Now Thank We All Our God

Thank you for keeping in touch via this Blog, especially during the days of both the first and second Lockdowns.

We are hearing of a great many plans recently that will take us into the future.  Our greatest hopes are pinned on the vaccines yet, in the meantime, we know we are going have to live with the restrictions of the tier system publicised yesterday.

One of my email correspondents wrote to me the other day with a request.  She remembered, as a girl, attending church after the war and singing (with great gusto) Now Thank We All Our God.  She asked if we might do this at AFC once this was all over!  Well, I'm sure we will sing that great hymn with equal gusto, but I'm not quite sure there will be one particular Sunday when we return to 'normal'.  It looks like it might happen incrementally and bit by bit, as more are vaccinated, our rhythms and patterns of much-loved worship and willing service to the community will resume. 

Now, from Sunday onwards there will be daily postings on the AFC Advent Blog, and whilst that happens this Blog will be mothballed!  It will return towards the end of the year.

Thank you again, Blog Readers, for sharing this part of the journey with me.

May you, this coming Advent, know God's blessing and mercy as we all 'wait' upon the Lord.

'Sacramental' Masks

Over the next few weeks I'm looking forward to putting together an AFC Advent Blog.  A number of folks from the church will be writing for it and many have already submitted Nativity Scene photos which we'll include.  They'll also be bits and pieces of information of various events and service that are taking place at this special time of year.  So, tomorrow will be the last entry here for a while, returning at the end of the year.

Today I thought I'd just pass on a super prayer that came my way via the Progressing Spirit network.  I think it's one worth remembering as we do something which has now become so commonplace, that of putting on a mask.

May you know God's blessing in all you do this day.

Finding God in Darkness

Our Zoom Church Meeting last night!

It was wonderful to see so many of you yesterday on our Zoom Church Meeting.  Almost fifty gathered and it felt very special and worthwhile.

Today I'm passing on the most recent letter from one of Regional Ministers, The Revd Colin Pye, published in the Central Baptist Association newsletter.  Colin has been a good friend to AFC over the years and, typically, his latest communication is full of heartfelt encouragement.

Whatever you are doing today may you find God in both the light and the darkness.

Dear Friends, Greetings from the team and I.   I just wanted to touch base with you in the midst of our second lockdown, more than anything simply to express solidarity with you in what is proving to be a miserable year for most, and devastating for some. Grappling with how we do church, what it means to be church in this context, and trying to second guess what the future looks like can be a wearisome business! I find myself looking to find joy in the simple things. Fortunately for me, I actually love this time of year, the gloomier the weather the better – fog, rain, storms, ground mist - bring it on.  I love nothing better than that when a dark cloud descends and closes everything in.  Wonderful.  I know that for many S.A.D people the very opposite is true, so apologies for dwelling on this thought. Here comes the point of this … Psalm 139:11-12 ‘If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.’ Even the darkness will not be dark to you! We miss out on so much if we imagine that God only dwells in the light – to find him in the darkness is one of the true gifts of faith. I heard Barbara Browne Taylor talking about her then new book ‘Learning to Walk in The Dark’ at the Greenbelt Festival several years ago, and remember thinking WOW, she really has a point! … I quote: “Even when light fades and darkness falls--as it does every single day, in every single life--God does not turn the world over to some other deity...Here is the testimony of faith; darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day.” …. “Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.” I find the thought that there are things that we can learn in the darkness that we would never learn in the light a helpful one. My prayer as we enter Advent, which after all is a time of reflection in preparation for Christs advent, is that we may encounter in ‘our moments of darkness’ (and there is much around) the God who sits with us there just as much as in the light. May we open our eyes to his quiet presence with us. As I think about it personally looking back, perhaps the greatest transformation happens in those times and places that seem bleakest. Somehow we manage to draw on faith from the very depths of our being that not only sustains but changes us as well.  Bless you one and all. Colin

Breakout Day!

 

Over the last two weeks we have been in 'Self-Isolation' at The Manse.  It came about because one of our sons tested positive for Covid.  He had very mild symptoms and is now fully receovered.  It was a very 'real' moment when his results came back, quickly followed by a text message from NHS Track and Trace instructing every member of the family to pull up the preverbial 'drawbridge' for fourteen days since he first showed symptoms.  Suddendly that which we had talked about 'theorectically' for eight months became for us a 'reality'.

Then, last Monday I started to have a high temperature, so I too was banished to the bedroom awaiting my test results.  Both our son and I had meals left outside our doors, spoke to other family members via the phone and were forbidden all contact with the dog, who by now was utterly confused as to what was going on.  In the end my test results came back negative (hooray) as it seems I simply had a common cold.  This meant on Friday I escaped the bedroom, and today we can all breakout from the house, including the dog who hasn't had a walk for two weeks!

I suspect it's been said time and again since March that it is the little, 'ordinary' things we miss most when they are taken away.  For me it was the casual family conversations in the hallway, the sharing of a meal or watching TV with others and, of course, my daily walk around Chorleywood Common with Pip.  I went from walking on average 3 miles a day to 0.3!

I met our neighbour the other day and he said to me It's not the foreign holidays I miss, it's just popping in the see the family.

Well, we seem to be entering more hope-filled days thanks to the wonderful work of scientists and we give thanks for their work which, soon we hope, will be a blessing to us all.

May you, today, know God's joy and peace in all you do - and I look forward to seeing some of you on Zoom at tonight''s Church Meeting.

Kindness

 I see that the magazine for younger people, TheWeekJunior, is launching a campaign for next month entitled: 12 Days of Kindness.  Based on the 12 Days of Christmas it encourages its readership to think of others by suggesting the simplest of tasks such as; penning a Thank You note, donating to a Food Bank, call a relative or help out with chores.  All very old fashioned in a way but, I thnk, a very good idea none the less.
Kindness does seem to be one response to the challenge of this year.  Little acts have gone a long way.  When the chips are down and our vulnerability comes to the fore, kindness remains as one of our most important, and thank God, instinctive responses.

I read in the Church Times the other week a lovely quote from the early 20th century Lebanese- American writer Kahlil Giran these words: kindness is the shadow of God in us.  Words worth pondering and living out.

May you, in all you do today, know the kindness of God, and then grasp every opportunity to share it with others.

The Joys and Tribulations of a New Phone

Much of what these last eight months has been about is 'keeping in touch', and technology has made that so much easier than ever before.  It's hard to believe that years ago personal international communication depended on writing letters on thin blue paper yet nowadays a call to Australia on WhatsApp is instantaneous.

Technology has been a blessing.  Over Lockdown I've watched services from all over the world, listened to lectures from Yale University and watched old Parkinson interviews on YouTube from the 1980's with delight!

Yet, as one lady from the congregation said to me this week, 'I still love the phone' the best.  I guess for her, as for countless others it's been a lifeline.

Well, this week I got a new iPhone as my old one had ceased to re-charge properly.  There was much excitement at The Manse as it arrived.  My adult children were nothing short of 'evangelistic' in telling me all about how brilliant it would be with so many new features to explore.

However, reality has not met expectation!  I guess we've all been there.  As I try to operate this new phone it feels familiar yet different at the same time.  Every operation requires me to learn a new skill and,  however slight that may be, it brings delay and frustration.  

It feels to me like a metaphor for life now.  Compared to eight months ago 'it's the same but different', everything seems just a tad more awkward.  

When it comes to both the phone and life, I'm grateful for the new, yet sometimes I long for the old!  

Whatever you are doing today and this weekend, may you know God's blessing and joy.  And if you are tuning in to the audio services there is an extra one available this week, a new service of Holy Communion for November and December.

Remembering John Harper

It's not often you read about Baptist Pastors on the BBC news website; but I did on Monday!

That's because the final letter written by The Revd John Harper, posted in Ireland and written aboard the Titanic, was auctioned for £42,000.

I didn't know his story.  He came from Scotland and in 1912 was Minister of Walworth Road Baptist Church in London. (I was once minister of Walsworth Road Baptist Church in Hitchin, slightly different spelling!) He was a widower travelling to Chicago with his sister and young daughter to preach at the Moody Church.  

On April 12th, 1912, as Titantic went down The Revd Harper gave up his seat in the lifeboat and then gave away his life jacket to another passenger.  Survivors report he spent his final hours preaching the gospel and comforting the anxious.  One described him as the bravest man aboard.

His young daughter lived to become the longest lived survivor of Titanic, passing away in 1986.

Well, it's quite a story; one of courage and integrity.  Made even more so, in my view, when we understand why he was going to America.  The Moody Church in Chicago then, as now, has an enormous congregation and this was obviosly his opportunity of a lifetime to be invited to preach.  Who knows what might have developed for him personally after his viist.  Yet, he gave it all up to help and assist others during a night of unimaginable terror.

I, for one, was inspired reading his story on the BBC on Monday.

Just as a footnote: I came to preach with either a 'view' or a 'squint' at AFC in April 2012.  Eric, our organist at the time, played the hymn 'Nearer my God to Thee' during the offering.  With a glint in his eye he asked me afterwards if I recognised it and knew why he'd played it.  I said yes to the first part of the question, and no to the second.  Eric then told me that this partticular Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  Of course, I later learnt that he loved marking anniversaries in this way - by playing something appropriate.  One of the blessings of Lockdown is that we have once again heard Eric's playing in the Audio Service recordings.

Whatever you do this day, may you know God's blessing of joy and peace.