In the main hall, we had many local businesses and residents displaying their artwork, selling crafts and showing us their skills! We also got to watch juggling and circus skills, listen to singers from the Angel Voices Performing Arts Academy and watch dancers from the Clayton School of Dance.

There was something very special about the 2021 Dearne Community Arts’ Festival. Perhaps because last year’s festival had to be online only, we have learned to appreciate even more the value of gathering together and sharing ideas, seeing the talent that is around us and watching performances live.

Vincent the Sun Bear and Turner Lights Up were there to greet us, along with all the yarn bombing and bunting!

Inside, we were blown away by the work of pupils at the school, including their poetry river, thumbprint, science display and sculptures.

The High Street had a range of exhibitions and workshops, giving us the opportunity to learn about wood-turning, have a go at hot wax painting, henna designs and painting on fabric.

There was also the chance to be involved in the Elmer The Elephant project (decorating elephant sculptures that will form part of the elephant trail in October) and the Poppy Project (making poppies from plastic bottles for Remembrance Day).

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was for the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened (Eph 1:18). We need to see with spiritual eyes in order to grasp spiritual truth – ‘so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe.’ (Eph 1:18-19)

Spiritual truth can’t be seen naturally. We need eyes of faith. Faith shows us that Christ is at the centre of everything, that His death and resurrection are game-changers that have transformed history. In the Message version, we are reminded of God’s sovereignty, that God is ‘in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments‘, that ‘he is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything.’ We are reminded of the central role in God’s plans: ‘the church, you see, is not peripheral to the world, the world is peripheral to the church.’ When we see these things, we begin to grasp our new identity in Christ and a new purpose in serving Him.

How we need our spiritual eyes to be opened!

The Dearne Community Arts’ Festival, held annually in Goldthorpe to champion creativity and celebrate community (and happening today, 25 September, between 11 a.m and 4 p.m.), is effectively the tip of an iceberg in the Dearne Valley area.

An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 metres long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating in open water. Icebergs vary considerably in size and shape, but what I find interesting about them is that only the top is visible. The rest of the iceberg is below the surface of the water.

The arts’ festival lasts for one day only, and brings together local people to exhibit and sell arts and crafts, to share their skills with others, to demonstrate to others how to do certain things and to perform. It’s a place to showcase talent and to give people the opportunity to explore creativity in all its colourful guises (or as many as we can pack into the largest venue in Goldthorpe!). It’s a colourful, vibrant day, buzzing with excitement and hope, positivity and skill.

But it’s still only the top of the iceberg. For this creativity, this wonderful community, is busy all year round. People work all year to make the things we see for just one day. They beaver away at their hobbies; they work diligently all year, creating beautiful things. They practise their skills, honing them to perfection, learning songs and dance routines, learning to paint, draw, crochet, sew, embroider, needle-felt. They spend hours unseen turning wood, sketching, taking photographs. I know. I listened to my son play scales and practise pieces on the piano every day for thirteen years in order to be able to listen to him play just about anything these days!

So enjoy the arts’ festival today. Make the most of the visible tip of this majestic local iceberg. But don’t be deceived into thinking it’s “just” one day. This creativity and this community is ongoing every single day in our area. There are classes going on everywhere every week. There are people honing their skills for next year’s “one day” already. There’s an army changing the Dearne Valley area through beauty, colour, harmony and elegance, maybe unseen for most of the year, but getting their glory today. This is why we hold the arts’ festival – to show you the tip of the iceberg.

Tonight we began looking at the book of Amos, written just before Isaiah’s ministry began. Some prophets (e.g. Ezekiel) were priests; others were of noble lineage (e.g. Daniel), but Amos was a shepherd, an ‘ordinary’ person called by God to speak out His word. God can use us, no matter what our background or profession!

The opening verses about the lion roaring and thundering (Amos 1:2) are reminiscent of the end of Joel (Joel 3:16), and it’s possible that Joel’s words, spoken about 60 years previous to this, were still echoing throughout Israel’s history. The book of Amos begins with God’s judgment on the nations surrounding Israel (see the map here). We might ask why these nations were judged by God when they did not have God’s law, but as Rom 1:18-23 makes plain, God has revealed Himself in various ways and man’s conscience is from Him, giving us an indication of right from wrong (even if, as these verses explain, we choose to ignore this to the point of no longer hearing His voice.) The surrounding nations were acting with great violence and aggression, selling people in slavery, savaging even pregnant women and showing no compassion or mercy at all. It must have seemed a relief to Israel to hear that God would not overlook such sin, but would judge the nations for their actions.

The God of justice will not let sin have the last word, and this is encouraging to know. But as the rest of Amos makes clear, judgment is not reserved simply for those who do not know God. Judgment begins with God’s household, Peter tells us (1 Pet 4:17), and Amos makes it plain that with a knowledge of God comes greater responsibility.

The prefix ‘re‘ means ‘back’ or ‘again’ and is found in many English words (e.g. ‘return‘, meaning to turn back, or ‘rearrange‘, meaning to arrange again.) It’s a reminder that things don’t have to stay the same; circumstances – and people – can be changed.

When we repent, we turn back to God (we are ‘sorry again’ for our sins, as the etymology of the word indicates) and are re-born (John 3). God restores us to the relationship mankind once had of being His children. He refuels and refreshes us each day, recharging us by the power of HIs Spirit, re-filling us when we run dry. He has redeemed us (bought us back) and revived us (given us new life, brought us back from death to life.) He remembers that we are from dust and so we are not consumed. (Ps 103:14)

Eccl 1:9 reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. We often crave new experiences, but perhaps we need to reacquaint ourselves with this lovely prefix and realise afresh that there is power in the ‘again’ of God.

Young children love to play repetitive games; I remember my son throwing his baseball cap off on the swing and loving it when we put it back on his head, just so that he could throw it off again! Now I have the joy of reading stories to my grandchildren, reaching the end of the book only to hear their ‘again!’ Maybe we need to recapture this spirit, coming to God with our own plea ‘again!’

Revive us, Lord.

Restore us.

Refresh us.

Refuel us.

Reinvigorate us.

Do it again, we pray.