Baptismal Service
It’s always a huge pleasure and privilege to hold a baptismal service, for in it we celebrate new life in Jesus. In our church we don’t baptise babies because we feel that baptism is for those who have made a conscious decision to follow Jesus (which babies obviously can’t do; we dedicate them to the Lord instead, asking for God’s blessing on their lives.) Yesterday we had the joy of baptising five church members, celebrating their decision to follow Jesus and baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus commanded us to. (Matt 28:18-20)
It was wonderful to have friends and family join us for this service and to sing God’s praises.
Baptism is a sacrament and a symbolic act linked to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 6:1-11) where going down under the water represents death to the old life, to our sinful independent state and coming up from the water represents the new life we now possess thanks to Christ’s resurrection. All of us must be born again to become part of God’s family (John 3:3, John 1:12), and this is a cause for great celebration. As with so many other celebrations, this invnolved food and gifts!
But If You Say So…
Dave spoke this morning from Luke 5:1-11, when Jesus called his first disciples. He chose these from among a small group of fishermen and others. The fishermen were more than happy for Jesus to preach from their boat, but then he proceeded to tell them how to fish! Peter pointed out the futility of Jesus’s suggestion (“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” Luke 5:5), but was still prepared to listen to him (‘because you say so.’‘)
His reward was an amazing catch of fish (far greater than any he had caught before). We can understand how unworthy he felt after this. He had toiled all night for nothing and did not want further disappointment, but by risking it all again, he reaped an amazing haul of fish.
Will we listen despite the failure of our previous hard work? Will we do things because Jesus asks us to? His wisdom and knowledge are grater than ours. He wants our acceptance to do as he asks, and then his effective grace can do far more than we can achieve on our own.
Baptismal Service
We are very excited to be holding a special baptismal service this afternoon (Sunday 14 July) in addition to our morning Holy Communion service at 10.30 a.m.
Baptism is the outward sign of what God has done innwardly in a person’s life! We are thrilled to be baptising five people this afternoon in a service starting at the earlier time of 4 p.m. Do come along and witness these five getting wet and sharing what Jesus means to them!
After the service we’ll be having a buffet meal.
Hope to see you all there!
Hurdles & High Jump
Life is full of hurdles.
As a child, I hated athletics. Every single event held terrors for me. I was no runner: both sprints and longer distance races demoralised me. I was useless at throwing, so the javelin, discus and shot put were all beyond the skill of my feeble arms. Long jump felt like a farce with my little legs. But the two events that really underlined my athletic inadequacy for me were the hurdles and the high jump.
Other people got the timing in hurdles perfectly right, running and striding over the hurdles without ever knocking one over. I could never get it right, and the hurdles seemed like high jumps to me. I could never get over them without clattering them down, hurting my legs and ending up way behind the other athletes. Those hurdles stood like Everest to me as others took them literally in their stride, effortlessly elegant.
The high jump was even worse. No matter which method I employed, I could barely manage the lowest height. Sometimes I hit the bar. More often than not, I didn’t get anywhere near it. The hot tears of failure and shame marked every PE lesson in summer.
Hurdles are meant to be easily surmountable, a little bit like an obstacle designed to test runners’ technique rather than a mountain to scale. They are a metaphor for life. This race makred out for us (Hebrews 12:1) is not usually a straight sprint. It’s long distance and cluttered with hurdles that can’t be avoided but must be overcome.
Hurdles of disappointment, dread, bereavement, betrayal, ill-health and injury are there, waiting to trip us up, make us stumble and sap our confidence. Hurdles of delays and doubts, bitterness and battles are there, impediments to the plain sailing we would like life to be.
Overcoming hurdles means carrying the momentum of the good times, having the courage to tackle the difficulties head-on, and a belief that ‘with Your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.’ (Ps 18:29)
It’s not easy. Some hurdles may leave us on the ground, weeping in despair. But God’s Spirit living in us reminds us that ‘with God all things are possible’ (Matt 19:26) and ‘I can do all this through him who gives me strength.’ (Phil 4:13) So we get up and face the hurdle again.
Don’t let the hurdles overcome you. God can carry us over them, no matter what. He wants us on His team, regardless of our skills (or lack of them.) We don’t have to bring great talent or prowess to Him; He is the One who supplies the ability. All He wants is for us to rely on Him for those countless second chances.
The Master Weaver
Yesterday I recommended the book of Ruth as a reminder that God works in ordinary lives in difficult times. The story of Ruth is about ‘two widows and a farmer whose lives are woven into the fabric of God’s salvation through the ordinary actions of common life.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work)
Many people feel daunted when reading the Bible. Miracles abound and prophets like Moses, Elijah and Elisha seem far beyond our experience. There is nothing daunting about the book of Ruth. It has just four chapters and its ordinary story about coping in times of economic difficulty and emotional trouble should resonate with us all. Ordinary people, dealing with ordinary, everyday situations. But ordinary does not mean insignificant or unimportant. Eugene Peterson goes on to describe Ruth’s story as ‘a modest but nevertheless essential part of the vast epic whose plot is designed by God’s salvation.’ (ibid., P 78)
The book reminds us that ‘every detail of a person’s life is part of a larger story, and the larger story is salvation.’ (Ibid., P 79) We are woven into God’s story, and suddenly insignificance is forgotten. We matter to God. God is working in the everyday details and shaping our lives. Ruth – a foreign ‘outsider’ – becomes part of the lineage of David and of Jesus. She’s integrated into God’s story through His sovereignty, which is worked out in intimate detail in ordinary people’s lives.
It can be hard for us to see the bigger picture of our lives (we’re too close; all we see are the knots and mess of the underside of the tapestry!) But Ruth assures us that there is a master weaver at work in our lives, whether we see that yet or not.
Finding The Sacred In The Ordinary
I woke up to heavy rain this morning – grey skies and heavy rain in July seem particularly depressing! It’s easy at such times to feel despondent, but faith is as relevant on days like today as when the sun shines!
What do we do when the disconnect between the glories in the Bible and our everyday realities seems so great? How do we maintain faith in the dull and the humdrum, in our everyday lives?
Ruth is the book that shows us ordinary people in difficult circumstances still exhibiting grace and still finding love and God’s salvation. The time is famine. The circumstances involve multiple bereavement. In the midst of Naomi’s bitterness (‘Call me Mara’), we find Ruth: loyal, faithful, prepared to change, and we find Boaz: kind, just, faithful. And in the middle of this story of ordinary lives, we find a baby who becomes the ancestor of King David and of the Lord Himself, God working out His plans in unspectacular ways (what could be more ‘ordinary’ than a love story and a baby?!)
Ruth is the reminder that the ordinary matters, that God is found in the most mundane of places. It is the reminder that those obscure Levitical laws (Leviticus 19:9) about leaving the edges of fields for foreigners actually make a difference to someone’s daily life. Ruth is a book which connects the everyday and the sacred, and as such, is a vivid reminder to us that even when it rains on a July day and maybe spoils our plans for outdoor activities, God is still working for good in ordinary lives.