Wednesday 18th March 2020

In view of current events I'm slightly changing the nature of this Blog.

Up till now I've tried to upload once a week with a reflection.

I'm changing that for the duration of the crisis; especially having in mind the folk at Amersham Free Church. 

The Blog will be an alternative way of me keeping in touch with you, as we won't see each other at Morning Worship for some time.

The challenge before us all is to do church 'differently'. And as someone said to me in an email yesterday, 'We can do this'!

So, I'll be posting much more often and most of it will be about our life together here in Amersham.

I know other valued friends from other places visit the Blog from time to time - please be assured of my prayerful best wishes for you at this time too. We are all in this together and the bonds of fellowship between us mean a great deal.

So, like all churches, AFC has taken the decision to close its public worship services.  I confess there was a lump in my throat and a wobble in my voice as I said the blessing last Sunday - I suspected it would be the last time I did that for a while.

Michael Autton and I, along with Matthew, are trying to put together a service which can be accessed via our church website.  We are fortunate in having discs of recorded AFC services going back many years and the hymns will be taken from these.  We'll add a contemporary Thought for the Day and some relevant intercessions. I hope you might be able to tune in - and hopefully it will be up and running and easily accesibly by 10.30am this Sunday.

In the meantime we have asked folks at AFC to phone, phone, phone.  My 'elder' phoned me yesterday just to see how I was and I greatly appreciated her interested. 

This morning the URC Ministers from our local area met at AFC, probably for the last time for a while.  It was good to share what each of our churches is doing at this time.  A really supportive and encouraging moment - quite an emotional one too as we ended our prayers with The Lord's Prayer and sharing the Grace together.

May you, today, know the blessing and presence of God in all you do.

Ian

When closing the door becomes a loving action…

Yesterday evening I did one of the strangest tasks I’ve ever undertaken as a Minister since my ordination in 1987.  Through one phone call after another I basically ‘closed down’ the weekday ministry of Amersham Free Church.  That’s because the advice given by Church Authorities had this clause in it:  Suspend catering (teas, coffees etc.) where multiple people touch mugs, utensils and foodstuffs.





I hadn’t fully realised until now that just about everything we do at church revolves around food, or at least a cup of tea! 

It was sad today to sit in a quiet vestibule and meet just one or two people instead of the usual buzz of the Friday Coffee Morning with the procession of community choir members, having a rehearsal break, coming for a refreshing cuppa.  For the time being this is the way it’s going to be, very quiet.

We’ll have to find different ways of supporting each other and perhaps none better than a lot of friendly phone calls.

So, whereas we’d normally say that we express our love and compassion by holding the door open and offering a cup of tea, it’s now the other way around, at least for a time.  It’s because we care about people’s well being that the door is no longer wide open and the tea pot is empty.  It all seems the wrong way round but we want to do our bit to help.

Lent 2020 is beginning to really feel like something of a ‘wilderness’. In his time there Jesus taught us what it means to trust in God and think, not primarily of ourselves, but of others.  Vital lessons for us all this Spring.

Lead us not into temptation?

One version of The Lord’s Prayer has that line: Save us from the time of trial – more commonly prayed: Lead us not into temptation.

Most of us want to avoid temptations, to have them locked away, so that way we don’t succumb to them.

This week I was reading all about our illegal use of mobile phones whilst driving.  To avoid the temptation to just take a peek who’s calling us the author suggested the ‘glove’ compartment should become the ‘phone’ compartment.  At the start of every trip, he wrote, we ought to lock our phones away so that if they are out of sight, they won’t tempt us.

Now all of this is fine and makes eminent sense, that is until we start reading about Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness.  At this point in his ministry, right at the beginning, it seems as if Jesus is positively seeking temptation.  He goes out to deliberately meet it.  It’s as he confronts it that he learns much about both himself and God.  These wilderness encounters with pride, power and idolatry begin to define who Jesus is and what his message is about.  In saying ‘no’ to the abuse of power for selfish gain we get those first glimpses of a Kingdom of compassion, love, justice and generosity.

Of course, both ways may be right at different phases of our own lives.  There will be times when it’s good for us to confront our temptations, to face up to them and push them away.  At other moments our prayer will understandable be for God not to ‘bring us to a time of trial’.

Journey into Lent

Can we, I wonder, become a bit too inward-looking during Lent?

Many churches put on special courses, hold retreats and encourage special spiritual disciplines at this time of year.  We do that because Lent is both a season of penance and preparation.  Some view it, helpfully, as time for a yearly spiritual MOT.

All of that is good because in a world where the ‘material’ often captures our longings and ambitions some spiritual recalibration is surely beneficial for the soul.  We believe that our hearts and minds are important because it’s from there that our actions spring.

So Lent, alongside all spiritual disciplines, is there to enable us to be so changed ‘inwardly’ that we are better equipped to look ‘outward’ and live a more Christ-like life of loving and generous service.

In his wilderness temptations Jesus seems to constantly reject all that might lead to personal advancement.  His spirituality is anything but pietistic. Instead, he begins his ministry the way he lived it, with a focus on living for others.

Lent really isn’t so much about giving up things as to what we might do more of.  More loving.  More serving. More real community.

View from the Pew week

Once a month, at the moment, I'm having a 'Sabbatical Sunday', visiting other churches and then writing it up on the 'sister' website to this.

A fortnight ago we visited The King's Chapel in Gibraltar - read the blog at:

https://viewfromthepewsabbatical.blogspot.com/

There is nothing love cannot face...

The BBC news website tells us this morning that Poundland have sold 40,000 rings in the lead up to this year’s St Valentine’s Day!  No expense spared for the person you love!

It many ways this date in our annual calendar is a funny old day.  Some make much of it whilst others, who are probably no less loving, let it drift by.  Its origin is ambiguous and the marking of it is varied.

St Paul’s poem in 1 Corinthians is, I believe, scripture at its best.  I think this poem about love is simply sublime.  It seems to come from no where yet instantly hits the spot with wonderful language and an understanding of the true nature of love that rings with the wisdom of the ages.

Love is patient, kind, envies no one, is never boastful……and so the litany goes on, and its genius is, I believe, that it puts ‘tough’ love right there alongside those ‘softer’ definitions.

Love keeps no record of wrongs, is never selfish and doesn’t take offence….not easy loving like this.  Yet the love that stays true and grows does exactly that; constantly giving and receiving second chances.

Today will be marked by plastic rings and expensive roses.  Cards will be exchanged with funny or deeply felt greetings.  However, for me, no words ring, on this of all days, with a greater or more profound truth than those of St Paul’s when he writes in his wonderful poem: There is nothing love cannot face.

Thanks be to God!

100 - not out...

Last Sunday’s reading in church made reference to Anna, the prophetess who, along with Simeon, greeted the baby Jesus at his Presentation in The Temple.  The author felt Anna’s age merited a mention and tells us she was 84. 

That would have been impressive, apart from the fact that we had just presented one of our morning congregation with a basket of flowers to celebrate her 100^th birthday – so, 84 suddenly seemed less worthy of a mention for poor Anna!

Our wonderful centenarian at AFC (to be joined by another come May!) was born in a year that saw George V unveil the newly built cenotaph in London and the formation of the League of Nations, the forerunner of The United Nations. All of this in a year that began the ‘Roaring Twenties’!

It was a joy to celebrate last Sunday and we marked it with a cake after service with everyone singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in the coffee hall.

My friend told me she had received a card from The Queen, and then with a glint in her eye, went on to say she had placed the card from the church next to the one from Her Majesty.  I was so touched by that.  It says a lot about the place of faith and pilgrimage in the life of our wonderful one-hundred-year-old member.

That conversation reminded me of another I had, in a different pastorate, with a lady of senior years.  She was ill and I was at her bedside.  She told me to look above the headboard and pointed to a faded card stuck to the wall.  ‘That’s my church membership certificate from 1937’, she said.  Once again I was touched that such a card had been given so prominent and meaningful a place.

I think both these inspiring saints, who have the wisdom of the years about their judgements, teach us that ‘belonging’ to a community such as the church keeps you young.  Knowing we are not alone, that we walk with fellow pilgrims, well – it helps us to keep going as we value the companionship of each other along the way.