Stewardship 3 - Small change

Here's the All-age sermon based on https://www.assemblies.org.uk/pri/2021/small-change that I shared this morning at St Mary's Runwell: 

Draw some coins from your purse or pocket, explaining that they are often described as ‘small change’. Comment that, when counting our change, we don’t very often look closely at the coins themselves, but each is carefully designed and made at the Royal Mint.

If younger children are present, demonstrate, along the following lines, how the coins are of different sizes and shapes and formed of different materials.

Which is the smallest? (Five pence piece.)

How many faces (sides) are there to the edge of a 20 pence or 50 pence piece? (Seven.)

Some coins are a copper colour, made from copper-plated steel, while others are silver in appearance, made from nickel-plated steel.

Mention that it may even be possible to find some hidden treasure in small change! In 2008, some new design 20 pence coins (only 250,000) were accidentally produced without a date on either side. (Details can be found on the Royal Mint’s website.) These are worth far more than 20 pence to collectors! Is it possible to find one? Look carefully!

 
Explain that the designs on the reverse side of some coins show parts of the Royal Shield of Arms. Different UK coins each show a part of the Royal Shield of Arms — and when you put them together, they create the full royal coat of arms. This clever design symbolises: England; Scotland; Wales; and Northern Ireland. So next time you’re checking your change… you might be holding a piece of royal history without even realising it! 

Observe that small change is often collected for charities such as our collections for Positive Life Kenya. Each small contribution helps to make a larger gift – just as the individual pieces of small change form a larger picture.

Introduce our Gospel reading (Mark 12:41-44) that tells how even the smallest coin can really matter. Ask a group of children to make a big thing of pouring lots of coins into a collecting bowl and one secretively placing in two pennies.

The widow’s offering

One day Jesus and his friends sat in one of the temple courts. It was a very busy place. Lots of people were there, leaving gifts of money in the collecting boxes.

Some rich people gave large amounts of money. They liked to show off. They wanted everyone watching to see how rich and generous they were.

Jesus then spotted a poor widow quietly making her way across the temple court. Looking around to check no one saw her, she dropped two of the smallest coins into the collection box.

‘Did you see that?’ Jesus asked his friends. That widow has been more generous than anyone else. The rich people gave what they could easily afford, but the small coins she gave were all she had to buy food today’.

Conclude with the following thought that small coins can mean a lot and small change can add up to make a big difference. Perhaps we should look more closely at the coins in our purses, pockets and money boxes.

Time for reflection

Coins come in different shapes and sizes and can be spent in many different ways, but every coin has two sides. Along with the happiness of getting, we can experience the joy of giving. Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Our Parish needs a whole series of small contributions at present as we need new volunteers across the whole range of our ministry. The packs that you have been given include more information about Stewardship and response forms to help you think more about the ways you give currently and what might be possible in the future. The packs include a form you can fill in to offer your help.

When it comes to our financial giving, we have faced significant challenges as for a long time we haven’t been able to give the Diocese the Parish Share that is needed to cover the cost of clergy and the other support that the Diocese provides. We are gradually increasing the amount we give to the Diocese for our support year-on—year and have raised funds for the first two Phases of our repair project. However, we need to maintain and improve that situation this year, so ask that you reconsider your giving at this time and use Stewardship Month to decide what you can contribute to St Catherine’s and our Parish in future. There are forms in the Pack which can be used if you want to start giving or if you are able to change what you are giving.

For those who are tax payers there has for some time been a way of increasing the value of the gifts you give. Gift Aid enables us to reclaim the basic rate tax from HMRC for those who are taxpayers, so for every £1 that you give we can claim an extra 25p. That means that, if you are a tax payer, we need you to fill out a Gift Aid declaration form in order to reclaim that money. There’s a copy in the Pack for you to fill out. There are three ways you can give using Gift Aid. The Parish Giving Scheme provides simple and secure ways to give regularly to this church; online, by phone, or by posting a giving form. Joining PGS means they claim the Gift Aid and send it direct to our Bank Account. You can also use our yellow envelopes for cash donations or fill in the Gift Aid declaration on the Card Reader where giving using your bank card.

Jesus commended the widow for giving the small amount that she had. We need the contribution that you can make to our Parish, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. Thank you so much for all the ways you give currently and the different contributions you make. They are vital to the mission and ministry of our Parish and we are very grateful for them. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. We need you now, more than ever. God has given you resources, time and talents, so this Stewardship Month I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together we can combine our individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him. Amen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Willie Nelson & Sinéad O'Connor - Don't Give Up.

Stewardship 2: Time & talents - Coming alive

Here's the sermon that I used for the second Sunday of Stewardship month at St Mary's Runwell and St Catherine's Wickford:  

I wonder howmany of you have seen the TV game show, All-Star Family Fortunes. This is a game show that features two teams of five contestants. Each team consists of a celebrity and their family, who are trying to win money for charity. The two teams are asked to guess the most likely answers given in surveys where 100 people were asked a series of questions.

I have a list of the top five most common New Year’s resolutions in the UK (taken from a YouGov poll for 2018) and would like you to guess what they are.

1. Eat better.
2. Exercise more.
3. Spend less money.
4. Get more sleep.
5. Read more books.

The rest of the top ten was:

    6. Learn a new skill.
    7. Get a new job.
    8. Make new friends.
    9. Get a new hobby.
    10. Focus more on appearance.

Has anyone has ever made a New Year’s resolution? Has anyone has managed to keep it? At New Year, people often think about making some significant changes to their lives. However, it seems that these good intentions do not last long. According to a story in U.S. News in 2015, 80 per cent of people fail in their resolutions by February. In fact, the second Friday of January has been coined ‘Quitters’ Day’ because that’s when people are most likely to give up!

So, why do people persist with making New Year’s resolutions when most people will break them within three weeks? Perhaps it’s because our culture often sells us the dream of a ‘new you’: becoming a version of ourselves that is fitter, stronger, wealthier, brainier, more physically attractive, more popular and so on. We believe that when we find this ‘new us’, we will feel better, happier and more fulfilled.

Clearly, there’s nothing wrong with deciding to eat more healthily or having a go at a hobby that we’ve always fancied trying. However, what if we are looking for the best version of ourselves in the wrong place? What if the person we really want to be is not out there somewhere, waiting to get in? What if that person is already inside us, waiting to get out?

Jesus told the story of a rich businessman who goes away and leaves his fortune with three of his employees (Matthew 25: 14-30). He gives five bags of money to one of them, two bags to another and one bag to the third. He instructs his employees to use the money wisely so that when he returns, there’s a profit. Sure enough, two out of the three end up making a big return for their boss, which leaves him delighted. However, the third one doesn’t. He buries his bag of money in the ground, which makes the businessman very angry.

We can often end up focusing on all the things about ourselves that we feel dissatisfied with and wish we could change. However, this ancient Bible story provides a different perspective on the person we are. In the story, the businessman is God and the radical message is this: God has invested his treasure in us.

The word used in the Bible for the bag of money is ‘talent’, which is where the English word ‘talent’ comes from. In other words, every single one of us has been given unique gifts, abilities, passions and interests – a wealth of things that make us uniquely ‘us’ – that can have an extraordinary impact when they are put to good use.

Think about how it feels to do something that you really enjoy. How does it feel to discover that you are good at a particular thing or to talk with somebody about something you are passionate about? When we discover and begin to use our God-given gifts, it makes us feel great! It gives us a sense that this is who we really are and what we’re made to do. It makes us come alive.

When we feel this way, it is not just us who feel the benefit. In the parable, the businessman wants to see a return for his generous investment. It’s often the case that the world is changed for the better by people who use their God-given talents well, such as:

• the eager engineer who pushes the boundaries of what technology can do
• the songwriter who creates music that brings joy or comfort to others
• the gifted peacemaker who builds welcoming communities for others
• the talented teacher who inspires and brings out the best in others.

It is possible that making a few lifestyle changes will make us happier for a time. However, perhaps true fulfilment is only found when we discover what makes us come alive – whether that’s creating, running, gardening, inventing, being hospitable or standing up for the needs of others – and we do it to the best of our ability.

So, here’s a simple challenge for us: forget the new you; find the true you instead! Reflect on this quotation from Howard Thurman, a twentieth-century American theologian. ‘Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’

Think about the things that make you ‘come alive’. Think about your talents and gifts: the things that you are naturally good at or enjoy doing. Think about your passions and interests: the things that excite you, or stir you up. Consider how you can develop these talents this year and how you can use these to help and benefit other people. 

Our Parish needs a whole series of contributions at present as we need new volunteers across the whole range of our ministry. We are looking for a new PCC Treasurer, for churchwardens at St Mary’s and St Andrew’s, for members of our District Church Councils (the DCCs) and Parochial Church Council (our PCC). We would value musicians and singers, people who could work with children when they come to our services, and people who can volunteer at the foodbank. We always value help with administration, pastoral visiting, prayer ministry and with our publicity (website, social media etc). The packs that you have been given include more information about Stewardship and response forms to help you think more about the ways you give currently and what might be possible in the future. The packs include a form you can fill in to offer your help but we don’t want you simply to do a job because it needs doing. Ideally, we want to match the skills and passions and interests you have with the needs we have for volunteers. Filling in and returning the response form on Stewardship Sunday will help us to do that.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you that you made and love each one of us. Thank you that you have given us interests, passions and talents that bring us happiness and fulfilment. Thank you for the many talents that you have given us. Please help us to use these wisely and to share them so that others might benefit from what we have been given. Help us to use them to their full potential and in so doing to bless other people too. Amen.

(Adapted from ‘Come Alive! Forget the new you; find the true you instead!’ by Rachel Noyce - https://www.assemblies.org.uk/sec/3447/come-alive)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robert Plant - Shine It All Around.

Stewardship 1: Creation care on the Feast of Creation in Christ

Here is the sermon that I shared on the Feast of Creation in Christ and also, for our parish, the first Sunday of Stewardship Month, at St Catherine's Wickford and St Mary's Runwell: 

Animals and plants were first domesticated across a region stretching north from modern-day Israel, Palestine and Lebanon to Syria and eastern Turkey, then east into, northern Iraq and north-western Iran, and south into Mesopotamia; a region known as the Fertile Crescent. This was in the Neolithic Period, also known as the New Stone Age.

It is arguable that this is the period of human history that is described by the creation story told in Genesis 2 (Genesis 2.4b-9, 15-17). Ernest Lucas notes that Eden is located at the place where the Tigris and Euphrates rise – which is in the upland plateaux of Turkey and that the word ‘Eden’ may come from a Babylonian word meaning ‘plateaux’. He also notes that Genesis 4 tells of a descendent of Adam called Tubal-Cain, who was the first person to use metal to make things. That means that Adam must have used only stone implements. Genesis 2 tells us that Adam was a gardener and that he tamed animals. All of which adds up to a picture of Adam as what we would call a ‘New Stone Age man’.

This is the point in history when human beings begin, by a combination of social organisation (sociality) and individual creativity (development), to have a choice about how we behave ethically. Prior to this point human beings had been hunters, migrants dependent on the movements of their prey and participants in the natural ‘kill or be killed’ processes of a nature that is ‘red in tooth and claw.’ However, as human beings developed agriculturally and socially, the killing of animals and other human beings was no longer essential.

So, the biblical creation stories locate the image of God in the ability of human beings to be consciously social and creative. Albert Wolters comments that: “Adam and Eve, as the first married couple, represent the beginnings of societal life; their task of tending the garden, the primary task of agriculture, represents the beginnings of cultural life." (Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview)

In speaking of Genesis 1, Wolters suggests that: ‘There is a process of development and evolution as the earthly realm assumes, step by step, the contours of the variegated world of our experience. On the sixth day this process is completed with the creation of [human beings], and on the seventh day God rests from his labors. This is not the end of the development of creation, however.’

Creation, once made, is not something that remains a static quality. ‘There is, as it were, a growing up (though not in a biological sense), an unfolding of creation.’ ‘Although God has withdrawn from the work of creation, he has put an image of himself on the earth with a mandate to continue. The earth had been completely unformed and empty; in the six-day process of development God had formed it and filled it – but not completely. People … now carry on the work of development: by being fruitful they must fill it even more; by subduing it they must form it even more. [Hu]mankind, as God’s representatives on earth, carry on where God left off.’

Human development of the created earth is societal and cultural in nature. We are to use our organisational abilities in community and our creativity to cultivate creation (to make it fruitful) and to care for it (to maintain and sustain it), just as God told Adam to work the ground and keep it in order. As God’s image bearers we have a responsibility to care for and work with the good environment God has created.

God’s first words to men and women, were that they would rule over ’the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’ in a way that reflects his own image. Not just God’s power, but his unselfish love, mercy and tender compassion. Similarly, when Jesus points us in the Sermon on the Mount to reflect on God’s care for the birds and plants, then he is also flagging that we, too, should care for them as well. Our focus shouldn’t simply be on our needs or wants but on God’s kingdom, including the world he made and the creatures and plants within it. We have been given a special task – to look after the rest of what God has made (Genesis 1: 26–28; Gen. 2:15). This is not an optional extra for a few keen environmentalists, but a fundamental part of what it means to be human.

Today we are seeing massive climate change and increased destruction and pollution of creation. We are treating God’s gift badly and it is the poorest in our world who will suffer most from that reality. Tragically, our rule over creation has been characterized by cruelty, greed and short-sightedness, but this was clearly not God’s intention. If we desire to obey God, then we must look for ways in which we can be good and responsible stewards of the natural world by reducing our environmental impact and raising awareness of the environmental challenges we face today as a global community.

One of the Five Marks of Mission is to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. One of the ways we have worked towards that has been to take part in the EcoChurch initiative run by A Rocha. This provides a framework that support our churches and our leadership in taking practical action on caring for God’s earth. The EcoChurch survey covers five key areas of church life: Worship and teaching; Buildings and energy; Land and nature; Community and global engagement; and Lifestyle.

Our Stewardship Pack helps us think about our lifestyle by suggesting many things that we can do to treasure our environment. These include, for example:

• Share transport, walk, use a bike or public transport.
• Turn the heating thermostat down by 1°C.
• Reduce the time that the heating is on by 15 minutes.
• Install low-energy light bulbs or LED lights.

Can you commit to doing any of these or other of the things listed in the Pack? Doing so will not only help us treasure our environment it will also move us closer towards the possibility of gaining a Gold EcoChurch Award.

Being a good steward means caring for and conserving the world in which we live and the resources within because to do otherwise selfishly uses up those resources for ourselves and alters the natural cycle of life in ways that harm the world and all that lives on it. We will, therefore, be encouraging all of us, as we have done previously, to look again at the actions we can take to show responsibility by caring for this world, rather than acting in ways that dominate and exploit the natural world.

Let us pray: Lord, grant us the wisdom to care for the earth and till it. Help us to act now for the good of future generations and all your creatures. Help us to become instruments of a new creation, founded on the covenant of your love. Amen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream.

Using all we have for God's praise and glory

Here's the sermon that I shared at: Luke 14. 25-33 (07/09/25, 10.30 am, St Mary’s Little Burstead this morning:

“Christ Jesus had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” (Phil 2:5-8 MSG)

One thing of which Jesus could never be accused is of not practising what he preached. When he taught that, “none of you can be my disciples unless you give up everything you have,” it was not as though there was anything that he himself was holding back. He gave everything that he had and was, holding nothing back.

He calls us to do the same. That is crystal clear in today's Gospel passage: “Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples … none of you can be my disciples unless you give up everything you have.” (Luke 14. 25-33)

These statements sound as though they are a problem for us as we think today about stewardship and following Christ. Jesus’ words are a problem for us because whatever we are currently giving and have given in the past, we are clearly not giving everything. So, are we really disciples at all or are we just playing at being Christians; compromising for our own comfort?

Jesus called his disciples to leave their jobs and families in order to follow him and to take nothing with them for their journey; “no stick, no beggar’s bag, no food, no money, not even an extra shirt.” Is that what Jesus is calling us to when he says, “give up everything you have”? However, when Paul writes to Christians in the new church at Corinth, he says exactly the opposite: “Each of you should go on living according to the Lord’s gift to you, and as you were when God called you.” This is the rule, he writes, that he teaches in all the churches and makes that a rule despite having left his home and given up everything he had to bring the good news to the Gentiles.

So, we can say from this that there may be two different types of calling for Christians; the call to leave everything that we have and to go wherever God sends us, and the call to stay where we are and go on living according to the Lord’s gift to us. Whether from choice or calling, most of us would seem to be currently in the latter group, while those like the missionaries we may support would seem to be in the former group.

But isn’t being in the latter group simply a soft option; following Christ without any real sacrifice? It is not intended to be, although it is possible for us to live like that. The key to staying where we are but still giving up everything we have is in Paul’s words, “to go on living according to the Lord’s gift to us.” What he means by that, is that everything we have is a gift to us from God, given not simply for our benefit, use and enjoyment but to share with others and to use for the glory and praise of God.

You see, we can view what we have as being ours to use to suit ourselves and as we wish or we can view what we have as belonging to God and for his use. Those are two very different attitudes which have very different outcomes and if we genuinely live with the latter attitude then we are also giving up everything we have although we don’t physically leave it behind.

The way it works is like this. We look at what we have and ask ourselves how God wants us to use what we have for his praise and glory. Let’s think about that for a moment in terms of ways in which we might give what we have.

We could think, for example, of our homes; how are they being used for the praise and glory of God? Some people, for example, might open up their homes by showing hospitality to others; they might host a homegroup or a tea afternoon or invite others for a meal or to stay with them for a time. Others, for example, may make a home in which their children can grow up to experience the love and freedom of Jesus for themselves. Others may be lowering the carbon footprint made by their homes through, for example, recycling, energy efficiency initiatives and growing as much of their own food as possible.

These are just a few examples of the difference that this approach to life can make in one area of our lives. This is not to say that only those who already doing some of the things I have mentioned are doing all that they can or that they are in some way better than others. Rather than making comparisons with others, what we are each called to do is to take a detailed look at what we have - time, talents, money, possessions, investments, work, relationships – and work out how we can offer them to God and use them for his praise and glory.

Doing that is what Stewardship is all about. We become stewards when we recognise that what we have has been gifted to us by God and we become good stewards when we use all that we have for his praise and glory. When we do so then, although we have not physically given away all that we have, we hold it and use it not for ourselves, but for God.

Sometimes, you will hear people in churches talk about giving particular amounts or proportions of our income to the Church; most commonly, a tithe or tenth, which is a proportion taken from the Law of Moses in the Old Testament. Measures like that can be helpful in terms of deciding how to divide up the money we have been gifted by God and how much we might give to support local ministry through a local church.

But fundamentally, Jesus says that everything we have is a gift from God. Nothing belongs solely to us for our own sole use. Everything is to be given up and used for the praise and glory of God. That is the challenge of Jesus’ words to his disciples and that is, therefore, why it is vital that we regularly review what and how we use what we have been given by God because our giving is never as generous and cheerful and willing and sacrificial as it could become.

“Christ Jesus had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.”

As we remember and celebrate in communion all that Jesus gave for us, may we too cheerfully, generously and willingly give up everything we have for his praise and glory. Amen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric Clapton - Let It Grow.

The best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness

Here's the Stewardship sermon that I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

The Christian life is so much more than how we gather together on Sunday; 98% of Christian disciples spend 95% of their time not in church. Everyday faith is all about how we express our Christian faith every day, in everyday situations, Monday to Saturday, not just on Sunday. It is about where and how we encounter God as we go about our lives and how we express that to others in our words and actions. It is found in our joys and cares, in our challenges and conflicts, in our work and rest, in our workplaces and homes, in our friendships and relationships as we lean into God’s presence and guidance.

Our faith connects with the wider community through our everyday lives and commitments. Whether because of our paid work, our family roles, or our community or political involvements, we are all intimately involved in the wider community. God calls us to do so as people of faith.

God knows each one of us intimately and prepares us for our calling before we are born, so we need to trust that our interests, skills and talents are gifts from God to be used for his glory. Then, as St Paul wrote to the Colossians, whatever we do, in word or deed, we do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever our task, he wrote, we are to put ourselves into it, as done for the Lord (Colossians 3.23). The poet George Herbert wrote that this way of thinking is the “famous stone / That turneth all to gold.” So, this is where we begin with our calling, looking carefully at our natural interests, abilities and talents and putting them to use where we are doing what we do in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his glory.

Then, we develop and grow how we act as Christian people in our everyday lives. Living as a Christian is like getting undressed and then dressed again. The picture we are given in Colossians 3.12-17 is of taking off our old clothes (our old way of life – our vices) and putting on new clothes (a new and different way of life – Christian virtues).

This is something that we have to consciously choose to do. Getting dressed is not usually something we do without thinking about it. We take time when shopping to find clothes which we think suit us and generally we do not just put on the first thing that comes to hand with whatever the next item is. Instead, we match items until we are satisfied that we will look as we wish.

The new clothes that we are to put on as Christians are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. That implies that the old clothes we take off would be their opposites; hatred, unkindness, pride, roughness, and impatience. Also implied is the idea that compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience do not come naturally to us, so we have to make a conscious change. Tom Wright has said that “the point about “vice”, the opposite of “virtue”, is that, whereas virtue requires moral effort, all that has to happen for vice to take hold is for people to coast along in neutral: moral laziness leads directly to moral deformation (hence the insidious power of TV which constantly encourages effortless going-with-the-flow). The thing about virtue is that it requires Thought and Effort . . .”

So, change begins with a conscious decision, not a magical or instant makeover. St Paul writes in Romans 12. 2, “let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.” We know this is so because we only make changes in our lives when we break bad habits and form good habits. Tom Wright, again, “The point about the word “virtue” – if we can recapture it in its strong sense – is that it refers, not so much to “doing the right things”, but to the forming of habits and hence of moral character ... All behaviour is habit-forming … we [can] use the word “virtue” and “virtuous” simply to mean “behaviour we have had to work at which has formed our character so that at last it becomes natural and spontaneous to live like that.”

We can use a different illustration to see how this works in practice. Tom Wright says, “The illustration I sometimes use is that when you learn to drive a car, the idea is that you will quickly come to do most of the things “automatically”, changing gear, using the brakes, etc., and that you will develop the “virtues” of a good driver, looking out for other road users, not allowing yourself to be distracted, etc.; but that the highways agencies construct crash barriers and so on so that even if you don’t drive appropriately damage is limited; and also those “rumble strips”, as we call them in the UK, which make a loud noise on the tyre if you even drift to the edge of the roadway.

“Rules” and “the Moral Law” are like those crash barriers and rumble strips. Ideally, we won’t need them because we will have learned the character-strengths that St Paul lists for the Colossian Christians and will drive down the moral highway appropriately. But the rules are there so that when we start to drift, we are at once alerted and can take appropriate action – particularly figuring out what strengths need more work to stop it happening again.”

So, to sum up, Christian virtue comes “as the fruit of the thought-out, Spirit-led, moral effort of putting to death one kind of behaviour and painstakingly learning a different one.” When the Spirit is at work in us in this way, “we become more human, not less – which means we have to think more, not less, and have to make more moral effort, not less.”

What habits do we need to break and what habits do we need to build as a result of what we have thought about today? “So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience … and to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.”

The final week of our Stewardship month is to do with our community involvements. The Five Marks of Mission include: Tending - responding to human need by loving service; and Transforming - seeking to transform the unjust structures of society. Our Stewardship Pack suggests many things we can do to transform our community including:

• Volunteer with Project 58.7 or another voluntary organisation.
• Help at the Gateway Project.
• Pray regularly for your work and community.
• Make creative suggestions in your work.
• Write to your MP and/or Councillors about issues of international, national and local concern.

Can you commit to doing any of these or others mentioned in the pack? When we do, we are having a ministry of presence and engagement. Presence is what we often talk about here as ‘Being With’:

“The word ‘presence' points to our incarnational theology and the word ‘engagement’ to our pentecostal theology ... Presence can be largely passive, a simple acceptance that this is where we are, without any meaningful recognition of the relationship between our presence, the presence of others and the real presence of Christ who seeks constantly to bring human beings into relationship with each other in love. But the Spirit of God is constantly seeking to move us on from the fact of presence to the action of engagement – engagement as a public sign of our commitment to the wellbeing of the world and to the discovery of the Kingdom in the midst of the places where we are present.”

Jonathan Sacks has said: “Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good ... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighbourliness.”

David Ford has expanded on the opportunities that community engagement provides including the: “Opportunity to learn more about other human beings around us, especially those sincerely engaged in seeking God. Opportunity to present our Christian understandings of God by the lives we live and the words we speak. Opportunity to contribute to the common good and above all, opportunity to learn more about trusting in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” We can grasp these opportunities as we take up the challenge of our Stewardship Pack to be involved transforming our community and as we follow St Paul’s advice do everything that we do in the name of the Lord Jesus.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - What Can I Do For You?

Stewardship: CreationCare

Here's the Stewardship sermon I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning: 

Animals and plants were first domesticated across a region stretching north from modern-day Israel, Palestine and Lebanon to Syria and eastern Turkey, then east into, northern Iraq and north-western Iran, and south into Mesopotamia; a region known as the Fertile Crescent. This was in the Neolithic Period, also known as the New Stone Age.

It is arguable that this is the period of human history that is described by the creation story told in Genesis 2 (Genesis 2.4b-9, 15-17). Ernest Lucas notes that Eden is located at the place where the Tigris and Euphrates rise – which is in the upland plateaux of Turkey and that the word ‘Eden’ may come from a Babylonian word meaning ‘plateaux’. He also notes that Genesis 4 tells of a descendent of Adam called Tubal-Cain, who was the first person to use metal to make things. That means that Adam must have used only stone implements. Genesis 2 tells us that Adam was a gardener and that he tamed animals. All of which adds up to a picture of Adam as what we would call a ‘New Stone Age man’.

This is the point in history when human beings begin, by a combination of social organisation (sociality) and individual creativity (development), to have a choice about how we behave ethically. Prior to this point human beings had been hunters, migrants dependent on the movements of their prey and participants in the natural ‘kill or be killed’ processes of a nature that is ‘red in tooth and claw.’ However, as human beings developed agriculturally and socially, the killing of animals and other human beings was no longer essential.

So, the biblical creation stories locate the image of God in the ability of human beings to be consciously social and creative. Albert Wolters comments that: “Adam and Eve, as the first married couple, represent the beginnings of societal life; their task of tending the garden, the primary task of agriculture, represents the beginnings of cultural life." (Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview)

In speaking of Genesis 1, Wolters suggests that: ‘There is a process of development and evolution as the earthly realm assumes, step by step, the contours of the variegated world of our experience. On the sixth day this process is completed with the creation of [human beings], and on the seventh day God rests from his labors. This is not the end of the development of creation, however.’

Creation, once made, is not something that remains a static quality. ‘There is, as it were, a growing up (though not in a biological sense), an unfolding of creation.’ ‘Although God has withdrawn from the work of creation, he has put an image of himself on the earth with a mandate to continue. The earth had been completely unformed and empty; in the six-day process of development God had formed it and filled it – but not completely. People … now carry on the work of development: by being fruitful they must fill it even more; by subduing it they must form it even more. [Hu]mankind, as God’s representatives on earth, carry on where God left off.’

Human development of the created earth is societal and cultural in nature. We are to use our organisational abilities in community and our creativity to cultivate creation (to make it fruitful) and to care for it (to maintain and sustain it), just as God told Adam to work the ground and keep it in order. As God’s image bearers we have a responsibility to care for and work with the good environment God has created.

God’s first words to men and women, were that they would rule over ’the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’ in a way that reflects his own image. Not just God’s power, but his unselfish love, mercy and tender compassion. Similarly, when Jesus points us in the Sermon on the Mount to reflect on God’s care for the birds and plants, then he is also flagging that we, too, should care for them as well. Our focus shouldn’t simply be on our needs or wants but on God’s kingdom, including the world he made and the creatures and plants within it. We have been given a special task – to look after the rest of what God has made (Genesis 1: 26–28; Gen. 2:15). This is not an optional extra for a few keen environmentalists, but a fundamental part of what it means to be human.

Today we are seeing massive climate change and increased destruction and pollution of creation. We are treating God’s gift badly and it is the poorest in our world who will suffer most from that reality. Tragically, our rule over creation has been characterized by cruelty, greed and short-sightedness, but this was clearly not God’s intention. If we desire to obey God, then we must look for ways in which we can be good and responsible stewards of the natural world by reducing our environmental impact and raising awareness of the environmental challenges we face today as a global community.

One of the Five Marks of Mission is to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. One of the ways we have worked towards that has been to take part in the EcoChurch initiative run by A Rocha. This provides a framework that support our churches and our leadership in taking practical action on caring for God’s earth. The EcoChurch survey covers five key areas of church life: Worship and teaching; Buildings and energy; Land and nature; Community and global engagement; and Lifestyle.

Our Stewardship Pack helps us think about our lifestyle by suggesting many things that we can do to treasure our environment. These include, for example:

• Share transport, walk, use a bike or public transport.
• Turn the heating thermostat down by 1°C.
• Reduce the time that the heating is on by 15 minutes.
• Install low-energy light bulbs or LED lights.

Can you commit to doing any of these or other of the things listed in the Pack? Doing so will not only help us treasure our environment it will also move us closer towards the possibility of gaining a Gold EcoChurch Award.

Being a good steward means caring for and conserving the world in which we live and the resources within because to do otherwise selfishly uses up those resources for ourselves and alters the natural cycle of life in ways that harm the world and all that lives on it. We will, therefore, be encouraging all of us, as we have done previously, to look again at the actions we can take to show responsibility by caring for this world, rather than acting in ways that dominate and exploit the natural world.

Let us pray: Lord, grant us the wisdom to care for the earth and till it. Help us to act now for the good of future generations and all your creatures. Help us to become instruments of a new creation, founded on the covenant of your love. Amen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken.

Nothing lost, all raised up on the last day

Here's the Stewardship sermon I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Justin Welby once welcomed an Evening Standard campaign on tackling food poverty and waste by saying that as “hunger is a complex, widespread and shocking blight on our country … more needs to be done to highlight this issue.”

In commenting on this statement, the paper noted that the Archbishop had good scriptural reasons to join the Food for London campaign. They noted that after ‘feeding the five thousand, Christ instructed the waste to be gathered up afterwards’ and said that it was in that spirit that the Archbishop had supported this campaign.

It was positive to see a major newspaper quoting scripture and doing so with some understanding. This contemporary reminder of the feeding of the five thousand and the 12 baskets of fragments that were gathered up afterwards gives us one way of reflecting on Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel reading (John 6. 37 – 40) that it ‘is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.’

These words come in the middle of Jesus’ teaching about being the Bread of Life which followed shortly after the feeding of the 5,000. When Jesus gave thanks over the bread, the word used is ‘eucharistesas’, the word which gives us ‘Eucharist’. Jesus shares the bread around in communion, then, when everyone is satisfied, he instructs his disciples to pick up the fragments using that same phrase, ‘so that nothing may be lost.’ Just as none of this ‘eucharisticized’ bread was lost after the feeding, so, because ‘Jesus is the bread of life, [those who] see and believe in him … receive eternal life [and] become a fragment which he will gather up on the last day.’ (John, Richard Burridge, BRF 1998)

This is the reason why Christ came, which he reveals both here and in the parables he told about the lost sheep and coin. The shepherd and woman in those two stories are exactly the same; because of their concern for the sheep and coin which are lost, they will not give up searching until these have been found. The sheep and the coin are loved and this love is revealed or proved through the search.

The point of those parables is for us to know that we and all souls are similarly loved by God because he also searches for us until we are found. This search is the story of the Gospels:

‘Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death
— even death on a cross.’ (Philippians 2. 6 – 8)

Christ went on that search to seek and save those who are lost and thereby to ensure that none shall be lost and all souls shall be safely gathered in.

How much are we loved by God? So much that his Son left all he had in heaven to become a human being and die to rescue us for God. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, searches for all souls with God’s attentive love, looking and listening, finding and carrying; carrying us home, like a sheep on the shoulders, from the cliff edges of our lives.

The lost almost universally consider themselves worthless but these parables and this story specifically deny that assumption. What is lost is actually the most precious thing or person of all; the person or thing for which everything else will be given up or set aside. What is lost and found is us. We are the ones for whom Christ searches at the expense of all that he has, including, in the end, his own life. We are the most precious lost person for whom he searches. We are precious, we are loved.

We live in the light of this love and as his love resulted in his giving himself to us and for us, so our response to him should be the same. Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

‘God has given you unique abilities, talents, and gifts … If you think your talents are simply for you to make a lot of money, retire, and die, you’ve missed the point of your life. God gave you talents to benefit others, not yourself. And God gave other people talents that benefit you … We’re all a part of the body of Christ, and each part matters. There are no insignificant people in the family of God. You are shaped to serve God, and he is testing you to see how you are going to use the talents he gave you. Whether you are a musician or an accountant, a teacher or a cook, God gave you those abilities to serve others … You are a manager of the gifts God has given to you.’

Ministry belongs to the whole people of God. Every person, because of their baptism, has a ministry. Each of us has special qualities, skills and talents. How could your talents and gifts be used more fully for the work of God through St Andrew’s? Each of us has time, talents and treasure which could be given out of gratitude and to help this church. Will you help in some way? Can you use your gifts to share in God’s plan for his kingdom and for the work of ministry here at St Andrew’s?

Could you offer your time and talents for tasks such as Administering Communion, Contemplative Commuters, Campaigning on issues, Children’s work, MU Committee, Choir member, Musician, DCC member, Odd jobs, Committee member, Painting & decorating, Church officer, PCC member, Cleaning, Toddler Group helper, Coffee Morning helper, Prayer for others, Reading the Bible in church, Sidesperson, among other tasks? I encourage you to reflect on how you use your gifts and talents currently and whether you could give us of your talents in new ways out of gratitude to God and to help this church.

We do so because we are the most precious lost person for whom he searches. We are precious, we are loved. We live in the light of this love and, as his love resulted in his giving himself to us and for us, so our response to him should be the same. Amen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moby featuring Gregory Porter - In My Heart.

A God who entrusts us with things of enormous worth

Here's the Stewardship sermon that I shared at St Catherine's Wickford and St Mary's Runwell this morning:

Many of Jesus’ parables are set in the world of work. They concern masters, servants and slaves, as those were the primary work roles at the time and, because Israel was an agrarian culture, they often relate to farming. Ours is a very different context but, despite the many differences between the working life of Jesus’ day and time, the universal nature of the stories that he told, means that they still have much to say to the work practices of our own day and time.

One person who has specifically explored the implications of Jesus’ parables for the workplace is Will Morris who is both PwC’s Deputy Global Tax Policy Leader and a priest in the Episcopal Church. In his book ‘Where is God at Work?’ he devotes five chapters to exploring the Parable of the Talents or Pounds (Luke 19.11-28).

He notes firstly that this is story about workers and work. In the story people at work are ‘entrusted with vast sums of money and expected to use them in commercial ways’: ‘People are given assignments, they have responsibilities, and they have to report back to the boss, who then assesses them and rewards them with further work responsibility – or punishes them with demotion (or the sack). The relationships are business relationships. There is one worker who obviously has real commercial smarts, another who is not quite as high-powered but still does pretty well, and then there is the one who has no commercial savvy at all, and who lets his employer’s money sit in the ground doing nothing. So we have the successful risk-taker and the conservative, risk-adverse colleague who’d much rather do nothing than try anything. And there’s a hierarchy. It really is just like a workplace.’

He makes three key points. The first is that this is not directly a story about God-given abilities (a pound or talent was a measure of money, not a skill or gift). It is ‘rather a story about the entrustment of something of great price to various individuals.’

‘Second, the sums of money – the pounds or talents – are something given, entrusted by the master when he leaves and required to be turned back over when he returns.’ It is about ‘something entrusted to us which we are expected to work with – fruitfully – and then return to the person who gave it to us.’

Third, there is the size of the gifts. One talent is sixteen years’ wages, five is eighty years’ worth. ‘That’s a lot to entrust to a slave ... Slaves, those way down the pecking order, were here entrusted with huge wealth. The master didn’t entrust the talents to his fellow owners or to his friends, but to his slaves.’ In that sense, ‘this parable is more about equality, at least of opportunity, than it is about inequality. Slaves, if they can handle it, are as worthy of being trusted as the leaders of society.’

This parable ‘upholds commercial activity – even ... banking’ and, more specifically, ‘Jesus does indicate that – in the right settings – using money to make money is completely acceptable.’ ‘For Christians in the workplace that is welcome and affirming.’ Despite this, ‘the parable doesn’t tell us that money is good, or that we will be doing God’s work if we earn more talents for Him by any means we wish as long as we end up increasing the amount.’

However, ‘done well, done properly, these activities will validly contribute to the building up of the kingdom. As a result, we must be open to the possibility that God has placed them there for us to use in this way. If we approach the workplace with the idea, the preconception, that good cannot possibly be achieved there, then the chances are that it won’t be. But if, in part thanks to this parable, we are open to the possibility that God can work through instruments such as money and in the workplace, then who know what might happen? ... God can turn up and do amazing things in the most unlikely places.’

How will we respond to the challenge of Jesus’ parable? In the story, the faithful workers are those that accept responsibility and act on it. The unfaithful worker is the one who does nothing, who does not act. Are we faithful or unfaithful workers? Are our lives dedicated to working for the benefit of others and our world? It is important to also note that in the parable we have been given the resources needed for this responsibility. In the parable the master gave out resources (the ‘talents’) alongside responsibilities. In the same way, the Holy Spirit has come to empower all of Jesus’ disciples.

We are currently in Stewardship month, an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Our Parish needs a whole series of contributions at present as we need new volunteers across the whole range of our ministry. We are looking for a new PCC Treasurer, members of our District Church Councils (the DCCs) and Parochial Church Council (our PCC). We would value musicians and singers, people who could work with children when they come to our services, and people who can volunteer at the foodbank. We always value help with administration, pastoral visiting, prayer ministry and with our publicity (website, social media etc). The packs that you have been given include more information about Stewardship and response forms to help you think more about the ways you give currently and what might be possible in the future. The packs include a form you can fill in to offer your help.

The ‘parable of the talents is not about the unequal handing out of skills and about the punishment of the weak. It is about whether we try to be the best we can be, working with God to build His kingdom, heal His creation, including the workplace – which, like everything else, will be perfected at the end of time. It’s about being ourselves, not trying to be people we’re not. It’s about doing only what we are capable of doing, but doing it very well. It’s about a God who entrusts us with things of enormous worth – the possibilities of being His co-workers – and who will love us for what we have done unless (and only unless we hide the gift, don’t ask Him for help using it, and then turn around and tell Him it was all His own fault anyway). Our God loves us. He really does. And all we have to do is love him back.’ That’s what Stewardship is all about.

So, do we recognise that each of us has much that we can give; that we are all people with talents and possessions however lacking in confidence and means we may sometimes be? We all have something we can offer, so how can we, through our lives and work, benefit and develop the world for which God has given humanity responsibility? What resources - in terms of abilities, job, income and possessions - has God given to us in order to fulfil our responsibility to benefit and develop the world? These are questions that Stewardship month encourages us to ask.

As we ask those questions together, we also want to affirm all the many ways in which people here give to St Mary’s and to the Parish is many different ways. We are very grateful for all you do and for all that is done to maintain and grow this church and its ministry. Thank you for all your contributions currently and in the past. Will you continue making those contributions or will there be changes going forward. Stewardship month is the time to have that conversation with yourself and God.

Jesus challenges us as to whether we will be faithful or unfaithful servants? How will we respond? If we accept the responsibility we have been given, we should then pray for quiet courage to match this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but we ask that its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, its possibilities inspire us and its vigour renew us for the sake of Christ’s kingdom come, on earth as in his heaven. Amen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Ackles - Berry Tree.

God so loved that he gave

Here's the Stewardship sermon based on John 3. 16 – 21 that I shared this morning at St Andrew’s Wickford:

God so loved - love is from God because God is love; pure love, the essence of all that love is and can be. Love that is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love that does not insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love that never ends.

God so loved the world - the heavens and the earth that God created in the beginning, the heavens which declare the glory of God and the sky that displays what his hands have made, humankind that God created in his own image. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. God so loved he world that he created in the beginning.

God so loved the world that he gave – true love involves giving; in fact, true love is giving. Our love is often less than this. We speak of those we love as being everything we need or as soul mates who complete us, but rarely talk in terms of giving all we have to others. Yet that is the nature of God’s love, he gives all he has to us.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son – the Father gives us his Son and the Son gives his life, his whole life, even unto death. Yet, because Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, this is a way of saying that what God gives to us is himself, everything he has and is. 

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life – God gives himself to us in order that we can become part of him and enter the very life of God himself. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it to the full. Eternal life is the life of love that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share within the Godhead and in to which we are called to come and share by the ever-giving love that God the Father shows to us through God the Son.

God’s love has been revealed among us in this way, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. We live in the light of this love which reveals all that we can potentially be and become as human beings. As his love resulted in his giving himself to us and for us, so our response to him should be the same.

Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Our Parish needs a whole series of small contributions at present as we need new volunteers across the whole range of our ministry. We are looking for a new PCC Treasurer, members of our District Church Councils (the DCCs) and Parochial Church Council (our PCC). We would value new members of our choir and people who could work with children when they come to our services. We always value help with administration, pastoral visiting, prayer ministry and with our publicity (website, social media etc). The packs that you have been given include more information about Stewardship and response forms to help you think more about the ways you give currently and what might be possible in the future. The packs include a form you can fill in to offer your help.

When it comes to our financial giving, we have faced significant challenges as for a long time we haven’t been able to give the Diocese the Parish Share that is needed to cover the cost of clergy and the other support that the Diocese provides. We are gradually increasing the amount we give to the Diocese for our support year-on—year. However, we need to maintain and improve that situation this year, so ask that you reconsider your giving at this time and use Stewardship Month to decide what you can contribute to St Andrew’s and our Parish in future. There are forms in the Pack which can be used if you want to start giving or if you are able to change what you are giving.

God so loved the world that he gave – true love involves giving; in fact, true love is giving. As his love resulted in his giving himself to us and for us, so our response to him should be the same. May we use the opportunity that Stewardship month provides to reflect together on the contribution we make as Christian disciples; through the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take. Amen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Extreme - Everything Under The Sun: Rise 'N Shine / Am I Ever Gonna Change / Who Cares?

Give what you can

Here's the sermon I preached this morning at St Catherine's for the beginning of Stewardship Month: 

I wonder how many of us here today think that we have a lot to give to God. My guess is that most of us actually think we have very little we can give to God.

We may think that we have nothing special in terms of our talents. We may think that we have little by way of time because of the many pressures that we face in life. We may think that we have little spare cash because of the significant costs of living. As a result, we often think we have very little to offer and may hold back from offering at all as result.

This is a particular issue when it comes to the suffering and distress that we see on our TV screens around the world, whether through conflict or lack of resources and relief. Global issues seem so huge that the contribution we could make pales into insignificance and we think there is no point doing anything ourselves as our contribution will simply be a drop in an ocean.

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but today’s Gospel reading says otherwise (Luke 21. 1 – 4). Jesus sees and values the contribution which the widow makes. Everyone else gave from their surplus wealth, but the widow, from her poverty, contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. So Jesus uses her example as a challenge to the wealthy and well resourced who often give less proportionately while the less well off give more of what they have.

A New York Times Magazine article in 2010 highlighted the myth of philanthropy and the “benefits to the poor” of having the super wealthy. What this well-researched article revealed was that the super wealthy, the wealthy and ostentatious “scribes” of today, as a percentage of their income actually give less than those who have middle and lower incomes. Most absurdly, what Jesus observed in his day remains true today — those with the least continue to give more, by percentage of their resources, than the wealthy! (http://datinggod.org/2010/08/22/today%E2%80%99s-parable-of-the-widow%E2%80%99s-mite/) So this is a message that needs to be heard in these times of austerity where budget cuts are often focused on the poor rather than the wealthy.

Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher once reminded us, and our small actions or contribution, combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the Multiplier Effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Here's one story that demonstrates that truth. Hattie May Wiatt was a young girl in Philadelphia in the 1880s who began saving towards the building of a church which could accommodate the large number of children going to Sunday School in those days. Hattie May died young and after her death the pastor of the church, Rev. Russell Conwell was given the 57 cents that she had saved. He used these to begin a fundraising campaign which resulted in the building of a church, a University and a Hospital.

Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Our Parish needs a whole series of small contributions at present as we need new volunteers across the whole range of our ministry. We are looking for a new PCC Treasurer, members of our District Church Councils (the DCCs) and Parochial Church Council (our PCC). We would value new members of our choir and people who could work with children when they come to our services. We always value help with administration, pastoral visiting, prayer ministry and with our publicity (website, social media etc). The packs that you have been given include more information about Stewardship and response forms to help you think more about the ways you give currently and what might be possible in the future. The packs include a form you can fill in to offer your help.

When it comes to our financial giving, we have faced significant challenges as for a long time we haven’t been able to give the Diocese the Parish Share that is needed to cover the cost of clergy and the other support that the Diocese provides. We also face a significant financial challenge here because of the underpinning work needed to secure the long-term future of this building. We are gradually increasing the amount we give to the Diocese for our support year-on—year and have raised funds for the first two Phases of our repair project. However, we need to maintain and improve that situation this year, so ask that you reconsider your giving at this time and use Stewardship Month to decide what you can contribute to St Catherine’s and our Parish in future. There are forms in the Pack which can be used if you want to start giving or if you are able to change what you are giving.

For those who are tax payers there has for some time been a way of increasing the value of the gifts you give. Gift Aid enables us to reclaim the basic rate tax from HMRC for those who are taxpayers, so for every £1 that you give we can claim an extra 25p. That means that, if you are a tax payer, we need you to fill out a Gift Aid declaration form in order to reclaim that money. There’s a copy in the Pack for you to fill out. There are three ways you can give using Gift Aid. The Parish Giving Scheme provides simple and secure ways to give regularly to this church; online, by phone, or by posting a giving form. Joining PGS means they claim the Gift Aid and send it direct to our Bank Account. You can also use our yellow envelopes for cash donations or fill in the Gift Aid declaration on the Card Reader where giving using your bank card.

Jesus commended the widow for giving the small amount that she had. Rev. Conwell took Hattie May’s 57 cents and used in to build a church, a University and a Hospital. We need the contribution that you can make to our Parish, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. Thank you so much for all the ways you give currently and the different contributions you make. They are vital to the mission and ministry of our Parish and we are very grateful for them. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. We need you now, more than ever. God has given you resources, time and talents, so this Stewardship Month I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together we can combine our individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him. Amen.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natalie Bergman - You've Got A Friend in Jesus.

Tempted to live independently of God

Here's the sermon I shared at St Mary’s Runwell this morning:

Jesus’ baptism was a mountain-top experience for him. Through his baptism Jesus was commissioned for God’s work; for ministry. Jesus said to John the Baptist, who questioned the need for Jesus’ baptism, “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism” (The Message).

Jesus was equipped by the Spirit to carry out this work and affirmed in the rightness of this work when the Father said, “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” Jesus then knew he was in a partnership with God working to put the world to rights.

Immediately after the high of his baptism, he has the low of forty days in the wilderness being tempted (Luke 4: 1-13). This is a common pattern in scripture and one that mirrors the story of the Exodus. Moses and the Israelites have a mountain-top experience at Sinai where they are commissioned by God to be a nation of priests then they have a wilderness experience for forty years.

We too can expect to experience times of great closeness to God – spiritual highs – followed by times of temptation, struggle and wandering. Both are part of living authentically as Christians and the season of Lent is almost an attempt to institutionalise that pattern; to set a period each year in which each of us deliberately set out to use experiences of self-denial or sacrifice in order to refocus or faith and commitment.

Talking about Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews says in Chapter 14 verse 5, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.” Jesus is in touch with our reality when it comes to temptation because, when Jesus was tempted, the temptations with which he was confronted were the same temptations to which we, in our culture, regularly succumb.

Jesus was tempted to provide for his own material needs himself by turning stones into bread. He was tempted to gain prestige and celebrity for himself by throwing himself from the highest point of the Temple and surviving; in other words, to boost his own ego. Finally, he was tempted to gain all the power and wealth of the world for himself; tempted to pursue his own ambitions.

In all these ways he was tempted to live independently of God, to refuse to view life as God’s gift to him and to refuse to live out God’s purpose for his life. Jesus knew that he had been commissioned at his baptism to put this world to rights but was then tempted to see his work as something for himself and not for God. He rejected these temptations; continuing to thank God for the gift of life itself and living his life to fulfil God’s purposes.

We are continually tempted in the same and similar ways. The temptations to provide for ourselves, boost our own egos, and pursue our own ambitions are likely to be or to have been familiar ones for us; particularly in our workplaces. And, as Tom Wright has pointed out, these temptations “are not simply trying to entice us into committing this or that sin ... they are trying to distract us, to turn us aside, from the path of servant hood to which our baptism has commissioned us. God has a costly but wonderfully glorious vocation for each one of us. The enemy will do everything possible to distract us and thwart God’s purpose.”

As those who follow Jesus, ultimately we are called to the same job of work. Whatever our specific work role or ministry, we are called to work together with God in the shared task of putting the world to rights. This is what Paul means when, in Romans 8.21, he says that the world is crying out for the children of God to be revealed.

To do this we need the same resource as Jesus; the equipping and leading of the Spirit. Led by the Spirit, our work can involve creativity, care and collaboration; biblical signs that work is undertaken in partnership with God. The five marks of mission also indicate what we are to do: tell the good news of the Kingdom; teach new believers; tend human needs by loving service; transform the unjust structures of society; and treasure the integrity of creation.

“As God’s children,” Tom Wright says, “we are entitled to use the same defence” as Jesus himself. “Store scripture in your heart,” he writes, “and know how to use it.” When we do, we are able to see through the temptation to think of all that we have as our own and, instead, to view our lives and all that we have as a gift from God.

The Bible tells us that we are stewards and stewards have the job of looking after something that belongs to someone else. As Christians, we are stewards of all that God has given to us – our life, our talents, our time, our money, our possessions, our family, our community, and the world in which we live. God has rescued each of us from sin and gifted us with time, talents, treasure, people and the world in which we live. After Easter, we will be reflecting more together across our three churches on these themes of stewardship.

For now, let us view life as a gift, let us give back to God generously and joyfully, let us remember our calling to partner God in putting this world to rights and, in and through these things, “say a firm ‘no’ to the voices that would lure us back into darkness.” May it be for each one of us. Amen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark Heard - Treasure Of The Broken Land.

Coming to Christ and going on with Christ

Here's the sermon I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Jesus teaches and demonstrates the abundance of God. People realise their need of God. Jesus calls them and they follow him with all their lives. This is a common pattern for many in coming to faith and also to baptism.

In this story (Luke 5.1-11), Jesus teaches from a boat, his demonstration of God’s abundance is in the amazing catch of fish after the fishermen had caught nothing during the night. Peter responds by saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ but Jesus calls him, and all those with him, including James and John, to follow him by giving them a task - ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ They give their lives to him by leaving everything and following him.

Today, those being baptised are becoming part of this story as a result of the way God has been at work in their lives and in their family. Telling our stories of encountering God is a key part of preparing for baptism. Within this parish we use a course called Being With to enable people to share their stories and see how those connect with the story of salvation that we see in the Bible. Being With is a life changing way to help people explore the Christian faith because it helps people consider Christian faith in new and refreshing ways, without needing prior knowledge, but a simple willingness to share what you do know or feel. 

However, baptism isn’t just about coming to God, it is also about going on with God, recognising that we all have God-given gifts and talents that we can use in his service and God-given tasks that only we can do for him. That’s why when Jesus called him disciples, he also gave them a task to fulfil – to be fishers of people; those who share the good news of God with others and bring them into the family of God.

That is why, after our baptism candidates have been baptised, there is a part of the baptism liturgy called the Commission in which they will be asked: Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all people, loving your neighbour as yourself? They will reply, With the help of God, I will. Each of us is also called to serve God by using our gifts and talents in his service and by taking on specific tasks to bring into being signs of the kingdom of God in our time and our communities.

So, first we need to identify our particular gifts and talents, then get practice and support in using them, and ask God’s guidance on the tasks and roles he wants us to fulfil. Later this year, we will be organising a Stewardship Month to encourage all of us in the Parish to reflect on the various ways in which we can use our time, talents and treasure in God’s service. Each of us has special qualities, skills and talents. How could your talents and gifts be used more fully for the work of God through St Andrew’s? Each of us has time, talents and treasure which could be given out of gratitude and to help this church. Will you help in some way? Can you use your gifts to share in God’s plan for his kingdom and for the work of ministry here at St Andrew’s?

Could you offer your time and talents for tasks such as Administering Communion, Contemplative Commuters, Campaigning on issues, Children’s work, MU Committee, Choir member, Musician, DCC member, Odd jobs, Committee member, Painting & decorating, Church officer, PCC member, Cleaning, Toddler Group helper, Coffee Morning helper, Prayer for others, Reading the Bible in church, Sidesperson, among other tasks? I encourage you to reflect on how you use your gifts and talents currently and whether you could give us of your talents in new ways out of gratitude to God and to help this church.

Ministry belongs to the whole people of God. Every person, because of their baptism, has a ministry. We must nurture an expectation in our churches that every Christian gives expression to this ministry in their daily life and in their participation in the life of the Church. To see our churches grow and flourish there needs to be a huge flourishing of lay ministry here including youth and children’s workers, authorised preachers, pastoral visitors and evangelists.

Contrary to popular belief, we do not have to be perfect to do God's work. We need look no further than the disciples Jesus called whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Jesus chose ordinary people - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weaknesses into strengths. Jesus had a large number of followers including women as well as men and those who remained at home to support those who were on the road with Jesus, as each of us have different circumstances and different roles to play.

John McArthur writes, ‘What we know to be true about Jesus is that He chose [those who were] ordinary and unrefined … They were the commonest of the common. They were from rural areas, farmers, and fisherman. Christ purposely passed over the elite, aristocratic, and influential … and chose mostly … from the dregs of society. That’s how it has always been in God’s economy. He exalts the humble and lays low those who are proud.’

All such were chosen, trained and used by Jesus. Even those who were in the background as disciples were valuable team members. This was so despite their personal failings and failures. None of those things were barriers to being called by Jesus, trained and used by him. That remains true for each of us.

Realising that God loved me unconditionally and as I was, with my shyness and reserve, was key to finding my way through life and using the mix of gifts, skills and interests I developed. Like Jesus’ disciples I wasn’t an obvious candidate to be called to ministry. But none of us are; that’s the beauty of the way God values each person as a unique creation, calling us to be with him so that, over time, our gifts, skills and interests are all utilised in his company.

As Rick Warren has said: ‘God has given you unique abilities, talents, and gifts … If you think your talents are simply for you to make a lot of money, retire, and die, you’ve missed the point of your life. God gave you talents to benefit others, not yourself. And God gave other people talents that benefit you … We’re all a part of the body of Christ, and each part matters. There are no insignificant people in the family of God. You are shaped to serve God, and he is testing you to see how you are going to use the talents he gave you. Whether you are a musician or an accountant, a teacher or a cook, God gave you those abilities to serve others … You are a manager of the gifts God has given to you.’ May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joy Oladokun - Dust/Divinity.

You are enough

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Catherine's Wickford:

Standing proud in the heart of Manchester’s university district on the exterior of St Peter’s House, a 22 x 13 foot billboard towered above the streets below, giving a refreshingly affirming message to passing students and commuters. It said, ‘You are enough’. It would be easy to assume this was an affirmation of the kind of individualism that says ‘I’m alright, Jack’ as ‘I’m looking after No.1.’ However, as St Peter’s House is the base for the Christian chaplaincy team for the Manchester Universities and the Royal Northern College of Music, that was unlikely to be the intended message.

The artist who created the piece, Micah Purnell, notes that, ‘Capitalist ideology aims to impart the notion that we are worthy of love and belonging - once we have bought into the product or service. Consumerism wraps things up in neat little packages and sells them as idealised gifts of perfection. Advertising props up this notion with the assumption that we are inadequate - stealing our love of ourselves, and selling it back at a price.’

He went on to say that Brené Brown, a research Professor at Houston University, has found through extensive quantitative research that the one thing that keeps us from love and belonging is the fear that we are not worthy of love and belonging. She found that those who fully experience joy and live wholeheartedly have four characteristics in common: the courage to accept their imperfection; compassion towards themselves first; the ability to let go of who they should be in order to be who they really are, and to embrace vulnerability and unknowing. His installation, therefore, says, ‘You’re not perfect, you’re never going to be, and that’s the good news.’ You are enough, as you are.

At a conference in Edinburgh in my previous role, I heard Cormac Russell, a leader in Asset-Based Community Development, also say, ‘You are enough’. His point was that in every community there are leaders, makers, traders, networkers, peace brokers, gift givers and receivers, labelled/marginalized folks and connectors. Some of these folks then get together with a few of their neighbours and initiate a project; organize an event, share casual moments, help one another or respond to an immediate crisis that impacts the wider community.

Asset-based Community Development essentially says that the work of building community belongs to those who reside in that area as a birthright, it is the work of near neighbours; not salaried strangers. That means if neighbours don’t do it - it won’t be done. Cormac was saying, ‘You are enough’ to us, because, in any community, residents can initiate their own action and tap into local assets that are within their own control. That doesn’t preclude future action to address structural issues, but it does build a wider base of residents who can deepen their sense of what they want from outside because they know what they internal assets they have.

At St Martin-in-the-Fields I was part of HeartEdge which believes that we can do unbelievable things together if we start with one another’s assets, not our deficits. HeartEdge believes that churches and communities thrive when the gifts of all their members are released and they build one another’s assets. Sharing our particular assets (the skills, experience, insights and ideas) with other members will foster a wider understanding and model the practice of hospitality towards others.

As Christians, we don’t have to look far for a mission statement for the church. Jesus said, ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ (John 10.10). Living abundant life; that’s what the Father intends, the Son embodies, the Spirit facilitates. Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields says that, as Christians, we are called to live in such a way that gratefully receives the abundance God is giving us, evidences the transformation from scarcity to abundance to which God is calling us, dwells with God in that abundant life, and shares that abundance far and wide. Jesus is our model of abundant life; his life, death and resurrection chart the transformation from the scarcity of sin and death to the abundance of healing and resurrection; he longs to bring all humankind into reconciled and flourishing relationship with God, one another, ourselves and all creation. Discipleship describes inhabiting that abundant life. Ministry involves building up the church to embody that abundant life. Mission names the ways that abundant life is practised, shared and discovered in the world at large.

In 1 Corinthians 12, St Paul teaches that God has given us an abundance of gifts and we are use them for the benefit of others in order to build up the Body of Christ. We all have our own particular role to play and we are all needed as we are enough. This means that: ‘God has given you unique abilities, talents, and gifts … If you think your talents are simply for you to make a lot of money, retire, and die, you’ve missed the point of your life. God gave you talents to benefit others, not yourself. And God gave other people talents that benefit you … We’re all a part of the body of Christ, and each part matters. There are no insignificant people in the family of God. You are shaped to serve God, and he is testing you to see how you are going to use the talents he gave you. Whether you are a musician or an accountant, a teacher or a cook, God gave you those abilities to serve others … You are a manager of the gifts God has given to you.’

Ministry belongs to the whole people of God. Every person, because of their baptism, has a ministry. We must nurture an expectation in our churches that every Christian gives expression to this ministry in their daily life and in their participation in the life of the Church. To see our churches grow and flourish there needs to be a huge flourishing of authorised lay ministry (especially youth and children’s workers, authorised preachers, catechists, pastors and evangelists) and ordained self-supporting ministry.

As a result, later this year, we will be organising a Stewardship Month to encourage all of us in the Parish to reflect on the various ways in which we can use our time, talents and treasure in God’s service. Each of us has special qualities, skills and talents. How could your talents and gifts be used more fully for the work of God through St Catherine’s? Each of us has time, talents and treasure which could be given out of gratitude and to help this church. Will you help in some way? Can you use your gifts to share in God’s plan for his kingdom and for the work of ministry here at St Catherine’s?

Could you offer your time and talents for tasks such as Administering Communion, Contemplative Commuters, Campaigning on issues, Children’s work, MU Committee, Choir member, Musician, DCC member, Odd jobs, Committee member, Painting & decorating, Church officer, PCC member, Cleaning, Toddler Group helper, Coffee Morning helper, Prayer for others, Reading the Bible in church, Sidesperson, among other tasks? I encourage you to reflect on how you use your gifts and talents currently and whether you could give us of your talents in new ways out of gratitude to God and to help this church.

If we do, we will experience joy and live wholeheartedly having: the courage to accept their imperfection; compassion towards themselves first; the ability to let go of who they should be in order to be who they really are, and to embrace vulnerability and unknowing. Like Micah Purnell’s poster in Manchester and the church in Corinth hearing St Paul’s letter read, we will hear God saying to us, ‘You Are Enough’.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dissident Prophet - Unconditional Love.