Wrestling with God

The Revd Andrew Fuller

I watched an episode of Priest School recently on the telly.  It’s set in the Scot’s College in Rome and charts the progress of trainee Roman Catholic Priests.  Last year’s new intake contained former teachers, lawyers, a DJ and a taxi driver.

It’s good that those of us called to full time service in the church come from a variety of backgrounds.

My first pastorate was in Kettering at a church named after its former minister from the 18th century: The Revd Andrew Fuller.

His image in one of the stained glass windows shows he was a robust, square jawed individual.  Read his biography and much is made of the fact that before becoming a minister he was a Pugilist: a wrestler or a boxer. 

Perhaps that stood him in good stead.  He lived at a time when strict Calvinists, like himself, thought God didn’t need our help sharing the gospel.  Fuller battled, he ‘wrestled’, against that way of thinking.  He convinced other Baptist Ministers that Christians should be active in sharing their faith and this group, in 1792, formed the Baptist Missionary Society – which still exists today.  Fuller became its first Secretary and William Carey its pioneer missionary.

It only came about because Andrew Fuller wrestled with his faith and the applied it in a new way as he came to a fresh understanding.

In this coming Sunday's reading from the Jewish Scriptures we’ll encounter another wrestler – Jacob.  And we’ll ponder the value that comes our way when we wrestle with ideas about God and life that can end up, not weakening our faith, but making it stronger.


CHURCH FOCUS

...…Our thanks to the Family News editorial team who have produced the August edition of church magazine this week.  It’s been emailed out to most of the congregation or posted through folks’ letter box if they don’t have access to the internet.  It’s a good read!

…Last week we recorded a new service of Holy Communion for July and August.  I hope this will be helpful to those of us who value coming together in this way around bread and wine.

Searching for Treasure

I love telling the story, one I found in a Church of Scotland book of Children’s Talks, of the little girl and her father climbing up a mountain in The Highlands one day in the school holidays.

By all accounts it had been a perfect father and daughter day; exhausting yet satisfying, until the little girl realised, as they walked back to the hotel, that she had left her bag up on the summit!  At first her loving father tried comforting her by saying maybe they’d find her another bag in town tomorrow.  ‘No Dad’, she replied, ‘you don’t understand…my bag has your camera in it’! 

Well, this Dad was a great Dad.  He loved his daughter so he urged her to be more careful with her belongings in future, and I guess he loved his camera too.  So, he walked with her back to the hotel to stay there with mum, and whilst they had tea he walked back up the mountain and retrieved both bag and camera!

It’s a lovely story showing how this great dad valued his camera and treasured his daughter.  We seek the best for those we treasure, and we go the extra mile for the people and ideas we love. 

Looking back, as a child I remember a few occasions when I lost something that meant a lot to me, or dropping something precious that had been entrusted to me. I recall feeling so upset until either my mother or grandmother stepped in, held me by the hand, and said: Don’t be so sad, let’s go out together and try to find it. At that point it felt so good to be looking for the lost treasure together.

In the Gospel reading for Sunday we’ll hear of the Merchant who went looking for the Pearl of Great Price.  Erna will be leading our thoughts and exploring with us what it means to be a seeker and finder of treasure.

In the meantime…please look after your bags!

CHURCH FOCUS

…Our parent denominations, the Baptist Union and United Reformed Church, have now advised us that, although not mandatory, they recommend that worshippers at church services attend wearing a face covering.

…Just to say that we are now filming the service and this may include a ‘wide shot’ of the congregation (from the rear of the church).  If you have any issues with this please speak to the duty elder who can direct you to seating which is out of view of the camera.

…Both Michael and Matthew have sent us notes of appreciation after receiving gift tokens from the congregation last weekend thanking them for all the work they have put into the audio services.

...Some folk have told us they miss picking up a copy of the sermon notes as they come to church.  So, from this week the notes will be published on the website (under 'Sermons') from first thing on a Sunday morning.

Coming to the end of a list...

For those of us who love making lists there is both pleasure and terror when we come to the end!

In Lockdown I know many people wrote down a list of long postponed jobs they hoped to accomplish.  Over the weekend I crossed out my last entry; the making of the family 2019 photobook. So, to celebrate…I made another list!!!

I looked up what you might call someone like me, an addicted maker of lists.  Here’s a list (!) of not very complimentary names:
Listophile
Listoholic (I rather like that one!)
Listomaniac!

Someone like Captain Tom has reminded us all that, even at a great age, we can still add new things to our list; good things, like his heroic sponsored walk for NHS charities.

We can rise to new challenges and in God’s strength add another line to our list!

Church Life Focus:

…It’s been interesting to watch the numbers tuning in to Sunday worship recently.  On Sunday 12^th July 2020, 43 attended Morning Worship, 52 listened to the Audio Service and 81 watched the Video Service.  We are grateful for these media and the way they are helping us reach the various strands of our congregation.  We long for the day when we can gather as one – and sing again (!) – until then we thank God for the blessings of modern technology.

…This coming Sunday, 19^th July 2020, was meant to be a COTHA (Churches on the Hill, Amersham) United Service at AFC.  Although that won’t happen, we were thrilled when St Michael’s suggested we might combine in putting together an Audio Service.  So, the ministers of all three churches have contributed recordings to this service, which will be broadcast on both the AFC and St Michael’s websites.  At our 10.30am service we will include some of the contributions and music from this recording.

…You might have seen that we have now included a Donate Now button our website.  We are grateful to both Bob and Laura for making this possible.  Many churches now have such a facility and it’s good that we now have this method as a possible way of supporting the work of AFC.

Living in the story

A friend of mine recommended a new author for me to read during Lockdown: C.J.Sansom.  He writes Tudor Whodunits!  So, over the last few weeks I’ve been with his brilliant detective, the hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake investigating a murder at a Benedictine Abbey in Sussex!

We can get ourselves lost in books!  Indeed, when reading a novel, that is precisely the point: we inhabit the world painted by the author.  So, at the moment, I’m lingering somewhere in the 1530’s!! And like all historical fiction, some of it is fact yet, much of it, is a filling in of the gaps; creatively ‘imagining’ what it might have been like.

All of this is not too dissimilar from the way we read scripture.  Since Sunday School days I have been trying to ‘live in’ the stories of Jesus.  What would it have felt like to have been in the crowd at The Feeding of the Five Thousand or how would we have felt if Jesus, when passing us tending our nets on the shores of Galilee, had asked us to leave all and follow him?  It’s when we try to listen to the background sounds or smell the bread being backed by a busy Martha that we begin to read these stories differently, as participants.  And such reading can bring fresh insights to familiar narratives.

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I hope it’s been helpful to have the three ways to attend worship.  We’ll continue to do the audio-service for the time being, alongside the video service.  It was good to welcome some 42 people back to AFC for worship last Sunday.  This service will, of course, be constantly under review in the current context of the Pandemic.

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We note with both sorrow and hope, the passing of our good friend and church member, Dr Ella Munro MBE.  As someone said to me: Ella set a high standard in all she did.  Her part in helping to set up the Sycamore Club has made such a significant and positive contribution to the lives of so many.  We will lay this gifted and much loved Sister in Christ to rest, alongside her husband Dowling, at the cemetery in Great Missenden, on Friday 17^th July 2020.  May Ella rest in peace and rise in glory.

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We also continue to hold Suzanne Kirkcaldy and the family in our prayers following Alan’s passing.  The funeral will be held at the Chilterns Crematorium on Monday 13^th July 2020 at 3.30pm.  We are able to join the family by webcast.  Here are the details:
https://www.wesleymedia.co.uk/webcast-view
Login/Order ID: 39846
Password: hqsakdtf

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And finally, Hazel sent me this lovely picture, taken whilst she was out on a family walk at Coombe Hill.  The farmer made his own contribution to our celebrations on Sunday marking the founding of the NHS! (look carefully and you’ll see the initials cut into the corn field)

May God’s peace and joy be yours in all you do this day.

Ian

Returning

This coming Sunday we’ll be holding the first service at AFC since March 15^th 2020, fifteen weeks ago – probably the longest absence of worship in the building (and its predecessor in Sycamore Road) since the congregation was established in 1907.

We know that not everyone will be able to return, indeed we wouldn’t want that because the health of everyone is so important.  To that end we have decided to continue with the Audio Services. I’m very grateful to Michael Autton who will be helping out with this.  These services will be in a slightly simplified format than before.

The 10.30am service at AFC will be open to all, but we do have a maximum capacity of around sixty.  The chairs have been physically distanced and an Advisory Notice has been published both on the website and this blog to help people prepare for attending.

The 10.30am service will be videoed and then posted on the website later in the day.  We had hoped to livestream but in the second test run last week the signal failed or was very variable.  This was a disappointment as, on the first test, it had been reliable.

Maybe later in the year we’ll consider the whole issue of livestreaming but, for now, we have these three ways to engage in worship: Audio Service (to be listened to on the internet or through CDs), 10.30am AFC Service or Video Service and I hope that will fulfil our desire to be as inclusive as possible so that we are ONE congregation worshipping in different places.

I was so glad when Patrick, our Room Booking secretary, said that the first regular booking back on the AFC calendar was Morning Worship – and that, I think, is how it should be!

As a church community we were saddened to hear the passing of one of our former Associate Ministers, The Revd Alan Kirkcaldy, last week.  I know Alan was much loved at AFC.  Only a few days ago someone said to me: I only met him the once but felt as if I’d known him all my life.

This week the COTHA (Churches on The Hill, Amersham) Clergy held a Zoom ‘lunch’ together and finished putting together the various parts of a ‘United’ Audio Service, with contributions from all our churches, to be broadcast for July 19^th!  It was good to be together and share stories of how the three churches on the hill have managed over the days of the Pandemic.

This weekend marks a tentative beginning back to a very limited normality – it is neither complete or all inclusive, but it is a ‘start’ of sorts, even if it develops temporary blips on the way.

Small steps… to be taken at ‘the speed of love’.

Ian
ps a new Manse Talk will be posted on the website over the weekend

AFC Back to Church Advisory Letter

URC Personal Risk Assessment