When my father, the Rev Edgar Bell, was a young Vicar the clergy of his area held a monthly meeting called "The way of renewal".
This was a monthly study course to help local clergy bring fresh light into their ministries.
At one such meeting they discussed what Jesus meant when he said, "Preach the gospel, heal the sick" (Luke's Gospel chapter 9, verses 1 and 2). They also remembered an instruction by one of the apostles and found in the letter of St.James: "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (See the letter of James in the New Testament, chapter 5, verses 14 - 16).
My Dad had given a lift in his car to a neighbouring Vicar who had a little daughter who was seriously ill with infantile eczema. In those days there was nothing doctors could do to treat this.
My Father said, "I suppose that if we took this teaching to heart, we ought to be able to help your little girl."
Those were days when the only telephone in any area was at the Post Office. After a few days Dad received a Telegram from his friend ... "Please come and do what you said".
Nowhere could Dad find a prayer book with a service in it for anointing the sick and laying on hands to pray for healing. In the end the two of them blessed some olive oil and went together to the hospital.
What they saw there would have broken your heart.... The child lay on her back in a cot. Each hand and foot was tied to the side of the cot by a bandage. This was to prevent scratching which would have covered her in blood.
My Father dipped his finger in the oil and anointed her head in the shape of a cross on her forehead. Then he laid his hands on her and prayed, "Lord, we have obeyed the words of your Son and of Holy Scripture. We pray that you would give healing to this child, in the name of Jesus, Amen".
A day or two later Dad received a telegram to say that she had improved. The following week my parents decided to attend the garden fete at the vicarage of this child's parents. I must leave it to your imagination, to think what my father's feelings were when the little girl came running across the grass to greet my father and take his hand.
That was how my father realised a calling to minister to the sick in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is all the more remarkable because it was at a time when such things were almost unheard-of.
Some time later, after he had spent many years praying for healing and had seen many miraculous recoveries, Dad gave a series of talks about the gift and ministry of Christian healing. These talks were published in a booklet which is now out of print. However, you can find them now at http://godschool.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/christian-healing/
3 parts can be read and the rest will follow.
Who knows what God could do through us, if we only have the faith to believe his word and trust in the love and mercy of Jesus?
It's quite a thought.
]]>Surely poverty isn’t good. In fact the church has committed itself to trying to end poverty. So I always used to puzzle as to why Jesus said “Blessed are the poor.”
Now I begin to understand. St Matthew’s Gospel says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”
What do you suppose that means?
I’ve read various explanations of being ‘poor in spirit’, including the idea that if you realise and acknowledge to yourself and to God that you are not much good (poor) spiritually, then God is able to help you because you are humble enough to admit that you are not perfect and you are in need. Even if we have enough materially, our spirits are in poverty until they are enriched by the mercy and love of our Saviour.
I would not quarrel with that.
But there is another meaning which appeals to me. If a friend invites me to attend a special occasion, and I can’t go, I’m likely to say “I will be with you in spirit!” By this I mean “I’ll be thinking of you, just as if I were there.”
If we apply this meaning to ‘the poor in spirit’, it can also mean “I am not materially or financially poor like some people, but I can think about them and try to live ‘as if’ I had practically nothing, and give away as much as I can to those who are truly in need.
When John Taylor was Bishop of Winchester he wrote a book called ‘Enough is Enough’. He pointed out that we do not need many luxuries to live happy lives, and we can be contented with the necessities of life. This explains why so often you see smiles on the faces of really poor people in other countries. If they have enough to get through the week, they are happy!
In our western world, as we have seen very recently with the expenses scandal, even rich people may try to defraud their company or the government. This makes it even more important to take to heart our Lord’s words about true riches and true poverty.
Modern advertising appeals to human greed and envy to encourage us to buy things which we either do not need or can’t afford. ‘Buy now and pay later’ they say. Some children become obsessed with the urge to have designer clothes and footwear, and often their parents run into debt in the effort to give them what they want.
Debt is one of the most widespread of our present social evils. It seems to get worse and worse and often leads to marriage breakdown or even to crime. It seems so sad to me that this is so, and that it can often be avoided if we were willing to live more simply and give up our desire to have more and more things.
Oh yes, there is a lot to be said for the simple life and the contented mind! Jesus was right, as usual.
I think it would be great if we could encourage each other NOT to buy lots of things, and to send the money we might have spent to one of the many excellent charities that deals with debt counselling or acute poverty.
The poor really do! What do you think?
]]>I am pleased to say that my father's little book on Christian healing, called 'Redemptive Healing', is now available to read on our family blog at http://godschool.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/christian-healing/
It is being posted a chapter at a time, and two chapters are now up.
My father was an Anglican priest with a gift of healing, and in this booklet, which is a series of talks he gave in the 1950s, he explains his understanding of the healing ministry. He was very much ahead of his time, but his vision has now become a reality.
He also gives examples of the illnesses of the people who came to him, and the nature and extent of their healing.
I hope his thoughts bless you as they have blessed our family.
Philip
]]>Today, I am retired, but I have enough to live on. I enjoy being like this, although I am still not quite used to it! – but it is true to say that the need for reliance on God for material things has gone.
We are part of the materialistic world, in a country where living standards for so many people have been going up and up ever since the 1960’s. I know there are people who still live below the poverty line, but we are very lucky in this country with the welfare state, and our poverty bears no resemblance to the acute poverty of other countries.
Being better-off is both a gain and a spiritual loss.
But does it matter?
The big question for Christians is this:
what sort of Christian church will this increased affluence create in the future?
I believe it is very important to remember that we do not belong just to an English or British church. How many English Christians have now realised that the majority of Christians on planet Earth live south of the Equator?
Europeans are definitely in a minority as far as numbers of Christians go. Our missionary societies are finding that the really vibrant Christian missionaries are now coming from Asia and Africa to this country, because we are more in need of spiritual help than they are.
Jesus once exclaimed that it was so hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. We need to take this to heart and to realise ‘that’s us!’
Materially rich but spiritually poor?
We should not be surprised, then, to learn that outside our western, wealthy, materialistic culture, the poorer countries have seen remarkable growth in the size of their church membership. In contrast to this, in our area of the globe there are some countries where the state maintains the church buildings; some where old endowments and property have been sufficiently well-managed to produce millions of pounds a year; some where wealthy people support their local church (I am not saying that any of this is bad or wrong).
But by and large, if you want to find a vitally alive church composed of people filled by the Holy Spirit, endowed with real Christian love, devotion, enthusiasm and yet very practical in helping others, then the places to look are among the poor and the needy.
Here, we moan about the reduction of full-time ministers, and sometimes church people are reluctant to take on extra work for God on top of their normal jobs. But churches in poor countries, with no endowments and very little money, cannot afford many clergy either. So, once again, if you want to find lay people taking services and doing all manner of work in and through the church, then the best place to see it is where real poverty exists, and ordained ministries are very thin on the ground.
In the past we have made the mistake of exporting our Church of England services and our English culture to areas where some of our missionaries went.
Some of this legacy is good, and some of it is still bitter to national Christians. Once, when I visited northern Nigeria, I went to a church which was originally built for white expatriates. It was just like stepping into the Church of England of my childhood in the 1920’s! And what a contrast with other churches, where the music was Nigerian and the words in Hausa. There was spiritual life for you!
Materially poor but spiritually rich!
Lessons have been learnt since the days of the British Empire, and other countries now have their own liturgies and ways of self-expression in public worship. Their material poverty is producing spiritual riches. My daughter tells me of a service at Christmas, where the women’s fellowship in her Nigerian church sang in Hausa in a very lively way with beaten pots and drums ‘Bring, bring Christmas offerings!’
As they sang, scores of people made their way to the front of the huge church with offerings – not just money, but bags of grain and even chickens. People who had almost nothing, but were willing to be generous to those who had even less. What struck her most were the beaming smiles on everyone’s faces. They were enjoying giving away what they could not really afford!
Again, it is from the areas of the poor or the persecuted, that we find a faith which affects every part of life: work, recreation, home and politics too.
Unless you go to cardboard city, unless you go to the ‘two-thirds world’, you just do not realise how wealthy we really are! Often, when I was in Nigeria, people would call out “Take me to your rich land, Englishman!” Is it our material riches which make our nation one of the most godless in the world, I wonder?
Jesus, as usual, has something wise and relevant to say to my question, and I want to look at what he says next time.
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Because clergy life was a constant challenge to make ends meet, it meant that for many of us the vocation to the ministry was a vocation to comparative poverty. You were forced by law to live in a house and grounds which you could not afford, and you just had to rely on God and a few people’s goodness to exist.
No Christmas dinner?
I remember so well the first year in my father’s vicarage in Blackburn in 1937. It was lunchtime on the Sunday before Christmas Day. My father put his hand in his pocket and took out a sixpenny piece which he put on the table. “That is all I have until I am paid in January,” he said. “I’m overdrawn at the bank to the limit, so I’m afraid it means we cannot have a Christmas dinner this year.”
A few days later, when my mother was going out of the front door to spend the last remains of her housekeeping money(for things like cheese and bread), there, on the doorstep, were two paper bags filled with all we could want for Christmas dinner! We never found out who had given these to us.
No holiday?
Roughly fifteen years later, when I was married and working south London, it was a year when we could not go to the Church Army holiday home (because you were not allowed to go two years running). For some reason I had not been able to fix up a ‘locum’ holiday for the period allocated to us for a summer vacation. “Whatever shall we do for a holiday?” my wife asked.
This was an important question, because clergy work 6 days a week, and we often started at 6am and would finish at midnight. Life was hectic and by the time summer came we were exhausted. I said “don’t worry”, if the good Lord wants us to have a holiday away from the house, He will provide it.”
A few days before we were due for our summer break, I received a letter from the Bishop of Southwark, saying that a solicitor in Sawbridgeworth had written to ask if any young clergyman and his family needed a holiday, and would they like to use his house for three weeks? He even left his German Aupair to help us.
How grateful we were!!
Can’t pay the bill?
On another occasion we had an unexpectedly large bill for over £100 and no money . Out of the blue came almost the exact amount from a source which would not normally enter our heads as a ‘benefactor’ in time of need. It was, in fact, a cheque from the Inland Revenue for income tax that had been overpaid!
God, Not chance!
I could multiply these examples. You just could not put these experiences down to lucky chance. What it meant in our lives was that we learned to trust God that he would provide whatever was really needed. As in the case of the holiday in Sawbridgeworth, we learned that if something could not be provided from our own resources, then the thing to do was to pray, to trust and to wait, and to know that if it was God’s will then the need would be met.
It’s different now!
Today, the policy is quite rightly followed that the parish pays the working expenses of the clergy, while clergy stipends (incomes) have gradually increased and levelled, so that all clergy get the same rate of pay, no longer dependent on the wealth or poverty of their parish. The income received by Anglican ministers these days is very considerably less than other professional people with the same higher education, but that is offset by their living in a house where the council tax is paid for them and the diocese takes responsibility for the maintenance of the fabric, (although not the interior decoration).
Mind you, when clergy retire they have then to find somewhere to live, and somehow find the money to rent or buy a house, because a clergy house is a ‘tied’ house and goes with the church, and must be vacated ready for the next minister.
This is still a real problem for some clergy, particularly if they have not been in the ministry long enough to qualify for a full pension, and if they do not own their own property. The Church of England Pensions Board has a number of options to help clergy find somewhere to live, such as part-ownership.
On the other hand, many clergy are now coming into the ordained ministry when they have had a secular job for some years, and usually their spouse is working as well, so they often have their own home already. These days, this means that a clergy family may have two incomes. This was unheard of in days past, when a ‘good’ clergy wife always stayed at home, looked after the house which was usually huge and a great deal of work, cared for the family, answered the door and the phone, got involved in parish life and generally helped her husband.
The modern clerical family therefore has more money in real terms than some of the past generations, and that makes life easier because the cost of feeding, clothing and educating families, paying rent or mortgage for their personal property if they have one, domestic bills, managing a car (or two) etc continues to spiral upwards.
So what?
By now you may be asking ‘What’s the point of all this?’ and I want to answer that question in my next posting.
The reality was often very different.
Clothing
What many of us did was to apply to the charity the Poor Clergy Relief Corporation for clothing. One of the great excitements of my childhood days, when my father was vicar of the little village of Molland in North Devon, was the arrival at the railway station five miles away of two big canvas-covered bundles, labelled ‘cushions’.
My parents would have filled in a form showing their exact financial position, and stating their essential needs for clothing for themselves and their two sons. The clothing we received was usually good quality second-hand items, though on rare occasions some things looked new.
Picture us in the big bedroom at the back of the house undoing these parcels, lifting out the clothes, holding them up and trying them on for size! I can still smell the (quite pleasant) scent of these garments.
The same charity helped my wife and I during our marriage, and my eldest daughter still remembers the bundles arriving, and trying on the second-hand suits in the ‘swinging sixties’ when her better-off schoolmates were buying miniskirts and jeans.
As for me, I did not know what it was like to go to a shop and buy new clothes, up until the very end of the 1950s. There was never enough money to live on until the late 1960s.
Holidays
For holidays there were two things which most of us did. One was to take a locum parish; for example, one summer I went to Sandown on the Isle of Wight, where we lived in the vicarage while the incumbent was away having his holiday. I took Sunday services, saw to emergencies, and my wife and I kept the garden and house tidy. It made quite a good self-catering holiday for the weekdays.
The other way to get a break was to go to one of the Church Army (not Salvation Army) clergy holiday houses. One was at Birchington-on-Sea in Kent, and the other at Clevedon in North Somerset. We paid a modest sum for board and lodging, and the whole family shared one bedroom. (Imagine six of us in one room for a fortnight!)
At mealtimes, all the adults sat at one table and the children at another. Each clergyman took a day in turn to say prayers at breakfast and grace before and after main meals. We always remember one of them who had a different grace for each meal. I don’t know how we kept from bursting into laughter when he said, very solemnly at the end of breakfast
“For porridge, tea and buttered toast,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost”!
These holidays could be good fun, especially if the children met up with boys and girls of their own age. Sometimes there were clergy who wanted to explain that they had the most difficult parish in England, but by and large each family was free to do its own thing and enjoy the time by the sea as they wished.
I remember talking to one of the ladies in Clevedon who had worked at the clergy holiday house there ever since it opened when she had just left school. She was from a working-class family, and she told me how shocked she had been in the 1920s when she saw the worn-out clothes and poverty of the clergy and their families. “I told my father,” she said, “that I had not seen anything like it in Clevedon.”
Well, it is all very different now. I am not writing this in order to complain – indeed, I think I grew up just assuming that that was the nature of our life! But I do have a purpose for talking about the past days of clerical poverty.
(to be continued)
]]>When I was younger you often heard this phrase: "it's a poor do!" It's not a phrase you hear so much these days. It means "I don't think much of that" or "that's not very good". However, that is not the meaning I have in mind now. I will explain why I have titled these postings 'The Poor Do' as I go along.
While I was at school I was always aware that my parents were financially much poorer than the parents of the other boys, and it was clear that I always had less pocket money than they had. Like many people, I had a penny every Saturday for pocket money until I went away to a boarding school, where it went up to a shilling a week.
Those were the days when some town children ran around the streets barefoot in the summer, and their clothes were usually torn, patched hand-me-downs – as we can see from photos of that period.
But people still thought of clergymen as ‘gentlemen of private means’, and even as late as 1938 one of my school friends, knowing, by then, that I hoped to be ordained into the church ministry, said to me: “But I thought you had to have independent means if you wanted to go into the church.”
My father, ordained at the end of World War I, was among a growing number of clergy with no money at all, except the income of the parish where he worked.
At that time, a vicar’s income depended on whatever endowments had been given to the parish by past generations. The stipend could be as little as one or two hundred pounds a year, though there were a small number of ‘plum livings’ where the incumbent (or clergyman) was well-off. (This can be seen in novels such as Anthony Trollope’s ‘Barchester Towers’ or ‘The Warden’, and Jane Austen’s novels where young clergymen wanting to marry cannot do so unless they are given a ‘good living’. The livings in those days were endowed by the patrons, which is why Mr Collins in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is so anxious to please Lady Catherine, who is his patron.)
When my father was working, and right up into the late 1960’s, it was taken for granted by the parishioners and the church authorities that the parson would provide and pay for a car, telephone, postage, travel, office equipment and expenses, rates on his large house which went with the job, and a thing called ‘dilapidations’ – which meant that an architect arrived every five years and decided what outside painting and fabric repairs or domestic utilities replacements would be needed from then until his next visit. This total was divided into five, and the appropriate sum paid annually. I recall, when we went to Crawley rectory near Winchester in the 1960s, the rates came to just under £100 and the dilapidations to £120 a year. I had to pay this out of a salary of £720 per year, and we had four children to look after too.
Any interior decoration was entirely up to the family living there. So if you do the sums you will see that money was very tight indeed. Fortunately for all of us, Dilys was always absolutely wonderful at making a little go a very long way!
(to be continued)
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Look, I know this is not exactly a cheerful topic, but I am posting it in the hope that it will be of help to anybody who has experienced bereavement, especially if the death was a close relative like a husband or son or daughter.
So let me begin ...
For my wife Dilys, the last few years of her life were very uncomfortable as there was no relief from the severe arthritis in her knees and legs.
She would sometimes say two things to me ... One was, "I hope I die first because I could not cope alone, whereas I know that you could". She also said, "If the doctor said, "You only have a few weeks to live", I would be pleased."
In February she became more and more frail,until one Friday morning she could not speak to Paul our live-in Carer, or to me.
We called an ambulance. When it arrived I was so thankful to find that the driver was Colin from St Mary Magdalen's Church in Hilperton Marsh, well-known to me (his wife Val is Churchwarden there). He decided to take Dilys to Casualty at the R.U.H.,(Royal United Hospital in Bath).
I was still in my pyjamas, so Paul went with them. I phoned the family, dressed and waited for news.
Dilys' treatment would not bear results for some time and she remained unconscious, so Paul came home and later that afternoon my (elder) daughter Gilliian and her husband Geoff came down from Birmingham and stayed with her. She seemed to be responding to treatment,so they called here on their way to stay with friends in Devizes,(a few miles from here.)
At 1a.m. the hospital phoned Gill to say that Dilys had died.
I shall always remember with deep gratitude the great kindness of Paul when he awoke me to tell me.
It was about 2.30am, the early morning of Saturday, 21st February. The hospital said that, as everything closed down for the weekend, we would not be able to see Dilys until Monday, unless we went immediately, therefore my son-in-law Geoff drove us straight there.
When we arrived the whole hospital was in darkness, but a nurse met us and guided us to the ward where Dilys was. The three of us prayed, then I asked to be left for a few minutes. I was thankful for the quietness to spend some time with her on my own.
We returned home and to bed. The following day (Saturday)Gill stayed on with me whilst Geoff went back to Birmingham as he was taking a service on Sunday. That evening the Rev Annie(a local priest and good friend) came to give a Requiem Communion for Gill and myself, which was peaceful, beautiful and very comforting. Most of the special prayers she used were so lovely and appropriate that we included them in composing Dilys' Thanksgiving Service.
On the Monday Gill discovered that we could not collect Dilys' body because a second doctor had not been found to sign her death certificate at the hospital. On Wednesday the coroner's office phoned, to apologise for the delay, and to explain that they were working hard to track down the locum doctor who had first attended to Dilys on her arrival at hospital. Lizzie my second daughter had already arrived and started work to register the death and was advised this would be best done through Bath. It was not until the end of the week that the certificate was finally signed, which was extremely frustrating and I hope you did not have the same experience. My undertaker friend Patrik from Melksham, was able to collect the body and take Dilys to his own chapel of rest, meanwhile Gill had returned home. Lizzie stayed for a while and then my younger son Chris came to spend a few days with me and help me with the practical arrangements for Dilys' funeral and thanksgiving.
Later on, Sian, one of Dilys' and my carers, and I went to the Chapel of Rest to see Dilys. This room is one of the most beautiful we had ever seen. In the coffin Dilys looked beautiful, dressed in her favorite clothes and holding the Valentine card I had sent her only two weeks previously, recording the fact that she had been my valentine for 64 years.
All this was a great help to me. Instead of thinking about the dark scene in the middle of the night at the hospital, this beautiful, light and colourful scene came to mind instead. I was very much helped by this.
I have often thought about the comment of a lady, the widow of a friend who died of cancer... she said, "Remember - tears and laughter are both gifts of God".
Meanwhile, we had arranged Friday 6 March for a family cremation service followed by a buffet lunch at the Pilot Inn near our house. The main Thanksgiving Service was planned for St Michael's Church, Hilperton the same afternoon at 4pm.
Gillian and I worked hard together, sending out the news about Dilys, and inviting people to the service we were composing, which we planned would be taken by members of our wider family. It took even longer to find out who was willing to take a share in it, and to allocate parts to each. We were very much supported by Stephen the vicar of St Michael's Hilperton. (This was my parish before retirement and Stephen was the third vicar after me. In recent years Dilys and I where frequently welcomed there.)
A copy of the service and of what each person said, including the appreciation by my cousin Rt Rev Anthony Priddis,Bishop of Hereford, has been recorded for the family. So many came to the service - 150 people - that chairs had to be brought in to seat them all. Unfortunately for me the loop system had broken down and I could not hear what was said, but all the talks were sent to me afterwards by email so I could read them.
At the end of the service the family and I went to the site where the ashes where to be buried, near the church porch. John, the Archdeacon of Wiltshire, took the prayers and then the bells rang a beautiful half-muffled peal. Patrik had already laid the lovely tributes of spring flowers around the site, which Paul had taken a great deal of time and care to arrange. My own posy, of red roses, had been placed on top of the casket at the front of the church throughout the service.
As I had already greeted everybody as they arrived, Geoff drove us to the Village Hall for a tea, where we were joined by most of those who had been at the service.
The Thanksgiving Service had been a great success, and everybody, both family and friends, had given Dilys the send-off she deserved. My elder son Michael spent the weekend with me, which was a great help and comfort.
After all this, my main task has been to learn how best to live with just my carers, in rotation, an occasional caller or medical appointment, cotinuing my 'Blog', and keeping in touch with my friends and extended family. I am still doing jobs in the garden and I try to go for a walk most days. I decided that my motto must be, "KEEP BUSY".
Unfortunately Annette, my weekly P.A., had fallen and broken an arm, which was in a sling, but she still managed one-handed to send a letter or email to over 70 people to thank them for sending condolence cards.
Paul is an excellent asset because, not only is he an expert chef and has encouraged me to have friends for meals, but also loves flower-gardening, weeding and lawn cutting - an interest we share. Sian has a car and takes us out for shopping and other things, and she has now learned how to do vegetable work like planting onion sets and broad beans. Both carers look after my needs very efficiently, especially regarding my poor sight and hearing. They both work hard at housework, laundry and ironing.
Social Services provided extra steps and hand-rails in the garden. I continue to receive excellent support from all agencies, staff and family.
I am very pleased to be able to remain in my own home and with the garden I originally constructed out of builder's rubble.
Of course, I still miss Dilys very much, but am thankful that she rests within the love of God and in a place where there is "no more pain".
So, inspite of now being a widower, I can sincerely say,
Who could be more fortunate than I ?
(See end of Gospel reading for Trinity 17)
It is surprising how recent some modern medical practices are.
Take scans, for example, (as used for pregnant women). When I lived on a remote island where there was no such thing, a lady entered the tiny hospital to have a baby. Just after the baby was born she looked down at herself and said, "But my tummy has not gone down". "Half a mo", said the doctor, "There's another one here!". So to everyone's surprise she had twins.
Its the same with modern pills. When my uncle Ted found that he had Diabetes in the mid 1920's all he could do was to take insulin and follow a complicated diet. Today I am a diabetic and just take a pill to keep my sugar level right. For my cancer I take three pills a day which keep me comfortable.
If you go back 2000 years to the days of Jesus there was very little that could be done for common illnesses. When people heard about Jesus' marvelous gift of healing, they came in crowds to seek his help. Try to picture the scene where everybody wanted to see the miracles of healing. When people heard that he was in their little town, the men would stop their work, and the women would stop sweeping the floor or cooking, and those with a young family would have to bring the children with them. Imagine a mother saying, "Come on kids, Jesus the healer is here. Let's go and see."
When the 12 disciples saw the children, imagine their saying to each other, "look at all these wretched children ! We had better move them out of the way. They will only be a nuisance to Jesus."
Our Lord, however, who always paid attention to anyone being overlooked, said, "Let the children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." (Mark Ch.10 vers 13-16.)
What a surprise for every one! Think how happy the children would have felt and picture how proud the parents would have been when they saw Jesus blessing them.
I wonder what you think of children in church, and how their needs should be provided for? When a friend of mine was at a family Communion service recently, he observed the children returning from the altar rail having been blessed, looking very happy and dancing with joy.
Surely their example has a message for all of us!.
]]> There was a man who went to spend a weekend with his married niece.
It was the last Sunday in September and the couple said they were going to church and said, "Will you come with us, uncle ?" Well, he had not been much of a church-goer, but he said, "Alright, I will".
When they arrived he was surprised to find the whole church decorated with Michaelmas daisies. (These flowers have very long, very hard stems with a cluster of flowers near the top). Later in the service he was surprised to hear a prayer about angels. This was because he thought Michael was the name of a saint.
I would like to give you some very interesting information about Michaelmas. As it is rather hard to find this on the net, I am putting it here.
Michaelmas, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels, is celebrated on the 29th of September every year. As it falls near the equinox, the day is associated with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days; in England, it is one of the “quarter days”.
There are traditionally four “quarter days” in a year (Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September) and Christmas (25th December)). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes. They were the four dates on which servants were hired, rents due or leases begun. It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas, almost like the marking of the end of the productive season and the beginning of the new cycle of farming. It was the time at which new servants were hired or land was exchanged and debts were paid. This is how it came to be that Michaelmas was the time for electing magistrates and also the beginning of legal and university terms.
St Michael is one of the principal angelic warriors, protector against the dark of the night and the Archangel who fought against Satan and his evil angels. As Michaelmas is the time that the darker nights and colder days begin - the edge into winter - the celebration of Michaelmas is associated with encouraging protection during these dark months. It was believed that negative forces were stronger in darkness and so families would require stronger defences during the later months of the year.
Traditionally, in the British Isles, a well-fattened goose, fed on the stubble from the fields after the harvest, is eaten to protect against financial need in the family for the next year.
Sometimes the day was also known as “Goose Day” and goose fairs were held. Even now, the famous Nottingham Goose Fair is still held on or around the 3rd of October. It could also have developed through the role of Michaelmas Day as the debts were due; tenants requiring a delay in payment may have tried to persuade their landlords to accept gifts of geese!
The Michaelmas Daisy, which flowers late in the growing season between late August and early October, provides colour and warmth to gardens at a time when the majority of flowers are coming to an end. As suggested by the saying below, the daisy is probably associated with this celebration because, as mentioned previously, St Michael is celebrated as a protector from darkness and evil, just as the daisy fights against the advancing gloom of Autumn and Winter.
“The Michaelmas Daisies, among dede weeds,
Bloom for St Michael's valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood,
Till the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude.”
(The Feast of St. Simon and Jude is 28 October)
The act of giving a Michaelmas Daisy symbolises saying farewell, perhaps in the same way as Michaelmas Day is seen to say farewell to the productive year and welcome in the new cycle.
I will end with a prayer which is often used on this day.
Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
]]>I remember being asked to take a service in Capetown, (South Africa) on a big Lent Sunday 3 weeks before Easter. I could not think why there was fruit and vegetables all round the church. Then I realised that it was early autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and therefore, harvest festival there! It was appropriate that that mid-Lent day was called "Refreshment Sunday".
Of course thanksgiving for Harvest goes back thousands of years: in ancient Greek and Egyptian records we read of Harvest thanksgiving for the various cereal crops growing there. Similarly Bible references go back to thousands of years ago. For the origin of bringing harvest gifts to God in thanksgiving, see the fifth book in the Bible and read Deuteronomy ch 26, vs 2-5. Another Bible reference is Psalm 65 vs 6-13. Also, see a "don't worry" passage in Luke ch 12 vs 16-30.
You may wonder who started up having a special Harvest service in our September? The answer is that it was originally the bright idea of a vicar called Robert Walker in 1843, who lived in Cornwall. So Harvest Festivals are now 166 years old.
As time went on and people in cities often did not have gardens, they started to bring both fresh and tinned goods to church. We still do this at our Harvest Festivals these days, and both children and adults bring something.
Some churches give a little package of these goods to old or ill people.
One church I know sells everything by auction and gives the money to a charity. Today we might consider giving the goods to C.A.P. (Christians against Poverty) who, no doubt, would use them wisely.
Fruit, veg, cereals etc are appropriate for people who grow them, but what of the harvest of town or city dwellers? Here the harvest is of produce such as soap, cutlery, crockery, steel, electric goods, sanitary ware, radios or anything else. We can give thanks for anything made locally.
Harvest is an appropriate time to remember those who are really POOR. Here in the UK, in Western Europe and in the northern half of the continent of the Americas, we are all comparatively rich, in contrast to the very poor areas of parts of Africa, (for example) where people are dying from starvation.
Consider these facts:
- Our wealthy areas absorb 89% of the world's resources.
- The poor countries make up 4/5 of the land surface, but only use 12% of the resources available.
- One fifth is too cold for growing food. One fifth is too dry. One fifth is too mountainous.
- But note this: 30% of the world's surface could produce food but only 10% is cultivated.
What should Christians do about this?
When Jesus spoke about judgement day, he said to those who were approved by God , "when I was hungry you fed me" ...and doing this was the same as doing it for Him.
It is rather ridiculous to think only of poor people in Britain when thousands die every year from having neither food or water. So it should be part of our lives and almsgiving to support charities like Christian Aid, Oxfam, etc.
Goodness me! what a lot of things arise from harvest.
All of us who believe in God should include all the topics we have covered in our prayers, whether in church or at home. Here is a prayer which I think you will find is appropriate:
Lord, we thank you for the Harvest of land, sea and city. May we always walk gently upon this earth, in right relationship, nurtured by your love, taking only what we need, giving back to the earth in gratitude, sharing what we have, honouring all with reverence. We ask this in the name of Him who often attended festive meals, Jesus Christ. Amen.
]]>I myself am on pension, so you cannot call me "comfortably off", can you ?
If you wonder why I am writing about the troubles of people younger than myself, I will tell you ....
Quite simply, I was re-reading Jesus' story about the good shepherd (see Luke chapter 15 vs 3-6 ) who was looking after 100 sheep, and I wondered why he was given the compliment of being called "good"?
The answer, of course is that he left the 99 and went to help the one who had become separated from the main flock, rescued it, brought it back and settled it in among the others.
This made it clear to me that the church's job in the recession ought to be to go out and help any person separated from ordinary life by such thing as money shortage.
So, WHAT CAN THE CHURCH DO ?
I have known people who pretended to their family that they were still employed. Please do not do this! - get up the courage to tell them the truth.
When I was running short of money I asked the local authority if I qualified for a reduction in things like coucil tax. I would advise you to do the same. Also contact your local Jobcentre Plus: phone 0845 602 3805.
Tell all your friends and family: information often travels by word of mouth.
I know someone with big money problems who received an enormous amount of help from their local Citizens' Advice Centre, and you could do this too.
Keep in contact with your local church. I very very strongly advise you to contact your local branch of CHRISTIANS AGAINST POVERTY (C.A.P.) This is a nationwide organisation which you can contact on www.capuk.org. They will arrange an appointment at your home to discuss all your financial problems and suggest the best way forward.
GINGERBREAD ORGANISATION is to help one-parent families. If you have no internet access please visit your local library and use the computer there.
You do not need to be a Christian to use these organisations - they will help anybody whatsoever.
I hope this will be of help to those of you who are affected by the recession.
I send you the assurance of my interest and prayers.
Philip
]]>What sort of society do we now have, when somebody who wishes to kill themselves is shown beaming from ear to ear on the front page of almost every newspaper, and her case trumpeted as a triumph? What have we got ourselves into here?
Someone on the radio recently went against what has now become PC - ie it's OK to want to kill yourself and don't you dare say anything against the freedom of the individual - and questioned the whole Dignitas business. He queried whether assisted suicide really is 'death with dignity', or rather, is it not 'death by depression'?
I have been very impressed by an article in the Church of England newspaper last week by Michael Wenham, who has Motor Neurone Disease. He queries what seems to me to be an unexamined understanding of 'dignity' in the media. He says '''Dignity' itself is another word which is in danger of being hijacked. Why is taking a lethal dose more dignified than bravely, perhaps painfully, putting up with a disability or a terminal disease until the end? Is there less intrinsic dignity in being dependent than being in control? If so, it has dire implications for how we regard many of our fellow humans - as dignity has at its root the concept of worth."
His experience has taught him some unexpected lessons, he says.
* Life is a gift, not a 'right'.
* There's a freedom over not having control. He's letting go of 'choice' (another unexamined buzz word, in my opinion) and starting to welcome 'chance'.
He is discovering, he says, that an increasingly limited life can paradoxically be an increasingly rich one. And he concludes:
"I suspect that our society's insistence of rights and on personal autonomy, of which the campaign for assisted suicide is a symptom, is progressively impoverishing all our lives, as well as endangering some. I believe we need to beware and to speak up."
Well, he should know.
His book about his experience of MND is called 'My Donkeybody - Living with a body that no longer obeys you'.
(posted by Gill, co-author)
]]>Recent news reports and headlines have raised important questions about the standards and morals of some in this society, ie a minority of MPs, members of the House of Lords and of course many in the City institutions. Much of this is coming to light through the media along with exposures of peoples' morals - or lack of them - in their private lives.
Should a person's private life have anything to do with his or her fitness to do a certain job?
Over many years people in public appointments and those in positions of power in large financial concerns have said: 'I'm doing my job well; my private life is my own business and is quite separate from my public life.'
Some people think that if you are a good mechanic or an efficent hotel receptionist, or whatever job you can think of, your boss must ignore the fact you are having an affair with someone else's husband or wife, or 'being creative' with work expenses (note how we make it sound better than it really is!): or making the most of lax financial controls to benefit the individual.
Of course, things are different if you're a Christian leader.
Or are they? A few years ago you may have read about a vicar who had diverted thousands of pounds of church money into his own bank account.
In his case he was quickly out of a job. Why? Because the church was saying: "Your private life is very much to do with your public life" and both matter to God and to his Church.
Jesus was always concerned about people's personal lives and never made any division between how they behaved in their private capacity and how they behaved in their job. He was very clear about it. He said "No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and material things". (Luke 16 v13).
This includes all those who abuse their position, politicians and financiers and us, too. "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." (Old Testament, book of Ecclesiastes, ch l5: v 10).
You may remember the account in the Gospel of John, chapter 4 where Jesus was talking to a women by a well. Jesus said to her, "go and call your husband", and she answered, "I haven't got a husband". Jesus replied, "you have been married to five men and the man you live with is not really your husband". Jesus knew her inner secrets, and indeed, he knows ours too.
Jesus taught that it is what is in your inner heart that matters, when he explained how we must not judge people by their public or outer life alone. He said "Be on your guard against those who come to you looking like sheep on the outside but on the inside they are really like wolves. You will know them by what they do." (Matthew 7,vs 15 and following verses).
As I study the teaching of Jesus, it seems very clear to me that what he teaches us is something like this:
If a man or woman has the most marvellous results in his or her job or public life, NONE of this is important when compared with the person's character. That's why Jesus says, "DON'T STORE UP RICHES ON EARTH, STORE UP RICHES IN HEAVEN". In other words, "When you die you cannot take your possesions with you. What you take into the afterlife is your CHARACTER and how that has been changed and moulded by faith in Jesus and by the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
If you are a person with forgiveness, concern for others, a striver to be a sincere Christian, and if you have love in your heart, THAT is what you will take into Heaven. That is your true Treasure!
You may have heard the fictitiuos story of the young couple who were looking forward to getting married on the following Saturday. Sadly they were both killed in a car crash two days before their wedding. When they reached the gates of Heaven they saw St Peter standing there and explained to him how they where about to get married. They said to Peter, "Have you got a Vicar here who could marry us?"
"Sorry", Peter said, "we haven't had one of those for years"!
We may chuckle at this, but the important point to note is that God is not so much interested in the public job you've done, or how 'successful' you are. God looks at the way you have done it, whether you have acted with integrity and with ethical principles. And these arise out of your character, moulded by constantly walking with Him in this life, respecting His words and ways, co-operating with His Holy Spirit, honouring Jesus in what you do and the way you live. These are the things which you take into the next life.
This can be good news for all of us.
Sometimes people have said to me, "I'm nobody special. I'm not clever or successful in my life. I'm just very ordinary". If they say this to me, I may reply by saying, "I know you were never a 'Leader', or a big business success, but you have helped people and you've always listened to their troubles, with love in your heart."
We all have so many faults and failings we cannot think of ourselves superior to others. We may not have done the major wrongs that we see around us constantly, but nor should we ever fall into the trap of thinking ourselves better than other people. We should not be the one "to cast the first stone",because we are all guilty, one way or another. What we do in our public and our private lives matters to God, who is concerned about both our inner and outer thoughts and actions and who makes no division between them. He is the one "to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden".
]]>The overall topic is divided between
The 7th.,8th and 9th Sundays after Trinity
"The Bread of life"
Jesus is called The Bread Of Life (Vs 35) because he himself is the nourishment (bread)for eternal life.
He not only gives us this new kind of life, he also strengthens (sustains) it(Vs 63).
It may surprise you to know that the key to understanding chapter 6 is in the account of Moses leading the children of Israel,(later called the Jews), out of slavery into freedom. In John 5 Vs 46 we read that Jesus said "Moses wrote about me".
Chapter 6 is designed to show how the prophecy of Moses came true.
When the Israelites were short of food God provided manna to feed them. Similarly, Jesus provided food to feed the multitude.
Moses had rescued his followers from drowning in the Red Sea: Jesus rescues his followers by walking on the water.
In some churches the Communion bread is made from flour and water in the form of a round white wafer, just like the manna(see Exodus chapter 16 vs 13-15). This is one of the reasons we call it "Bread from heaven".
When the israelites first discovered it they asked "manna", meaning "what is this?"
This might mean that we are being asked the same question today. When we look at the bread and wine of Communion, we are being asked 'what is this?' Is it just bread and wine, and nothing else?
This can't be the answer, because Jesus tells us that we must eat his bread, his body, and drink the wine, his blood, in order to have eternal life in us.
It is amazing to realise that events many thousands of years ago were a foreshadowing of what we can receive in church today.
I hope that all this has helped you to enjoy the full meaning chapter 6.
]]>Dear Lucy, You said you thought I was "cool",
To help with the project you have at your school.
"When you were a girl" you said in your letter,
"Was life just like now, or very much better?"
Before I begin, I think I have got
To explain about words which have changed such a lot:
I don't know how our language has been so affected,
For "cool" meant to us both calm and collected.
A "joint" was the meat from a nice tasty munch,
And "pot" was for cooking a good Sunday lunch.
"Grass" was the green stuff you cut with a mower,
And "coke" was the fuel when the boiler was lower.
"Rock" music you sang when changing a nappy,
And"gay" meant just jolly and ever so happy.
If your face looked blotchy and needed a shake-up,
The "aids" that you used were simply called make-up.
We had stones, pounds and ounces and knew what they meant,
And "fast foods" described our limits in Lent!
"Hardware" were tools like a drill or a file,
And "softwear" was flimsy, made of cotton or lisle.
We had no knowledge of much which is good,
Such as i-pods, dishwashers and fast frozen food.
Tumble-dryers, and radar and computer-dating
Were unknown inventions just lying in waiting.
With so many gadgets to help in the house,
You would think there was nothing to warrant a grouse;
But something is missing from children today,
So I'll try to explain it; and here's what I say:
You see we were freer to walk anywhere,
And locking our doors was really quite rare.
We feared no violence, nor thief out to steal,
We were very much safer; that's what I feel.
But I'll end with a question, and my reliance
On your knowlege of physics, computers and science:
The church is so short of many a priest,
Would "cloning" the clergy be some help at least?
10. Now comes a very important point in the service, called 'The Peace'. It's important because God wants everybody in church is in a loving relationship with each other. After the minister (priest) has said 'The peace of the Lord be with you', we are all invited to 'exchange the Peace'.
People usually shake each other by the hand, and say 'peace be with you!' Sometimes they walk around the church to share the peace with everyone, and it's quite common to give a hug and a kiss to people, especially those you are close to.
This is often a happy, informal time - the vicar may have trouble getting everyone back to their seats for the next bit of the service, because they are enjoying themselves!
11. A hymn or song follows for the 'Offertory',when we 'offer' the bread and the wine and our money to God.
In many churches people from the congregation bring the plate of bread, a small flask of wine and the plate containing everyone's offerings forward to the minister at the holy table.
The bread, wine and money represent the whole of our lives, and in offering them to God we are offering him ourselves. (For a full explanation, please see my posting called 'Choosing the right present' in December 08.)
There are different ways of offering our money. Lots of churches have a plate at the door for people's gifts, and it's brought up to the altar at this point. In other churches, people take round a plate or a bag to each member of the congregation. Lots of churches have a 'stewardship scheme', which encourages church members to give a certain amount, that they feel they can afford, on a regular basis.
12. Now follows the most important and central part of the Communion. In the Common Worship book it is called the 'Eucharistic Prayer', which (as I've already said) means 'Thanksgiving'. It is the time of the service when the minister prays over and blesses the bread and wine, asking God to send his Holy Spirit to make the bread and wine the spiritual body and blood of Jesus for us.
There are at least 8 variations of this very special prayer, and your service booklet will tell you which one. It will be printed out in full, and there are words for the congregation to respond to the wonderful things that are prayed here.
13. Next the Lord's Prayer, the prayer Jesus himself taught us, because he was the first person to teach us to call God 'Our Father in heaven'. This is either in its traditional or more modern form.
14. Now comes a deeply meaningful moment, the heart of the worship, when the priest breaks the bread, to remind us that the body of Jesus was broken for us on the cross. It also teaches us that although we are many, we all belong to the body of Jesus, the church, and so we are one in him.
Churches vary in the bread they use. Some use ordinary bread and break it into little pieces. Others have a very big, flat white disc of bread which they also break up. Many churches have small discs, made of the finest flour and water, and each person who goes for Communion is given one.
(These small flat discs remind us of the 'manna' in the wilderness, a story in the Old Testament when God's people were wandering in the desert and were hungry. God fed them by sending special food that fell from the sky and lay in white flakes on the ground. The people collected them up and ate them. You can find this story in Exodus 16, verses 9 to 36).
15. People are then invited to come up to the holy table, or altar, for Communion. Most people kneel at the rail, but some stand and that's OK. Communion is for those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God and their Saviour. Normally people who believe this have been baptised and confirmed in the Church of England and so they are able to take the bread and wine. They do this by holding up their hands, and the piece of bread or the wafer is placed in them with the words 'The body of Christ given for you'. This is followed by the cup (or 'chalice') of wine and water, with the words 'The blood of Christ, shed for you', and each person takes a sip.
At this holy moment people respond by saying 'Amen', with deep thankfulness in their hearts. When the person next to them has also received the bread and wine, they stand up and go back to their seats.
If people are not going to take the bread and wine, they are always welcome at the Communion table. Often you are invited to take the service book with you, to indicate to the priest that you don't want to receive them. Instead, the priest or minister will stop and give you a blessing, and say a prayer for you.
Often there is singing during this part of the service, led by the choir (if there is one). It's great when people join in - it helps us to stay focussed on Jesus and what He has done and is doing for us.
When everyone has received the bread and wine, or a blessing, and are back in their seats, the minister washes the special cup and plate and puts them on the holy table, covered with a cloth. He then says a prayer which is different each week, thanking God for his gift and blessing of Communion.
16. Everyone joins in with a prayer of thankfulness. There is usually a final hymn or song, and then the priest gives everyone
17. the blessing of God. Finally, a minister dismisses the congregation by saying 'Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord' and everyone answers 'In the name of Christ! Amen.'
This reminds us that our worship and our Communion is to be carried into our daily lives.
Taking part in Holy Communion is a deeply spiritual experience in which we draw closer to God and are fed by him, in our minds by teaching from his word, the Bible; physically with the bread and the wine; and emotionally and spiritually by worshipping together with our brothers and sisters in the faith of Christ.
It is also a time of great joy, because it is the celebration of Jesus' death for us on the cross, and his rising to life again to prepare a place for us in heaven and to fill our lives with his Holy Spirit.
What a privilege and blessing!
If you've never taken Communion but would like to know more, about this or about any aspect of the Christian faith, contact your local vicar and ask for a chat about it. His name is nearly always on the board outside the church.
May God bless you with joy and fulfilment as you come to know his Son Jesus more and more, led by the Holy Spirit!
]]>In this service you will see some parts marked "President" .This name is given to the presiding priest.
1. The Greeting.
The president greets the people, "The Lord be with you".
Everyone says: "and also with you."
So, quite simply we ask God to be with all of us throughout the service.
Often the first hymn or song comes now.
2. This is followed by the "Prayer of Preparation" which is saying that God knows everything about us, and we ask the Holy Spirit to inspire us.
3. We need to be right with God in order to continue worshipping Him, because He is holy and our sin separates us from Him. So next we have "The Prayer of Penitence". Here we apologise for our failings, by saying we are sincerely sorry and truly intend to try to do better in the future, with God's help. The 'President' asks for God's forgiveness for us all.
4. Now comes the "Gloria in Excelsis", said or sung, which are the words the angels sang when telling the shepherds of Jesus's birth (Luke Ch.2 vs14).
5. Next we "collect" our thoughts in the prayer for the day, "The Collect", and this is followed by
6. the first reading from the Scriptures.
Most churches have 2 out of a possible 3 readings from the Bible. The first may be from the Old Testament, or from one of the Epistles. It is usually followed by a hymn or song, and then all remain standing for the reading from the Gospel. We stand in honour of Jesus, about whom we will hear in this Gospel reading.
7. Then comes the sermon, given by the vicar or someone trained in teaching and preaching, which explains some aspect of our faith.
8. Now 'the Creed' (from the Latin word 'credo', which means 'I believe'.) Everyone declares their faith in the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the church. The Creed reminds us of the fundamental aspects of our faith.
9. 'Intercessions' come next. They are prayers for others. The priest can arrange for people from the congregation to lead these prayers, and they will usually have spent some time preparing them.
This is the end of the first section of the service, which is based on the original Jewish synagogue service that the earliest Christians attended.
The final part of this posting will explain what happens at the Communion itself. Watch this space!
]]>The meaning of the name 'Holy Communion'.
Depending on which part of the Christian Church you belong to, the Communion is also called "The Lord's Supper" or "The Eucharist" ( which means "Thanksgiving"); or, if you are Eastern Orthodox, "The Holy Liturgy"; or (if you are a Roman Catholic ) "The Mass" (a word based on the ancient ending of the service; or, (more rarely) "The Holy Mysteries" ( a name I love because it originally meant, 'Something which you do not know by ordinary thinking, but which God reveals to those who seek him'.)
My comments will be based on the modern Church of England (which I shall call "C of E") service as seen in a prayer book called "Common Worship", (meaning, worship shared in common with everybody in the C of E).
So what should come into your mind when you see the words "Holy Communion" ?
An ordinary dictionary helps:
Mine says that 'HOLY' means: belonging to, or devoted to God. It says that to 'COMMUNE' is to converse together intimately; or, to have a deep and close spiritual relationship.
This all means, therefore, that Holy Communion is a special way of having close contact with God himself.
How the service of Holy Communion was put together.
Why is it set out like it is?
The example which Jesus set us was to attend the local synagogue (Jewish place of worship) once a week, and to go to the temple in Jerusalem for the big festivals (e.g. The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple).
At the meal which Jesus shared with his disciples before he was taken prisoner and crucified, he broke bread (flat, round biscuity bread) and blessed a special cup of wine and water, said two strange things about them. When he broke the bread he said "This is my body": and when he gave them the wine cup he said "This is my blood". Then he gave one of the very few instructions or commands that he gave them and us: "Do this in memory of me".
The very first Christians carried out both these things which Jesus did.
1. They attended synagogue services.
2. They met in homes to break bread and share a special cup of wine.
The majority of Jews did not believe that Jesus was the special king (which they called The Messiah or The Christ) foretold by the prophets, and they put Christians out of the synagogues.
About this time many non-Jews (whom the Jews called Gentiles - they believed in the Jewish faith but were born outside Israel/Palestine) became Christians. These people had been brought up to attend synagogues, but of course shared the fate of the Jews who also became Christians, and were expelled from the synagogues.
So the Christians had nowhere to meet except in each others' houses.
Here they had a service like the synagogue services - prayers, hymns (which were Psalms from the Old Testament), readings from Scripture and a sermon, with a collection (almsgiving). Then they went on to do what Jesus commanded with bread and wine, often within the context of a meal.
So, if you lived in about 50 AD (not much over 20 years after Jesus rose from the dead), and wanted to meet the Christians in any town, you had to find out where they gathered for "The Breaking of Bread" (as they called it) and then go to the appropriate house.
At first the Bible Readings were only from the Old Testament. This was because Jesus put nothing in writing and nobody had written any of the New Testament.
To answer the problems and questions of these first Christians, people like Paul, Peter, James and John sometimes wrote quite long letters explaining things. The most important of them were normally read out to assembled Christians and often copies were made and passed from house-church to house-church. These letters are called the 'Epistles' (meaning 'Letters') and are found in the New Testament section of the Bible.
Six or more people wrote down some of their memories of what Jesus did and said.
Eventually four of them were widely accepted as reliable and became known as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and extracts were read at Christian services. (You will find these at the beginning of the New Testament, before the Epistles).
We can now understand that the modern Communion service is really two services together:
1. The readings, hymns, sermon and prayers are like the synagogue service:
2. The taking of bread and wine in obedience to the command given by Jesus at his last supper, when he said, "Do this".
The general outline or format of the service contains similar elements to other denominations, whether you are Methodist, Roman Catholic or belong to many other varieties of Church, although the way things are done and the style of worship can seem very different.
The Holy Communion is a simple but wonderful way of drawing close to God and to our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith, and of receiving strength and help for our daily lives.
]]>(Why we believe that God is Father,Son & Holy Spirit)
This is tremendously interesting, especially for us modern people.
Those of us who go to church are often used to hearing the minister say "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit".
Similarly, we say in the creed "I believe in God the Father, in God's son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit".
(By the way ,the old fashioned word for Spirit was "Ghost", but most people no longer use "Holy Ghost" - for obvious reasons!)
First of all, we need to try and understand what it is that Christians believe about the "Trinity".
When Columbus discovered that the world was round,(orange-shaped) it meant that the world has always been like that.
Similarly, when Christians discovered that God is Three in One it meant that He had always been like that.
When we believe in the Holy Trinity we mean the three-in-one aspect of God's nature.
This is a great mystery and can't be understood by mere human reasoning. And yet it is important, because it shows us what God is like.
The Father, the part of God that is supreme and beyond our understanding.
The Son, Jesus Christ, the part of God which is close at hand, who came to earth and became a human being, so that we could best relate to him in human form. He was the "Son of God", showing what kind of people we could become.
The Holy Spirit, the part of God that lives in our hearts and souls and who is our guide and God's voice within us.
Now, friends, here is the part of "Three in One" which is fascinating for us moderns...
BECAUSE GOD IS A TRINITY,WE CAN FIND MANY OTHER "TRINITIES" IN THE WORLD HE HAS CREATED.
Even the very fabric of our world is a trinity of solids,liquids and gases. (The air itself is a gas.)
The two best-known examples are, WATER, which is ice, liquid or steam, and we humans who are body, mind and spirit. Hence words like "some-body", or phrases like, "He's a very friendly body"; or, I have made up my mind": "She's a bit of a brain". We may talk of a team spirit, or "She's always got a happy spirit about her" ie Mind, Body and Spirit.
Here are some other 'trinities':
Colour:- Any colour, even white, the purest of all, is a combination of red, green and blue.
Time:- Past, present and future are dimensions which only exist in the present universe.
Forces:- Matter is controlled by electromagnetism, gravitation and nuclear reaction.
There are many other demonstrations of the principle of 'trinity', but perhaps the most profound is the "Atom".
The word 'atom' comes from the Greek word for "indivisible" representing the purest essence of a single element, and yet it is made up of three. The proton, neutron at its centre, and of course the negatively-charged electron which acts as a balance with other elements.
Here is a selection of Bible texts, which show us how God has revealed himself as Father, Son and Spirit:
1 Corinthians Ch. 6 v.19
"Do you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God."
John Ch 14 v26.
"The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said." These are the words of Jesus Christ.
Colossians Ch 2 v9-10.
"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority."
I hope this posting has helped you understand why, on the Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate TRINITY SUNDAY.
It is amazing that God cared for us imperfect humans so much as to become a perfect human person, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again and is now back in heaven preparing a place for all those who trust in Him. He even sends us his Holy Spirit so that he can be with us for ever, in all circumstances.
What a wonderful God we have!
God bless your body, mind and spirit.
Philip.
]]>You will not find the word "Whitsun" anywhere in the Bible.The reason for this is that it is really a shortened form for a "nick-name" for the day !
It is short for "White Sunday", and refers to what always used to happen on this day .....People who had put their faith in Christ were baptised by full immersion in water. In the early days of the Christian church, not long after Jesus had gone back to heaven, people would be baptised in rivers or lakes. This still happens all over the world, and especially in the Baptist church. They would wear white clothes as they went down into the water, and as they came out of the water it was a sign of their 'rising' from a life of sin to a new life offered by Jesus Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
As you can see, this is a major commitment, and the white clothes that people wore for their baptism symbolised the new clean life that Christ gives to those who want to follow Him.
So "White-Sunday" was a good name for this day.
The Bible name for Whit Sunday is "Pentecost", which means "50th". This is because Whit Sunday is always 50 days after Easter Day.
If you write '50th' in the original New Testament Greek, the nearest you can get is the word 'Pentecost'.
What happened on the first Pentecost? Luke, who wrote about it in his second book, (the "Acts of the Apostles" in the New Testament of the Bible, and who thoroughly checked with eye-witnesses), found it hard to describe.
The 11 apostles (the people who had followed Jesus throughout his ministry and were closest to him) were in a room in Jerusalem with other followers of Christ, praying together, when there was a sound like a very strong wind and something like "tongues of fire " which appeared over each of their heads. They were filled with God's Holy Spirit, just as Jesus had promised before his ascension. They then began to "speak in tongues", which sounded as if they were talking different languages, all at the same time.
Many Christians have 'spoken in tongues' from that day to this. This phenomenon is not quite the same as the gift given to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. It is a spiritual language, given by the Holy Spirit, to some Christians so that they can pray and praise God.
I have several times been in a hall or room when the people there all started quietly speaking in tongues. It sounded rather as if each person was using a language I do not know. In fact, the person doing this knows that she or he is praising God with joy, and "praying in tongues" is also very useful when somebody wants to pray very much for somebody else.
St.Paul says that not every Christian does this. In my family of four one speaks in tongues whereas I do not.
God gave the apostles the gift of speaking other languages for a reason. They went outside, where there were crowds of people from all over the known world who had come to Jerusalem for a big religious festival, and the apostles started talking about the wonderful works of God. The people who heard them were amazed. They could not understand how the apostles, who were not very highly-educated, could speak at least seven different languages so that everyone could understand what they were saying.
This momentous day is often called "The Birthday of the Church", because it was the start of the Christian church.
WHAT CAN WHITSUNDAY MEAN FOR YOU AND FOR ME ?
Firstly, it is about asking God to give us faith in Christ, because this is given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, it is about being open to God, and asking him for the gift of his Holy Spirit, to fill our lives and help us to do the things God is calling us to do.
Thirdly, it is about taking time to pray and to praise God, who enriches us as we do so.
Fourthly, it is about receiving help from God so that we can talk about Jesus to family, friends and neighbours so that they too can come into the life Jesus gives us. It is our job as Christians to share the good news of Jesus with those around us, like those early apostles. Mercifully, most of us don't have to learn another language before we can do so!
May God bless you with his Holy Spirit today.
]]>So baptism is about being so sorry for our old life that we want to say so publicly to God. If we are adult and we are fully immersed in water, as happens in the Baptist and other churches, the water symbolises the washing away of the wrong we have done - sins that Jesus died for. It is a statement in front of many witnesses that we want to 'drown' our old life. Coming up out of the water symbolises the way we are given new life by Jesus.
In the early days of the Christian church, and still in many places today, people are baptised in white robes, to show that they are being made clean by Jesus.
So to this day being baptised has a double meaning : primarily it is about making a public commitment of our whole life to Jesus, having the bad things we have done washed away by Him, and starting to lead a new life of following Him with the help of His Holy Spirit.
We have the example of Jesus himself, who was baptised by John in the River Jordan. John didn't want to baptise him, because he knew Jesus was the only person who never did anything wrong. But Jesus insisted, because he wanted to do all that God wanted. His will and God's will were one. It was a special occasion for him, because the Holy Spirit of God came upon him as he came out of the water, to lead him into his new ministry.
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, of being sorry for one's wrongdoing. But he said that Jesus would bring a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, one that would offer not only cleansing, but new life and the Spirit to inspire believers. This baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit took place first on the day of Pentecost, which is coming up soon.
In the New Testament we read of many people being baptised. Jesus' follower Philip baptised an Ethiopian court official when he believed in Jesus. The apostle Paul baptised his jailer at Philippi in a very dramatic story.
In those days, and still in many societies today, they didn't just baptise one person. If the head of the household came to faith in Christ, then all the household would be given teaching and would be baptised together, which is what happened with the jailer. This would have included the children in the household.
For this reason the custom grew up of babies being baptised who were born to believing parents, and this custom continues to this day in some denominations, such as the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.
This became the custom in the Church of England , and for many centuries most people had their children baptised as babies, thinking of it as a blessing from God. It was God doing something for their child. Later in the child's life (s)he , (often at teenage), would 'confirm' this at a ceremony called CONFIRMATION, when he/she would 'confirm' loyalty to Christ. Confirmation still means that an adult of any age can say 'I was baptised in the Christian faith, but now I'm mature I want to confirm this faith myself, and to witness to the fact that I personally believe in Christ and want to follow Him.'
After a period of teaching, they attend a Confirmation Service, where the bishop puts his hands on the person's head and prays, "Confirm, O Lord, this thy child with thy Holy Spirit..."
As you can see, this is a major commitment, and the white clothes that people wore for their baptism symbolised the new clean life that Christ gives to those who want to follow Him.
Baptism is a special spiritual moment in a person's life, and needs to be done with integrity and sincerity, and with full commitment to God. Each baptism candidate, and each parent and godparent of a baby being baptised, promises to turn to Christ and grow in faith, by prayer, by learning about the Christian faith, and by regular worship with other Christians. This is how our faith can strengthen and grow, and how we can encourage our children to have faith and lead the new life that Jesus alone can offer.
]]>For 40 days after He rose from the dead, Jesus often appeared to his followers in many places....in Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus village, by the Sea of Galilee, and elsewhere. All these 'eye-witness' accounts can be found in the Gospels in the New Testament section of the Bible.
Jesus was in his 'resurrection body' so that he could allow himself to be seen or not seen whenever he liked. We read in the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that he would appear, and then disappear from sight again. He reassured his friends that he was not a ghost, because they could see the marks of the nails which had been driven into his hands and feet and the hole in his side where the soldier's spear had gone in, to make sure he was really dead. Jesus also showed them that he had bones and flesh, and he ate proper food with them, which ghosts or spirits are not able to do.
However, although he was truly himself, there was something different about his 'resurrection body': although he had flesh and bones and was not a ghost, he was also not subject to the usual laws of nature, so he could appear in a locked room, and then disappear, having spoken to his friends in ways that showed that he knew what they were thinking, and what they had been talking about even in his absence.
After 40 days of these appearances, he wanted to show them that this final period of his life on earth was coming to an end. So he told them to meet him on a certain mountain in Israel.
When I was in Israel myself, I went to see this mountain. It was not rocky or craggy, but a very high hill with a large dome-shaped top to it, in the shape of a grassy mound.
When Jesus met them there, he explained that he was about to become fully at one with God,(this meant that he was going back to heaven) and that he would send his Holy Spirit to help them in the future. This would mean that he could always be with them, and with every believer, at all times, in all ages and places.
He told his followers that he wanted them to go into all the world, and tell everyone about him - his life, death and resurrection, his love for them, the way that he had defeated the power of death, and the way that he had opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers. St Luke records the details, which he gathered from eye-witnesses: Jesus told his followers: "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."
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (the book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, written by Luke).
It is this event that we celebrate every Ascension day. It is always on a Thursday because it is always exactly 40 days after Easter day, the day when the Lord rose from the dead. The church does it this way in order to be faithful to what the Bible tells us, that Jesus was seen by his followers for 40 days after he rose.
It is a day which marks a complete change in the life of the Christian church, and prepares us for the festival of the coming of the Holy Spirit of God, which we will celebrate 10 days later ... on Whit Sunday or, as it is often known, Pentecost.
What does the ascension of Jesus mean to us in our daily lives? It is actually very important. It shows us that Jesus, who had come from God the Father as his Son, was returning to his heavenly Father to prepare a place for us to live with him for ever, if we believe in him. It also shows us that Jesus was divine - he was no longer subject to natural laws, but could come and go at will. His ascension into heaven, although it took him away from his followers physically, meant that he could be with all of us everywhere by sending his holy Spirit to us.
This was why Jesus told us 'I am with you always' and 'I will never leave you.'
This doesn't mean that all our problems are fixed. After all, Jesus himself had to go through a very hard life. What it does mean, and this makes all the difference, is that he is always with us, in whatever happens to us.
That's worth celebrating on Ascension Day!
]]> In the days of Jesus if a leader wanted to enter a city as a result of success in war he rode on a horse, but if he came for peace he rode on an ass (donkey).
Understanding the Words
The Easter story began last Sunday (5/04/09) called "Palm Sunday", because on that day Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem by people waving branches from palm trees.
Thursday this week is called "Maundy Thursday": Maundy means "Commandment", because on this night Jesus washed the disciples' feet and gave them a new commandment, that they should love one another in the way he loved them.
GOOD FRIDAY is called "good" because, although Jesus was crucified, his death opened the way into Heaven for all of us sinners.
EASTER is an old Greek word for what some people call "Resurrection Sunday". It is the greatest festival of the whole Christian year. So many people who had seen Jesus die met him after he rose from the dead. We all join in celebration of this wonderful miracle.
Teaching Easter to Children
You need 6 pieces of card about 30cms square. Cut these into the shape of "eggs". Write one letter on each egg. The letters will be: S,R,A,E,T,E.( The second letter "E" will be required for the later part of the teaching along with a further volunteer).
To teach children about Easter you must know the story well,( Mark 16, ver 1-8)so you can tell it to them, rather than reading it when you can lose their attention.
Ask 5 children to volunteer for the task.
Say: The body of Jesus had been taken off the cross and placed in a "TOMB". A tomb was a small cave and in it a stone ledge the size of a single bed.
The first child holds up the letter "T".
So the cross was "EMPTY". (Now hand the letter "E" to the next child to hold up).
The herb garden where the tomb was, belonged to a man called Joseph who came from a place called "ARIMATHEA".
The letter "A" should now be held up.
Later on, a "ROCK" the shape of a wheel was placed to close the tomb. (The child holds up "R" (for Rock)).
As you can imagine everybody was very "SAD". (The final child holds up the letter "S").
The letters will read the word 'TEARS' and you comment:
Therefore the first "GOOD FRIDAY" ended in many T-E-A-R-S.
Now we come to EASTER day itself.
The women who had been with Jesus over the last days had no time to finish putting beautiful herbs and spices around the body which was the custom in those days, and they were not allowed to do this on the "sabbath" (day of rest, Saturday), as it was regarded as 'work'.
So they set off to finish this task before daylight on Sunday having left by a gate in the city wall. As they walked they realised it would be impossible for them to move the rock in front of the tomb.
Arriving "EARLY" (child holds up an "E" )at the garden of Joseph of "ARIMATHEA" (child holds up "A"), they had a terrible shock because they found that the "STONE" (child holds up the "S") had already been rolled away!
The women looked in the "TOMB" (child holds up "T") and they found it to be "EMPTY",(child holds up "E").
An angel told them Jesus had "RISEN". (last child holds up the letter "R".
The word of course now spells EASTER.
Close this simple talk and activity by underlining that the resurrection of Jesus turned sorrow into joy, and that it is joy to us because it means that Jesus has defeated death, and it is no longer the end for those who believe in Him.
Note: I realise much more was to happen over the next 40 days but I hope this will help the children in understanding the true meaning of Easter.
]]>On keeping a balanced attitude to Christian healing
Roman Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, Methodists, Orthodox, House Churches and others; white, black, brown, African, Indian, Eastern, South American; from the poles to the equator, everywhere you look among Christians today, you will find men and women who have been renewed spiritually. They have had a fresh and re-freshing experience of personal and group religion and have a joy in being christian which bubbles out of them!
One of the first ways that this re-vitalised Christianity showed up, (in this 20th century), was in the re-discovery of the Church's Ministry to the sick and troubled.
What I would ask you to think about now is: How do we keep a positive, sensible attitude to the claim that Jesus heals today, and how are we to regard people who are not healed?
Let me put it to you like this:
We Christians believe that every human being is a mixture of body, (the part of us most like the animals); mind, (the part of us which is of more extensive ability than the animals); and spirit, (the part of us which is not material and which can make contact with that wonderful non-physical Being we call God).
These three parts affect each other. A sick body may make a person depressed or unable to pray. A mind which dwells on bitterness and resentment may result in a skin disease or undesirable behaviour. A spirit or soul which neglects truth, beauty, goodness and God, may become lustful for power or unbalanced in bodily health and mental well-being. What all of this means is that, if anybody is sick, then the illness can be tackled either on the bodily level, the mental level, or the spiritual level; or on two of these, or even on all three at once. One of the commonest things to happen in a Christian group's or congregation's life is to pray for a person who is undergoing hospital treatment.
Whatever is done, any one part of our three-fold nature will affect the others.
On the whole, the doctor attends to the physical, the psychiatrist to the mental, and the priest or minister to the spiritual. But the spirit is within the whole person, for our spirits or souls include our character, personality and free will and are part of us. The soul is within the mind and body.
All of this means that it is perfectly sensible and reasonable for a physical or mental illness to be approached not only through the body or the mind but also through the spiritual side of human nature.
In what way ought Christians to exercise a spiritual ministry of healing for any type of illness?
Jesus Christ instructed us to use for healing three things:
1. Prayer - which may be silent or spoken.
2. The "laying on of hands", (which are usually placed on the head).
3. Anointing with holy oil. (This is blessed oil - like olive oil - which is usually put on the sick person's forehead in the shape of a cross).
How should we envisage this work of Christian healing? When you think about it, you realise that in each of us is an in-built ability to heal ourselves.
For example, we usually heal ourselves of a common cold or a cut.
Even when helped by a surgeon, his job is to do some advanced joinery, plumbing or sewing and then wait for the body to mend itself. (A broken bone or removed appendix are common examples of this.)
The gospels depict Jesus as a person with an exceptional gift of healing which He used not just to make a sick part of a body well, but also to make people whole, (that is, with a healthy soul, mind and body in harmony).
Consequently, the Church's special Ministry of Healing, (which may be done in conjunction with the work of the medical profession), is a spiritual one which ought to be done on behalf of Christ and in obedience to his command, "Heal the sick".
It follows, then, that when someone is ill and you pray, or lay on hands, or anoint with oil, (or, all three), you are asking God the creator, Jesus the healer and the Holy Spirit the giver of life, to come and add in Their divine contribution to the work of healing.
Before we go any further, may I explain that I prefer not to use the term "spiritual healing", because some people use these two words to refer to Spiritualists who may claim to heal with the help of some human person or persons who are no longer with us because they are dead.
"Christ-ian healing" has only one source and that is Christ Himself.
"Divine Healing" might be a good use of words because "divine" means "to do with God".
At weddings we often sing, "Love Divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down". In our ministry to the sick we could describe it as "Divine love, Healing from heaven, invited into our lives".
Perhaps the best way to define what we are doing is to say that it is the continuation of Christ's ministry of health and wholeness.
Some very enthusiastic, (and often charismatic),Christians will say that everybody ought to be able to be healed and that, if they are not healed, it is their own fault. (I think they mean that they believe the sick person may have unrepented sins or lacks enough faith.)
No doubt it is true that we need to receive forgiveness in order to approach God; but the thing that troubles many of us is the belief that serious lack of faith is what is "wrong" when some well-intentioned person is not healed.
What I am concerned about is people who are told "Jesus will heal you" and who then find they are not healed.
They are built up to great expectations and then feel badly let down when nothing happens.
Sad to say, many of us clergy have had to "pick up the pieces" of people who have been promised healing but not had it.
The first thing I want to say about it is this:
Some people are not healed of their bodily or mental illnesses, even though they may have had much prayer and also the laying on of hands or anointing. (Anointing is sometimes called "Holy Unction".)
In the Bible we hear about all those people whom Jesus healed, but there were thousands whom He did not heal. When He healed the man at the pool of Bethesda (see John 5) He (apparently) did not heal any of the other sick men and women who were there.
When St. Paul had something wrong with him, (which he described as a "thorn in the flesh"), he was not relieved of this problem even though he had asked God on three separate occasions.
It is also worth bearing in mind the fact that, although it was not the pain of an illness, nevertheless, when, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to be spared the agony of scourging and crucifixion, the answer was "No", and presumably the Father said, "My grace is sufficient for Your needs".
Those of you who knew or read about David Watson will understand how puzzling it was to many people that he should have died of cancer.
With all this in mind, ought we not to be perfectly honest and say that we do not know or understand why some people are healed by the Church's ministry of Healing, and some are not.
None of these considerations mean that the Christian Church should refrain from ministering Christ's gifts of wholeness.
People are right to say, "we should obey our Lord's command to heal the sick". It is right to follow St. James' instruction about this, (see his epistle, Chapter 5, from v. 14), and it is important to heed Christ's emphasis on the need for faith - even if our own faith is as small as a mustard seed!
But with this is the awareness that a whole person is not only someone whose body, mind and spirit are fully coordinated, but also it is someone who is fully in tune with God and His will.
Jesus said that He had come to do God's will, and we who follow Him are similarly called to do His wishes.
For all of us Christians, this means giving ourselves to God.
If we are to seek God's healing, I would like to suggest to you that we would do well to take much more time and effort about PREPARATION.
You will see more clearly what I think about the importance of preparation in a previous posting, but now I want to ask you to apply it to the ministry of Divine Healing.
What this comes down to is that the first step in preparing to receive healing is to make a fresh act of utter self-giving to God.
This might be done in the form of a prayer along these lines: "Lord, I bring to you my illness. You know that I long to be healed of it, but I ask only that you will do what you, in Your divine wisdom, know to be best for the well-being of my eternal soul".
(You will recall that this giving to God without demanding from Him was what my Father did just before I was born and what we did when the Tristan islanders were missing on the high seas.)
It is my experience that when people learn to do this, they always receive a gift of inner peace and interior relaxation.
They have put themselves into God's hands and are content to stay there.
It is after that kind of preparation followed by the ministry of the Church that some people receive grace to live with their disability or problem, some receive partial healing, some people's health improves at once or else some time later, and a few are healed at once.
But it is the experience of the new inner "peace which passes understanding" which brings the lasting joy and gratitude.
This is not a blog specially about the Ministry of Divine Healing and therefore I will not give examples of these differing responses, but I can assure you, from my Fathers', my own and other people's experiences, that that is how it works.
If this, then, is how the patient prepares, the preparation of the people who pray for the sick - the intercessors - will be similar.
If the person we pray for is very special to us, (like a wife, husband, child, parent or good friend), it is very hard to let go.
The trouble is that, just because we are praying for someone very special, we tend to try to bend God's will to our own desire.
Perseverance in prayer is excellent, but insisting on God "doing His stuff IN OUR WAY" is very different and quite wrong.
I am not happy with some people's approach to healing when they insist on God getting to work there and then.
I am afraid I do not agree with prayers such as "Holy Spirit enter into these damaged cells and drive out the disease and change them into healthy cells".
Also, I have doubts about prayers like, "Christ, we claim your healing for this person".
Do you know who started this idea of "claiming" gifts for people? (I do not.)
To me is sounds a bit like the announcement that No. 999 has won the raffle and will the holder of ticket 999 come up and claim their prize.
We humans are not in a position to make demands of God or act as if we had "rights" to claim. We can only look in amazement at His love and humbly respond to it.
God's method, it would seem, is to consider what is best for each individual person, (complete with "warts"), not just as of now, but in the context of the span of an earthly life followed by life eternal.
A main objective in healing should surely be for the person receiving the ministration to dedicate his or her life to God more deeply and thoroughly than before.
You may possibly ask a question like this: If healing was so simple and straightforward when first Jesus and then the disciples did it, why do we find it difficult and why are our results so mixed and why do we need all this careful preparation?
I think that much of the answer to this question lies in what has happened to the Church since our Lord's ascension into heaven.
The most obvious change has been the division of His Church into denominations, factions and separated sects.
As I said before, Jesus did not found Methodists or Roman Catholics or Anglicans or Baptists or Eastern Orthodox or such-like. He founded one "family" for all believers and called it His Church. His prayer was that we all might be ONE.
For the voyage through life to the "port of heaven" Jesus provided one ship and that was the "ark" of the Church. Contrary to His wishes, we have divided the ship's company up into umpteen boats and other vessels, each of which is plotting its own course to the same port.
Having weakened Christ's Church in this way, we have to make very great and extensive efforts to enable God's healing grace to come through to us.
In addition, we have to be aware of all the purely nominal Christians who have in past ages and do still exist today. In so many congregations faith and trust in Christ and His promises is very weak, and our Lord's healing work was always dependent on faith.
It is my opinion that the divided Church and the lack of faith are the two greatest hindrances to the Church today. "Lord, heal your Church."
To me, the marvel is that God can and does still work through the members of His fragmented Church.
If you had a radio with faulty parts and some of the circuits not properly joined together, you would not expect much by way of results.
How amazing that God can still work through a Church which is like that!
So let us be very thankful, and press on!
The letter to the Hebrew Christians tells us that Jesus is always praying for us.
Our job is to join our prayers with His and send them to the Father.
If we do this, we soon become aware of our unworthiness, our need of God's mercy, forgiveness and grace and this leads us to offer ourselves more completely in His service.
As my own father once said when he was speaking on healing in Liverpool parish Church, (in 1953):
"The aim and object of the Church is to bring persons to Christ as perfectly unified personalities, finding integration in and through Christ."
End
]]>Dear Jenny, I really was pleased with your letter;
Just reading it through has made me much better!
So I'll answer you now, and this is because
You asked me in detail just how I was.
Now that I'm older and just on my own,
May I tell you of something which does get me down?
I remember the years that are well past and finished,
But my memory's something which just has diminished!
In the evening I'm tired and do keep on yawning,
But I just can't recall the events of the morning.
I go to the fridge and stand there in doubt:
Was I putting food in, or taking some out?
I write little memos to place in my hat -
You know - little things, like "food for the cat".
I try to remember my teeth and my glasses,
And think it's amazing how quickly time passes.
But cheer up, Jenny, for Christmas is near:
I won't be lonely - so please do not fear.
The church folk are kindly, as I've always found,
Especially when anyone asks me around.
So I'm going to church (when I admit I'm a sinner),
And someone's said "Join us for our Christmas dinner".
I say turkey's much nicer when it's not me to roast it -
- oh gosh, there's my letter! I've forgotten to post it.
by Philip Bell
written when Salisbury diocesan Widows' Officer
Christmas 2002
We are posting this as a tribute to a dearly-loved wife and mother, and in the hope that some of this service might be of help and comfort to others who are grieving for someone they love. Nearly all the service was taken by different members of the family.
The service opened with these truths from Scripture:
I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8.38,39
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is his faithfulness. Lamentations 3.22,23
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3.16
Opening hymn : Holy holy holy, Lord God Almighty
Opening prayer:
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, our risen Saviour,
We rejoice in your mighty victory ovr sin and death;
You are the Prince of Life;
You are alive for evermore.
Help us to know your presence in our worship,
And to receive your power in our lives,
Until we rise to live with you for ever. Amen.
Confession of sin
God of mercy,
we acknowledge that we are all sinners.
We turn from the wrong that we have thought and said and done,
and are mindful of all that we have failed to do.
For the sake of Jesus, who died for us,
forgive us for all that is past,
and help us to live each day
in the light of Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Absolution
May God our Father forgive us our sins
and bring us to the eternal joy of his kingdom,
where dust and ashes have no dominion.
Amen
Hymn: for the beauty of the earth
Bible reading: John 14:1-7
Family tributes: these included the song ‘Panis Angelicus’.
Prayer, adapted from David Adam :
‘You shared your life with us,
God give eternal life to you.
You gave your love to us,
God give his deep love to you.
You gave your time to us,
God give his eternity to you.
You gave your light to us,
God give everlasting light to you.
Go upon your journey, dear Grannie Dilys
To love, light and life eternal.’
Hymn: Just as I am
Bible reading: Revelation 21:1-5
Prayers
Into your hands, O Lord,
we humbly entrust our grandmother Dilys.
In this life you embraced her with your tender love,
and opened to her the gate of heaven.
The old order has passed away,
as you welcome her into paradise,
where there will be no sorrow, no weeping nor pain,
but the fullness of peace and joy
with your Son and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever
Amen
Remember, O Lord,
this your servant,
who has gone before us with the sign of faith
and now rests in the sleep of peace.
According to your promises,
grant to her and to all who rest in Christ,
refreshment, light and peace;
through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen
Most merciful God,
whose wisdom is beyond our understanding,
surround the family of Dilys with your love,
that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss,
but have confidence in your goodness,
and strength to meet the days to come.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen
God of all consolation,
your Son Jesus Christ was moved to tears
at the grave of Lazarus his friend.
Look with compassion on our family in our loss;
give to our troubled hearts the light of hope
and strengthen in us the gift of faith,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
God of mercy, Lord of life,
you have made us in your image
to reflect your truth and light:
we give you thanks for Grannie Dilys,
for the grace and mercy she received from you,
for all that was good in her life,
And for the memories we treasure today.
Your mighty power brings joy out of grief
and life out of death.
Look in mercy on Granpa and all of us who mourn.
Give us patient faith in times of darkness.
Strengthen us with the knowledge of your love,
In the name of Jesus our risen Lord,
Amen.
In darkness and in light,
in trouble and in joy,
help us, O God, to trust your love,
to seek your purpose
and to praise your name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
Hymn: in heavenly love
Appreciation
Hymn: Jesus lives
Ending prayer :
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed; the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then Lord, in your mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Blessing
Interment of ashes in the churchyard
]]>The thanksgiving service will be on 6 March and I know that Philip and his family would be grateful for your prayers.
I am sure that Philip will take up his blog again in due course.
Gill (co-author)
]]>2/ FASTING.
If you look up Fasting on the net it will give you diets for slimming.
What we need to know is about fasting for a spiritual and christian reason.
In our Lord's day, the Jews were quite used to fasting as a religious activity. It had been practiced since the days of Moses.
Christians believe that food and drink are not only necessary but also to be enjoyed, which we can do so easily in these days when there is so much choice and many flavours.
We also keep in mind that obesity is now a common illness and many over-eat.
For us, cutting down or doing without food for a while will strengthen our will power, bring our bodies into obedience to our minds and can sometimes be used to concentrate on spiritual matters, or we can fast before making important decisions. (See Acts 13.4 “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” and 14.23 “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”)
It has been a widespread custom to fast before receiving the sacred bread and wine of Holy Communion. This is why 8a.m. became a widely- used time for the first service on a Sunday.
As we contemplate Jesus' fast, we can all "give up" something for Lent. The commonest things are sugar in hot drinks and smoking, or chocolate or alcohol.
In a family this is best discussed together. Children often choose their weekly sweets or sugar in tea or any little favourite thing. Adults may fast from sex, a weekly visit to their pub, a visit to a football match, wine with meals or suchlike.
Other family members may try to give up bad habits like slamming doors, leaving toothpaste dribbles in the wash basin, leaving beds unmade or not picking up dirty underclothes on the bedroom floor, speaking angrily, losing their temper, etc.
Members of the family might agree to give up some television time too.
There we are then, Lenten fasting should be offered to God and we can ask him to help us grow in self-control and grow towards being more like he wants us to be.
And now for the third "when you" - when you give 'alms'.
3/ ALMSGIVING.
Put briefly, almsgiving is giving money, goods, skill or time to help others in need.
If, for example, there is an appeal for people whose houses have crashed in ruins after an earthquake, we can send money or blankets or have a garage sale to raise funds or some people will be trained to work with an aid agency.
The Bible makes it clear that prayer and fasting should lead to action, as we read in Isaiah 58:6: "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” or Isaiah 58 vv 8--10 “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
My prayer is that, this Lent, through prayer and fasting, giving things up and giving things away, concentrating more on the Lord and being more open to the work of his Holy Spirit, each of us will experience more of his love and grace, and grow in our faith and in our usefulness to Him.
End
]]>When I worked in South London we had enormous numbers of weddings and followed the custom of not having any in Lent. We also promised the over-worked organists a rest then.
One year a couple rang up to ask to marry during Lent. I said they could, but explained, "There won't be an organ because it's Lent."
The girl replied, "Oh dear. When will you get it back ?"
So what exactly is Lent ?
It comes from a word used centuries ago, which was LENCTEN, meaning "Spring time".
So Lent is a time for growth and development towards something worthwhile, like a flower or vegetable or leaves on trees -- things that don't happen in two or three days.
But why 40 days ?
The answer is very interesting. It goes back to the day when Jesus was baptised in the river Jordan when he had the experience of fully realising that he himself was the Messiah, (sometimes called "the Christ") foretold by prophecies. (see Mark 1:9 “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”) It must have been almost overwhelming to think that this could mean leaving his Mum, home in Nazareth and job as a carpenter.
He felt very strongly that he must get away from people to think and pray how to do this. It was his own special "springtime" when he would develop into someone with a very special vocation. (see Mark 1 v 12 “and the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”)
He was in the rugged area of Palestine for several weeks, which the Bible calls "40 days", (see Mark 1 v 13 “He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him”.)
Centuries ago our Christian forefathers thought it would be a helpful idea if this time was observed just before Easter Day. Consequently Lent always begins on a Wednesday . This year it will be February 25th.
How might we keep Lent in our churches ?
Usually we have no flowers, (which makes a lovely contrast with Easter Day .)
If there is an ornate background to the altar or Holy Table, (underneath what we call the East Window,) then that is closed over or covered with a violet cloth. In fact all frontals, hangings or big ribbon markers should be in violet. This is because Lent is a season for mourning for our many imperfections, which in our western world is symbolised by the use of violet, (a kind of purple.)
Personal application >>>
Jesus spent his 40 days thinking and praying about his faith, his life and his future. Therefore most churches have a series of talks or study groups to do the same thing. House-groups are increasingly popular and enable people to discuss things together.
Because you often saw wives in church without their husbands, I used to go to their homes and invite the men to come together to discuss what they found hard to accept or believe. They appreciated this because they could say or ask anything without upsetting their wives.
What about our personal faith during Lent ?
Here are some guide-lines from the Sermon on the Mount, (this is a collection of Jesus' sayings in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7)
I have chosen three "When yous".
But, before we look at them we need to remember that you can't say "When you" to just anybody.
For example, you cannot say to a group of very old people "When you got on your motorbike today ..." But you could say, "When you go to bed ..."
In other words, we can only say, "When you..." if we can take it for granted that the person we are talking to ALWAYS does what we are talking about.
Here are three guide-lines from Jesus:
1/ "When you pray" (Matthew 6 vv 5-12)
All our prayers should have four parts, which you can remember by the word ACTS. This is a key word which we can all use at any main time for prayer.
A is for ADORATION, when we tell God how wonderful he is. For example we can think of the stars and galaxies or our own world and be amazed at it, or think about God bothering to send his son to such a rotten lot as our human race, or we can adore him for the laws of physics and other sciences which allow us to use E-mails and look up any subject on the Net.
I know people who have been so sustained by God's love after a bereavement that they marvel how God has helped them live without a beloved spouse or child.
Next comes C for confession.
This should always be included in our night prayers. We apologise to God for all the ways of not thinking, speaking or behaving as a Christian should. We also confess our sins of thought, word and deed.
All these things we have privately told God at home can be mentally put into the general confession in a church service.
T stands for thanksgiving
There are some things which are obvious subjects for thanks... a birthday present, a friend's visit, an exam passed, a new baby, recovery from illness, etc. but on most days there's nothing special. On such days we can choose something we normally take for granted, like drinking water, electricity, refuse collection, enough clothes, a helpful doctor, a telephone ... Can you think of other things ?
Of course we include big things, like Jesus and God's guidance.
Thanksgiving can often lead us to the next part of prayer which is
S for supplication which is prayer for others.
I say this because saying thanks for (say) water or food reminds us to pray for thousands of people who have neither, and to include aid workers and lorry drivers.
We can begin these asking prayers with our nearest and dearest and then work outwards to other people and needs.
Many churches, charities and missions issue lists of requests for prayer, and we can use those in our private supplications.
When you have finished prayer for others then pray for yourself and your own needs.
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