Thursday 14 March 2024

A Loaf of Bread

 

My wife got a bit cross with me the other day for buying a bread more expensive than our usual.  Apparently, there are now 200 different sorts of bread available in the UK.  Well, I purchased one that didn’t cost the usual £1.20, but £2.20.  Trouble is my wife is a maths teacher so she can quickly shame me by working out the cost of each slice!  Rather takes away the fun.

Well, it got me interested to do a bit of research into bread and I learnt that 99.8% of us eat it, that’s no less than 11 million loaves baked every day in Britain.  Typically, every individual eats 60 loaves a year, and of that 50% will be consumed in sandwiches.

In Jesus’ time most bread was wholegrain – not the refined white bread we often have today, and the Jewish law allowed for 10% of a loaf to be gritty!  Archaeologists often discover that people’s teeth from this period have been ground down because of the bread they ate!

The poor had the cheapest form of bread which is Barley bread – as featured in the story of the Feeding of the 5000.

I have a small rock at home that I often bring out in Lent which I think looks remarkably like a bread roll – it wouldn’t do your teeth any good at all as it’s 100% grit!

 It’s a rock that reminds me of Jesus time in the desert, during his temptations which we remember during these days of Lent, when our Lord refused to turn the stones into bread just to satisfy his own hunger.

 Interesting that, because later on at the Feeding of the 5000 that’s exactly what he did with the 5 loaves of barley – so what’s the difference?

 Well, in the wilderness Jesus would have been using his powers just to serve himself and at the Feeding of the 5000 he was using them to serve others.

I think he was teaching us a great lesson there, that serving God is essentially about serving others, being generous with our time and helpful to others with our talents.

During these days of Lent, we recall that Jesus once said he did not come to be served but to serve.  And we give thanks for all those who serve us with their generosity, love and kindness everyday.

Thursday 7 March 2024

A warm welcome from Harlesden

 

On Sunday we travelled into north London for the annual Harlesden exchange between AFC and St Margaret’s and St George’s URC and Moravian Church.  Whilst I went there, The Revd Edwin Quildan came over to Amersham and led the service with The Revd Heather McIntyre.


As on all the other occasions I’ve been to Harlesden we were welcomed with great warmth.

The congregation is predominantly of Jamaican origin, and it was so interesting sitting with folk afterwards in the church hall as the conversation turned to Windrush.  Some of them were comparing notes on whether they came to Britain on board the ship or, because of school scholarships, flew over.  ‘History’ is so different when it is personal.

Alas the organist was ill on Sunday, so we had an acapella service.  It was never a problem, for someone from any part of the congregation gave us a lead, and the singing was strong.

Harlesden is such a blend of traditions.  The building itself has a Presbyterian past and, in its own way, is quite magnificent.  The service mixed together URC and Moravian tradition (the later was particularly felt in the set liturgy used for Communion) alongside just a touch of Pentecostalism with ‘testimony’ time and much extemporary prayer.

We might have started off with twenty worshippers at 11am but within fifteen minutes the congregation had doubled to forty.

After the service we decamped to the coffee hall for bananas, cinnamon biscuits and doughnuts and lots and lots of laughter.  We lingered so long that I even had the opportunity to meet up with Edwin who called in on his way back from Amersham – all made possibly by clear roads and the fact that AFC’s service is 30 mins earlier than Harlesden’s.

We came away so pleased to have shared worship with our sisters and brothers there, we were blessed by their smiles and sincerity and our prayers stay with them as they continue to serve God with great faithfulness in that part of north London.

Friday 1 March 2024

Happy St David's Day!

 

We don’t know too much about St Dewi, yet he is alleged to have encouraged his students to do the little things for God.  Not bad advice, especially when so much in today’s world seems so very overwhelming. 

Today is also the World Day of Prayer and this year the service has been prepared by the women of Palestine. A part of the world that has been much in our thoughts and prayers these last five months.

It’s hard for any of us to see a way forward and for that reason I was especially glad to hear from a neighbouring priest a few years ago of the three months he spent with the World Council of Churches ecumenical accompaniment programme in Israel and Palestine.

This brilliant scheme has, over the years, given some 1800 people a real experience of living and working alongside both Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. At any one time there are about 25 people engaged in these three-month placements, many will be based in Jerusalem and supported by the international church centre there, making regular, even daily visits, to the West Bank.  As they sit alongside both traditions their understanding grows, so when they return home, they can share what they have learnt and experienced with others. 

 

Prejudice is about us making the biggest decisions about people with the smallest amount of knowledge.  Accompaniment programmes, like this one run by the World Council of Churches, helps to correct that.

All the geo-political conflicts of our time need a deep understanding of local and cultural issues.  It may seem such a little thing to be part of an accompaniment programme, yet this scheme exemplifies the concept that dialogue and engagement is the only long-term solution.

Dydd Gลตyl Dewi HapusHappy St David’s Day – and keep on doing the little things.

Thursday 22 February 2024

What is Lent?

 

Lent is now in its second week, and I wonder what we might make of this long and loosely defined season of the Church Year?

We discussed this at our Life and Faith group yesterday evening.  It soon became apparent, at least with those of us who grew up in non-conformist churches, that Lent hardly figured at all in our youth.

One of my predecessors at AFC, The Revd Neville Clark, helped change all that in Baptist churches.  For he belonged to a somewhat eccentric group of ministers called The Cassock Club, who introduced more liturgical worship into the British Baptist tradition during the 1950’s.  Alas, their impact was rather short lived, yet one of their lasting legacies would be that many Baptist congregations at least give a nod and a wink to Advent and Lent today.

So, over the next six weeks or so I’ll be wearing a purple stole (the liturgical colour for Lent), and we’ll sing hymns from the Holy Week and Passiontide section of the hymn book.  More than that, as we travel with the lectionary, we’ll reflect on the stories of Jesus as he made his way from Galilee to Jerusalem and The Cross.

In recent years there’s been a helpful idea that, rather than simply giving something up for Lent, we might take something up which is positive and helpful to others.

And, as one of our Life and Faith group so helpfully said, Lent is that annual opportunity to do some serious thinking about personal faith.

 For me, the most important question Lent asks is: Who was Jesus?  It’s a crucial question and well worth spending six weeks pondering.

Thursday 8 February 2024

History teaches us...

 

Yesterday it was my privilege to lead the Free Church service at St Alban’s Cathedral.  As I looked around the impressive architecture, I remembered our first visit there as a guide told us that some of the stones from a former pagan temple had been incorporated into the building of the Abbey.


The past always influences the present.  We simply don’t live in chronological
isolation because what happened yesterday, the way we thought and lived back then, has a bearing on what’s going on in our lives today.

As we pour over recent news stories of invasions, conflicts and political upheaval we may indeed have a sense of DeJa’Vu; we’ve surely been here before and, of course, we have.

I’m sometimes surprised to hear people speak of current events as if they were the worst of all time.  Any casual appreciation of history would see that a hundred years ago our world was also struggling after pandemic, stood on the brink of war, and was collapsing under the Great Depression.

Of course, the past doesn’t solve the problems of today.  It may not even offer the right solutions because of the nuisances of every generation.

Yet the past can comfort us, reminding us that we have been here before and survived, and perhaps in some situations even thrived.

The past can inform us as we stand at the fork in the road, yet we must make our own decisions on what way to take.

That’s where the bible stories we hear at church and read at home can be our guide and compass.  For they speak, even thousands of years after first being penned, of issues that are still relevant.  These narratives are both helpful and comforting.  Yet, after reading them we have to make up our own minds about the directions and decisions we take.

Next week we will enter Lent and be reminded of, what we Christians believe is, the greatest story ever told.  The stories of Jesus can be our guide as we stand at all the crossroads of life.

Blog holiday next week.

Wednesday 31 January 2024

When small is beautiful

 

The other day I was intrigued to read an article on the internet about a seeming return of interest in small churches.  It was written by a pastor of such a congregation, and he was just wondering if there is something of a sense of renewal in smaller churches since the pandemic?

Congregations often long to be bigger than they are – and nothing wrong in that.  For all sorts of right reasons such aspirations can be applauded.  Yet so too can the idea that small churches have a lot to offer.

Perhaps I should admit here that I’m not exactly sure about the numbers and the maths that makes a congregation thought of as either large or small and, of course, everything is relative!

The writer of the internet article has been pleased to see new people, especially over Christmas, come along to his small congregation.  In talking to them he’s become aware that they have enjoyed the more intimate and personal atmosphere of worship they have found and that, for some, it has brought a greater sense of belonging to a church ‘family’ than what they were used to in a bigger, yet more impersonal, context.

It made me recall a comment made at home by an extended family member over Christmas, that she actually enjoyed smaller, rather than larger, family gatherings.  When there were just five or six of us she naturally shares in the conversation, but when there are thirteen she just becomes a passive observer.

Maybe different types and sizes of congregation feel appropriate to folk at different stages of life. 

We rejoice in congregations of all sizes and the internet article reminded me that sometimes small is indeed beautiful.

Thursday 25 January 2024

Praying for those in authority

 

I’ve recently been reading up on Ramsey MacDonald who, a hundred years ago this week, became Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister.  I did this for a LunchBreak talk and afterwards a member of the audience told me that Ramsey MacDonald, whilst an MP, selected Amersham as his weekend home and lived at Chesham Bois just down the road from the church!

He was a Scot and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on three occasions.  He was also a pacifist and never fully supported the first World War.  This not only lost him his membership of the Moray Gold Club but also made him reviled in some quarters.

 Ramsey MacDonald, along with Keir Hardy, was one of the founders of the Labour Party, popularly thought of as a people’s party after the general public began falling out of love with the Liberals.  He was more at home with philosophy and books than with carrying a placard and marching.  Yet, he rose to become leader of the Labour Party and its first Prime Minister.

When elected much of his time was taken up dealing with the aftermath of the Great War and coping with the financial crisis that caused the Great Depression.

 His personal background was one of poverty.  He was an illegitimate child born to a parlour maid and agricultural worker.  Yet he did well at school in Lossiemouth and eventually moved to London and continued his studies at night school with the Birkbeck Institute.  He had six children but lost his wife early on to blood poisoning.  He was faithfully supported by his children, especially his daughters and historians tell us that he was the favourite Prime Minister of King George V.

Perhaps history teaches us that very little is new in life, and we have probably been here before.  I’ve certainly got that impression reading up on MacDonald’s life.  We may think that war and the economic crisis of 2024 is immense, yet it seems it was equally, if not more so, in 1924 with one war just ten years behind and another a mere 15 years in front.

And if the goings on in parliament exasperate us today, give some thought to Ramsey MacDonald’s fate after heading up a Nation Government with the Conservatives to deal with the financial crisis.  Such collaboration was viewed as treachery by the Labour Party, and they expelled him.  He never quite got over that the party he helped to bring to birth eventually kicked him out and he died something of a broken man.

 So, although we may nostalgically call that decade the Roaring Twenties, the reality was Ramsey MacDonald’s time leading the United Kingdom was a very turbulent and worrying one.

The Bible is clear that one of our responsibilities is for us to pray for those in authority.  Such prayers were needed a century ago, as they most certainly are today.

A Loaf of Bread

  My wife got a bit cross with me the other day for buying a bread more expensive than our usual.  Apparently, there are now 200 different s...