|
Littleborough Methodist Circuit
|
|
From the Minister’s Study Advent¾living
on tiptoe expectation Semanticists spend time in the study of the meaning of words, and
rightly so, because one word may mean different things in different settings
to different people. One such word is Advent. To recapture its meaning we
have to imagine living in a mood of high expectancy as if standing on tiptoe,
convinced that something big could break through at any time. The Advent
season celebrates that “qui vive” of expectancy of the coming of the Lord,
the breaking in of the divine into human history, of the supernatural into
the natural. It is that sense of something great impending from the side of
heaven. Looking at Advent is like gazing at a coin with two sides. The
historical side is what happened in Jerusalem two millennia ago, which Anna
celebrated in these words: ‘She … gave thanks to God and spoke about the
child to all who were living in expectation of the liberation of Jerusalem …’
(Luke 2:38). This is a backward gaze filling our hearts with joy and
confidence in God breaking into our world to bring Salvation. The second side
of the same coin gazes at Christ’s second coming in Judgment: this is the
austere side of Advent. The most poignant question for our reflection during
Advent is this: Are we ready to meet Christ in Judgment? A
question none of us can evade, because the Bible makes it clear that ‘… everyone
must die once, and after that be judged by God …’ (Heb 9:27; Rom 2:16; Rom.14:
10; 2Cor 5:10.). God has committed this Judgment to His Son Jesus Christ
(John 5:22). This is a question most of us try to evade in religious façade
by majoring on the manger. At the manger, Christ brought Salvation, which we
announce through the preaching of the Gospel, but we need equally to reflect
on His Second Coming to receive our account of what we have done with the
Gospel. Justice requires judgment; otherwise evil would triumph over good.
The idea of judgment is not the invention of misanthropic minds and
sour-faced Puritans. As one writer put it ‘it is love, infinite love,
incarnate in Jesus which speaks of the judgment … it is not to inspire
terror, save in those who wilfully oppose everything Christ stands for; it is
to arouse gratitude”. Advent is a constant reminder that we must live in
expectation of the judgment and bids us so to live that when the secrets of
all hearts are revealed, we may find ourselves in the mercy and forgiveness
of God. The
Thunder of the Advent symphony tells us to live expecting Christ’s second
coming in Judgment, lest we should be found with lamps unlit, when at
midnight comes the cry (Matt. 25). But the real music of Advent is this: the
advent of the Child Jesus meant the coming of the glory of God, the Deliverer,
the Saviour which manifests itself in the judgment of love. In order to grasp
the true meaning of Advent we need to juxtapose the past and the future and
keep flicking between the two sides of the coin, holding in tension Christ’s
First Coming in humility and Second Coming in glory and in judgment, with the
consolation that, even if He comes in judgment, He knows us, He has walked
the human road, He died because He loves us. The greatest comfort is that
even if we appear before Him in Judgment, He is our advocate! (1 John 2:1).
When we reflect on his coming in judgment we need to balance it with His
Compassion, sympathy, empathy and forgiveness. Advent reminds us of God with
us, God going through darkness with us, God saying, “the hardest part shall be
my part”, God making pain a sacrament, God making conflict a crusade, and
broken dreams a ladder up to heaven. In
conclusion, what does Advent mean in the conflict and political turmoil of
our world today? There are two responses: One is to surrender to the
prevalent cynicism, atheism, agnosticism, and apathy, thus making Christ a
disinterested spectator of what is happening on earth. The second is to say
the turmoil advertises and highlights, NOT Christ’s failure, but mankind’s
failure to take His way of love, peace and justice; thus saying that the
current turmoil, unrest and uncertainty is a cry for the return of the Prince
of Peace, whose government will have no end (Is.9:6-7). One is the option to
acquiesce in the ‘beatitude’ of disillusionment that says: “blessed are
they that expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed”. The second
is to join in the words of the songwriters Gerald Coates and Noel Richards
(SOF#742) and say “Great is the darkness, that covers the earth,
oppression, injustice and pain, nations are slipping into hopelessness,
despair…COME LORD JESUS”. The
Advent hope is the only real hope for the nations. May we this Advent share
the angst, the cry and longing of the nations since the first Advent and join
the songwriters in saying: COME LORD JESUS, COME LORD JESUS, COME LORD JESUS.
Daniel Littleborough Churches Together¾Service of healing, St John’s
Church, Smallbridge The Littleborough Churches Together Service of Healing on 20
October was quiet, reflective and very beautiful. Rev. Andrew Howell gave a
thought-provoking sermon about the ministry of doctors, nurses and hospital
chaplains. He reminded us that they have a precious ministry and need our
prayers for strength and encouragement: their jobs can be harrowing and
difficult. Prayers were said for the sick. A list of those we had been asked
to pray for was placed on the altar and a candle lit for them. At the end of
the service, anyone wanting personal prayers for healing was allowed to go
up to the front for prayer, anointing and laying-on of hands. Several people
went up while the whole congregation prayed silently for them as they were
ministered to. The service was a great blessing to those who attended and a
chance to pray and reflect on God’s goodness to us, and on His desire to heal
the suffering of His children. From a Church magazine near you
A
Word from God Listen up, here’s a word from above, The Lord Jesus Christ sends you his love! But he wants more, he wants to get to know you well, And teach you a lifestyle that won’t lead to hell. The Son of God on a cross did die, That we might share in eternal life. So don’t waste time trying to justify your sins, Open up your heart and let Jesus in! by
Catherine Pautard Yours
sincerely….? Outer
Darkness Cottage Dear All, Infernal
Regions It has come to my attention that certain members of
your congregation are showing a dangerous tendency to pray and read their
Bibles regularly. This is highly dangerous and must stop. Please remind these
rash individuals that the minister is much better at these things than they
are and is paid to do it, so they really should not be putting themselves to
so much trouble. Reading the Bible and praying are not good for your
self-esteem: the One Up There uses these times to show you things about
yourself that need to change. Now, you don’t really want to have to change,
do you? Isn’t life pretty comfortable as it is? Do you really want to be told
that certain things you watch on the telly, or things you read, or that juicy
bit of gossip you helped to spread last week were wrong? It would surely be
much easier to stop praying and carry on: if you don’t KNOW it’s
wrong, you can’t feel guilty, can you? Praying and reading the Bible can have a bad effect
on the way you see the world, too. They might actually make you want to
change things. Now, you know the world is never really going to change. Human
nature won’t change, so what’s the point of making a fuss about it? Why don’t
you just listen to the news and wring your hands and then forget about it and
go and have your tea? Or, even better, switch off the news as soon as you
hear anything distressing: ignorance is bliss and your own contentment is so
much more important than what is happening to other people. Don’t listen to
people who insist that taking action does make a difference, and that your
little bit is valuable as part of a big effort by lots of people working
together. Ignore the unimportant little successes: just keep looking at the
global picture and the problems that look as if they will never be solved,
and be appropriately discouraged. What’s the point in sponsoring a child in
the Third World and making life better for just one family when there are
another 2 billion suffering from poverty and injustice? You might just as
well leave well alone. Don’t get involved. And DON’T ask the One Up There to
interfere: this world is my kingdom and it messes up my plans something
chronic when He takes action. I hope this letter will make you think: you’ll soon
see that I’m right. Just stop this praying and Bible reading and we’ll be the
best of friends. Your best fiend: Lucy Fer Blessed are the Peacemakers . . . With Remembrance Day coming up and rumours of war with Iraq
getting louder and louder, many of us are thinking a lot about war and peace
and what a Christian’s attitude should be. These
thoughts might help as we think and pray through the situation. ‘My own journey towards
peacemaking began after attending a ‘Ban the bomb’ march back in the 1970s.
At the time, my relationship with Christian colleagues in the church centre
where I worked was far from peaceful. It was more important to be ‘right’
than to be reconciled. A good friend challenged me: ‘When are YOU going to
disarm unilaterally?’ It was a devastating question. It led me to see the
truth of what Thomas Merton once observed: ‘Instead of hating the people you
think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which
are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny,
hate greed, but hate these things in yourself and not another.’ War-making
is as much a spiritual matter as peacemaking. War has to be justified,
peace-making does not. The injunctions ‘Love your enemy’, ‘Seek peace and
pursue it’, ‘Those who take the sword will die by the sword’ call out from us
the most profound contemplation of our humanity and of the consequences of
disregarding it. Peacemaking
is demanding. It requires a new attitude of mind, one that sees the whole of
humanity as equal before God. Peacemaking calls for an ending of unilateral
actions by powerful nations; and the building of new international,
political, judicial and financial institutions. Peacemaking requires equality
before the law. Peacemaking requires the transcending of old arguments over
pacifism and just war; modern weaponry makes all such debate futile.’ from:
Church Times, 20 Sept 2002, Peter Price How can we make peace in our own lives? Use this prayer to reflect on your own lifestyle and your own
commitment to peacemaking. Avoid
gossip and try to find ways of challenging racist, sexist or violent
language. Keep
newspaper cuttings and stories of forgiveness and reconciliation¾you
could display these on a ‘Good News’ board in your home or Church. Support
a peace group such as The Methodist Peace Group, Pax Christi, or Christian
CND. Try this exercise: Let me hold quietly in my mind before God the names of people whom I
find difficult, who have been critical of me, of whom I am apprehensive or
jealous or envious, any who may have done me a bad turn, all whom I find
difficult to love, praying that his goodwill may be done for them as for
myself. We are both then within the circle of God’s forgiveness and love. George Appleton, from Journey for a Soul Did You Know? Ever wondered what ‘Behemoth’ and
‘Leviathan’ are (Job 40:15–24)? * Some commentators think they are mythological creatures, others that
they are fanciful descriptions of real animals. Favourite for Behemoth
(the plural of the Hebrew word for ‘beast’), is the hippopotamus. Hippos live
in the water, eat grass and have great strength, although the reference to a
tail ‘like a cedar’ is a bit of a problem: hippos have small, short tails!
The reference to the mountains is a bit obscure too, although hippos do
sometimes go foraging… * ‘Leviathan’ was the name of a seven-headed dragon in the old myths of
Canaan. But some people think Leviathan could also be reference to a real
animal: perhaps the crocodile, or, as the New English Bible suggests,
the whale. What do you think? Notes hQuotes
hAnecdotes They shall be Mine,
says the Lord of Hosts, ‘on the day that I make them My Jewels’ (Malachi 3:17) Dead wood can make a
great blaze if it comes in contact with a flame David Mains Our Prayers should be Burning words coming forth from the
furnace of a heart filled with Love Mother Teresa of Calcutta Cameo Character Corner S H a d r a c h (with Meshach and Abednego) Refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue Were thrown, bound, into the furnace. v. 23 Had God with them in the fire, were free of the
bonds, walked about, and were not hurt v. 25 They came out of the fire, which had no power over
them, not singed and the smell of fire not on them. v. 27 Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘There is no other God who can
deliver like this’. v. 29 Some children were asked to draw someone
famous. One effort was very puzzling. ‘Who is that?’ asked the teacher. ‘It’s
God’, was the answer. ‘But we don’t know what God looks like’, said the
teacher. The young artist replied, ‘You will do as soon as I’ve finished
this.’ Florence Smithy
Bridge ‘Taking Time’ weekend The weekend was led by the Lay Witness Movement and as Rod and
I used to be among those who helped lead these week-ends, we were the only
ones who really knew what might happen. We felt that at Smithy Bridge there
would not be much initial fear and trepidation to overcome, and this proved
to be the case. It was good that both church and team members were able to be
themselves, and we could get on with the business of sharing what the love of
God has meant to us. It
was good that attendance easily exceeded membership throughout the weekend
with about 90, including team members and children, sitting down to both
evening meals. Perhaps equally encouraging was that 34 managed to be there in
time for the informal 9:00 Communion on Sunday morning. Both
joy and sadness have been shared and addressed by the weekend, and this was
equally evident at the Sunday evening service. Thirty-two attended the
service which was started by a reading from a tea towel. This may seem a little
strange but the tea towel was sent to us a couple of Lay Witness members who
were unable to come to the week end and it contained the opening verses of
Ecclesiastes 3 (‘There is a time for everything . . .’). Following a final
rendering of our specially written ‘Taking Time’ theme song and a time of
worship, people shared what the weekend had meant to them. I
don’t really know when the service finished, or how many people actually
stood up and shared, we just did what we felt we had to do and then dragged
ourselves off to bed. So where do we go from here? Following the weekend
there was a meeting every day at various homes to work out the way forward. Four things have immediately become clear ·
There will be more house groups meeting to help
satisfy various needs. ·
There is a growing awareness of just how much hurt
and sadness some of us are trying to cope with, and there is a resolve to be
open and available to these needs. ·
Thirdly, the worship group has acquired new talent.
It was briefly hoped it might also acquire a twelve-string guitar, but the Lay
Witness Team Leaders came back for it! ·
Fourthly, people are arranging to give up jobs and
spread the load a little more evenly. The week-end was undoubtedly a joyful occasion, but
equally the needs of those who are struggling do seem to have been
recognized. The overjoyed are presenting a different concern to the rest of
us. We are having to explain that it has to be at least two years before we
can hold a follow-up week-end. I
would like to express the Church’s thanks to those in the Circuit who helped
to look after the children, and to Pam Wilkinson and her team from Emmanuel
Church who not only washed up and served throughout the weekend but also
helped with the catering. Norma Stokes Prayer for Peace and Forgiveness We confess that in our lives we do not always
choose the way of peace. We spread gossip, which fans the flame of hatred. We are ready to make any sacrifices when Caesar
demands¾but few
when God invites. We worship the false god of security and
nationalism. We hold out our hand in friendship¾but keep
a weapon in the other behind our back. We have divided your body of people into those we
trust and those we do not. Huge problems challenge us in the world¾but our
greed, fear and selfishness prevent us from uniting to solve them. Lord, we pray for your help, your forgiveness and
your reconciling power in our lives. (Pax Christi) Social Action page Does your coffee leave a bitter taste in the mouth? Whenever you buy a jar of coffee, most of the money you pay goes to
the world’s big four coffee roasters¾Kraft, Sara Lee, Procter & Gamble or Nestlé. The
farmers who grew the crop probably received a price that did not allow them
to send their children to school, buy medicines, or feed their families. Now,
with over-supply causing the price of coffee to plummet to a 30-year low, the
world’s coffee industry is in a severe crisis. Coffee is one of the few
internationally traded commodities, which is still mainly produced on
small-holding, and farmed by peasant households. Today, 25 million
coffee-growers face ruin, because the price they receive for their coffee is
so low¾just
over half what they were getting three years ago. They are paid much less
than it costs to produce their crop. Meanwhile, each of the four major coffee
companies have brands that rake in more than US $1 billion in revenues a
year. This
inequality is not lost on the coffee-growers. Elifranc Troussaint, a coffee
grower in Haiti, says, ‘We work the land and we know our coffee fetches a
good price overseas. Someone is making a decent living from it. But we’re the
ones who grow it, and we can barely live.’ What can we do? We can lobby the coffee roasting companies and tell them to start
paying farmers a decent price for their crop, instead of exploiting their
vulnerability to subsidise company profits. The four major coffee companies can
afford to pay more for the coffee they buy from the growers. Oxfam has asked
campaigners initially to target Kraft Foods, the makers of Maxwell House,
Carte Noire and Kenco brands. Governments will also need to be
lobbied, but the coffee companies can make a start in trading fairly. ·
Write to Roger K. Deromedi of Kraft
Foods (sample letter and address enclosed, or you can write your own),
telling him that it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth knowing how little of
the money you pay for his product goes to the person producing it. Tell him
you think it is time Kraft Foods started sharing its massive profits with the
people who helped create them. ·
Buy Fair Trade coffee, and other fairly traded
products. Littleborough Co-op sells fairly traded coffee (Cafedirect/5065),
tea (Teadirect), fruit juice (Fruit Passion), bananas,
chocolate (Divine) and red wine (Carmenère). These products
guarantee the producers a fair price. Or you can get other fair trade
products from Jo Monk (01706 374614¾catalogues available). The new Fairtrade Mark A new international Fairtrade Mark is being introduced in 2003.
The new logo, the symbol of a cheering person, indicates the people, both
consumers and producers, behind Fairtrade. Currently, there are over
100 Fairtrade products in the UK¾please keep buying them and telling the supermarkets that
you want fairer trade. Look out for the new logo! Out of the mouths of babes… Each of these was really said by a child: ·
Jesus was born because Mary had an Immaculate
Contraption. ·
St Paul preached about holy acrimony, which is
another word for marriage. ·
The Epistles were the wives of the Apostles. ·
The seventh commandment is: ‘You shall not admit
adultery’. ·
The Jews were a proud people and had a lot of
trouble with the Genitals. ·
The First Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat
the apple. If you think you have God all wrapped
up, you’ll discover one day that He isn’t in the parcel G.K.
Chesterton We are not criticised for being
Christians, but for not being Christian enough To come near to God is to change Douglas
V. Steere (North American Quaker) An act of love that fails is just as
much a part of the divine love as an act of love that succeeds. For love is
measured by its fullness and not by its reception |
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
