Dave spoke on Sunday evening on the subject ‘Who Am I?’ This is a question only humans ask; no cat or dog or turtle or fish or squirrel or bird or dolphin or chimpanzee ever lost one night’s sleep pondering this question! 1 Peter 2:9-10 gives us insight into the question of identity and purpose, questions which are so crucial to human life.

Peter, writing to Christians, says that we are a chosen people. Our identity is not based on our ethnicity or beliefs as such; it is based on the fact that God has chosen us. We are a people who have received mercy. We can’t really use ‘mercy‘ as a verb, so some translations say we are ‘pitied.’ This implies that God saw our sin and need and had compassion and mercy on us. His love and grace reached out to us when we had nothing going for us, so to speak. Our identity fundamentally comes not from what we do, but from what God has done.

We are God’s possession, His very own people. He has chosen us to belong to Him, to spend eternity with Him. This gives us purpose in life. We are set apart for God, called to be a ‘holy nation.’ We exist for God, and since He is holy, He is able to make us holy too. Moreover, our purpose is to be a ‘royal priesthood.’ That means we have direct access to God and are called to serve Him all the time. Our identity and purpose are given to us by God. They are not human inventions, but are the direct gift of God.

This leads us to ponder on the question ‘What am I here for?’ Peter defines that purpose as “that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” We cannot ever really understand ourselves and our identity and purpose apart from God: Christian selfhood is not defined in terms of who we are in and of ourselves, but only in terms of who are in God. God has made us who we are so that we can make Him known to others. The meaning of our identity is that the excellency of God be seen in us.

How do we do this? We can do this in so many ways:

• We can do it in church services with preaching and singing and praying and reading.

• We can do it in our small groups as we tell each other what God has been for us, or what we need Him to be for us.

• We can do it at work as we tell people what we love about God and why we think He is great.

• And we can do it in a thousand different ways of love that suit our situation and personality.

Paul, facing a storm which threatened the lives of all on the ship on which he was travelling to Rome, was able to pass on encouragement and hope to the others because he received a personal word from an angel from ‘the God to whom I belong and whom I serve.’ (Acts 27:23) Even in what must have been truly scary circumstances (things had got to the point where all their preventative measures had failed and even the cargo and equipment were being thrown overboard), he was able to pass on hope and to remain confident because of God’s help and specific word to him.

It is interesting to see that he defines God in a way that would have made sense to people whose ideas of gods were very different to his own. The first thing he mentions is belonging to God. Belonging is one of the essential needs of every human; we all need to know that we belong somewhere, to find ‘our place in this world.’ (‘Place In This World’, Michael W. Smith) Most of us find a sense of belonging initially in our blood family, but God offers us the chance to become His children and belong to His family (John 1:12). This gives us great security, even in difficult times. Paul also links service to God. Once we are secure in belonging, we are not afraid to serve. Jesus, secure in His identity (‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God’ John 13:3), washed the disciples’ feet. The two things – belonging and service – may seem contradictory, but it is actually only out of a sense of belonging that true service emanates. Where there is fear or anxiety, our service arises from a desire to avoid punishment or a need to please. Only as we are sure whose we are can we serve with gladness.

All of us would like life to be all about ‘plain sailing’, a metaphor describing smooth and easy progress in a process or activity. As Christians, we sometimes believe that this is what a life of faith means: the constant intervention of a benevolent God who, if He only wants the best for us, surely owes us deliverance from evil and access to a life of continuous ease.

Acts 27 bursts this idealistic bubble, however, as it describes a fierce storm and shipwreck which certainly threatened the life of the apostle Paul, finally on his way to Rome after over two years’ imprisonment on false charges. This chapter resonates with detail and vividly describes the desperation felt by even experienced sailors when facing the merciless sea during a storm. Nonetheless, God’s presence with Paul sustains him (and encourages others) and is a vivid reminder to us that troubles and difficulties do not automatically mean God’s displeasure.

Jonah faced a similar storm that was indeed the result of his disobedience, but we would be wrong to assume that all trouble is linked to sin. Jesus made this plain when he spoke to people about a blind man (John 9:1-3) or when he spoke about different disasters. (Luke 13:1-5) Difficult though it may be for us to grasp, life in a sin-stained world is never going to be all ‘plain sailing.’ There will be testing, trials and troubles, but these do not invalidate or negate God’s goodness, mercy, kindness, love and grace. Paul was able to testify to God even in these extremely hazardous circumstances; he was also able to reassure all 276 on board that they would survive this ordeal. (‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ Acts 27:24) The one thing we can rely on, even in the fiercest drought or storm, is that God will never leave us or forsake us. (Heb 13:5)

Ps 68:20 says, ‘our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.’ This was the experience of the 276 men on board the ship with Paul when he was journeying to Rome following his appeal to Caesar. Encouraged and sustained by Paul’s word to them that none of their lives would be lost (Acts 27:22, 24), they finally landed safely on shore in Malta. True, their journey had not gone according to plan. There had been great peril, so much so that at times, they had despaired and given up all hope of survival. (Acts 27:20) Paul knew all about great peril. This was not the only time he had faced it; in 2 Cor 11:23-29, he lists the many times he had faced peril, including imprisonment, flogging, exposure to death, shipwrecks, danger from bandits, Jews and Gentiles, and says that at times, ‘we were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.’ (2 Cor 1:8) Yet at the same time, Paul also knew what it was to experience God’s salvation and deliverance, both literally and spiritually.

He reminds the Corinthians, ‘But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.’ (2 Cor 1:9-11) The truth that our God is a God who saves is one which needs shouting from the rooftops. His help in our everyday situations needs to be proclaimed. Paul was hugely thankful for God’s deliverance in landing safely at Malta, in the fulfilment of that word of reassurance given at just the right time. We too need to hear God’s words of reassurance, hold on to them, proclaim them by faith in advance (when we might rightly be considered optimistic to be so positive – and even crazy!) and then rejoice when they are fulfilled.

My two grandchildren love blankets and quilts. Neither has ever taken to dummies or sucking thumbs, so their blanket is their comfort, and (like Linus) they drag these items around the house and outdoors, given half a chance. They have blankets at my house as well as at home; they play endless games with the blankets, using them as den roofs and sleeping floors as well as covering themselves up when sitting down. The blanket can become a royal robe, the cloak that covers. It’s an invaluable friend, a constant companion. If there’s only one blanket between two children, war is almost inevitable, as one blanket just isn’t big enough!

Proverbs 10:12 in the Message version says, ‘Hatred starts fights, but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.’

This is a powerful image for me. When the girls hide under their quilts, pretending to be mice as they squeak underneath, they are united in a game of hide-and-seek. The bickering has stopped. The squabbling is over. The quilt has, in their case literally, put a stop to the bickering as they enjoy the unity of a game where I have to find them.

‘Love pulls a quilt over the bickering.’ It stops us fighting and arguing. When we love, we are united with others. May love not only be our comfort blanket today, but may it put an end to our quarrelling and help us to pursue unity, not division.

Today we had our Annual General Meeting for the financial year 1st October 2019 until 30th September 2020, a period that was quite unlike any other because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Government restrictions closed places of worship in March 2020 and from 22^nd March until 2^nd August 2020, the only services we held were online, using Zoom and Facebook live technology. In-person worship resumed here on 2^nd August 2020, with livestreaming of services continuing, but Government restrictions (which are still in place) have greatly affected the format of church services. Social distancing and the wearing of face coverings as well as restrictions on sung worship have meant that services look and sound very different to previously, a situation that is far from satisfying.

Nonetheless, we are grateful for all the different ways we kept in touch with people, and even though our services in Cherry Tree Court and our youth club and Parent & Toddler group closed (and are yet to resume), we have kept in touch with people in different ways throughout this period. We are grateful too for people’s ongoing financial support of the church and our ministries, and we have been able to continue with community outreach through craft packs here and supporting Amshika, Innocent and Bedline abroad and also supporting the ministries of Fredrick and Reeba in Bangalore, India.

Building maintenance continued throughout the year, with the Worship Room, corridor, vestry and toilets being redecorated and a new front door fitted.

As restrictions ease, we are looking to re-opening community groups soon and are pleased to appoint J-P and Herlen Schreuder as deacons, part of our church leadership team. We are grateful for a donation from Countryside Properties (a building company working in Goldthorpe) which will enable us to continue to develop community work, and we are looking forward to our first ‘Churches Together’ in-person event since March 2020 when we hold a Pentecost Trail on the Railway Embankment site on Wednesday 2nd June (and plant trees there.) Above all, we look to God to continue to guide us and lead us forward as we seek His face to be with Him on the community and for Him in the community.