How to read more in 2024

 

 

If you’d like to read more in the coming year, some or all of these might work for you:

 

Have several things on the go. Sometimes read what you feel like reading. Have something light and fun and something more demanding. Something that is pure relaxation. Something related to your work. Something sacred and secular.  

 

Read a little each day, even if you don’t feel like it.

 

Try reading at a set time each day, even if just for a few minutes.

 

Always have something with you which you could read if you have a few moments spare.

 

Read something demanding when you have the most capacity (e.g. first thing after breakfast).

 

Find a space that works for you. Maybe you need to step away from your desk / laptop. Perhaps if you don’t want to fall asleep reading or you want to sleep in your bed, it’s not the ideal place for reading.

 

Read with a pen or pencil near by and mark the book / write a few words in summary of each chapter. You might keep a piece of paper in the book in case you want to write any notes.

 

Read with purpose / put your reading to use e.g. write a short review, recommend a book.

 

Get recommendations.

 

Read book reviews. Sometimes this will make reading the book itself unnecessary. Sometimes you will want to order if before you’ve finished the review.

 

Consider logging your reading.

 

Reading out loud may help you grasp something particularly dense and difficult.

 

Maybe read with others. Read the same book with friends or family and talk about it. Join a book group.

 

For some reading, you might use a reading plan (a chapter a day).

 

Try listening instead of reading. The play-back speed may be adjustable.

 

Feel free to skim, skip or give up. Reading page one of a book need not commit you to reading the next three hundred pages if it isn’t working for you. Some books deserve to re-read and slowly savoured. Some are not worth your time. Many are worth an hour or two and after that there are diminishing returns. If you had eight books on your reading list for this week, how much time would you spend with this one?

 

Sometimes a summary / guide / introduction can be of use.

 

Re-read something.

 

Read something new / outside your comfort zone / which you wouldn’t normally choose.

 

Cut out things you don’t really enjoy / need / regret which get in the way of reading. Maybe read less social media so as to read some Bible or Shakespeare.

'Twas The Week after Christmas Day

 Although this may be a quiet week for the clergy and the Vicar may be on leave, it is a busy one for the liturgical calendar. 

Today is St Stephen's Day. Good King Wenceslas and all that. We might recall Steve's vocation to service as a deacon and the importance of good administration and care for the poor and lonely even amidst our festivity. 

His martyrdom urges us to live not for this world alone but to look to the well done of the risen, ascended Christ. 

He helpfully gives us a review of Biblical history as pointing to the coming of Christ and beyond. 

Christmas week, then, quicky embraces Easter and the eschaton too. 

John, Apostle and Evangelist gives the week a cosmic scope and also focuses us on the life of Christ. We have have heard John 1 read a number of times at Advent and Christmas services, but it is worth reflecting afresh on the depths and implications of it, as well as on gospel, epistles and Revelation. Maybe love of Christ might be said to be a key note of what we can learn from this beloved disciple.  

The Holy Innocents confront us with a grim reality and drive us to prayer. We see here that the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdoms of this earth are not going to be on friendly nodding terms without radical repentance and transformation. Again, the cross stalks the manger. And we cry "Come, Lord Jesus!"

And though 1170 was a long time ago, if you are an Anglican or a Brit, Thomas Becket brings matters even closer to home. What of friendship? And final loyalties? Maybe we too will find a serious life's work and a cause worth living or dying for. 

And then, of course, on Sunday, it will be back to the Celebration of Christmas, and like every Lord's Day, Resurrection Day!

Merry post-Christmas week! 

Some jottings for a midnight Communion sermon

 

Isaiah 9:1-7 (p693)

Luke 2:1-20 (p1927)

 

Christmas for the children?

 

A child for us

 

To us

 

To all the people

 

To the whole world

 

To you

 

 To all who received him

 

The German Reformer, Martin Luther, said this in his Christmas sermon of 1521:

 

Listen! the angel says: "I bring you glad tidings of great joy", my Gospel speaks of great joy.

Where is it?

Hear again: "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord"...

How is it possible for man to hear of greater joy than that Christ has given to him as his own?

He does not only say Christ is born, but he makes his birth our own by saying, to you a Saviour.

Therefore the Gospel does not only teach the history concerning Christ; but it enables all who believe it to receive it as their own….

Of what benefit would it be to me if Christ had been born a thousand times… if I were never to hear that he was born for me and was to be my very own?

 

Not just a Saviour, but my Saviour

 

To be received personally by faith

 

Holy Communion

 

Christ offered to us

 

“Given for you”

Christmas Day Sermon Outline: Christmas Highs and Lows

 

https://www.faithinkids.org/christmas-highs-and-lows/

Carol Service Sermon 2023: Christmas has been cancelled in Bethlehem

 

Christmas has been cancelled in Bethlehem.

Or at least, celebrations will be kept to a minimum this year in response to the war in Gaza.

There will be no Christmas tree and no fairy lights.

 

Bethlehem’s economy is 90% dependent on tourists and pilgrims, but for months now souvenir sellers have been playing backgammon rather than running their stalls.

Normally 150 000 people would go Bethlehem during the Christmas period, but this year there are virtually no visitors.

In contrast to the first Christmas, the hotels are empty.

 

One church in Bethlehem has set up a manger scene surrounded by rubble.

Perhaps more than the tinsel and the glitter, that image of a manger in the midst of rubble, captures the meaning of Christmas.

Because Jesus came for a broken world.

He entered our mess.

 

If we imagine the perfectly curated Christmas, there might seem little need of Christ.

I’ve no idea how Jesus fits with Stacey Solomon's Crafty Christmas or Jamie Oliver’s Quick and Easy Christmas.

But when we think of the reality of our world, perhaps we can begin to understand why Christ came.

 

He was born in royal David’s city, but he came to be with the poor and meek and lowly.

He was born after a long, hard journey, in difficult circumstances, in an occupied land, his parents displaced from home.

An animal’s feeding trough in a borrowed room isn’t the beautiful nursery parents-to-be dream of.

And soon Jesus would be a child refugee, fleeing from Herod’s violence.

 

Christmas is for people walking in darkness, for those living in the land of the shadow of death.

It’s for those who know gloom, distress and oppression.

But it is a great light – a dawn which changes everything.

The true light has come into the world.

 

In the carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, we sang:

in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light;

 

Jesus came into this world of sin, and he comes to all who will receive him still.

We need him to cast out our sin and enter in and be born in us today.

 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us, in this world of mess and pain.

God himself came to our world in Jesus, that by believing in him we might have new life as the children of God.

 

Even when there are no fairy lights, the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Jesus could not be cancelled.

When they killed him, he rose victorious from the dead.

The Light wins!

 

Jesus is the Prince of peace, and of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

 

There’s still a long way to go before we see the message of the angels, of peace on earth, entirely fulfilled.

But their message is more than make-believe.

It’s not merely sentiment or aspiration.

It’s good news because it is the announcement of the favour and kindness of God: of God’s undeserved love for us and our broken world.

Something has happened which the Shepherds can go and check out:

The birth of the Saviour – Christ, the Lord, the long-promised rescuer-king, who alone can give us peace with God and peace within.

 

However terrible the pain and suffering of our world, we should never allow it to cancel Christmas.

According to the Bible, Jesus came to cancel the charge-sheet of sin for all who would put their trust in him.

 

The darkness, the shadow, mustn’t do away with Christmas.

It shows us our need of the Light.

 

So even amidst the rubble, look to the manger!

Perhaps especially when we’re conscious of terrible violence and suffering, Christmas is good news of great joy to all people.

 

May you know hope, joy and peace this Christmas. Amen.

 * * * 

Since preaching this sermon, I've seen online a a 1511 painting by Albrecht Altdorfer of the nativity amongst a somewhat derelict house. 

On the first Sunday of Advent 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison:

November 28, 1943

My dear Parents,

Although no one has any idea whether and how letters are presently being handled, I nevertheless want to write to you on this afternoon of the first Sunday in Advent. The Altdorfer nativity scene, in which one sees the holy family with the manger amid the rubble of a collapsed house—just how did he come to portray this in such a way, flying in the face of all tradition, four hundred years ago?—is particularly timely. Even here one can and ought to celebrate Christmas, he perhaps wanted to say; in any case, this is what he says to us.

Crib Service Talk Outline 2023

 

https://www.faithinkids.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/all-age-talk_-_christmasfeels_long_talk_3.pdf

The challenge of Christmas preaching

 Christmas preachers feel, I think, a struggle to have some kind of new way in or fresh angle. When we deal with similar themes and passages year after year, how will we be engaging and what are we going to do in the four or five new all age services we need each year?

More important, of course, to concentrate on proclaiming the central truths of Christmas: the Word made flesh, the birth of the Saviour, the long-promised rescuer-king.

And to pray for grace to do so in a way that is transparently sincere, to be moved again by these great foundational truths oneself. We want not merely to tick off the talks (great, I’ve got an idea, I’m prepared, that one’s done) but to speak to all who will listen of what matters most to us.

We may want some of our services, at least, to feel fun and happy, but we want the cosmic seriousness, the mystery, the mind-blowing world-remaking New Creation of this central fact of history to shine through too. More than entertaining or amusing, we want our hearers to check out this thing which has happened which we have been told about and to go home glorifying and praising God.

The social and religious status of the Christmas shepherds

The shepherds are literally outsiders when the angels come to them with the good news. Their marginal location out in the fields near Bethlehem, rather than at the heart of the town, would naturally mean that they are the last to hear what’s going on. Now they are the first to receive and then spread the good news of the Saviour’s birth.

 

If we think about the birth narratives as a whole, Luke’s local Jewish shepherds of relatively low status naturally form a contrast with Matthew’s (Gentile?) Magi from (far away?) in the East. The shepherds have a relatively short and easy journey, whereas the Magi’s journey presumably required means and leisure. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, educated and uneducated are all invited!

 

The shepherds might be seen as the humble of Luke 1:52 who are lifted up or as the poor who have the good news preached to them according to 7:22 (Robert H. Stein, The New American Commentary, B&H 1992, p108).

 

In An Even Better Christmas (Good Book Company, 2018), Matt Chandler claims:

 

“In first-century Judea, shepherds were considered outsiders, on the edges of normal society. They were so mistrusted that their testimony was inadmissible evidence in a court of law. First-century Jews believed that God didn’t like shepherds—and they didn’t like them, either. The most pious of Jews would not buy milk, lambs or wool from shepherds; they assumed it was stolen. The religious elite of that day saw them as unclean, filthy, unwanted and outside of God’s favor. A philosopher in Alexandria, one of the centers of the intellectual world at the time, went so far as to say, “There is no more disreputable an occupation than that of a shepherd.”” [I’m not sure where this quotation is from. One online source cites Midrash Ps. 23.2, ed. Buber, Vilna 1891, 99b.12, cited by Jeremias, Jerusalem, p. 311, fn. 42. The next (different) quotation in the online text is from Philo of Alexandria. - https://www.jesuswalk.com/luke/apx1f-shepherds.htm#_ftnref1332]

 

https://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/articles/who-did-god-come-for - the online excerpt at least gives no footnotes

 

Stein claims that “in general shepherds were regarded as dishonest” citing the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 25b, which was initially compiled around 500AD. Sanhedrin 25b rejects the validity of the testimony of shepherds and seems to base this view on the idea that shepherds deliberately and routinely allowed their animals to graze in the fields of others. Stein adds that shepherds were “unclean according to the standards of the law. They represent the outcasts and sinners for whom Jesus came. Such outcasts were the first recipients of the good news.”

 

Kenneth Bailey (Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, IVP 2008, p35-36) says that shepherds at the time of Jesus were poor, lowly, near the bottom of the social scale and rejected. He cites Joachim Jeremais, “Despised Trades and Jewish Slaves” in Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Fortress, 1969) pp304-12 to show that rabbinic sources regarded shepherds as unclean. Bailey says: “Five lists of “proscribed trades” are recorded in rabbinic literature and shepherds appear in three out of the five. These lists hail from post-New Testament but could reflect developing ideas alive in the time of Jesus. In any case, they were lowly, uneducated types.” (p35) Bailey imagines that the shepherds would fear that if they tried to visit the Messiah, his parents would send them away.

  

Leon Morris (Tyndale, IVP, 1974) similarly thinks that the nature of the shepherds’ calling kept them from observing the ceremonial law (p93). He assumes the shepherds to be “devout men… from a despised class.” (p93)

 

Bock BECNT 1994 on Luke 2:8 sees the shepherds as “an everyday group” (p214):

 

“The shepherds are often characterized as representing the “downtrodden and despised” of society, so that the first proclamation of the gospel is said to have come to sinners (Hendriksen 1978: 149; Godet 1875: 1.130; R. Brown 1977: 420 n. 38). The evidence for this view draws on material from rabbinic Judaism (SB 2:113–14; b. Sanh. 25b; Midr. Ps. 23.2 on 23:1 [= Braude 1959: 1.327]). But there are two problems with reading the shepherds as symbols of the hated. First, the rabbinic evidence is late, coming from the fifth century. More importantly, shepherd motifs in the Bible are mostly positive. The NT (Luke 15:4; Mark 6:34; Matt. 18:12; John 10; 1 Pet. 2:25; Heb. 13:20; Eph. 4:11) portrays shepherds in a favorable light, even describing church leaders with this figure. In the OT, Abraham, Moses, and David were all shepherds at some point in their lives.4 Thus, the presence of the shepherds is not a negative point. Rather, they picture the lowly and humble who respond to God’s message (1:38, 52; 4:16–18; Fitzmyer 1981: 408).” (p213)

 

Jesus will of course call himself the good shepherds and pastors are the be under-shepherds. 

Parish Magazine Item for January 2024

 

From The Rectory

 

I’m rather addicted to Radio 4 and I’ve heard their Christmas advert many times over the last month. It ends with a quotation from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: the resolve of the reformed Ebeneezer Scrooge: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

 

We have tended to front-load Christmas. As soon as the Halloween merchandise is cleared out, we’re confronted with mince pies and Santa hats. But Advent is intended to be a time of waiting and anticipation. Maybe as you read this, Christmas already seems a rather dim memory, but it is traditionally celebrated for Twelve Days leading up to the Epiphany on 6^th January. Epiphany commemorates the visit of the wise men from the East to the infant Jesus, and hence his manifestation to the Gentile nations. The Epiphany season runs until the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (“Candlemas”) on 2^nd February. So, if you were so inclined, you could keep up your Christmas festivities – and your decorations – for forty days.

 

But what might it mean to try to keep Christmas all the year? Certainly we should say that Christ is not just for Christmas.

For Scrooge, keeping Christmas involves a great deal of chuckling and a new found generosity as he shares a bowl of smoking bishop (a kind of mulled wine which got its name from a mitre-like cup) with Bob Cratchit. In short, Scrooge becomes a good man. Although some people laughed at him, he little heeded it, because his own heart laughed. “It was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”    

 

When the Shepherds meet the baby Jesus, they spread the news concerning what they had been told about the child and all who heard it were amazed. They returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:17-20)

 

If we seek to honour Christmas in our hearts, there is so much to treasure up and to ponder. The central mystery of Christmas is the incarnation: of God made flesh. This fact, which divides human history, tells us that God is for us and our world. He loves us enough to come to us and to share our condition. He was born for us that he might die for us. The Redeemer of the world has come. When we take a moment to reflect on the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, an inward chuckle seems part of the right response.

 

In the spirit of A Christmas Carol, we might pray that the past reality of Christmas would give us a present joy and a future hope, and that the whole future course of our lives might be reshaped by Christmas. Even more than Dickens, the Bible writers hold out the possibility that even the coldest old sinner can be transformed, if not simply by Christmas, then by Christ. Not every day can be the Christmas feast, but the good news of the Saviour who is Christ the Lord ought to make a difference to us every day.

 

So today and all the year: Merry Christmas! And God bless Us, Every One!

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd

Suella Braverman and the Meaning of Christmas

 

From The Rectory

 

The recently sacked Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, caused controversy, amongst other things, by Tweeting (are we meant to call it X-ing, now?) that: “The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.”

The Matt cartoon in The Daily Telegraph quipped that the message in Suella Braverman’s Christmas Card might say that “being born in a stable is a lifestyle choice”. I think Christians would agree!   

 

Luke’s gospel tells us that the Emperor Augustus had issued a decree that a census should be taken. So Joseph and his betrothed, Mary, had gone from their town of Nazareth in Galilee to register in Bethlehem, the town which great King David of old had been from, because Joseph was of the house and line of David. While they were there, Mary gave birth to Jesus and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. But the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were more than the result of historical accidents. The Bible sees them as the fulfilment of God’s plan and of the prophecies that the long-promised Rescuer-King would be born in Bethlehem, the city of his ancestor King David.

 

In a sense, the Son of God could have remained in heaven without blame. But for him to be born in a stable was a lifestyle choice. He came to our broken world and shared our mess that he might be our Saviour. The Bible says that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to cling on to but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being found in human likeness. He did not leave the glory of heaven for a splendid earthly palace. As the Carol says, a stable-place sufficed for the Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ. The Bread of Life was placed in an animal’s feeding trough. Eventually he would die on the cross in our place that our sins might be forgiven.

 

As another hymn addressed to the Lord Jesus puts it:

 

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love's sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love's sake becomes poor.

 

Indeed, John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Literally he pitched his tent, or tabernacled amongst us. In Old Testament times, when God’s people were travelling through the desert to the promised land, they worshiped God in a tent, The Tabernacle. And during his earthly ministry, Jesus was an embodied Tabernacle, a kind of mobile walking talking Temple. Jesus was the place to go to meet with God, where the glory of God was revealed. Jesus’ own body would be the place of sacrifice by which sinners like me and you could come into the presence of a holy God.   

 

Soon Jesus and his family would be refugees as they fled from the murderous King Herod to the safety of Egypt. Later, speaking of himself, Jesus would say: ““Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus was made homeless and chose to dwell in the tent of human flesh that we might come home to God.

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd

My views on The Times view on the C of E

The Times view of the C of E is that it is behind the times. 

They pointed out that (A) only 1% of people in the UK regularly attend an Anglican church.

They then go on to express surprise that (B) "only a quarter of Anglican priests describe Britain as truly Christian, with seven in ten of the opinion that this aspect of national identity is a thing of the past", calling this defeatism.

But in fact (B) is only a perhaps partial and late recognition of (A)! We must face facts that the vast majority of people in this country are not (or are not yet) committed Bible-believing Christians. The task that faces the church is enormous. It can be exciting, but the challenge is huge.

It is not surprising that morale amongst the clergy is low.

It is hard to adjust to the long decline of Christianity and Christendom in the UK and the changing social position of the church and the Vicar. A church must do amazingly well to stand still. Some places see real growth, sometimes by moving believers round, but still, praise God, by conversions too. Perhaps more and more people will consider Christ again as the confusion and emptiness of contemporary liberal postmodernity plays out.

Clergy sometimes want it both ways with respect to the senior clergy. (1) There are too many senior clergy, they are too expensive, and there should be more frontline parish clergy (2) The senior clergy and the diocese should do more to support me.

To say that the church is behind the times is to assume a trajectory of history which is at least open to question. The Times presumes on a god-like knowledge of the end from the beginning.

The Times suggests that the answer for the C of E is to get with the spirit of the age on such matters as female clergy and gay marriage. These issues seem rather different to me, and I won't get in to the specifics here. But if we seek to change the spirit of the age, and to win the world, the last thing we should do is to be assimilated to it.

We should of course remember what Gloomy Dean Inge wrote in his diary in 1911: "if you marry the Spirit of your own generation you will be a widow in the next."

It is possible, therefore, that some of the symptoms the Times detects are in fact results of the prescription it proposes. Has some of the decline been because the church has sometimes failed to have a striking prophetic voice? Have people thought, "Oh, what is the Vicar / Bishop saying about the great issues?". Or do they expect us to say only what is bland and comfortable and which we might have read in the Guardian already?

The church should and must continue to stand for something distinctive. Only as salt and light can we affect the world. If we are just like the village hall or the golf club, there is no need to come to us. Our unique selling points, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and for ever, and the sure and sharp Word of God, need to be put front and centre.

How can the church regain her confidence?

Partly by a return to these things. By prayer. By looking daily to Christ and the Scriptures, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We need deep roots for troubled times. We must drink of Christ, for here is living water to refresh and sustain us for life in a largely pagan and pluralistic world. Back to the New Testament, because we face a situation not so unlike that of the early church.

Also by a warm and committed fellowship in which clergy and people have a sense of joint mission which goes beyond keeping the building open and the show on the road on a Sunday morning. Church is not a club but a team with a purpose.

And by a historical and global perspective. The church may be at a low ebb in some parts of Western Europe, but it has grown and continues to grow in a way that is frankly supernatural. A small band of committed believers won the world once. They could do so again, under God. The Word of God grows and bears fruit 30, 60 or even 100 times what is sown. Jesus will build his church. The yeast will work through the whole lump. The mustard seed will produce the largest tree in the garden and the birds of the air shall come and nest in it. The rock not made by human hands will be a mountain that will fill the whole earth. The world shall be full of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

There may be defeats, but the battle belongs to the Lord. Life and love will win. Despair will die.

No doubt there are may administrative and financial changes that could be made to the beloved C of E. Reforms of all sorts would be beneficial. For myself, I would stick with Establishment because I think it works okay much of the time and it is much easier to break than to build. We should be careful what we wish for.

The C of E may face great change. But a clarification and a purification may lead to her renewal and to the transformation of our nation once again.

* * * 

These comments respond to the Leader Article / Editorial / Opinion piece linked to above. The Times also published a news story on its front page and gave some more details of the survey results. 

As The Revd Dr Ian Paul (on Times Radio) and others have said, the methodology of the survey may be questioned. The sample was random (of C of E clergy contact details available in Crockfords, I believe), but not representative. There was a very high non-response rate. And some of the questions are arguably of the "have you stopped beating your wife yet?", type. One may want to refuse the dilemma or say that none of the options given really represent what I would say on this subject. In fact, we might do well to ask what would count as a Christian country?  

The sweet spot of blagging

Many people say they sometimes feel like an imposter.

And all of us are to some extent "pretending". No one "naturally" puts on a suit and gives a presentation on the Q3 sales figures. We all play a part and mostly we don't want or need total honesty or transparency about everything you might think or feel. 

Few people, by definition, are the world experts in anything. And no one knows everything. 

Strictly speaking, no same person stands in the same river twice. You have changed. The river has changed. But if you are always only doing the same thing in the same way, you might might be very good at always getting it "right" but you might be ripe for replacement by a robot. Maybe you should risk giving something else a go? There may be an easier or better way of doing the thing you do well in your usual way. 

Of course you should (almost!) never lie. (That's a different blog post).  

And some specific matters of detail matter a great deal. A legal or technical point could make all the difference between jail or explosion and it can be very important to check very thoroughly. This is an area where blagging must be shunned, exposed and deplored. "Of, yeah, I'm confident, don't worry, it'll all be fine" is sometimes very far from good enough. 

Often it is good to admit ignorance and ask for help. A reasonable person can be impressed with, "Good question! I'm not 100% sure. Let me go and check that and I'll get back to you this afternoon with the definitive answer." 

We need to learn to live with a degree of uncertainty and flexibility because the universe demands it. 

Take the world I know best. One might say in a sermon, "The Bible never mentions X". Well, I have read the Bible several times. I may well know. But perhaps the only way to be totally sure is to read the original languages looking for X. Searching and English version can let you down. And secondary literature can sometimes be misleading. The Bible may not mention X, but it may include something which amounts to X, or implies X. But this level of checking would normally be excessive and silly. 

Some kinds of preparation are unnecessary. Quite likely most people don't need to write out every part of every speech, presentation or sermon word for word. 

And some types of preparation can even be counter productive. If you do write out your talk word for word, you may be tempted to read it out in a rather boring mechanical manner. Perhaps better to throw away the full text and preach from notes. An extra step of preparation! 

We may rightly reject the language, but there is a sweet spot of blagging which accepts ordinary certainty, and sometimes good enough over perfection, and which allows space for risk, creativity, giving it a go and getting on with what needs to be done now the best I can.

If something is worth doing, it is worth doing adequately.   

Have we made church too user-friendly / consumerist?

 One Lord's Day this summer we found ourselves in a small seaside town in Normandy. As far as we could tell, there was no Evangelical and Reformed church meeting for miles around so, rightly or wrongly, some of us attended the service at the local (Roman Catholic) church. 

There were no screens or books. We were given a photocopied sheet which seemed to contain all the hymns for the month. 

Two cantors led the singing and the congregation joined in with the liturgy they had memorised. The whole service was traditional with organ accompaniment. I was amazed they couldn't find two more tuneful singers! After the three Bible readings, the priest preached for it seemed about 20 minutes on The Transfiguration and the Eucharist followed. My French is rubbish and the congregation laughed mildly once or twice, but it seemed like a serious attempt the preach and apply the Bible. There was no children's work. And after some notices we were sent away. No coffee was served, though many people stood around in the square outside afterwards to chat.

I cannot tell you what percentage of the town were in church that day nor whether the congregation is growing or declining, nor how devout and well-taught the people are. But the church was full and it included many young people and families. Parents walked around with any screaming babies. 

I wonder if there is something to be said for a church which says that we are going to worship God on a Sunday morning in the way we believe he wants, and we want you to come to what we are putting on, whether you like it or not, whether it is the style you would choose or not, and whether or not you find it fun and convenient. And trust that this is good and right and glorifies God and will bless you.  

Covenants, Work, Rest and Sabbaths

 

 

One of the major theological issues for Christians to think through is continuity and change between Old and New Covenants.

 

One major change is from the Jewish sabbath (Saturday, day 7 of the creation week) to Resurrection Day, The Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, the Christian sabbath.

 

What difference might this make to our conception of work and rest?

 

In the Old Covenant, the people of God are invited to be imitators of God the creator. God works, and human beings are to be sub-creators, guarding and keeping the world which God has made. They were as God’s vice-gerents, exercising loving rule over the world as his image bearers. They are gods over the world under God and are to do so in a godly manner.

 

The goal and climax of creation is for human beings to share sabbath day rest with God. He has completed his work of creation. His house has been formed and filled and so he dwells with human beings to bless them. It is very good and God enjoys satisfaction from his work: he rests from what he has done. He invites us to be imitators of him not only in work but in entering in to his rest.

 

The Old Testament pattern is work to rest. And this all remains good and true. The goal of the creation remains New Creation rest. Sabbath is the destiny and climax of all things as we are delivered from toil and curse.

 

But the New Covenant also invites us to think of the Christian Sabbath (Sunday) as the first day of the week. It is already a New Creation because Jesus Christ is risen victorious from the dead and we are in him. We no longer look forward to work done. It is finished! Christ’s perfect saving work has been completed. God is utterly satisfied in his well-pleasing Son whom he loves. Jesus gives us his rest as a gift.

 

And so in the New Covenant it is especially clear that work flows from rest. We are already loved and saved. God is satisfied.

 

Starting the week with Resurrection Day is a reminder that victory is secure. Even as we look forward to the full and final Sabbath Day rest of the people of God, even as we live with the ongoing curse and toil of the Old Creation in this overlap of the ages, we are free from anxiety. In this world, there are still thorns and thistles to contend with, but Jesus was crowned with thorns and the curse has been spent on him. The Christian lives in a whole new world, and Jesus will at last make all things new.  

 

Parish Magazine Item for September

 

From The Rectory

 

The Puritans (the hotter sort of Protestants who flourished in the 17^th Century) are sometimes seen as figures of fun, who wouldn’t have been much fun. I seem to recall an episode of Blackadder which gives a fairly typical, if not entirely encouraging impression. But who wouldn’t want a church which is as pure as humanly possible? Of course there are many other considerations, but it is surely right to be zealous for godliness and not indifferent to matters of doctrine or practice. This is one of the things that all Christians ought to be concerned about which the Puritans can help us to recover. Many of the Puritans were eventually expelled from the Established Church or didn’t feel that they could remain in good conscience, but for some generations the Puritans were an important voice within the Church of England and we do well to listen to them still. They remind us that personal, ecclesiastical and societal reformation are never done. As the old slogan has it, the reformed church is always reforming. Thomas Cranmer, the author of The Book of Common Prayer, would have agreed with that, I think.

Anyway, I took a little book of prayers which draw on the Puritans away with me on holiday this summer. Perhaps not laugh a minute beach reading, you might think, but I found it nourishing to start the day not only with coffee and a croissant, but with a few of these prayers. (Tim Chester, Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans, The Good Book Company 2022 – an attractive hardback is £9.99; e-book also available – ISBN: 9781784987770 – see thegoodbook.co.uk/into-his-presence for free extras). Often I found the prayers contained some vivid expression. The Puritans were great preachers, after all. And there was plenty worth reflecting on.

 

One of the strengths of the Puritans is what we might sometimes call “application”, which they might have called the “uses” of a doctrine. That is, for them, preaching wasn’t merely an academic exercise or a kind of entertainment. They didn’t want the Rector to give mildly interesting, diverting sermons, but rather to preach the Word in a way that would make a difference. The teaching of the Bible was meant to be transformative. They wanted to spell out the implications of what God was saying for all their hearers and for all areas of life.

 

The prayers in this little book can help us to meditate on Christian truths more deeply. Rather than a mere going through the motions of a form of prayer or a prayer list, they seek to stir up our souls to a passionate love of God and his ways. For example, with Philip Dodderidge, we might pray: “Oh, in what language shall my flame break forth? What can I say but this, that my heart admires you [Lord God], and adores you, and loves you? My little vessel is as full as it can hold; and I would pour out all that fullness before you, that it may grow capable of receiving more and more.” (p47)

 

And I was struck by prayer number 28, from Thomas Watson, which is given the title “Holy Fire”. We pray that our obedience might be free, cheerful, willing, devout, fervent, sincere and not merely for outward appearances or recognition. That we might love our duty. That our hearts might boil over with hot affection for the Lord, that there might be fervent fire upon our sacrifice.  May the beauty, wisdom, holiness and mercy of Christ draw out our love like a magnet. May we ardently desire communion with Christ and hate all that grieves him or separates us from him.

 

Whether or not this book is for you, why not take a moment today to pray and to reflect on some great truth of the Bible: on the love of God, on the death of Christ, on the events summarised in The Apostles’ Creed? What difference might these things make to us? How might they move us to prayer and praise? Ask for God’s grace that you might live today in the light of these things with a purer love and trust for Jesus.

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd

Tim Chester, Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans

Tim Chester, Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans (The Good Book Company, 2022) hb with ribbon 207pp

 

I’ve been enjoying using some of these prayers each morning on holiday.

 

In contrast to Banner of Truth’s Valley of Vision, each prayer is based on the work of a particular puritan author. Citations and brief biographical sketches are provided at the back.

 

These eighty prayers are grouped in to sixteen sections such as praise to the Father, gratitude, confession, consecration, for times of temptation, need, anxiety, sickness, for the church, the Lord’s Supper, God’s word, morning and evening, for work, mealtimes etc., so readers might like to choose a prayer from a number of sections each day or look up prayers that might suit their circumstances.

 

Often the prayers express something strikingly or provoke further reflection.

 

Even if we are diligent in daily prayer, these short pieces might prompt us to pray more deeply. For example, I would normally pray for all those with whom I will meet or interact in the coming day, that I might be blessing to them today, or for forthcoming church meetings or services. But Samuel Rutherford is richer: “Lord, grant that the meeting of your people may be a trysting-place where we may feast together, and drink that pure water of life, that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (p31)

 

With Philip Dodderidge we might pray: “Oh, in what language shall my flame break forth? What can I say but this, that my heart admires you, and adores you, and loves you? My little vessel is as full as it can hold; and I would pour out all that fullness before you, that it may grow capable of receiving more and more.” (p47)

 

Rather than praying merely for God’s wisdom and help, and for godliness, these prayers might encourage us to meditate on what Christ-likeness would mean for us.

 

I was struck by prayer number 28, from Thomas Watson, which is given the title “Holy Fire”. We pray that our obedience might be free, cheerful, willing, devout, fervent, sincere and not merely for outward appearances or recognition. That we might love our duty. That our hearts might boil over with hot affection for the Lord, that there might be fervent fire upon our sacrifice.  May the beauty, wisdom, holiness and mercy of Christ draw out our love like a magnet. May we ardently desire communion with Christ and hate all that grieves him or separates us from him.

 

Prayer 34 (Thomas Brooks) asks that we might see sin in its true colours. That we might see the sharp hook when the devil presents the tempting bait. That we might see the poison hidden in the golden cup. That we might not regard the prospective pleasures of sin, but the misery which sin brings. Let us not play with the bait which Satan holds out to us. May we see sin as we will one day see it: as bitter, ugly and dreadful. May we see what sin cost our Saviour, though Satan may dress it up in fine colours. May these considerations stir up our souls against sin, that we may flee temptation and use all holy means to subdue and destroy it.

 

A frequent theme is that Jesus meets all our needs. He is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, shelter for the afflicted, home to the lost, rest for the weary, medicine for the sick. When our lives are so often reasonably comfortable and feel okay, we might do well to recall a time when we have been really tired, or hungry, or fearful, and to see in this a picture of the want which Jesus supplies. As George Swinnock puts it, Jesus is “a universal medicine against all sorts of miseries.” (p98) Not that Jesus is there just to make us happy, but that all our true misery can be traced to sin. Jesus is “silver, gold, honour, delight, food, raiment, house, land, peace, wisdom, power, beauty, father, mother, wife, husband, mercy, love, grace, glory, and infinitely more than all these.”  

Be Yourself! Follow your heart!

From The Rectory

 

Some commentators would argue that the contemporary West has rather lost its way. The old certainties of 1700, 1800, 1900, or even 1950 are now contested. Even if we still believe in the progress of humanity, the horrors of the 20th Century notwithstanding, we can’t always agree which way we are, or ought to be, heading.

 

We are having a Diocesan Year of the Old Testament. And we have been studying the fascinating and colourful book of Judges (set after the Exodus and Conquest of the Promised Land and before the Israelite Monarchy of David and Solomon and the rest). You know? Samson and Delilah and all that. The refrain of the book is, “there was no king in the land, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The confusion and chaos can feel contemporary. That emphasis on each of us deciding for ourselves what is right has a massive cultural resonance today. Indeed, it seems to be the great virtue of our times. Be yourself! Express yourself! Do what feels right! You be you! You can imagine the motivational Facebook meme urging you to live your best life of self-fulfilment. It’s your duty to find your own unique path to happiness.

 

We’re also going to have a sermon series in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the book about human origins. The Christian doctrine of Creation, which it contains, speaks powerfully to our confusions and our spiritual but not religious creed of celebrating what comes from within.

 

The Bible says you are marvellous. You are made not only for time but for eternity. You are infinitely valuable and more loved than you could ever imagine.

 

But we know our world is in a mess. In theological terms, human beings have Fallen away from righteousness by their rejection of their Maker and his ways. The Bible’s view is that the world doesn’t always divide up simply into goodies and baddies. Evil is real, but it is not only out there with those terrible others. The author of The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, said: ““The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts.”

   

The Christian claim is that Jesus entered his creation to save it from itself. Jesus was the only human being who could follow his own heart with perfect confidence, because he is the Son of God who perfectly loved his heavenly Father. His heart was true, good and beautiful. Jesus was always and only on the side of the good. But out of love for us, he came to sort out our evil.

 

Creation, Fall and Redemption help us not only to understand our world, but to live in it well, despite all our failures, and all the mess we experience, and sometimes perpetuate. We can have a spectacular ability to mess up our world, but Jesus died to win the world. He means to put it to rights. His resurrection shows he is more than able to make all things wonderfully new. And he invites us to come along. To know ourselves as his creatures and to express our gratitude to him. Even amidst the ruins of Christendom, a life of faith, hope and love is still possible. And in our better moments and our right minds, perhaps we can see that this is the best life (with all the suffering and sacrifice it sometimes entails) to which our God-given hearts are calling us. St Augustine of Hippo was right to say in his Confessions: our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.

 

So, yes, in a sense, maybe, follow your heart! But your heart belongs, or should belong, to Jesus, who made you and loves you and would always welcome you back to him if you will turn to him. Don’t just follow your heart. What a confusing burden! Follow Jesus! That’s the heart of who we were all made to be. And it is the hope for a culture and civilization.

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd 

Acting Archdeacon's Charge for Church Warden's Visitation

 

Acting Archdeacon of Hastings - Archdeacon’s Visitation – Charge to Churchwardens 2023

(Psalm 47)

Matthew 16:13-20

Ephesians 4:1-16

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

My wife told me this address should be entitled “Some Things I’ve Been Meaning To Say”.

But it isn’t!

You could say it is about “body building”, a subject on which I’m sure you can see I am an expert!

 

I want to begin by thanking you for all that you do in the life of the church and for your willingness to serve for this next year as churchwardens.

 

I’m going to try to resist the temptation to preach a very long sermon to you, but you never know!

There is much that could be said about your important office.  

And I have some notices to give you, so that’s something to look forward to!

(I’ve printed out a page of A4 which you might like to photograph or look at or take if you don’t catch all the dates).

But first I want to reflect with you briefly on something from our two readings.

And also to remind you of the official description of the role of the churchwardens, although how we put this in to practice might vary considerably from place to place.

 

Jesus said: “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

I hope you find that an encouraging verse!

Jesus himself will build his church.

It’s not exactly a promise about your parish church or mine.

Or even about the dear old Church of England.

But is it not an enormous comfort to know that Jesus will build his church?

HE - WILL do it.

 

Being a Vicar or a church warden can sometimes be a lonely calling.

We can be conscious of heavy responsibilities.

And sometimes we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders.

We soon learn that we can’t please all the people all the time.

We would never say this, but we can almost begin to imagine that the Kingdom of God depends solely on us.

 

But with us or without us, Jesus means to build his church.

It is, in the end, his church, not ours.

It is his kingdom – not my empires – that really matters.

 

Christian ministry in Britain today is sometimes slow and hard.

In some parts of the world, the gospel is spreading like wildfire, but in some parts of our land the flame sometimes burns low or splutters.

Some of us will feel we’re struggling to keep the flame alive.

The church is sometimes ignored or ridiculed.

We might not face outright persecution, as some of our brothers and sisters around the world do, but we sometimes don’t see the enthusiastic response for which we pray.

It can be hard for us to adjust to what in some ways is a post-Christendom context in England.

We seem to many more marginal and irrelevant or even wrong or wicked than perhaps we care to admit.

But we should remember, as our Psalm had it, that God remains on the throne of the universe.

Jesus has ascended to his heavenly throne in triumph.

Church growth is his business, not just ours, and the Lord of the church knows what he’s doing.

Jesus would say to us, as he did to his disciples: “Do not fear, little flock!”

“Be of good courage! I have overcome the world!”

“I am with you always. I will never leave you or forsake you.”

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and disciple the nations”

“Rejoice that your names are written in heaven!”

 

Some seed will still fall on the path and be plucked up by Satan, or on stoney ground, or be chocked by weeds, but the seed of the gospel is good and powerful.

The Sower will have a mighty harvest.

The Word of God will produce a crop, 30, 60 or 100 times what was sown.

 

Jesus’ mustard seed will grow and become the largest tree in the garden in which the birds of the air will come and nest.

The yeast of the gospel will work its way through the whole batch.

The earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

The rock that was not cut out by human hands will become a huge mountain and fill the whole earth.

The stone the builders rejected is the capstone.

 

Jesus will build his church.

And he invites us to join in with his building project.

 

Ephesians 4 also speaks of the building up of the church, not now as a building, but as the body of Christ.

You’ll notice that the job of the Vicar, the Pastor-Teacher, is not to do everything.

He or she is not to be a one-person band who singlehandedly visits and evangelises and pastors everyone, on top of doing all the admin and fundraising and co-ordinating the building project and...

No, rather, the minister is to prepare God’s people for works of service.

There are a variety of different gifts and roles in the church, but what we’re seeking is an every-member ministry, where each part of the body is valued and plays its part:

Where all serve and grow together.

Everyone is needed!

The building of the church is the business of the whole body, not only of the big toe and the elbow, as it were.  

 

And you as church wardens can play a vital role in that:

Perhaps in spotting others who could be encouraged to serve.

Certainly, I hope, in encouraging your clergy.  

 

You can all be a force for building up, for encouraging, for seeking the health and flourishing of the whole body.

When I worked for the Christian Union movement in Universities, we used to have a mantra:
“Encourage the good wherever you see it!”

Sometimes one had to look pretty hard.

I’m not sure I was ever quite reduced to saying to anyone, “Oh, I like your shirt”, but sometimes it came pretty close.  

There is so much to be said for being positive, for saying thank you, for showing appreciation.

 

Leaders sometimes have to say tough, unwelcome things.

There could be a time for a challenging question from a church warden.

But let it be in the context of love and support.

Let your clergy and your volunteers know that you are on their side and grateful to God for them.

 

I come now to the notices and resources I’ve mentioned on the sheet.

 

Could I just ask you to satisfy my curiosity, by the way, and raise your hand, please, if you are serving as a church warden for the first time?

 

You can find on the diocesan website a useful 23-page PDF guide on “Being a church warden”.

 

But let me remind you again of the official role description: “Canon E1: Of Churchwardens

 

4. The churchwardens when admitted are officers of the bishop.

They shall discharge such duties as are by law and custom assigned to them;

they shall be foremost in representing the laity and in co-operating with the incumbent;

they shall use their best endeavours by example and precept to encourage the parishioners in the practice of true religion and to promote unity and peace among them.

They shall also maintain order and decency in the church and churchyard, especially during the time of divine service.

5. In the churchwardens is vested the property in the plate, ornaments, and other movable goods of the church, and they shall keep an inventory thereof which they shall revise from time to time as occasion may require.

On going out of office they shall duly deliver to their successors any goods of the church remaining in their hands together with the said inventory, which shall be checked by their successors.”

I’m praying for you that you might indeed work well with your clergy and be a blessing to one another.

That you might co-operate really well with the minister and with others.

 

There are always niggles and issues.

And people can often be grumpy and gossipy.

But you have an opportunity to seek to be really exemplary:

To pray for grace to be a godly example, promoting unity and peace “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

You can make this great building project of Jesus’ your own goal and ambition.

We can all seek to play our own small part in building his church, in seeking the health of the body.  

 

If you’d like to think a bit more about how you can support your clergy, there’s a useful document on the Church of England website for local congregations under the section on the Covenant For The Care And Well-Being Of Clergy.

Search “Clergy covenant” and you’ll get it, I think.

 

There’s going to be some training offered for churchwardens by the proper Archdeacons, which I understand has been very much appreciated in previous years.

These sessions are both going to be via Zoom on 12^th September at 6:30pm.

And on 20^th September at 3pm.

(The same session repeated twice).

  

There’s also going to be a Church Buildings Update Evening in this Archdeaconry on 8^th November, and at other times in other parts of the diocese.

 

We encourage you to support Ride and Stride and the Sussex Historic Churches Trust, which can be a useful source of help with repairing our church buildings.

The Ride and Stride event is on the 9^th September.

You can find details of that online.

 

As I hope you know, this year we’re having a Diocesan Year of the Old Testament.

It’s not too late to join in with that, not least in our online reading group in Genesis and Exodus.

We’re thinking about the life of Abraham on Wednesday so let me know if you’d like to join us.

Next year will be our Year of the New Testament.

In 2025 we’ll have a Year of Faith.

We celebrate the anniversary of The Council of Nicaea in 325.

And 950 years since the establishing of the Cathedral at Chichester.

 

Your rural dean, the staff at Church House, Hove, and the Archdeacons are here to support you in your vital work.

We pray especially for Archdeacon Edward for the happy day of his return:

that he will come back on the 1^st August very much Ministerially Developed by his lovely leave and ready to solve all your problems!

 

In all seriousness, I can stay around as long as necessary afterwards so please do grab me if there’s anything you’d like to say or ask.

 

May God bless you in your role.

And may your churches be built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ and his Word.

May the whole body work together in healthy unity and peace, growing up into maturity in Christ, as each part does its work.

And so to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be all honour and power and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

 

* * * NOTICE SHEET * * *

 

 Acting Archdeacon of Hastings - Archdeacon’s Visitation – Charge to Churchwardens 2023

(Psalm 47)

Matthew 16:13-20

Ephesians 4:1-16

 

Thank you! We’ll be praying for you.

 

You can find on the diocesan website a useful 23-page PDF guide on “Being a church warden” and other information for churchwardens - https://www.chichester.anglican.org/information-for-churchwardens/

 

https://www.churchofengland.org/about/leadership-and-governance/legal-services/canons-church-england/canons-website-edition  - “Canon E1: Of Churchwardens

 

4. The churchwardens when admitted are officers of the bishop. They shall discharge such duties as are by law and custom assigned to them; they shall be foremost in representing the laity and in co-operating with the incumbent; they shall use their best endeavours by example and precept to encourage the parishioners in the practice of true religion and to promote unity and peace among them. They shall also maintain order and decency in the church and churchyard, especially during the time of divine service.

 

5. In the churchwardens is vested the property in the plate, ornaments, and other movable goods of the church, and they shall keep an inventory thereof which they shall revise from time to time as occasion may require. On going out of office they shall duly deliver to their successors any goods of the church remaining in their hands together with the said inventory, which shall be checked by their successors.”

 

The Covenant For The Care And Well-Being Of Clergy - https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/clergy-resources/national-clergy-hr/supporting-clergy-health-and-wellbeing/covenant#na

 

Training for churchwardens via Zoom on 12^th September at 6:30pm and on 20^th September at 3pm.

  

Church Buildings Update Evening in this Archdeaconry on 8^th November, and at other times in other parts of the diocese. (Time and venue TBC)

 

Ride and Stride and the Sussex Historic Churches Trust - 9^th September - https://ridestride.org/counties/sussex/

 

Year of the Old Testament - it’s not too late to join in with that, not least in our online reading group in Genesis and Exodus – marc_lloyd@hotmail.com

Next year will be our Year of the New Testament.

In 2025 we’ll have a Year of Faith.

We celebrate the anniversary of The Council of Nicaea in 325.

And 950 years since the establishing of the Cathedral at Chichester.

 

Your rural dean, the staff at Church House, Hove, and the archdeacons are here to support you in your vital work.