Wednesday 27 February 2019

Food for the journey: mid-week, bite-sized spiritual nourishment

On Sunday we were reflecting on the question Jesus asked his disciples:
'Who do you say I am?'
as well as thinking about what others where saying...
See our readings for the day: Mark 8:27-38 and John 7:1-31

This week's 'take-away': a prayer, focusing in on some aspects of who Jesus is.

We see the clouds of glory, Lord, on which you come in power. 
We hear the rumble as the stone rolls from the tomb. 
We feel the earth shake as your will is done on the cross. 
Our hearts still as the storm ceases on the Sea of Galilee. 
Messiah, Son of Man, cosmic Christ; 
Lord of time and space, and realms beyond our imagining, 
we praise and adore you for your divinity in all dimensions. 
Yet we remember the babe born as one of us, 
who walked among us in all our suffering, 
and who is with us still: 
Man and Messiah, 
the hope of the world, 
beyond our wildest dreams. 
Amen. 

Monday 25 February 2019

News, info, looking ahead: wk beg. 24 Feb


CHURCH NEWS/ What's on:

Church quiz: our Social Committee has produced a fiendish fun/fund-raiser.
Test your brain cells on the not as simple as you might think
nursery rhymes and games quiz devised by Isobel T.
Copies of the quiz are £1 and can be bought from members of the Committee.
All proceeds go to church funds. Prize £10
[in case of multiple correct entries, a ‘blind’ draw will take place to produce the winning entry]

Parish magazine – Easter edition: With 8 weeks to go till Easter, Dee is looking
for articles for our Easter magazine. If you have a story you wish to share -
a past Easter that sticks in your mind, or what your favourite Easter hymn/ poem is and why,
or anything else on an Easter theme, the deadline is 3 March.

Minister’s time off this week will be: Monday.

Fri 1 March, 2.30pm: World Day of Prayer with our friends at Rigside Guild.
If transport is needed, please contact Heather Watt.

Sun 3 March, 10.30am: Communion. Join us as we gather together
to share in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.
No matter where you are on your spiritual journey,
it is the Lord’s table and he welcomes all to share.
Also, beginning 3rd March - Food Bank Donations Box:
Over the Sundays of March, we will have a box in which to leave
dry/ tinned goods/ basic hygiene products for the Clydesdale Food Bank.
If you have items to donate, that would be excellent:
we shall make sure they get to their destination!
And, a busy day on the 3rd - 3.30pm ,'Faith and Film': 'Les Miserables'
[the recent film version] will be on at the Manse -
for those in the discussion group this serves as background prep.
but the film itself is open to all who'd like to come and watch...
Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn - singing along optional

Faith and film - ‘Les Miserables’: 5 week discussion group -
this year’s Lent study features ‘Les Miserables’ as our discussion starter. Each week through Lent, we'll explore themes from the film that tie in with faith.
A book ‘Another story must begin’ by Jonathan Meyer [£5.99], will be used to help our discussion. Nikki is happy to order this for you if you’re interested.
Please let her know if you’d like to join the group/ would like a copy of the book by Sun 24 Feb. Time and place tbd, but 3.30pm Sundays at the manse is one available option.

Sunday 24 February 2019

Sermon, Sun 24 Feb - 'Who am I?'

READINGS: Mark 8:27-38;  John 7:1-13; John 7:14-31

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

One of the great themes of Victor Hugo’s story ‘Les Miserables’ is identity – something we’ll further explore during our discussion group when we begin in a couple of weeks.
Identity:
All through the story, we follow the character of the ex-prisoner Jean Valjean.
We see him not only running from the law,
but at times running away from himself – from who he is.
At times, we see Valjean assuming different identities to help keep him
under the radar of the relentless Inspector Javert, who is obsessed with capturing him.
As the story progresses, we find Valjean eventually coming to terms
with who he is, the person he’s become.
And, he’s been many things depending on who has encountered him:
a rogue,
a wretch in need of a second chance,
a thief,
a prisoner on the run,
a mayor,
a philanthropist,
an adopted parent...
there are many parts to the man.

Now, in one part of ‘Les Mis’, the relentless Javert has been appointed
as Inspector to a small town. He accuses the mayor of being Valjean.
Javert is disconcerted, however, to discover that, elsewhere, in another town,
Valjean has been caught at last and is awaiting trial.
He finds the mayor, ‘Monsieur Madeleine,
and apologises profusely for making his accusations.
Having wronged the mayor, Javert acknowledges that he should be punished,
that he will quit his job as the town’s inspector, and also, quit the area.
Javert then exits, leaving the mayor stunned.
Now alone, the mayor wonders at this odd turn of events,
and the dilemma that he’s faced with, because Javert had been correct:
Monsieur Madeleine, the mayor, is indeed, none other than Jean Valjean.

This case of simple mistaken identity could be
the passport to Valjean’s own freedom –
no more running,
no more hiding...
but also, ...no more ‘Valjean’;
he will always have to live under an alias -
who he is will be truly lost forever.
Thinking of the poor soul who has the misfortune of
looking like Valjean, he asks himself:
‘Who am I?’ 
‘Can I condemn this man to slavery?
Pretend I do not feel his agony
This innocent who bears my face
Who goes to judgement in my place
Who am I?’

After much agonising, Valjean the mayor races off to the other town,
heads for the court where the lookalike ‘Valjean’ is standing trial and reclaims his identity,
in the process, saving the innocent man.
Addressing the judge, he states:
‘Who am I?
I am Jean Valjean!
And so, Honor, 
you see it's true,
That man bears no more 
guilt than you!
Who am I? 
24601.’
The apparent villain of the piece is truly the hero –
Valjean reveals himself to have a noble character;
he's given his life, his freedom, for another.
At the end of the story, he is able to move from the
shadow of being 24601, his prison number,
to being fully restored:
to being Jean Valjean.
It’s not without cost.

Throughout the gospels, in fact, throughout the New Testament,
the major theme is one of identity –
‘Who is Jesus?’
Last week, we thought of the expectations of the crowd, who’d followed Jesus:
we talked of possible hopes and expectations –
what drew them out to see this man?
What were they hungering for?
Tied in with the many hopes and expectations is this matter of identity:
Who is this man?
There’s so many rumours, so many who are whispering about him –
‘he’s this,’
‘he’s that,’
‘he’s the other.’
Our reading from Mark chapter 8 has Jesus asking his disciples
‘Who do people say I am?’
While in our reading from John chapter 7,
we see the whispering and rumour mill working in earnest.
Everyone seems to want to offer their particular ‘hot take’ on Jesus,
but, they’re doing it on the quiet –
fearful of causing trouble...
fearful of the religious authorities,
fearful of the Romans,
perhaps even fearful of daring to believe that what this Jesus was saying...
might just be true.

Our reading in chapter seven probably takes
place around six months from our reading from last week,
when the multitude had been fed with bread and fish.
The religious calendar was moving toward the Feast of Tabernacles,
a big feast – popular – a celebration of harvest.
Those who could, were headed to the Temple in Jerusalem.
We find Jesus in conversation with his brothers:
they don’t really take him seriously,
don’t really believe in all of the strange stuff he comes out with from time to time,
don’t necessarily approve of his lifestyle choices – a wandering rabbi??
He’s the oldest.
He should be more responsible, look out for his family,
keep the family business running like a well-oiled machine,
not go off travelling the countryside.
Perhaps to knock some sense into him, to give him a reality check,
they suggest that if he’s truly serious, he should go up to Jerusalem:
he’d have a much bigger audience to play to than the backwater villages of the Galilee...
‘You want to be famous? Then away you go – and, while you’re there, maybe do a miracle.’
Jesus’ response is to encourage them to go instead.
It’s not the right time for him to declare himself quite so publicly
in what is the centre of power;
he knows that going to Jerusalem too openly will only have one outcome –
a rather final one.
There is still some work to do to prepare for that time.

And yet, in the end, Jesus quietly heads off to Jerusalem and to the festival –
and we see the wide variety of responses,
of plain old gossip in some quarters,
about Jesus and just who he might be.
The religious authorities are on the look out for him –
they’ve already decided who Jesus is... or, rather, who he most absolutely can not be.
They mean to kill him.
Where everyone else is busy speculating about who Jesus is,
they are the only ones asking ‘where' Jesus is.
We move from the religious authorities –
here referred to merely as ‘the Jews’ –
and to the crowd:
‘He’s a good man,’ some say.
‘He’s a deceiver,’ say others.
Later, Jesus begins teaching – speculation increases:
‘who is he and how does he know all this stuff?’
In response, rather than pointing to himself, Jesus points to God the Father –
the One who sent him,
the One whose will Jesus follows,
the One whose teaching Jesus shares with the crowd.
Alongside this, he calls out the religious authorities very publicly:
‘Why are you trying to kill me?’ he asks.
Some now think he’s demon-possessed, others mad.
Some believe his claim, based on the deafening silence of the religious authorities themselves.
‘They haven’t contradicted him – maybe even they think he’s the Messiah?’
The whispers rumble on – and even the Temple guards get caught up in all the speculation:
so much so, that, having been sent to arrest Jesus, they come back empty-handed.
We end this particular section of John with many
putting their faith in him, despite the danger.
Who do they say Jesus is?
Clearly, this last group think he’s the Messiah –
although the kind of Messiah they’re thinking of might not just be
the kind of Messiah that Jesus will turn out to be.

Who do we say Jesus is?
Just as Jesus asked his followers so long ago,
so the question has continued to be asked –
and it’s a question with so many parts to it:
Messiah, yes.
Liberator, check.
Bread of life, yep.
Healer of hurts and mender of hearts...
yes, and yes,
and so much more.
It’s a question we can use to continually inform our own faith,
to help it grow and flourish.
It’s an ongoing, life-long question, as we walk with him in faith.
As we dive into the word – into Scripture –
we discover more about this man,
more about who he is...
A chap called David Lose - a biblical commentator and someone
who I enjoy reading for his particular take on scripture states that:
‘It’s just too easy to misunderstand what “messiah” means. 
We are so inclined to project what we want God to be and do 
that we often miss what God actually has done and is doing. 
We, too, whatever our professions of faith, are regularly surprised 
when God shows up just where we least expect God to be: 
in the cross, in our suffering, 
in our moments of weakness, doubt, and despair. 
This is what “messiah” means – not what we want, perhaps, 
but what we most desperately need.’   [David Lose]
This is ‘who’ God is...

Who do you say Jesus is?
It’s an ongoing conversation.
Want to learn who Jesus is?
Spend time reading his story, seeing who he thought himself to be.
Explore the names he gave himself.
Follow.
And, as you follow, you’ll find your feet time and again
walking the path to the Cross,
and beyond, to Resurrection.
Jesus calls us to walk alongside him;
to walk in faith and discover more about who he is,
and in doing so, who God is.
We’re not called to know all the answers to life, the universe, and everything –
we’re called to follow,
and invited by the very Son of God to ask questions –
to live the questions.
By the by, questions aren’t a sign of doubt,
they’re a sign of honest conversation with God,
with God who asks questions,
and who invites them.

Who do we say Jesus is?
As a community called by him to gather together,
let’s be open to discovery of who we might find when we respond to that question,
and let’s enjoy a life-time of answering it
through our lives, in our prayers, and in our actions –
for at the very heart of who we say Jesus is,
we find love...
Let that love - the love of God - be our guide,
in our service to him and our service to others.
now and always. Amen.

Wednesday 20 February 2019

Food for the journey: bite-sized spiritual nourishment

This week, given our 'bread' reading in John 6, a hands-on reflection complete with a recipe [at end]!
When I have time, I love making bread – the slow way. There’s something about the process that lends itself to prayer and meditation.
If you can this week, why not make a little time to make some bread, and as you do so, think about your favourite types of bread and all the many different varieties that are available to you...
What do you most appreciate about bread?
What does the phrase “the bread of life” stir in your mind this week?
Think of Jesus’ statement that he is the bread of life.
And, if you make an extra loaf, you could always share it with a neighbour...

Even if you haven’t time to make bread, you might like to use the following prayer
over the week as you think about Jesus as the bread of life.

Prayer/ 
There is nothing like the smell of baked bread. 
It fills a room, a house, with delicious aroma. 
It promises nourishment and confirms availability. 
It creates the sense of well being and goodness... 
Lord, into this world let the living bread create such aroma. 
Let your love, justice and goodness travel far, wide and deep; 
let your spirit instil a sense of hope and well-being 
in our homes, villages, nation, and world; 
let your grace be an ingredient available at the centre of everything. Amen.

Basic 4-step bread recipe/
Ingredients:
500g granary, strong wholewheat or white bread flour;
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast;  1 tsp salt;  2 tblsp olive oil;  1 tblsp clear honey
Method
1/ Tip the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and mix together with your hands.
Stir 300ml hand-hot water with the oil and honey,
then stir into the dry ingredients to make a soft dough.

2/ Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins,
until the dough no longer feels sticky, sprinkling with a little more flour if you need it.

3/ Oil the loaf tin and put the dough in the tin, pressing it in evenly.
Put in a large plastic food bag and leave to rise for 1 hr, until the dough has risen
to fill the tin and it no longer springs back when you press it with your finger.

4/ Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.
Make several slashes across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife,
then bake for 30-35 mins until the loaf is risen and golden.
Tip it out onto a cooling rack and tap the base of the bread to check it is cooked.
It should sound hollow.
Leave to cool.
Enjoy!

Monday 18 February 2019

News, info, looking ahead... wk beg 18 Feb


CHURCH NEWS/ What's on:

Church quiz: At the request of the Social Committee, Isobel T and a friend have devised
a devious, but fun quiz sheet. Get the grey matter working as you try to decode clues
and find the answers to some old familiar nursery rhymes and games.
Each sheet is £1 - and being sold by members of the Social Committee.
Winning entry will receive £10 - and all money raised goes towards church funds.
[in the case of several correct entries, these will be put in a bucket and one drawn 'blind']

Wed 20... keep an eye out for an online mid-week reflection based on John 6 and bread...

Thurs 21, 7pm: Kirk Session meets in the church hall

Sun 24 Feb, 6.30pm: Evening Worship at Leadhills Village Hall.
Join us as we gather for a more informal time of worship.
This week, we welcome Peter Crockett who will be leading our time together.
After worship stay on for a chat over tea/coffee/juice and baking. All welcome.

Sun 3 March, 10.30am: Communion. Join us as we gather together
to share in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.
No matter where you are on your spiritual journey,
it is the Lord’s table and he welcomes all to share.

Also, beginning 3rd March - Food Bank Donations Box:
Over the Sundays of March, we will have a box in which to leave
dry/ tinned goods/ basic hygiene products for the Clydesdale Food Bank.
If you have items to donate, that would be excellent:
we shall make sure they get to their destination!

Parish magazine – Easter edition: Contributions/ articles - 
With 9 weeks to go till Easter, our editor, Dee is looking for articles for our Easter magazine.
If you have a story you wish to share - a past Easter that sticks in your mind,
or what your favourite Easter hymn/ poem is and why, or anything else on an Easter theme,
you have two weeks until it needs to be submitted to Dee. The deadline is 3 March.

Faith and film - ‘Les Miserables’: 5 week discussion group -
this year’s Lent study features ‘Les Miserables’ as our discussion starter. We’ll be showing the film in the manse at 3.30pm Sun 3 March, and thereafter, each week through Lent, there’ll be a discussion group looking at themes from the film that tie in with faith.
A book ‘Another story must begin’ by Jonathan Meyer [£5.99], will be used to help our discussion. Nikki is happy to order this for you if you’re interested.
Please let her know if you’d like to join the group/ would like a copy of the book by Sun 24 Feb. Time and place tbd, but 3.30pm Sundays at the manse is one available option.

Sunday 17 February 2019

Sunday, 17 Feb 2019 - sermon: 'Bread of heaven'


Today, we chewed on chunky chapter six of John's gospel [gold star for our heroic reader, Heather, who did an excellent job]. Breaking the chapter down into 3 sections, we reflected on the feeding of the 5 000, grumbling from followers and Jesus calling himself the 'bread of life', and
some disciples finding his teaching too hard - and walking away.
Several key questions:
What were those in the crowd hungering for?
Or, the followers who eventually turned away?
What do we hunger for?

A couple of shorter reflections before the sermon:
a/ brought up practical sharing in the form of our relatively new initiative -
supporting the work of Clydesdale Food Bank - this also involved a rather large jar of chocolate...
b/ imagined the reaction from someone who might have been present at the 'big picnic'

READINGS: John 6:1-15; John 6:26-51; John 6:52-71

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of all our hearts,
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

What was it that they hungered for?
They were famished.
Ravenous.
Feeling hollow inside.
Seeking nourishment –
something to chew on:
bread from the soil to settle their rumbling bellies,
and, the bread of heaven to satisfy their souls.
They had heard he was in the area, and so keen were they to see him,
that they travelled for miles about the countryside to find him;
each one with their own reason –
curiosity,
entertainment...
a chance to gawp at this up and coming ‘celebrity’.
Some, perhaps, were just tagging along with pals because they had a large case of ‘FOMO’ –
...Fear Of  Missing Out.
Others had more compelling, more immediate reasons:
having heard stories of signs and wonders perhaps they were hoping for a miracle
in their own life, or the life of a loved one wasting away before their eyes.
There were those drawn for political reasons:
had the time come at last for a deliverer to drive the Romans out –
would Israel be liberated from the occupiers efficiently stripping away the assets
of the land and the resources of its people...
indeed, occasionally enslaving the people?
Empire has always had two sides to its story but often,
only the victors get to tell of greatness and glory.

What was it that they hungered for –
who was it that they were seeking?
A humble rabbi?
A healer of hurts?
A teller of stories?
A heroic deliverer?
For a multitude of reasons each one sought Jesus out,
until, one by one, they became a multitude
which, having found him,
hoped that their hunger,
their need,
would be filled.
We discover, as we listen to the story of Jesus and the 5 000 men –
women and children didn’t count as witnesses in law, 
so their presence went unrecorded for the most part
we discover that, whatever spiritual, psychological, or political hunger
may have been present among those in the crowd,
at some point, they reach the point of actual physical hunger.
‘Feed them’ says Jesus,
which makes the disciples just a teeny bit twitchy.
And then, Andrew, who had previously brought his brother Simon – later called Peter – to Jesus,
brings a boy to him who is willing to share his lunch.
Andrew, though he’s not sure how it could be done, sees a possibility.
Andrews looks at what they have, not what they lack.
Meanwhile, the boy with a lunch of bread and fish
is happy to let it go, and see what happens.
And both Andrew and the boy,
in the act of seeing possibilities,
in the act of letting go, and sharing...
see the seeming impossible happen:
the crowd is fed –
with more than enough leftovers beside.

The story moves on.
Jesus travels to the other side of the lake.
The crowd, physical hunger satisfied, still hunger for something else –
they follow, and meet him once more.
We move to Jesus teaching in the synagogue -
those listening, very likely contain a number who'd walked out to see him...
The conversation moves:
from bread made from grain to Jesus talking of the bread of heaven –
the bread of life,
the bread that never perishes.
They remember the great story of their ancestors,
who made their long walk to freedom from slavery in Egypt
by spending 40 years in the wilderness.
They remember signs and wonders,
and wonder what sign Jesus will do for them –
for surely he’s a modern-day Moses.
Will there be manna?
‘What miraculous signs will you do, so that we might believe in you?’
A strange question,
having just been fed in the wilderness –
having just been benefactors
of a miraculous sign
that they don’t seem to see.

With the matter of manna raised, Jesus talks of the bread of heaven.
‘It’s what we want – give us this bread!’
And Jesus says:
‘I... am the bread of heaven.’
And the crowd mutters and some say:
‘No you’re not: you’re Jesus, son of Joseph’
and don’t seem to see God in flesh and bone among them.
The crowd gets restive:
oh, they’re still hungry for answers to the meaning of life, or miracles –
they just don’t want the ones presented to them.
They’re stuck.
They can’t let go of their particular ideas about what the Messiah might be like,
or of what the journey of faith might involve.
They can’t see the possibilities presented to them –
can’t move beyond having just eaten a meal of bread and fish,
to explore their deeper hunger for the bread that doesn’t perish.
They grumble.
When Jesus doesn’t conform to their expectations they simply walk away.
Having received the gift of bread, they lose sight of the giver of the gift entirely.

What was it that they hungered for?
Were they looking on the surface –
looking for physical, material, even political needs to be met...
looking for easy solutions to deep-rooted problems?
This teaching of Jesus is ‘too hard’, they say,
as they set off looking,
as they head away having found the spiritual bread unpalatable...
Their hunger will never be met until they can open their hearts and souls and minds
to possibilities;
until they can let go of their preconceptions... 

Last week we heard the parable of the friend
who goes knocking on his neighbour’s door at midnight, asking for, seeking...bread.
He keeps knocking until that neighbour gets up,
gets the bread,
gives it to him,
and sends him on his way.
Jesus says:
‘Ask, seek, knock – the door will be opened.’
The crowd in our story today
were asking,
were seeking,
were knocking...
But, when the door opened they didn’t want that kind of bread –
didn’t like the answer they’d been given.
Jesus, the very bread of life,
offers them the bread that will satisfy their hunger forever
and they close the door on that possibility.

What is it that you hunger for?
Success, fame, wealth?
Maybe peace,
or, perhaps the strength just to get up out of bed to go and face the day?
Do you hunger for things that will scratch an itch here and now...
or something that will last a lot longer?
Or maybe the answer’s a bit of both.
There’s the very real tension of having to live with the needs of now –
so much to juggle,
so many demands.
And yet, as people of faith,
there’s the need to balance those demands
so that you can get to grips with the deeper stuff of life:
to make time for soul food, if you like –
to make time to open your eyes to the miracles all around you;
and make time to be open-minded to the possibilities that might just be within reach,
...to make time to be open-hearted with the blessings you’ve been given
and in doing so, become a part of God’s blessing to others.

Like some in the crowd,
like some of the disciples struggling with Jesus’ teaching,
do you find yourselves sometimes stuck –
only seeing what you don’t have,
not the variation on loaves and fish that you do have?
Or, seeing the limited resources you have,
do you fear to open your hands and share the blessing with others?
By declaring that he is the bread of life,
Jesus is trying to help his listeners,
his followers,
to become unstuck –
to become open;
to see the possibilities of life with God at the centre –
to dare to experience life in all its fullness;
to dare to trust in God’s limitless resources
so that we need not fear lack –
but rather,
to know our God will supply our needs.

What is it that you hunger for?
And, are you prepared to let go,
and let God show you the answer?
Jesus challenges the disciples to see possibilities,
to think differently,
to explore other ways of living in faith,
to take a risk.
Sure, it could have all gone wrong:
they could have ended up looking like idiots when nothing happened,
or when the small morsels given all ran out a couple of people down the line.
Bit by bit, they let go:
of the fear of looking silly,
or of losing their reputations;
even, possibly, of the fear of having to deal with a hungry mob.
Instead, perhaps taking a deep breath as they did so,
they responded to a basic need,
looked around,
shared what they found,
and in the sharing found not only more than enough to eat,
but discovered not only God’s abundance,
but God in their midst meeting their deeper needs.

Martin Luther, the great church reformer, observed that
‘We are all beggars showing other beggars where to find bread.’
That bread is Jesus.
What is it that you hunger for?
As you think on the answer to that,
may you find your needs met this day, and every day,
by the One who is the bread of life,
and may you share that ever-living bread with others. Amen.

Church news - a slew of announcements this morning in worship. 
These will be posted tomorrow on the blog

Sunday 10 February 2019

Sunday sermon: Parables wk 4: 'Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

In our 'thinking about' slot, we were picking up on some school assembly themes this week: talking about how we valued things - does everything come with a price tag?
We thought about different advertising slogans and filled in the blanks e.g. 'A Mars a day helps you... ' etc.
And finally, linking that to our readings - and theme on prayer.
It's easy to have a lot of conversations about what prayer is,
and what we might pray about, but from our gospel passage,
Jesus, encouraging and teaching his disciples to pray, might use the Nike slogan: 'just do it' ...
We also thought that prayer is something that is hard to put a price tag on.
Some of this was later drawn into the sermon.

And, on a side note: the singing in church this morning was absolutely beautiful!!

READINGS: Isaiah 62:6-9 Luke 11:1-13

SERMON
Let’s pray: may the words of my mouth
and the thoughts of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

Way back on the Sunday after Easter in 2016,
we were thinking about the disciples who’d locked themselves into an Upper Room...
Through a locked door, somehow, Jesus joins them rather unexpectedly.
On that day, thinking about doors, I inflicted a stream of shockingly bad
‘knock knock’ jokes upon you.
But...here’s the thing:
given our gospel reading this morning, of the person knocking on his
friend’s door at midnight and, given Jesus’ encouragement to
‘knock and keep on knocking’
well, I’m sorry to have to tell you this,
but, I’ve found a bunch of even worse ‘knock knock’ jokes
and I confess that I'm going to inflict them upon you.
So, brace yourselves, friends, because here we go:
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Figs.
Figs who?
Figs the doorbell, it’s broken!

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Amanda.
Amanda who?
A man da fix your doorbell!

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Annie.
Annie who?
Annie body going to open this door?

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Troy.
Troy who?
Troy ringin’ da doorbell!

And perhaps this one’s best with a strong Aussie accent:
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Olive.
Olive who?
Olive right next door to you.

Here’s one for our sheep farmers:
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Barbara.
Barbara who?
Barbara black sheep, have you any wool?

And this, for our dairy farmers:
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Cow-go
Cow-go who?
No, Cow go MOO!

Last one, I promise:
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Armageddon.
Armageddon who?
Armageddon the message that it’s probably time to end this game...

Don’t know about you, but I’m a little exhausted after all that!
But, Jesus does say ‘Knock and keep on knocking.’

Both our Old and New Testament passages this morning focus on prayer;
both pick up a theme of being persistent in prayer –
‘just do it’
and, keep on doing it.
Both remind those listening that God wants us to talk to him:
to bring to him our joys, our worries,
our praise, our doubts,
all of the things that make up the stuff of our lives
and the life of the world.
Both passages also remind us that God hears us,
and, that God answers –
though, perhaps if we’re asking for a diamond-encrusted Ferrari,
we might be waiting a long time and, we might want spend that time
reflecting on the things we choose to pray for.
Nevertheless, God answers our needs at the right time.

Our gospel passage from Luke begins with prayer.
Occasionally the question pops up:
‘why bother with prayer?’
Well, in verse one of our text, we find that Jesus is praying:
‘One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place.’
Regardless of all the many questions and conversations around the business of prayer,
basically, if Jesus is doing it,
and if we are to model our lives on him...
well, if it’s good enough for Jesus,
it’s good enough for us.
If it matters enough to Jesus to stop and pray,
then, as his followers, so too, it’s something that we should value and do.
But, how to pray?

Well this has been a question for followers of Jesus not only here and now,
but going all the way back to the disciples.
Jesus finishes his time of prayer and
is immediately asked by them to be taught how to pray.
It’s an expectation of a disciple that their rabbi will teach them this skill
and they flag up that John the Baptist has indeed taught his disciples pray;
‘teach us,’ they ask Jesus.
And so, he does.

Jesus gives them a barebones template – a guideline for prayer:
First, name the one you’re praying to:
‘Father’.
Second, what’s he like:
‘holy.’
Third, ask for the bringing in of God’s kingdom:
because, in so doing, quite a number of other prayer concerns are going to be covered –
when God’s kingdom comes there’ll be an end to injustice, sickness, mourning...
for there’ll also be an end to death.
So, pray for the kingdom and work towards helping to bring that in.
Fourth, look to God to supply your needs:
not the diamond-encrusted Ferrari,
but the daily bread that will sustain you.
Fifth, hand over your mess to God –
confess, say sorry, be forgiven and then you’re free to move on with the business of living.
And sixth, having been forgiven, show that same mercy to others –
the ones who’ve caused you harm.
Don’t store up the hurts and go looking for vengeance –
let it go...
be reconciled if at all possible, and move on.
And finally, seek to stay safe from all those things that distract and deter you
from following in God’s way:
‘don’t take us down that road, God, take us the way that best helps to keep us following.’

It’s a useful template, so useful, that, when blended with the versions from the other gospels,
we end up with the prayer that has been said by Christian communities down through the ages –
our community prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, which we pray every week.

Having given his disciples a lesson on prayer:
first by actually showing by example and doing it himself,
and secondly, by giving a relatively easy structure to follow,
Jesus then widens the lesson –
encourages them to persist in prayer.
Which brings us to our parable this week:
he tells them the story of an annoying friend – a friend in need –
knocking on the door at midnight asking for three loaves of bread;
a friend who just keeps on knocking until he gets an answer.
The formerly sleeping friend,
now very much awake,
gets up,
gets the bread,
opens the door,
and probably very grumpily says:
‘Okay already, here’s the bread: now go away!’

When it comes to prayer,
keep knocking at the door, says Jesus.
Ask, seek, knock:
because the door will be opened.
And, here’s the difference:
unlike that friend who’s been woken from sleep,
and, just as a father won’t give snakes or scorpions to his child when asked for a fish,
so God, the great Heavenly Father is gracious and good.
God is the giver of all good things:
God will meet your needs.
Not only that:
God will do so willingly, cheerfully –
delighting in the fact that you’ve actually stopped and asked.
Not so much ‘okay already, now go away’
but rather
‘Hello! Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here, now, let’s have a chat.’
That door is available to be knocked on 24/7 –
at midnight, midday, or any time between.
Jesus teaches his disciples,
teaches us,
that God is always with us,
always ready to listen,
always ready to help –
sometimes in ways we can’t even imagine.

Why pray?
Well, Jesus did.
But what’s the value in it?
What’s the benefit?
Prayer is stopping:
taking time to hang out with God –
and as we do so,
so it’s a way of growing in faith,
because it’s about strengthening our relationship with God:
the more time we spend together,
the more we get to know the One who knows us completely.
Prayer is a gift given to us by God:
a time to be,
a time to be still;
prayer is a breathing space in the midst of the busyness of our living
and all the demands upon our lives.
It’s about relationship,
it’s about learning to listen – deeply listen;
it’s about discovering how much God loves us –
loves ... you:
God, the Creator of the universe,
has time...
for you,
has time to listen to you,
for you are his beloved.
Prayer is not just bringing a shopping list to God,
even while we do bring our worries and concerns.
Prayer is a time for sifting through what’s important in life –
as the old hymn says 'take it to the Lord in prayer'
and reflect on it together;
prayer also takes us out of our own wee bubble:
a time where we think not only of ourselves and our needs,
but beyond ourselves to the needs of others.
Prayer is a hopeful thing:
praying for a better you,
and a better world:
that God’s kingdom come.
Prayer is giving your stuff to God –
a healing process as you let go
of cares,
of hurts...
giving them over to God,
rather than carrying the burden.

Pray.
And keep on praying.
Even though you’re not sure God’s listening,
even though you’re not sure God’s even there.
Pray.
For God is both with you, and listening, even if you might not feel it.
Sometimes, in what seems the silence,
you’ll find that answer you’ve been looking for,
or discover the strength to make that particular decision you’ve been
hemming and hawing over,
or find comfort in the midst of your pain.
Be still... and know God –
the One who loves you beyond all measure –
who wants so much for you;
who actively wants you
to ask,
to seek,
to knock...
to be in relationship with him.
Ultimately,
prayer is an exercise in believing that you –
even you
can be loved enough to be listened to completely.
Trust in God’s love,
knock, knock – at his door,
and pray his kingdom come.

Let’s pray:
Lord, teach us to pray:
help us move beyond our discomfort,
our doubts,
our fears,
even our lack of believing that you would
ever want to listen to us.
Teach us your love:
move our sometimes reluctant,
sometimes, weary, feet toward you
that we may better follow you.
Teach us to listen:
to let go of the need
to fill silence with noise,
to fill space with busyness;
help us to ‘be’ –
to be still
and in the stillness,
to know that you are God,
and that we are yours.
Teach us that answers:
can sometimes be dramatic,
can sometimes be immediate,
can sometimes arrive quietly,
can sometimes come slowly, over time...
but that, regardless of how,
regardless of where and when,
that there are answers;
and so teach us to look in both obvious
and less obvious places.
Teach us patience,
teach us to keep knocking on your door
in trust, and with thankfulness.
Lord, teach us to pray:
not just now,
but throughout the course of our lives,
as we follow you.
And, as we follow,
as we seek you and your kingdom,
teach us to give you the glory,
always, and forever.
Amen.

Monday 4 February 2019

News, info, looking ahead


Faith and film - ‘Les Miserables’ - 5 week discussion group
this year’s Lent study features ‘Les Miserables’ as our discussion starter. 
We’ll be showing the film in the manse at 3.30pm Sun 3 March, and thereafter, each week through Lent, there’ll be a discussion group looking at themes from the film that tie in with faith. 
A book ‘Another story must begin’ by Jonathan Meyer [£5.99], will be used to help our discussion. Nikki is happy to order this for you if you’re interested. 
Please let her know if you’d like to join the group/ would like a copy of the book by Sun 24 Feb. 
Time and place for discussion group tbc, but 3.30pm Sundays at the manse is one available option, from wk beg. 10 March

Parish magazine – Easter edition: With 11 weeks to go till Easter, Dee is looking for contributions for our Easter magazine. If you have a story you wish to share - a past Easter that sticks in your mind, or what your favourite Easter hymn/ poem is and why, or anything else on an Easter theme, you have a month until it needs to be submitted to Dee. The deadline is 3 March.

Hospital visits: A wee plea from the Minister: please don’t be shy about letting me know
if folk are in hospital and needing a visit. If it’s at all possible, I really do try my best to visit,
but if I don’t know I can’t go! I’d rather be told several times than not at all, so need your help.
Thanks everyone.

Sun 10 Feb, 9am: Prayer group meets. All welcome.
If you have any particular prayer requests, please leave a note in the prayer box in the vestibule.

Looking ahead:
Wednesday 13 Feb, 2pm: Guild. Our guest speaker will be Dee Yates,
who will be talking about her pilgrimage to Lindisfarne.

Thurs. 14 Feb, ‘Wordworks’ writers group meets up by the fireside at the Colebrooke Arms,
Crawfordjohn. All welcome. Come and share work by a favourite writer,
or bring something you’ve written or are working on.

Sunday 3 February 2019

Sun sermon: parables wk 3 - 'New and old'

READINGS: Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29; Luke 5:27-39

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

This is a story about another time and a different congregation...

Shona was adorable.
A blue-eyed, golden-haired, friendly wee soul
who would turn up to Sunday School each week –
giving Mummy a moment for herself to take a little breathing space,
drink coffee,
read the paper,
and be thankful for the gift of this one small window in the week
that the church gave her to relax from her duties as a single mum.
They weren’t really a traditional church-going kind of family –
in fact, they’d never really ‘done’ church before, one week, they decided to dip their toes in...
and yet, somehow, Shona’s mum felt welcome –
felt able to bring her daughter and leave her in our care awhile
and we were pleased to be able to give her the space she needed.
It was a happy arrangement all round.

Shona loved singing the songs,
doing the actions –
listening in rapt attention to the stories told each week.
Everything was fresh and new,
and she soaked it all up like a sponge.
This six year old asked great questions,
was a real philosopher,
and came out with some amazing quite ‘out there’ points of view
that also made me see the stories in new ways.
She was a fabulous, gentle, fun, and utterly lovely small person.

One day, Shona arrived –
we both waved to her mum as she headed off,
and then we began to head into church.
But, something was different.
Shona wasn’t quite as chatty as usual.
Instead, she was quiet –
something big was on her mind.
‘So, how are you?’ I asked her.
She looked up at me, very solemnly,
those bright blue eyes big and round and filled with
something that looked a little like ... wonder.
‘Nikki’, she said, in a hushed wee voice,
‘Mmmhmm?’
‘Mummy bought me...,’
there was a wee pause, and then with utter reverence:
‘Mummy bought me ... a bible.’
She was clearly amazed –
this was a special thing.
And it was.
But, in the moment, I forgot her non-church background –
and wanting to know if it was a child-friendly one with piccies,
or another kind altogether, I said to her:
‘That’s lovely. What kind is it?’
The blue eyes grew even rounder, if possible.
And in an awed whisper she said
‘It’s...a holy bible.’ ....

While I learnt a lot from Shona, and hopefully she from me,
that was the day I realised that although
I had also come from a non-church going family,
I’d been in church just long enough
to have settled into a sort of routine,
was happy with the familiar –
comfortable with it...
forgetting that up until 4 years earlier,
everything was as new and fresh to me
as it was to young Shona;
forgetting that the God I worshipped
is also the God of surprises,
the One who makes everything new.

Our readings this morning are a mix of being called into discipleship
and lessons about old and new.
As with last week’s gospel reading, we’re in the early stages of Jesus’ ministry.
And just before his meeting and calling of Levi,
he’s caused quite a stooshie among the Pharisees and teachers of the law –
sometimes referred to as the scribes.
The cause of the commotion centres around a healing:
several friends carry a friend to meet Jesus –
in the hope that he’ll be able to perform a miracle.
When they get to the place, it’s so crowded that the only way for it
is to go up to the roof, dig a hole, and lower their friend through it.
Some of you know the story.
Jesus, impressed by the faith of the friends
first forgives the man from his sins
and then heals him.
The man picks up his mat and can walk away
into new life –
a fresh start.
But it’s not the healing that causes the controversy among the scribes and pharisees,
it’s Jesus’ forgiving the man’s sins.
‘Only God can do that!’ they cry, outraged.
Well, in part, they’re right:
only God can...
they just don’t understand who Jesus is.
To them, he’s done something utterly horrifying:
broken a major commandment punishable by stoning:
they believe he’s committed blasphemy.
It’s at this point that he becomes a marked man by the religious authorities –
and where they begin plotting to destroy this upstart new rabbi.

Immediately following this, we meet Levi.
Levi is a tax collector.
It’s a well-paying job –
because it’s pretty usual to skim extra money for yourself.
It’s also a job not guaranteed to make you popular:
tax collectors are seen, by a community living under Roman occupation, as colluders –
they work for the enemy, the oppressor, are seen as corrupt.
Everyone hates them.
So, having agitated the scribes and pharisees by forgiving the sins of the paralysed man,
it’s interesting that Jesus heads directly toward someone who is very publicly thought of
as the worst of the worst.
‘Follow me’ he says to Levi.
And...
Levi does.
Immediately.
Puts his old life behind him
and strides out into a new life,
a fresh start.

Having been welcomed by Jesus,
so he welcomes Jesus into his home for a meal.
Gathers those friends he does have –
other outcasts and colluders,
a great company of tax collectors  –
and they sit and eat together.
To sit alongside this group and to eat with them
offends the sensibilities of the law-loving scribes and pharisees.
They complain.
But the only thing that they can think of is
to compare Jesus and the disciples
to John the Baptist and his followers.
‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners,’
and a little later:
‘John’s disciples fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the pharisees,
but yours go on eating and drinking.’
Basically, Jesus and his disciples just aren’t playing the game:
they’re not following the familiar old rules,
they don’t seem ... ‘religious’ enough.

Now the scribes and pharisees aren’t necessarily the bad guys –
they very much want to live a life of faith,
they very much want to follow God.
They study the holy writings,
see the holiness codes laid down:
the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and the many other laws.
They very much want to get it right –
they learn every law,
they do their best not to break a single one.
They are so scrupulous, that when it comes to giving a tenth of all they have,
they even carefully measure and weigh every herb –
you can almost see them with their scissors and a handful of chives,
cutting exactly a tenth off for God.
These guys are precise –
and have become so focused upon following the law...
that they’ve forgotten the other side of faith:
if an animal falls in a ditch on the Sabbath,
even though it’s suffering, they won’t break the law to help it.
If a person is needing help on the Sabbath...
well that’s not going to happen either.
They’ve forgotten to balance law with mercy and compassion.
They’re so focused on getting it right and following rules
that their lives have become completely focused upon the rules themselves –
in the process, they’ve lost sight of the One who gave the rules as a helpful way of living.

Into their ordered, incredibly regulated lives comes Jesus –
doing things differently,
and, in the process, challenging everything they hold dear;
challenging the old ways of doing things;
daring to suggest that perhaps some of these ways are no longer helpful...
introducing new things,
reminding them and everyone around him
that there are many ways of following God:
it’s less about laws and more about the heart.
And that’s the context in which we find our parable about
new wine and old wineskins,
of new cloth on old.

It’s easy to get into a routine,
to get comfortable:
I suspect that human beings, for the most part, have always been creatures of habit,
feel better when we know what to expect:
not everybody dreams of finding themselves at the centre of a surprise party.
We know what we like, and we like what we know.
But how does that work for us, as a community of faith?
How do we worship, and live, with that tension of both
worshipping the God of the ages
and the One who makes all things new –
the God of surprises,
who, not only brought the world into being,
but who overturned natural law and brought life bursting forth from a grave –
our resurrection God?
Sometimes, are we ourselves in danger in focusing only upon the familiar,
and what we feel is the only correct way to worship God and live out our faith,
that we slightly lose sight of the God who calls us to be his people?
And, just as an aside, it’s interesting when you read Paul’s Letter to the Galatians:
here’s a young Christian community –
and even so early on, this fledgling community
has very quickly gone back to the old ways of doing things.
It’s so very easy to do.
But, what might we miss about who God is
and how God impacts on our lives,
our neighbourhood, and our world,
if we stay only with what we know?

Some of those questions are what the Local Church Review process
over the last year have been trying to explore a little more deeply.
We’ll be unpacking some of the reflections from that long process
at our Annual Stated Meeting in May.
But some questions to ponder, as we think about Jesus’ parable:
In the face of a rapidly changing society
with very different patterns from even 20 years ago,
how do we stay faithful to that old, old story,
yet embrace new ways of telling it
that make sense to the Shona’s
and the Levi’s of the world,
as much as it does to us?
That’s the challenge that the wider church, and the local church face.

Given that presently there are nearly 250 vacant charges in the Church of Scotland –
the majority of them, rural –
with about a third of current ministers due to retire within the next 5 to 10 years,
our own old ways of doing things are going to need to change right around Scotland.
For us, as a community:
how do we face that challenge head on together?
Rather than just letting changes happen,
how might we be the ones who determine what changes might best be suited
to being God’s people here in this place?
How might we go about making room for beloved traditions,
leaving some unhelpful ones behind,
and taking on finding new ways
of being a worshipping community –
God’s people in a changing world?
And, how might we show the generosity of grace
to one another in the midst of change,
when some prefer expressing their faith in one way, and others, in different ways?
Oddly, though, these are questions that have been asked all down through the centuries.

We’ve some interesting challenges ahead of us as a community,
and possibly, that comes with a mix of fear, discomfort, and, sometimes, resentment,
but also -  I’d like to think – it comes with hopeful curiosity.
While change for change-sake is often pointless,
change for God’s-sake always has a point:
it’s always about learning to follow him,
and about finding ways to share the good news of the kingdom:
sometimes using tried and tested old ways,
and sometimes trying new and different ways.
We’re in this together, and God is with us every step we take:
we walk forward in faith,
and pray for God’s guidance,
as worshipping communities have always done down through the ages...
And as we do so:
to God be the glory –
in all our thinking, our speaking, and our doing, this day and every day. Amen.