Family Fun
We had another fun day at Houghton Road Centre today, with about 60 people in total attending the ‘Churches Together’ Family Fun Day. Alison had invited Be Well Barnsley to give us ideas for healthy eating (fruit kebabs):
The Dearne area Children’s Team were on hand to enrol people onto the fruit and vegetable voucher scheme, with one worker even dressing as a tomato to promote the scheme!
In addition, we had crafts for all ages, soft play fun for the babies and toddlers and, of course, crazy golf for everyone!
Our thanks to Kevin and all at Houghton Road Centre for their lovely catering and help and to all who attended for a great day of half-term fun!
Secure Uncertainty
Dave’s sermon on Elijah tonight looked at how hard it can be when God does not necessarily work in the ways we expect. The poem ‘Secure Uncertainty’ reflects my own thoughts on this theme, fuelled by our studies on the Psalms of Lament which give us permission to come before God with all our questions, doubts and complaints.
Paul knew whom he believed.
John told us how he knew what love was.
Certainty and knowledge run through the Bible
Like a river dissecting the very heart of a village,
Bolstering us, boosting us, lifting us up so our heads don’t go under water.
We know.
We believe.
We are secure.
But then the storm comes,
Sweeping us off our feet,
Battering us mercilessly against the rocks,
Pummelling our flesh till its misshapen bruises
Form a rainbow of colours revealing internal bleeding.
Now, certainty is gone.
Questions without answers lie mangled at our feet
Like detritus thrown out to sea.
We gaze into the abyss,
Wondering how a benevolent God can be so cruel,
Afraid to lift our heads lest another blow rains down.
Is God capricious?
How can we reconcile His love with this maelstrom of fury?
Why ever did He let loose this hurricane of doubt?
How can we ever reach the hilltop of security when we are crushed by despair?
It’s not just the destruction and pain and personal suffering which haunt,
But the tumour of uncertainty eats away at us,
Unvoiced, yet slowly sapping faith.
We stand up shakily,
Brushing down our soiled garment,
Attempting to limp on as if nothing has happened.
But where there was once security and shiny eyes,
Now insecurity reigns
And coldness seeps through.
How do we regain our confidence in God?
We believe He’s there,
But we’re not sure we want that God anymore.
We want the cosy, fluffy version
Who leaves us alone in delusion
And comfortable unbelief.
This God is demanding, fierce,
Unrelenting and uncompromising.
For centuries we’ve been told God never changes,
But in our eyes now He’s changed,
And we’re rocked.
We may still outwardly conform to religious practices,
But if this inner dissonance is never repaired,
Our faith will wither and die like crunchy autumn leaves, brittle, unsustainable.
If we never learn to live with mystery, accepting our finite limitations,
Our hearts will grow cold
And we will shrivel away.
Only as we limp through the stages of confusion
Can we find the sunshine of assurance
In the wreckage of the storm.
I don’t know the answers.
I still don’t understand,
But I will still run to You,
My Saviour and my God.
For even if I have no other hiding place,
I will hide myself in You,
And I will be safe in the shadow of Your wings.
Love and fury,
Compassion and wrath,
Mercy and justice,
Kindness and uncompromising holiness
All wrapped in one God.
May the colours of the prism
Dazzle me as I sit with You in silence,
For You are light
And in You there is no darkness at all.
Renewal and Rebirth
Dave continued his series on Elijah tonight, looking at 1 Kings 19:1-8. Elijah, the fearless, uncompromising prophet who rebuked kings face to face, had just won a great victory over the prophets of Baal, but surprisingly perhaps, instead of standing firm in this victory when facing Ahab and Jezebel, the spiritual toll of these battles and the lonely life he had led for the past three years in the wilderness while the rest of Israel pursued other gods meant Elijah was actually fearful, exhausted, spiritually depleted and despondent, fleeing from Jezebel’s threats and feeling so lonely and depressed that he asked God to let him die.
We all have our own ideas about God and how He should work in our lives, but instead of God actually agreeing to Elijah’s request to die, He sent practical help (food and drink), spoke in a gentle whisper to recommission Elijah and provided a companion, Elisha, to share the load. God still had work for Elijah to do, and in this period of isolation and exhaustion, Elijah had to let go of his previous ways of doing things and his preconceptions about God and come to a new understanding which was both renewing and reinvigorating; it was, in effect, like a new birth. Elijah was the archetypal ‘fire and brimstone’ prophet, full of zeal for God, but he had to learn a new way of relating to God.
Our society may well leave us feeling like Elijah. Godless lifestyles abound; there is a sense of ‘anything goes’ in morality all around us, and often there is a lack of compassion and the church seems no different to the world in many ways. We may well struggle to understand God’s ways, and in times of crisis, we may find we, like Elijah, have to look for God in ways that are unfamiliar to us. As we do this, however, being prepared to sacrifice our preconceptions about God, we will find He is there with us, speaking peace to our spirits and leading us to new commissions. Crisis can precipitate renewal and refreshment from God, if we will journey through the struggles (symbolised here by Elijah’s 40 day journey) to that place of stillness in Him.
Settlers and Seekers
Garry spoke this morning on ‘settlers and seekers’, basing his sermon on 2 Corinthians 3:18 which talks of the daily transformation God is wanting to work in each one of us. The transformational rate of change may vary (with change being more visible early on in our Christian journey, just as the baby makes enormous changes in its first year), but God wants us to be continually becoming more like Christ throughout the whole of our lives.
The American settlers travelled far and wide in the United States, travelling across different kinds of terrains through different kinds of weather, pursuing a dream with a spirit of adventure.
They remind us of Abraham, who kept on moving, journeying with God and living like a stranger in a foreign country (see Heb 11:8-10). For so many of us, ‘home’ becomes somewhere established and settled and then we do not wish to move on, but for those who are seekers, there will always be that sense of not quite fitting in and being filled with a restlessness because we know there is so much more in God for us to discover. We may not know what that is (it’s a ‘known unknown’!), but we know God is driving us forward.
Settlers will find they may become bored, having low expectations and no sense of excitement. They have got used to the status quo and are content with it. Seekers, however, will remember what God has done but will not settle for this as the ‘ultimate’, aware that there is so much more in God to discover and experience. Is 43:16-19 reminds us that God wants to do new things. If Peter had simply lived on his experience of the Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-6), he would never have experienced God’s amazing power on the Pentecost, preached to thousands, been one of the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles or travelled beyond his wildest dreams. He did not allow his experiences of God to limit him, but these became the fuel for a further pressing on and straining forward, described by Paul in Phil 3:12-14.
The challenge facing us all is to switch from being settlers to becoming seekers, people who will press on in God, always aware that He is working to change us with ever-increasing glory into the image of Christ.
Macmillan Coffee Morning photos
Due to a variety of computer problems, I’ve not been able to upload the photos kindly taken by Alan at the Macmillan Coffee Morning at the end of September. Hopefully, that is now resolved!
“Big Boys Don’t Cry”
“Big boys don’t cry” is an apparently innocuous instruction to young boys which could be said to characterise the “stiff upper lip” approach of traditional British culture. It owes more to Victorian beliefs than to the Bible.
The Bible is full of tears. Even Jesus wept at the death of his friend, Lazarus (Jn 11:35) – and he knew he was going to raise him from the dead! The Psalms of Lament give us permission to cry: ‘my tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”‘ (Ps 42:3) Ps 13:2 talks of having sorrow ‘day after day.’
Suppressing and repressig emotion is a sure-fire way of inviting mental health issues into our lives; as the proverb goes, ‘he who swallows much eventually drowns’.
There has been much in the news recently about mental health issues, with Princes William and Harry talking openly about the grief and difficulties they faced over the death of their mother, Diana, when they were still children. Royalty, money, privilege – none of these things guarantee good mental health, but bringing those feelings to God and waiting before Him can be a significant contribution to recovery.
The toddler is remarkably honest in expressing his or her feelings; you always know what a toddler is feeling, whether that is joy, sorrow, pain or enthusiasm!
Whilst we may need to teach different ways of expressing those emotions to toddlers, they are perhaps closer to God than we think. Matt 18:3 reminds us of the need to become like little children; perhaps we, too, need to be unafraid of bringing our emotions to God and letting Him wrap us in His arms of everlasting love. (Ps 57:1) Perhaps we need to return, like the prodigal son, to the Father’s arms, for ‘our Father still waits and He watches down the road/ to see the crying boys come running back into His arms.’ (‘Growing Young’, Rich Mullins)
As we study the Psalms of Lament, we need to be unafraid of our negative emotions and bring these to God honestly and without fear of rejection.