Sunday sermon - 24 May 2020, Acts 1:6-14, John 17:1-11

When we first went into lockdown, someone lent me a jigsaw. I’ve always liked jigsaws. Nowadays you can get jigsaws on your computer or tablet. I’ve tried them but it isn’t the same as a real jigsaw. I think there’s something special about having real pieces of jigsaw that you can hold in your hand. Real physical pieces that fit together. There’s something satisfying about finding the right piece and gradually seeing the fuller picture appear. Especially putting that final piece of the jigsaw in place that makes the picture complete. There’s nothing worse, is there…getting to the end of the jigsaw only to discover that a piece is missing? 

Today is the last Sunday of the Easter season and then we go into Ordinary time. Ordinary Time…Doesn’t sound quite as exciting as Easter does it? Well…for me, coming to the end of the Easter season is like putting yet another piece in the right place in that jigsaw and forming part of the bigger picture. Thursday was Ascension Day and it helps us to make sense of all that has happened up to that point. Seeing Jesus rise in triumph, going to his rightful place in heaven helps us to fill in the gaps… to build up that bigger picture.  

The Ascension was a transitional time for those first disciples. If we think about it, we’re not that unlike them. We know all about transitional times, don’t we? This time last year our parishes here were in vacancy. That vacancy lasted for 20 months…that’s a long vacancy…and it only finished 6 months ago, when I was licensed. And here we are in yet another transitional time as we wait for the next chapter of post-covid to begin.

Waiting is something that most of us do not do well. I well remember, as a child, waiting for my birthday and Christmas. Nowadays its things like standing in a long queue waiting to go into a supermarket (socially distanced, of course). But what we need to remember somehow is that times of waiting are not times of inactivity. They are times of preparing ourselves for what lies ahead. They are times in which we work at what needs to be done …right now!

Our call as Christians is always to live now in the way God intends us to live. Right now! Being in lockdown doesn’t mean that the pause button has been pressed on our lives. The outside world goes on, regardless of us living within our own four walls.

Just imagine for a moment that you are one of those first disciples. You’ve journeyed with Jesus from the early days. You’ve seen him do some amazing things. But you’ve also seen him suffer and die on a cross. Then unbelievably, he’s back with you again. And now you watch as Jesus, once again is taken away but this time there is a finality about it. How do you feel? Afraid…excited…anxious… bereft…sad…happy… nervous? brave? Disbelieving? We can only speculate about how those disciples were feeling.

We are told that two men in white … obviously angels …had appeared to them

and told them that Jesus will return again one day. The disciples faced a harsh reality. Jesus was gone. They saw him go. He was no longer physically with them. They looked back on what Jesus

had told them and for the first time, they could see the bigger picture and could fully grasp that he was one with God. They remembered his promises and looked forward to the time that they would be fulfilled. In the meantime, they headed back to that upper room where they were staying and they used their time of waiting as an opportunity to pray.

They prayed for one another. They prayed for the needs that they saw in the world around them.

They prayed for strength and courage to face the future. They spent their time preparing to be witnesses and to take their story out to the wider world… to Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth. And you know what? They did!  And that’s why we are worshipping together today.

They didn’t do it in their own strength though. They had a bit of help. That helper, the Holy Spirit,

was with those disciples throughout, supporting, strengthening, enabling. And he’s with each one of us too. God is with us when we need a friend, someone to talk to, or even someone to have a good moan to. We sometimes forget that he is with us too when things are going well…he wants to be part of our whole life, not just bits of it.

So, how does today’s gospel reading fit in? It may seem a bit out of sync to you because if you know your Bible, you will know that Jesus’ prayer in John’s gospel comes just before the Last Supper. And a lot has happened between that time and the ascension of our Lord.

The gospel gives us the heartfelt prayer of Jesus. God interceding for each one of us. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. Those disciples were entering into a new relationship with God and their ministry was only just beginning. Little did they know that they would be instrumental in helping to change the world.

The power of Jesus’ prayer hasn’t diminished over the years and I encourage each one of you

to read it through at some time over the coming days…read it slowly…really let it sink in…

the prayer is talking about us all…each and every one of us. It is incredibly powerful. Jesus’ prayer demonstrates the unity between himself and God showing us that they are eternally one. Jesus’ prayer includes all of us. How mind-blowing is that?

We have the same unity with God as those very first disciples and his promise is ours too. You see, it’s all part of God’s plan …His bigger picture …the full jigsaw. Amen

"He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.Acts 1:7-9

Ascension Day Sermon

Sermon by Rev Paul Fisher:

And Holy Ascension Church Patronal Festival

Luke 24: 44-end, Acts 1:1-11

Way back in early 1962 I went on a Worcester Diocesan Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem we visited the Mount of Olives, and I still vividly remember the local guide showing us a footprint in a slab of rock.     He said that this was the very footprint Jesus left when he ‘took off’ at the Ascension! Luke in our reading from Acts says that Jesus was ‘lifted up’. But my goodness, Jesus would have had to be a super-charged ‘rocket man’ to take off and leave any trace in the rock, let alone a footprint!

So, the Ascension. I am ‘zooming’ these words from the vestry of Holy Ascension Church – a new experience for me, so I hope not to press a wrong button by mistake!  We celebrate this church’s patronal festival today. Such a dedication! What does it mean for us in this church – and St Alkelda’s, Holy Trinity, the North Ribblesdale churches – and all of us as part of the wider church community? To what does it commit us in these disturbing times when faith, often, does not come easy? Well, we are human beings who try our best to be humane. That, for starters.

The Ascension is both the end and the beginning of a story.     It signals the end of Jesus Christ’s work on earth – as fully human and fully God - but it assures us too that he remains in solidarity with us, with our human life and living earth, God with us.  

This is the beginning, though, of a continuing story, which is our story - the moment when God hands over to us an amazing privilege! Now we are responsible for continuing with him his activity in the world. And what a transforming thing that can be!

It is the total opposite of what we usually mean when we talk about “playing God”.    Because here we, empowered by God, are called together ‘to do justice, love mercy’, and be peace-makers for the healing of all creation. This is the divine drama into which we are drawn as pioneer actors – trail-blazers. This story will end only when God’s Kingdom of sovereign love is fully established – ‘on earth as it is in heaven’!

In 10 days’ time – Pentecost/ Whitsunday - we celebrate the beginnings of the Church, that great outpouring of God’s Spirit on that small group of disciples in Jerusalem – a group still very unsure of themselves.

But the Ascension confirms that we, the church – indeed, all human beings - are at the very heart of God’s work on earth, that continuing struggle to redeem the whole creation from all that is evil,  from everything that causes us to move away from God.  God works through us – with the full resources of His grace - to restore that complete community between earth and heaven which has always been his purpose! Time and again we damage, fragment, and all but destroy this connection. But because of the Resurrection and Ascension, it can never be finally broken. Now that is a rainbow of hope!

So here is a great YES to all our strong, yet fragile and mixed up humanity.  For this humanity of ours is embodied in the human reality of Jesus.  And at the Ascension all this is ‘lifted up’, taken back by God into the very heart of his being.

Here too is a huge YES by God our Creator to the ‘glory of humankind’. A Yes to all in us that is good and loving – a yes to everything truly creative and life-affirming – a yes to all that gives us grounds for hope in the boundless possibilities of being truly human – and a yes for our growing more and more into communion with God. My goodness, we need this positive, hope-full vision today don’t we!

Here are some words which a friend of mine found on a card fixed to a lamp-post. They seem a good way to finish:

And the people stayed at home.

And read books and listened,

And rested and exercised,

And made art and played games,

And learned new ways of being, and were still.

And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.

Some met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people

Living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless and heartless ways,

The earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed,

And the people joined together again,

They grieved their losses,

And made new choices,

And dreamed new images,

And created new ways

To live and heal the earth fully,

As they had been healed.

“Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them”

(Luke 24:50-51)

Sunday sermon 17 May 2020

Our preacher on Sunday was due to be Rev John Bearpark but unfortunately we had some technical hitches which meant that we had no Sunday morning worship. John very kindly has agreed that I can post his sermon on the blog.

“This is my promise to you, the rainbow overhead: violet. indigo, blue and green, all the colours that lie between, yellow orange and red.”

Some of you will recognise the wonderful children’s musical, “Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo.”

There are rainbows everywhere at the moment (Northfields Crescent etc!)

There’s one overhead on HA church lychgate.

The rainbows are a real sign of hope in these troubled times, and, like our Thursday clapping, they’re applause for folk in the NHS and all others who are caring day and night to make that hope into reality.

Last weekend, we celebrated VE Day -  we re-lived our joy when WW2  ended, along with our sorrow for all who died, all who were bereaved, and those who were injured, especially members of our own community and families.

 At the same time, we were reminded of the sheer horror of war, but also of the experience of comradeship men never forgot, and their astonishing heroism amidst the slaughter. There were rainbows in those days too. 

Tuesday was the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, but Florence is having to wait for her thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey.

She too was overshadowed by our plight and pain today.   What a rainbow she was! Driven by her deep Christian faith, Florence took on the government, the military, and Queen Victoria. She transformed the care of the sick for all time and throughout the world. What a rainbow she was, and is.

In between those two days, Monday was May 11^th, the 35^th anniversary of the Bradford City fire football club fire.

This year, Dorothy and I were not with the crowd in the city centre, but as we are today,

now, at home in front of a computer screen. But it was, to me, even more moving than usual. People spoke individually, in recordings. The cub chaplain gave a welcome from an empty square, by the memorial to the 56 who died. The Mayors of Bradford and Lincoln spoke about the impact of the day on their communities. The Dean prayed from inside the cathedral, and the Bishop from outside. From the Bradford Royal Infirmary, the head of the Burns Unit spoke about its pioneering work, which has making it now a world’s leader, The city’s chief Fire Officer spoke from the central fire station, and the chief Police Officer from Valley Parade, where he had stood on the Kop with his 12-year old son, on the day of the fire. Each of them told of the effect of the day on their officers, and of the lessons learnt for their emergency planning, and for football ground safety worldwide. A representative of the Muslim community remembered how those living around the ground, nearly all of them Muslims, the ground threw open their doors to everyone on the day. Community relations were transformed. They all spoke from the heart about the good that had come from that dreadful day.

More rainbows!

Rogationtide is said to date from the 5^th Century, when in southern France, Bishop Mamertus led his people through the countryside, praying for an end to the earthquakes that were devastating the area. It stuck, and in England became a counterpart to the Harvest Festival, when we pray for God’s blessing upon the earth, and on all who work to provide our needs. Dorothy and I have happy memories of what in Guiseley parish we knew this as the Blessing of the Fields. In a fairly ragged procession, we sang hymns as we followed the choir and clergy through the local countryside, pausing to ask God to bless the crops and animals, the farms and farmers.

Prayer for the earth has become more and more heartfelt in recent years, because of the danger from global warming. Let today’s rainbows speak to us of the beauty and wonder of all God’s creation, and of humankind’s calling to care for planet earth.  

May we make full use of the skills and creativity that are God’s gifts to us. May the Easter story, and the events and people we have remembered this past week, speak to us of the capacity for sacrificial love that is God’s greatest gift to humanity, and which we follow Jesus, our  Ascended Lord.

May the rainbows around us speak to us of God who is looking to us to work with him to bring healing and hope to the earth.

“This is my promise to you, the rainbow overhead...

¹³I have set my bow in the clouds,
and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,
¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between
me and you and every living creature of all flesh.
Genesis 9: 13-15

Sunday sermon - John 14:1-14

I love a good story, don’t you? I like historical novels based on true stories and biographies that tell the story of someone’s life. This weekend we’ve been celebrating 75 years since Victory in Europe was declared. I particularly enjoyed hearing people’s wartime stories. We all have stories to tell.

Each week, as part of our church service we hear snippets of the greatest story ever told. It is a story that has a lot to teach us.

So, let’s set the scene for our gospel reading this morning. It forms part of what has become known as the Farewell Discourse. It was the night of Jesus’ arrest, the last supper had been eaten and Jesus was trying to prepare his disciples for his imminent death. He’d told them that one of them would betray him and that Peter would deny him three times and now he was saying to them ‘do not let your hearts be troubled’  I can just imagine their reaction…something like ‘you’re kidding, right?’.

Their world was falling apart and there’s Jesus telling them he’s going to die but not to worry, just keep on believing in him and in God. It’s a big ask, isn’t it? The death of a loved one can often mean a make or break with God. I have seen people come to faith because of bereavement but there again, I’ve also seen people turn away from him too because of it.

So, there’s Jesus trying to give his disciples a picture of life beyond death. He tells them that he will prepare a place for them and that they know the way. It must all have been very confusing for them. It was down to Thomas to ask the big question and if I’m honest it’s the question that we all want to know the answer to…

”How can we know the way?”

 Thomas, of course has gone down in history as ‘The Doubter’. I think Thomas gets a bit of a raw deal because I don’t think he’s that different from the other disciples or any of us. He just asks the questions that we all want to ask. I can identify with Thomas. I find him reassuring somehow. It is only human to ask questions and sometimes we’re not quite brave enough to ask. When someone does, you can almost hear the sigh of relief from others. I can imagine that the other disciples did just that.

So, how do we know the way? Jesus tells us – he says "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Philip then chips in and wants some proof. He wants more. If what Jesus is saying is true, then surely he can show him what God is like. Just a sign and he’ll be satisfied. We all have moments like that, when we would like a glimmer of hope or some reassurance that we’re on the right track.

When Jesus replies he’s actually reiterating what John had written right at the beginning of his gospel…’ In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…so in other words he is God, they are one and the same. To know Jesus is to know God. But Jesus takes it a step further, he tells them “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father."

That’s quite something, isn’t it? He’s not just talking to his disciples. He is talking to each one of us. So, what does he expect from us? Are we expected to start healing people or perform miracles? That would be the talk of the town, wouldn’t it? Jesus wasn’t expecting his disciples or us to outdo Jesus or to try to bring glory to ourselves. If we think about it, yes Jesus did all the miraculous things but his aim was to bring people to God…to show us what God’s love was all about and to help people get to know him.

Jesus was going to the Father and he would send his Holy Spirit so that with his help, just like those first disciples, we are to be sent out in Mission. It isn’t just about sharing the message, it is about trusting and believing in the message. Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ Believe that and we’ve got a place prepared with God…forever. It doesn’t get any better than that!

I love a happy ever after ending to a story.

Amen

‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John14:6

Seek the Lord...

Day 45 since the Covid lockdown! I was just getting into the swing of things before the lockdown happened. I keep talking about 'being new' but time is moving on.  However, I worked out that in two weeks time (taking into account my 2 week's in Sri Lanka), half of my time here will have been in lockdown, so I guess I hadn't really got used to 'normal' before it was taken away! Before lockdown, Thursdays were fast becoming one of my favourite days. I would start off by going into Holy Ascension church nice and early to say Morning Prayer. One of the things that I really loved was how the peace and tranquillity of the church would be interrupted by life as people started to arrive at church to set things up for Stepping Stones. Morning Prayer over and I would take myself off to one of the local cafes for breakfast. A cup of coffee, a currant teacake and a chat with anyone willing to talk was the order of the morning. Then it was back to Stepping Stones to spend some time with the children and their carers. More coffee, maybe a piece of cake, lots of chatting, songs and a story and a good time had by all. Yes...I am looking forward to a 'normal' Thursday again.

What would your 'normal' Thursday morning look like?

I used to go to a regular House Group and the question would always be asked...what has God been doing in your life this past week? So, how about 'Where was God in your regular Thursday morning?'  We could ask the question about any day really. Are you aware of his presence in your life? This Thursday morning, we are having a Zoom Coffee Morning. At the moment it can't be the same time each week because the pattern of my week changes week to week depending on my commitments. I believe that God is presence at all of our gatherings, whether that is in a church building, online or when we bump into someone in the street. God is with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing. The difference is our response to him.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.'

Isaiah 55:6 

Trust in the Lord

Words of advice given to me by several friends (all experienced clergy) when I was about to be licensed to the parishes here were..."don't make any changes in your first year." Wise words...under normal circumstances. However, we find ourselves in anything but normal circumstances.

And here we are, living through the biggest change the Church has seen for centuries!

Many people are waiting for the day when a return to normal resumes...when the church doors will be open once again and the old pattern of worship services are back to what they were. Saying that, I know that not everyone was happy with the pattern of services that was in place! The closing of our churches has forced us to think about worship in other ways. Our parishes have gone online, with one service for anyone who wishes to join. We have had a mixed reactions and we are doing our best to improve how we do things. We have to be realistic though and to take the positives and lessons learned during this time and use it in our long-term plans to grow God's Kingdom in this place.

Many of you will have memories of church from your youth and I imagine that you will have seen a lot of changes over the years. The good old days when each church had it's own vicar... maybe two and a curate. Sundays when you had four service times to choose from (some of you might even attended church more than once each Sunday). Sundays, when everyone observed the Sabbath...no work to go to, no shops open or sports events to compete with! It was a day to rest. The days when the church was the hub of the community.

The pace of life has changed in recent years. Everyone seems to be in such a rush, always somewhere to go or someone to see. It seems that practically everyone has a mobile device of some sort in their hands wherever they go and they always have someone to ring, emails to check or social media to update. The internet changed the world as we knew it and the church has been slow to embrace the technology. Because of coronavirus, the church has finally had to start to get to grips with this 'new' avenue (the only one available at the moment) of public worship. The services are recorded and available to view at any time. In this world of choice and accessibility, people can 'tune in' with God whenever they want. When the church doors open once again...and they will...I wonder how many of our new online worshippers will be joining us...online?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Supporting others...

I'm missing the sunshine! I had got used to sitting outside in the garden for my cup of coffee in the afternoon. It's not the same, is it if you have to wrap up warm in order to sit outside for a cuppa? I started a jigsaw a couple of weeks ago. It is a bit addictive and difficult to pass it by without sitting down and putting a few pieces in place. The thing is though is that it is a difficult jigsaw and it takes me quite a while to find those 'few pieces'. It certainly makes the time pass by but my problem is that I am quite busy so I have to be quite disciplined with myself not to spend too long on it.

I hear a lot of mixed responses from people when it comes to 'filling their day'.  Like me, some people are very busy and still find that there isn't enough hours in a day to do all that they want to do. Others are finding it really tough. We are all very different and there isn't a right or a wrong.

Being confined to home certainly makes you think about all the things that we've taken for granted in the past. I know that I am much more aware about waste and trying to make things last. It isn't so easy now to just pop down to the shops to replace things. It's lovely living at Settle but I sometimes have to go further afield in order to find the things that I need and we are only supposed to travel for 'essentials'. Some things are not available in the shops no matter where you live!

The post-war years of rationing are before my time but my grandma knew all about making ends meet. She never threw anything away that might come in useful and she could always lay her hand on 'just the thing', when needed. If a present received was wrapped with a ribbon, the ribbon would be neatly wound and put to one side, as would the wrapping paper. She would cut the buttons off all clothing that had reached its end of life. I remember when I was a child and she would get the button jars down and my sisters and I would make pictures and patterns with them. She wouldn't dream of throwing food away. Any leftovers would go back into the fridge and be made use of in another meal. She had a Singer sewing machine - one of those treadle ones where the sewing machine would fold away underneath. She never did go to a modern electric one. There was no need, she could make anything with the one she had. She was a knitter too. In fact it was my grandma who taught me to knit. My grandma's generation knew all about living through difficult times and the times we are living through at the moment are often being compared with the war years. 

Survival has always been tough. In Jesus' time, the common purse for himself and his followers was held by Judas. I imagine that money was tight, after all they had left their livelihoods behind in order to follow Christ. We know from the NT that Jesus was supported financially by some women, so just imagine the shock and the horror when Mary anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume. I can imagine the gasp that must have gone round the room? The words of the song come to mind:

"Oh Mary, oh Mary, oh think of the poor, this ointment it could have been sold;

and think of the blankets and think of the bread, you could buy with the silver and gold,'

he said, you could buy with the silver and gold."

The story of Mary made it into all four gospels:

Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; Luke 7:36–50; John 12:1–8
Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; 

Susanna; and many others. 

These women were helping to support them out of their own means."Luke 8:3

Sunday sermon - John 10:1-10

When I was young, every Wednesday was pocket money night. My Dad would come home from work and he would give me and my sisters 6d each. That was in old money by the way… (showing my age now). For the benefit of you little ‘Olivers’, that’s two and a half pence in today’s money and according to an online inflation calculator, it is the equivalent of 51 pence today.

Anyway, every Wednesday armed with our sixpence, we would dash to ‘Stannards’, the paper shop in the next street, to spend our dosh. Every week we would spend absolutely ages in the shop, agonising about how to spend our sixpence. They had every sweet and chocolate you can imagine. We were absolutely spoilt for choice.

I felt just like that when I read the readings for today:

Noah’s Ark - the beginnings of the early Christian Church - Jesus, the good shepherd and of course - the first of Jesus’ ‘I am’ sayings. AND on top of that it is Vocation Sunday.

Oh …decisions, decisions!

Choice is something that most of us exercise automatically every single day!  We decide what time to get out of bed, what to wear, what to eat, what we do in our spare time …and so on.  But in recent weeks, things have changed. We are no longer allowed to go where we want. We can’t get together with our families and our friends. We can’t gather as a crowd and we can’t even enter a shop without being told when it is safe to do so.

What hasn’t changed is God. He is the one constant in the strange world that we find ourselves in.

The three readings we’ve heard this morning tell us about fresh starts. About points in time when decisions made meant a change of direction that changed the world as they knew it.

Now, you may be sitting there wondering how we can possibly be thinking about life-changing things when we are living through such difficult times… most of us are confined to our homes and we can’t see beyond today, never mind tomorrow. This whole Covid thing is too big for us to deal with on our own. And that’s the thing, we are not in this alone. God is with us. Sometimes we have to trust God to see us through because we are living through a time in history that is going to change things whether we like it or not.

Jesus, the good shepherd is here for us. Now…I’m a Leeds lass, and I don’t profess to know much about sheep or shepherds… however, we are told that the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Jesus knows each one of us by name. He knows us inside out. He knows our likes and dislikes, our strengths and our weaknesses …our hopes and our dreams. He knows what our worries are and the things that we avoid. He even knows the real us, the one that we hide from others and sometimes even from ourselves.  Yes, Jesus sees it all…and yet, he loves us despite all of that …or even because of it.

Jesus said, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture’.

 

Jesus, the good shepherd has gone before us. He has prepared the way. We are told that his sheep “follow him because they know his voice”.

So, the big question… do we know his voice? And if so, are we prepared to follow him?

Are you?  I don’t mean just to pay lip service to God but to truly turn to Christ and follow where he is leading us. It’s not an easy decision because it does mean change.

We’ve heard the account from the second chapter of Acts. About how in the infancy of the Christian church, “awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. And “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved”. Those early Christians knew all about change.

At the moment, most people are longing to get back to normality. And slowly - probably very slowly, a lot of what we consider normal will return. But a lot won’t and I think church as we knew it will quite naturally evolve into something new. This isn’t a time to mourn the loss of a bygone age but it’s a time to embrace all that God is showing us during these times. He is leading us to discover new, exciting ways of being church, to worship him in a way that feeds us and equips us to grow his kingdom. But to do that, we need to be obedient to his call. To put our trust in him to see us through.

We only have to look at the amazing story of Noah to see what true faith in God looks like. Thankfully we are not being called to build an ark…! But we are called to listen to his voice 

amongst all the other voices that influence our behaviours and decisions. We do have choices, regardless of isolation, of queues outside shops, of social and physical distancing.

Listening to the voice of Jesus, the good shepherd and answering his call is the biggest decision we will ever make because there is a lot more at stake …if we don’t go through that gate. Living in this covid age where within just a few weeks 250,000 people around the world have died, there is an urgency about saying yes to God and doing our bit to help others to say yes to him too…

…the decision is ours. 

Amen

"He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them,
and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 

John 10: 3-4

Food Bank

I'm from a family of five girls and when we were young, we lived in a small back to back house in South Leeds. It had a scullery kitchen and just the one living room. Upstairs were two bedrooms and an attic. I must have been about five or six when a bathroom was installed in the small bedroom, which meant that we no longer had to go outside to go to the loo! When the bathroom was installed, the small attic also had a bit of a renovation and a double dormer was added. Being part of a large family in a small house meant that as well as always having to share a bedroom, there was never anywhere quiet! I look back on those days and wonder how my parents coped...but they did! 

There is nothing unique in my story. Families live in small houses and they cope well... they always have and they always will! I'm not sure that I would cope so well in a small house with a large family in the present times. It wouldn't be the sharing of a bedroom or the yearning for a bit of quiet...it would be the schoolwork! I take my hat off to all the parents and carers who are 'home-schooling' children during these difficult times. Just imagine having a large family, all different ages, at different stages of learning and having completely different lesson plans to prepar! I especially feel for all those who are in high school, where the work is more complicated and where it is more difficult to support them.  Looking back on my childhood, I'm not sure that we even had enough room to sit us all down at a table to do schoolwork...and what about P.E and other subjects?

We keep harping on about the benefits of modern technology. Yes, it is great a great help but what about all those families who can't afford such luxuries? Even doing without school dinners is taking its toll! Over the next few days, in the church porches at Settle and Giggleswick churches, a large box will be put in place. This is an attempt at a small, informal way of offering a food bank. The idea is that the box will be used to donate food or take food, depending on need. So, if you are out for your daily exercise and passing by, why not either take a tin of something with you to donate, or take a small bag to take something home for tea?

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, 

to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 

Everyone was filled with awe at the many 

wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 

All the believers were together and had everything in common. 

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need."

Acts 2:42-end   

Finding the right time...

I'm conscious that since the lockdown began, much of my energy has gone into reaching out to those people who are online. I started a blog, Sunday worship is now 'Zoomed' live and we're planning a series of online Bible studies. We're even having a weekly online coffee morning. That's great but what about those who do not have a computer? What are we doing to help people who are not on the web? Well, today is my printing and delivery day. I am now writing a weekly newsletter and including the Sunday readings that we are used to seeing in our Pew Sheets. I'm also printing out paper copies of my blog entries for the past week. At the moment we have about 30 people receiving copies, delivered by a small number of volunteer deliverers. If you know someone who would like a copy, would you please let me know? You may even consider being a deliverer? I will put some spare letters in the porches at St Alkelda's and Holy Ascension churches so that people can help themselves when they are out for their walks.

As you will have realised, I am spending far too much time sitting at my computer in my study. I can well understand those of you who are struggling to stay at home, especially when you are used to getting out and about. It is good that we can still go out, take our daily exercise and to go to the shops. I try to get out when I can but tend not to go too far. One thing I have seen a lot of are painted stones. Have you noticed them around town? I'm not sure who is responsible but they certainly put a smile on my face!

Being an out-looking church and being confined to home is quite a challenge! We're used to dashing about and not having enough hours in a day. We like to put others before ourselves and reach out to people in need. Being in isolation doesn't sit comfortable with us. However, by being in isolation we ARE still putting others before ourselves. No, it isn't easy, day after day being confined to home but by being in close proximity with others at the moment is to put everyone at risk.

Jesus, struggled to find the space sometimes to find the isolation and time to be alone with God. Even in our isolation, finding the quiet time with God can be hard to find. Do you have a special place in the house where you find that space? When my children were young and the house was quite busy and noisy, my time alone with God was often in the bath! I also found gardening a good time too. My prayer for us all in this time of isolation is that we will find the time and space to feel that connection with Christ...and with that comes peace...may the peace of the Lord be with you!

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, 

Jesus got up, left the house 

and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Mark 1:35