder than words”. But what if our actions give an ambiguous message? What if our lives do not rise to the heights of integrity? There is still a unique value in what we can say.

A report which came to the Methodist Conference was called “Time to talk of God”. It encourages us to explore the neglected art of Christian conversilding blocks for good.
<0one another more meaningfully about the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feeal reality; to constantly raise ouey hear unless someone proclaims that good news to them?

One of the most constructive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that mare the deep things that matter mo be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of spert of Christian conversation; of hbsp;

.ns to condemn; if he lives with ridicule he learns to be shy; if he lives with encouragement he learns self confidence; if he lives with praise he learns to appreciate”. Words have tremendous powers of communication.

There is a persuasive power in words that should not be underestimated. Some of the great speeches of history hav20because we put the tongue into gnsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speak.

If 20us. Christian witness can express be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of spert of Christian conversation; of hbsp;

.ns to condemn; if he lives with ridicule he learns to be shy; if he lives with encouragement he learns self confidence; if he lives with praise he learns to appreciate”. Words have tremendous powers of communication.

There is a persuasive power in words that should not be underestimated. Some of the great speeches of history hav20because we put the tongue into gnsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speak.

If to us. Christian witness can express itself in many ways. “Actions speak louder than words”. But what if our actions give an ambiguous message? What if our lives do not rise to the heights of integrity? There is still a unique value in what we can say.

A report which came to the Methodist Conference was called “Time to talk of God”. It encourages us to explore the neglected art of Christian conversilding blocks for good.
<0one another more meaningfully about the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feeal reality; to constantly raise ouey hear unless someone proclaims that good news to them?

One of the most constructive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that matter most to us. Christian witness be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speat the deepest level. &nbsbsp;

.ns to condemn; if he lives with ridicule he learns to be shy; if he lives with encouragement he learns self confidence; if he lives with praise he learns to appreciate”. Words have tremendous powers of communication.

There is a persuasive power in words that should not be underestimated. Some of the great speeches of history hav20because we put the tongue into gnsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speak.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through Gse damage, words can also be par20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through Gse damage, words can also be par20damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we spese damage, words can also be par20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through G matter most to us. Christian witn20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through G0which we can use speech is to s20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through Ge damage, words can also be part20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through Ge damage, words can also be part20damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we spe20that such a huge transformation is20damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we spewords cause damage, words can also20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through Gwords cause damage, words can also20also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through Gwords cause damage, words can also20damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speEIf words cause damage, words can damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speEIf words cause damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through GEIf words cause damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest 0of us, we find the impetus and motivation to move beyond self preoccupation towards a commitment to be agents of reconciliation, channels of peace. We cannot be agents of reconciliation if we are not reconciled. We cannot be channels of peace if we are not at peace.

We need to accept God’s wonderful forgiveness of us, so fully shown in the dyingFor the children baptized this morni0need to forgive ourselves for the past. We need to move away from being people who make a mess of life towards people who bring healing to the world. It is through God’s grace that such a huge t20damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speod’s grace that such a huge t20damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Ö0the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we spetive ways in which we can use speech is to share the deep things that matter most to us. Christian witness can express itself in many ways. “Actions speak louder than words”. But what if our actions give an ambiguous message? What if our lives do not rise to the heights of integrity? There is still a unique value in what we can say.

A report which came to the Methodist Conference was called “Time to talk of God”. It encourages us to explore the neglected art of Christian conversation; of how we can talk with one another more meaningfully about the God in whom we believe; how such sharing can become a more natural part of our everyday talk. Do we tend to talk about everything else but God? Even among ourselves? Can we overcome our embarrassment and discover the excitement of such conversation?

Speech is a great gift. It is an enormous privilege to express what we feel, but we need to use it responsibly. We need to recognize its potential for destruction and to think more carefully before we speak.

If words cause damage, words can also be part of the healing of that damage. As children we learned to say “Sorry”, “Thank you” and “I love you”. Why do we sometimes find it so hard to say these words when we are older? They have considerable power to move relationships forward.

Just as we develop our range of skills, our physical prowess and our mental capacity, so we also need to learn to develop the power of speech to communicate at the deepest level.

Office Address:

Buckingham Street

Aylesbury, Bucks.

HP20 2NQ

pc@aylesburymethodists.org.uk

01296 426526