We were reminded tonight about the ongoing need to help those in need, which can be done in part through our support of the Salvation Army food bank. Is 58:5-12 reminds us that faith in God is seen in very practical terms, such as sharing food with the hungry and clothing the naked. It’s exactly four years since we started supporting the food bank and in that time, we have seen God’s faithfulness (and people’s faithfulness) every month. 1 John 3:16-18 reminds us that Jesus gave His life for us; we need now to love with actions and in truth.

Sometimes, people hesitate to give because they are not really sure of the impact that food banks can have on people’s lives. Mark testified that as a young boy in Northern Ireland, the generosity of Christian neighbours in providing his family with food parcels really opened his eyes to Christian love in action. We are called to serve others (Phil 2:3-4) and whilst we will always have the poor with us (Deut 15:11, Mk 14:7), we are called to be open-handed to them and thus reflect God’s own nature. We can’t help everyone, but we can make a difference to our local area.

Tinned food, UHT milk, nappies, toilet rolls and toiletries are all needed on a regular basis. Please help us to help those in need by bringing such items to church.

Gillian reminded us at the end of the service that just because something is not visible, audible, tangible, touchable or able to be smelled does not mean it doesn’t exist. Air can’t be seen, smelled, heard, tasted or touched, but it still exists! The Bible tells us that the fool says in his heart ‘there is no God’ (Ps 14:1, Ps 53:1) and so often, people demand ‘proof’ before they believe in God. Faith is revealed to us by God supernaturally; it requires spiritual insight, as Jesus made clear when talking about Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God (Matt 16:17).

Thomas was one of the disciples who wanted proof of the resurrection, which Jesus graciously gave, but we are reminded that we are blessed if we do not see and still believe. (John 20:24-31)

Peter‘s discipleship is revealed to us in many different places in the Gospels. Matt 14:22-33 shows his impulsive but very genuine faith as he steps out of the boat and walks to Jesus on the water, only sinking as he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the enormity of his situation! In Matt 16:13-16, he confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and Jesus reveals something of the amazing things He will do through Peter, including using him to build His church. Nonetheless, Peter’s vision of Jesus’ identity could not cope with the revelation of death; he wanted to protect Jesus from God’s will. So often we find we want to do things our way rather than God’s.

Peter’s experience with Jesus was amazing; on the Mount of Transfiguration, he heard the voice of God proclaiming ‘this is my Son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ (Matt 17:5) Yet in the Garden of Gethsemane, he fell asleep instead of keeping watch in prayer (Matt 26:36-46) and despite his fervour in declaring he would never fosake or deny Jesus actually did both. The disappointment and bitterness he must have felt were great, so much so that even after the resurrection, he returned to his comfort zone (fishing.) Often, when God calls us, we are taken out of our depth; faith involves that sense of inadequacy because we know we can’t do what He asks without His help!

Jesus not only helped the disciples catch 153 fish (John 21:1-20), He gave Peter the opportunity to be forgiven and restored, reminding him that there was still a job for him to do: to feed His sheep and lambs. When we fall, the arms of Jesus pick us up; God’s forgiveness is great.

Faith may look foolish to people and may not be ‘explained’ easily. But as Peter was told it was Jesus who was giving advice about fishing, he became more interested in Jesus than he was in fishing! We’re not fools who demand proof of God’s existence. Instead, we’re fools for Christ: our relationship with Him matters more than anything else in the world to us.

Mark organised a range of activities for the family service, with the promise of a variety of prizes:

Teams had to answer True or False questions about (apparently) foolish things and also get involved in food tasting ‘fools’ with a difference!

These ‘fools’ contained coffee, pickled onions, grapes and a host of other interesting tastes!

We also had a birthday to celebrate:

Tonight’s family service looked at the subject of ‘fools for Christ’ (bearing in mind 1st April in the UK is known as April Fools’ Day, a chance to play practical jokes on people up to 12 noon!)

Dave spoke from 1 Cor 1:18-25, reminding us that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but is the power of God to those who are being saved. Corinth was a cosmopolitan, wealthy, materialistic city which valued learning and philosophy and which was used to debating about religion. To hear about a God who came to earth as a humble carpenter and who was arrested, tortured and crucified made no sense to the Corinthians… but then it makes no sense to anyone! Only by faith can we accept that this is the way of salvation.

The cross is really a scandal, a stumbling-block to many, for Jesus is either who He claimed to be or He is a liar or a madman. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) and we can only be saved through this apparently foolish way of the cross. We’ve all experienced embarrassment, moments when we wish the floor would open up and swallow us! For us to be saved, however, we have to be willing to rock the boat for Christ, to be counted as a fool. The reward is eternal life. It’s worth it.

Thornton Wilder said ‘Hope is a projection of the imagination; so is despair. Despair all too readily embraces the ills it foresees; hope is an energy and arouses the mind to explore every possibility to combat them…‘

As someone who is pessimistic by nature and who finds it all too easy to ’embrace the ills’ my vivid imagination can conceive, it has taken me a long time to realise the truths of this statement. Essentially, I have to choose between hope and despair on a daily basis, which largely means learning to train my imagination to meditate on truth and believe what God says, rather than dwelling on what my gloomy outlook can readily embellish.

Despair feels rather like being out of your depth and panicking that you will drown. But once you’ve learned to swim, being out of your depth doesn’t necessarily lead to drowning! Even if you’re tired and weary, you can tread water until you find a second wind; you don’t automatically glug down to the bottom and die…

You can’t just ‘hope’ to order. But by focussing attention on who God is (rather than on who we are, who other people are, on situations beyond our control), we can learn to hope in God. The best way I’ve found to do this is to meditate on who God says He is.

The revelation we have in Ps 130 focuses on key characteristics of God:

God’s unfailing love:

• Save me because of your unfailing love. (Ps 6:4)
• …for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness (Ps 26:3)
• The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. (Ps 32:10)
• The earth is full of his unfailing love. (Ps 33:5)
• How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! (Ps 36:7)
• Rescue us because of your unfailing love. (Ps 44:26)
• Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. (Ps 51:1)
• Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. (Ps 85:7)

God as our Redeemer:

• I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. (Job 19:25)
• Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. (Is 41:14)
• Our Redeemer—the Lord Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel. (Is 47:14)
• For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. (Is 54:4)
• For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet 1:18-19)

God’s forgiveness:

• God forgives all our sins (Ps 103:2)
• Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? (Micah 7:18)
• God has come to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins (Luke 1:77)
• In Christ we have redemption through the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14)

As we dwell on these things, we find despair dissipates, because we know that nothing can now separate us from God’s love (see Rom 8:38-39).

Ps 130 is a psalm which talks of hoping and waiting. It begins ‘out of the depths I cry to you, Lord’ (Ps 130:1), and there will always be times when we feel out of our depth and in danger of despairing. The key in these times is to keep the channels of communication with God open, aware that He is always listening and is attentive to us (Ps 130:2) and is both merciful and forgiving, even if we feel abandoned and forsaken by Him (see Ps 77:7-9).

Learning to trust God in the difficult times is rather like treading water when we are out of our depth. We have to hold on to all we know to be true of God’s character; in this psalm, mercy, unfailing love, forgiveness and redemption are all mentioned. God is the God of second chances who picks us up from failures and forgives our sins. His love does not end or fail (see Ps 32:10, Ps 44:26, Ps 33:5). The challenge for us is to hold on to our knowledge of God’s character even when we feel we are alone, for as Eugene Peterson says, ‘Suffering can never be ultimate. It can never constitute the bottom line. God is at the foundation and God is at the boundaries. God seeks the hurt, maimed, wandering and lost. God woos the rebellious and confused. Because of who God is, we stand in confident awe before Him, not in terrorised despair.’ (‘The Journey’,  P 127)

Our response is to hope and wait, words which are from the Hebrew qavah, meaning ‘to bind together strands as in making a rope.’ Making a rope involves taking several strands and binding them into something which is strong and tough:

As we learn to wait and hope in God, our faith is strengthened, for we see that ‘our place in the depths is not out of bounds from God.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey, P 131)  and ‘hope fortifies faith.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Praying With the Psalms’). Waiting is not a waste of time; hoping is an act of faith.