Fredrick spoke from Judges 9 this morning. God uses many metaphors to describe His people (we are sheep; people are also described as fish, for example) and in this chapter, God gives us the analogy of trees talking! The context is of Israel seeking a king, but the trees are personified here as being asked to be the king: the olive tree, fig tree, vine and thornbush are all mentioned.

The olive tree is content to stay in its God-given role, providing oil for God and people alike. An olive tree can live for over 2000 years and is stable and fruitful, even when there is little rain. Ps 52:8 says ‘I am an olive tree, flourishing in the house of God.’ God wants us to remain where He has planted us and He wants us to bear fruit for others, not only thinking about ourselves.

The fig tree too produces good, sweet fruit and is content to be itself. Sometimes, we look for solutions everywhere, forgetting that Christ lives within us and that He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. (1 Jn 4:4) We need to learn to depend on Christ and not to seek for solutions in the world. Those whose confidence is in God, Jeremiah tells us, are ‘like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.’ (Jer 17:7-8)

The vine brings forth fruit in season. Jesus described HImself as the true vine and us as branches. (John 15:1) When Jesus healed the blind man, he said he saw men ‘like trees walking around.’ (Mk 8:24) God anoints each one of us with no favouritism, enabling us to fulfil His purposes for our lives. Unlike the arrogant thornbush which wanted others to take shelter in its shade, we are urged to bear fruit that will last (see John 15:1-17), serving others through the power of God’s love and learning to abide in Christ.

Vineyards in the north of Madeira

Fredrick and Reeba gave us an update of the work that is going on through their ministries. In January, 58 women graduated from the tailoring programme and there are currently 55 women on the programme which runs in Bangalore and in Andhra Pradesh. These women, mainly widows who have no means of support, are taught how to sew over six months so that they can become self-supporting to help their families. One lady at the January graduation confessed she had been on the brink of suicide when she heard about the programme because she could see no way of supporting her two children; through the programme she has come to faith in Christ and she brought gifts from her first pay packet to the programme as an expression of her gratitude.

Fredrick has recently been in the north of India distributing talking bibles to the gypsies there. The talking bibles are made in Israel and then shipped to India so that the Bible can be recorded in any one of the almost thousand languages spoken in India. The bibles have a solar panel on them and so 2 hours’ charging in the sun means up to 10 hours of listening time – crucial in areas which have no reliable electricity sources. One bible is given per family so that the whole family can listen each day; street vendors often hang these on their carts so that everyone can hear!

The vacation bible school (at which some church members helped last year) was attended by 125 children from the slum area around Bangalore and many HIndus attend services at Fredrick’s church, often coming to faith in Jesus as they see miraculous answers to prayer.

We are so grateful for the privilege of supporting these ministries and Fredrick and Reeba thanked the church for their support and urged us to continue praying and to visit again!

Fredrick and Reeba from Bangalore, whose ministries we support as a church, are with us this weekend. Come along on Sunday morning (10.30 a.m.) to hear Fredrick bring the word of God to us and on Sunday evening (6 p.m.) to hear about their ongoing work in Bangalore and other parts of India as we celebrate ‘God’s Wonderful World’ in our family service. Reeba leads the Tailoring Empowerment Programme which helps women to learn to sew and thus to acquire a skill which can help to support them and their families and Fredrick is busy with many church ministries, including giving talking bibles to those who cannot read.

On Wednesday 16th May there is the ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at the Salvation Army at 10.30 a.m. Join with Christians from other churches to pray for our communities and outreaches.

On Saturday 19th May we are having our church Annual General Meeting at 6 p.m. Come along to discuss the work of the church and to look back over the past year and ahead to all God has planned for us. Please do join with us if you can.

The postponed Dinosaur Day will be on Sunday 20th May (12 noon – 4 p.m.) after the morning service, at Phoenix Park, Thurnscoe. Parking is limited on the street there, but please do come along to support this BIg Local Thurnscoe event. Local churches will be involved in crafts and digging for ‘fossils’ as well as giving out 3D printed dinosaurs and pens and leaflets. We see this as a way of connecting with our local communities and having lots of dinosaur fun!

Throughout May and June, the Tesco stores in Wath and Bolton-on-Dearne will be running their ‘Bags of Help’ scheme to support local projects including the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival. If you shop there, it would be great if you could use the blue tokens for this project as this helps to secure funding for the festival. This community event will be on Friday 31st August and Saturday 1st September at Dearne ALC and the programme is looking exciting – lots of local people exhibiting artwork, photographs, crafts, woodwork and so on and performances in music, dance and drama as well as workshops for all the family, including circus skills, crafts and creative writing. The Tesco scheme is only for May and June, however, so please do support us if you can.

At the risk of repeating myself, Ps 78: 4-7 may be described as my mission statement.

  ‘We will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
⁶ so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
⁷ Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.’ (Ps 78:4-7)

My heart’s desire is to pass on the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders He has done to the next generation and the one after that and even to the children yet to be born. I never really knew my paternal grandfather as he died when I was three months old, but I am so profoundly grateful for his legacy of prayer for me and for the next generations. He was a talented church organist and every time my son plays the piano at church, I am aware of the generational aspect of faith more keenly than ever.

To me, passing on the baton is a crucial aspect of faith. I am profoundly glad to belong to a church with people of all ages, a family church where generations worship alongside each other. I don’t take this for granted and long to be able to live in such a way that encourages others to believe. I long to pass on the stories of what God has done, not only in history but in my life. When I take my granddaughter for walks, I talk to her of the church’s history: how we once were in a building on Beever Street, but God did miracles when we had only about £7000 in the bank and provided us with our current building at a cost of over £160,000, for example. I tell her of the people of faith and how they have seen God work in our village and in our lives. I want her to know that God is real and alive and working today. I want her to listen to the tales of her elders and understand that the God who has worked in the past is still working today.

You can be forgiven for thinking I go on about this a lot: you’re right. I do. I preached a series ‘Passing On the Baton’ in 2013, so I’ve been banging on about this for at least five years! I talked about ‘the next generation’ in 2017 at my granddaughter’s dedication. I make no apologies for this fact. If we do not tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, who will? If we are silent, how will our children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren know of God’s wonders? The first responsibility is the parents, then the rest of the family, then the wider church family. I feel like Asaph must have done. History is there for us to learn from. We need to pass it on.

The Bible is a tremendously honest and reassuring book. It does not paint a picture of perfect people, never making mistakes. The greatest saints are portrayed as fallible people: Abraham lying, David committing adultery and murder, Samson giving in to temptation, Peter denying Christ, Paul giving assent to the murder of Stephen. Hebrews 11 is known as the ‘chapter of faith’, but when we read through the list of people there, we are well aware of their mistakes and failures which emphasise all the more God’s amazing grace and forgiveness.

The author Paulo Coelho has wryly remarked, ‘A mistake repeated more than once is a decision.’ George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.’ Sadly, we all tend to make the same mistakes more than once, and Psalm 78 is an object lesson on this.

Ps 78: 9-11 sets the tone for the whole psalm: ‘The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; ¹⁰ they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.¹¹ They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.’ In the wilderness, Israel ‘wilfully’ put God to the test, not once, not twice, but so many times that as we read the account, we wonder how God could keep on forgiving. Asaph points to this cycle in the middle of the psalm: ‘Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;  they eagerly turned to him again.³⁵ They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.³⁶ But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; ³⁷ their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.³⁸ Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger    and did not stir up his full wrath.³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.’ (Ps 78:34-39)

We cannot point the finger and tut-tut at their stupidity (often defined as the habit of making the same mistakes repeatedly!) because we are so prone to do the same thing. No wonder Jesus said, ‘You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?’ (Matt 17:17) The amazing thing is that He declared He would put up with us for eternity. (Matt 28:20) His forgiveness and love are not transient and fickle like ours. He is our Shepherd. (Ps 78:52-53, 70-72; Ps 23:1, John 10:11)

I’m all for learning from our mistakes. But I am profoundly glad that I serve a God of second, third, fourth and many more chances. As Rend Collective sing,

‘Always inside this mess
I have found forgiveness
Mercy infinite as You.’ (‘Second Chance’, Rend Collective)

Don’t let your mistakes keep you down. The cross means we can get up off the floor and start again.

Psalm 78 is a historical psalm written by Asaph, a Levite chosen to lead worship (1 Chronicles 6:39, 1 Chronicles 15:17) during the reign of David (1 Chron 16:27). Described by Hezekiah in 2 Chron 29:30 as a ‘seer’, this gifted musician and poet wrote 12 of the psalms in the Bible (Ps 50, Ps 73-83) and Ps 78 is described as a maskil, with the express purpose of teaching (Ps 78:1-2). Asaph tackles Israel’s history to show us something of God’s mercy, patience and perseverance. Dealing with people’s constant rebellion and stubbornness (see Ps 78:8, Jer 5:23) often aroused God’s wrath, but in the end, His love and compassion are constant. He is our faithful shepherd (Ps 78:52, Ps 23:1, Gen 48:15, Zech 9:16, John 10) and chose David to be a faithful shepherd to His people (Ps 78:70-72).

God’s mercy and perseverance are all the more remarkable when we consider how Israel responded to His miracles, care and provision. Instead of gratitude, obedience and faithfulness, they wilfully put Him to the test (Ps 78:18), constantly doubting Him and refusing to believe (Ps 78:32). We are constantly urged to learn from these examples; Heb 3:7-19 reminds us that we risk God’s wrath and displeasure when we harden our hearts and refuse to believe and warns of the consequences of unbelief. Ps 78 reminds us that ‘a sharply focused mind and a keenly retentive memory are the prerequisites to an obedient life.’ (Motyer, ‘Psalms By The Day’, P 223) We need to pass on the truths of the miracles and wonders of God to the next generations (Ps 78:1-8) so that we can all learn of God’s interventions in history and care of His people.