There are some things more solid than even mountains

When we think of mountains, we think of vast, immovable places which are unchanging. Moving a mountain is (apparently) an impossible feat. But the truth is that mountains do move and change. I have heard that Exmoor used to be the height of the Himalayas many millions of years ago.

There have been to date (18/04/18) 38 earthquakes in UK this year, possibly like me you don’t think of earthquakes happening in these islands. The closest earthquake to Liverpool in 2018 was in fact on 15/3/2018 at 22.09 in Wybunbury in Cheshire East, the magnitude of the earthquakes was 1.1. The strongest earthquake was felt in Cockermouth, Cumbria on 28/02/2018 at 07:33 and that was a magnitude of 3.4. Although there were no reports of damage or injury there is no doubting that this event caused concern for those living in the area. One resident described the earthquake as ‘a very heavy rumbling’. In contrast the dreadful earthquakes e.g.in Nepal over recent years have proved with devastation the fact that mountains and valleys move, rocks shatter, villages are destroyed and lives forever changed in the process.

For some, the church is one of those places which seem unchanged from year to year. The ancient buildings give the sense that time has left them untouched. Yet we know that through the years there have been dramatic changes in our society some that because rumblings like earthquakes here in the UK, localised and the affects short lived. But societal changes have also brought challenges in the lives of people which can be equated to those shattering experiences of the earthquakes in places like Nepal, the aftermath of which continues for many years affecting not only the physical environment but the lives of many people.

Our lives too can encounter ‘earthquakes’ of different magnitudes.I wonder what in our own lives feel like mountains which we feel are immovable and solid? What are the things we rely on? Who are the people who are always there?

How about this for a challenging thought… that there are some things more solid than even mountains. Some things which go on and on, despite the physical changes in our world. Things like community, faith, hope, love.

Many years ago when I was experiencing a very stressful time in my life (my earthquake time) I was given a copy of a modern version of the 23rd Psalm.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my pace setter, I shall not rush.
He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals.
He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity.
He leads me in ways of efficiency through calmness of mind, and his guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here.
His timelessness, His all-importance will keep me in balance.
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity, by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility.
My cup of joyous energy overflows; surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours.
For I shall walk in the pace of my Lord, and dwell in His house forever.

Toki Miyashina – Japanese version of the 23 Psalm

Our mission statement says: “St David’s is an active parish church that seeks to offer a warm, welcoming, and safe environment, where all are valued and nurtured in faith and life.”

The important thing we want all enquirers to know is that you are all very welcome. We are available for you to get married, have your children christened and have your funeral here at St. David’s. With baptisms and weddings residence of attendance, requirements usually apply. Please do ask. You may not require any of these things, but you feel that there is more to life than the things we all seem to need to do in the 24/7 society in which we find ourselves.

Vestry Hour – Wedding & Baptism Bookings will be taken between 12pm-1pm each Sunday after the main service which is 10.30am, you are very welcome to come along to both. Clergy are also available for private and confidential meetings.

(This article by Rev Sally was originally published as part of St David’s Messenger in May 2018)

As a child (1960’s) I attended my first football match, outside the ground I noticed an old man with a sandwich-board declaring “The End of the World is nigh”; was I fearful – yes, I was worried we’d lose, Ignorance was bliss.

Today the old man has been replaced by world leaders, with the help of an oppressive 24/7 media coverage, am I worried – No, Knowledge is bliss.

The truth is we have been in a war on terror since the time of Adam, The war I refer to is a spiritual war. Paul tells us, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

In the past I have wondered like many people, why God allows things to happen, why has he not answered my prayers, or when faced with a crisis, you have heard the expression, “we’ve done and tried everything, now all we can do is pray” or “It’s in God hand now”. I confess I found my answers in scripture.

God does not control everything!

Does God control you when you get bitter, angry, do and say hurtful things-No, so if he doesn’t control us in those circumstances he doesn’t control everything?

God gives us a choice; he will not violate his authority, he will not force his will on people.

Yes, Bad things do happen through no fault of our own (problems with-Marriage, relationships, finance, security, work, health, addictions, fears ad infinitum), but we have been forewarned; “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy”.

However, God through his grace tells us: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” He warned there will be struggles but he is there for us: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

There is a well-known saying, knowledge is power; and in scripture, I read “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, do not let the world destroy you; we are Gods heirs.

Gods plan is to give us good things, he has bequeathed everything to us in his last will and testament, he has given us the powers of attorney, all we have to do is to take authority and exercise his will.

However Circumstances can conspire to make us doubt Gods Will. God gave Adam & Eve Dominion over the entire world, but the thief came; through doubt and temptation Adam surrendered all his authority to Satan.

Jesus, like Eve was tempted by Satan. Satan’s timing was perfect, the opportune moment, Jesus was alone, tired, hungry and physically weak; don’t forget Jesus was the word made flesh; Jesus become Man just like us.

Satan quoted scripture chapter and verse to Jesus; same tactics, to question his belief and trust in the word of God.

Jesus defeated Satan as a man, not as God, he said “It is written”.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and Jesus exercised his God given authority, it was God’s word that defeated Satan, and Jesus’s faith and belief in the word.

It is hard to have faith; did you know Jesus could do no mighty works due to their unbelief.

I must stress the reason bad things happen, is not a result of one’s lack of faith.

The disciples struggled with their faith and they had Jesus with them.

In Luke:  John the Baptist had a crisis of faith, Jesus directed John back to the written Word of God.  John was well versed in scripture, he himself had quoted from Isaiah and Jesus had just fulfilled what Isaiah had prophesized in scripture.

It is written “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. If I was to read the Gospel as one would a Will, it would read like:

To ______ You are forgiven and healed, you have All the power over the enemy, you have my helper who will shew you things to come, you can ask in my name and I will provide, I will never leave you, you have authority to move mountains (problems) when you trust in my word (whosoever shall say) and do not doubt.

To list all of Gods promises would exceed this page.

“God is not a man that he should lie; hath he said, and shall he not do it”

Trust in the word of God, The written word of God will direct your path, KJV- Proverbs 4:20 -27

 

(This article was originally published as part of St David’s Messenger in April 2018)

Question: How do you know Christmas is over?
Answer: When you see Easter Eggs in the shops!

Well Christmas may be done and packed away for another year, but Christians have so much more to celebrate before Easter.

After the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, at Christmas, we follow the life of the young Jesus. From His Baptism by John the Baptist an event seen as the start of the ministry of Jesus to the wonderful liturgy of Candlemas (the Presentation of Christ in the Temple).

At Candlemas we not only remember Christ as the Light of the World but also the first time Jesus is recognised as the Saviour of the World. As the aged Simeon, in the Temple, says in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke verses 29-32:

“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”

As I write this article we have just entered the time of Lent at Ash Wednesday – the day after what has become known as Pancake Tuesday (or more properly called Shrove Tuesday).

Lent, a time of preparation, lasts for forty days and leads up to Easter just as Advent leads up to Christmas.

From our Palm Sunday celebrations (25th March) of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we spend the final week of Lent in prayer and reflection.

Join us for our traditional Stations of the Cross, and our evening service on Maundy Thursday when we commemorate the Last Supper of Jesus with the Apostles.

On Good Friday we remember and reflect on the events of the Crucifixion. Please join us at our service.

On the evening of Holy Saturday, we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The service starts outside the Church and in darkness. After the lighting of the first fire of Easter, we move into the Church lighting candles as we go; symbolically bringing the Light of Christ back to a darkened world.

On Sunday 1st of April we celebrate together Easter – Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!

(This article by Phil was originally published as part of St David’s Messenger in March 2018)

Last October was a milestone for me; I reached my seventieth birthday. Now seventy is the age that those in ministry in the Church of England are called upon to retire. There is the opportunity to carry on in a limited capacity but I decided not to take it. I was originally licensed as a Reader in 1981 and have spent the last twenty-four at St. David’s. However, prior to re-joining the Church of England I was already active having preached my first sermon in 1967 at twenty. So fifty years seemed a good innings, hence retirement.

Of course, in those fifty years I have seen big changes in both the Church and society. In the Church perhaps the biggest change is that we now have women in the ministry, some reaching the dizzy height of Bishop. We have made great strides on the issues surrounding human sexuality but not as far as I would have liked. There have been countless other changes, too many to mention.

Society has changed too, some say for the good, but I am not too sure. What is sure is that religion features less in peoples’ thinking. More than half of the British public (53 per cent) say they are not at all religious – a figure that has increased by five percent since 2015 and by 19 percent since 1983, when just three in 10 people deemed themselves non-religious. Is it all doom and gloom then; have I and my fellow ministers wasted our time? Well it is all down to what people perceive religion to be. Most see it as an adherence to a particular faith, belonging to its organisation and following its rules and teachings. They think of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc. But what if we come at this from a different angle? What if religion is more to do with how we live and act, particularly how we act towards our fellow beings?

It may be a great surprise but Jesus never came to start a new religion. In the Gospels he deals with all sorts of people. A Roman soldier asks him ‘What should he do?’. Jesus does not ask if he follows any of the religions of Rome rather he simply says ‘Don’t use the power you have to persecute others’. He dealt with Samaritans who were seen as heretics by the Jerusalem Jews, did he ask them to change religion? No. Jesus summed his teaching up as loving God and loving our fellow humans. Now these are not two separate things. If we say we love God and do nothing to help those made in His image then we do not really love God. If we help those who need us, then we also love God even if we do not realise it.

I witnessed many selfless acts of giving over Christmas but this one brought tears to my eyes. I have a friend who is Vicar of a Church on the South-East Coast. They do a number of things to help the poor and the homeless. One day one of the homeless came into the church and gave my friend a Pound Coin. Knowing his situation he tried to give it back. ‘Father’, said the man, ‘keep it, there are those out there worse off than me.’ Surely a modern-day equivalent of the ‘Widow’s Mite’ found in Mark 12 verses 41-44.

The Apostle James wrote: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” If you care for others while ignoring the voices that cry out ‘me and mine are the only ones that matter’ or ‘the poor have only themselves to blame’ – that is genuine religion in God’s sight.

Thankfully, I have met literally hundreds of people who unwittingly practise ‘pure and genuine religion’ without realising and know of thousands more. I hope and pray you are part of that army because there are plenty of people who need you.

So as I retire am I worried on surveys regarding religion? Not one bit.

(This article by Dave Chambers was originally published as part of St David’s Messenger in February 2018)

I wonder if, like me, you are often startled by the speed of everything in our world today? Some of it is good, like a good internet connection for example, but much of it is so negative. I’m sat here typing this in my study and as I do so I can see the madness outside of my window; cars careering down Rocky Lane at stupidly high speeds, often on the wrong side of the road, just to end up sitting at a red light like everyone else! What is the point I ask!?

Life seems to inflict this urgency upon us and unwittingly we often accept it and even comply. But as always, there is good news. We are approaching my favourite time of the year. Advent, Christmas and Epiphany have always been very special to me, just as well I suppose me being a vicar & everything!

The good news I speak of is the season of Advent, God has provided us an opportunity to slow down and reflect on the true meaning of life in these four weeks preceding Christmas. We should remember that Advent is four weeks for a very good reason; we are blessed by four weeks of rest & reflection. Yes, it is a busy time, preparations for Christmas can be hectic, but only if we allow them to be. Parents and Grandparents are under particular pressure to get things right for their children and families because they want the very best for them. Quite right too but it doesn’t help anyone if you are burning yourself out in the process.

Patience seems to be in short supply right now. Just yesterday I witnessed an episode of road rage that was outrageously dangerous and totally unnecessary where a man was hurling abuse at a lady with a car full of kids as well as driving his car at her. Again what is the point? Patience can be re-learned. The Bible offers us several models of patience; in the story of creation God the Holy Trinity creates the world in six days but He does so patiently, completing each task calmly before moving onto the next and on the seventh day God takes time out to rest. (Genesis 1&2)

Mary the Mother of Jesus is a beacon of patience, she learns she is expecting her first child, Jesus. Mary knows this will take nine months and so she takes herself off to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant; the two women had three months of quality time together as they patiently awaited their respective sons’ arrival. (Luke 1: 26-56) God, our Father who wants the best for us His children, shows utmost patience with us. It is 2017 years since God sent His Son to be among us and to experience first-hand what it is to be fully human, we know that Jesus will come back among us and that will bring about the unification of a new heaven and earth. (Matthew 24:27) (Revelation 21:1-8) It may seem that God is taking His time before the second coming, to us humans 2017 years is a heck of a long time yet St Peter tells us that for God a thousand years are like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

God is being patient with us, He is allowing us ample time to listen to Him, to respond and to take action to ensure our future in His coming Kingdom. He gives us Advent to reflect on His great gift to humanity, that of His Son on that first Christmas day. He gives us faith that whatever this world may throw in our way He has made us a promise. All we need to do is take time out and listen to that promise.

And so what can we do to help ourselves slow down & reflect? Well St David’s has plenty going on over the coming weeks, much of which is listed over-leaf. Why not make time in your busy-ness to come along, to enjoy and to prepare for the great Christmas feast?

I take this opportunity as your vicar to give you every blessing for a peaceful, reflective and God-filled Advent. For a Happy & Holy Christmas. For an Epiphany filled with the revelation of the great love of God, and of course for an extremely happy 2018.

Peter the vicar.

(This article was originally published as part of St David’s Messenger in December 2017)