This week I had the privilege of telling the story of Basil The Branch at Goldthorpe Primary School. Basil the Branch is part of the vine… but makes a song and dance about growing grapes, believing that fruitfulness is all about self-effort…

You can watch part of the story by clicking on the link: Basil The Branch

Thankfully, Basil found that what really mattered was focussing on the vine and being part of the vine rather than on deep breaths, wiggling of shoulders and strange noises… Our fruitfulness too depends on our abiding in Jesus; the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control) is grown as the Holy Spirit lives in us.

Our thanks to Goldthorpe Primary School for allowing us to be involved in their assemblies.

We talk about the ‘seven-year itch’ in a marriage, a period when doubt, disillusionment and decay can take hold of us and wreck our happiness. Yet in the Bible, we read of the opposite: seven-year-blessing.

In Deut 15:1-11 we read how debts were to be cancelled in the seventh year, how the Israelites were commanded to cancel loans made to a fellow Israelite and a clean slate was to be offered to other Jews. This may not have made commercial sense, but was a pathway to blessing, for it reflected God’s generous heart. Servants were to be set free in this period. (Deut 15:12-15) Seven, the perfect number, was to signify liberty, mercy and generosity.

The Year of Jubilee (celebrated every fifty years) was a once-in-a-lifetime celebration and cancelling of debts, but this seven-year-cycle was something which vividly illustrated God’s nature to people in a practical and personal way. Hope was held out; kindness and generosity were encouraged as a way of life, not a one-off feature of godly living. Jesus too taught that generosity should be offered to ‘the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.’ (Luke 14:13) He reminded us that ‘although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’ (Luke 14:14) How can we reflect God’s kindness and generosity today?

I used to feel that proms were an American rite of passage unsuited to British culture. The idea that sixteen-year-olds needed a huge ball to celebrate leaving school struck me, an introvert who hates dancing, as futile, expensive and unnecessary.

The form of proms may leave us uncomfortable (and the expense can be ridiculous, which is why the ‘Prom Perfect’ scheme pioneered by Alison Sykes of the Salvation Army and the Dearne Area team whereby outfits and accessories donated by people can be hired at a fraction of the cost is a brilliant idea), but the notion of ‘rites of passage’ is crucial to our ongoing development. I still find the terminology of many of these events (‘graduation’ from nursery to school, for example) irritating, but the sentiment of formally acknowledging transition and change is hugely important.

Richard Rohr calls these transitions ‘releasing the loyal soldier’, referring to a Japanese ceremony at the end of the Second World War whereby all soldiers were honourably discharged from the army back into communities to be ‘men, fathers, hushands first and foremost’, rather than soldiers. There will inevitably be ‘rites of passage’ in our lives: the birth of a child acknowledged in a dedication ceremony, the transition of a child to school, baptisms, marriages, funerals and so on. But sometimes the transitions are less welcome: divorce, the painful loss of bereavement, illness. At each significant stage or hurdle of our lives, we need acknowledgment and maybe even some formal ‘event’ to help us to let go and to move forward. We need markers, like the stones collected from the River Jordan to mark God’s miraculous parting of the river to enable the Israelites to enter the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness.

Altars were the Biblical sign of remembrance, of marking God’s significant actions in our everyday lives, and were helpful ways of acknowledging what had happened and choosing to remember God’s intervention in our personal situations.

However we choose to mark these significant milestones in our lives, we need to be moving forward in God, which will, at times, involve a painful letting go of the past in order to embrace all God has for us now. Only as we are prepared to let something ‘die’ will we be able to experience the flourishing of new life and growth.

Stephen spoke tonight on the feeding of the five thousand, one of the many miracles performed by Jesus when He was on earth. After a busy day of prayer and ministry, Jesus’s disciples were ready to send the crowds away to eat, but Jesus gave them the challenge, ‘You give them something to eat.’ (Luke 9:13) This seemed an impossible task, given they only had five loaves of bread and two fishes, but Jesus took this offering (one boy’s lunch, according to John 6:9), prayed to His Father and blessed the food before breaking it and asking HIs disciples to distribute it.

The fact that this small amount of food fed not only five thousand men but also the women and children present and there were twelve baskets of leftovers tells us this was a miracle, beyond natural explanation. When we pray, God often answers in miraculous ways. He can do amazing things as we pray, though we need to let Him do the work!

Our loaves and fishes were made out of chocolate and did seem to go much further than we expected!

Dave spoke this morning from Matt 13:47-50, another of the short parables of Jesus which reminds us there will come a day of judgment when the righteous and unrighteous will be separated. A parable about nets to a group of people for whom fishing was a daily reminder of life must have resonated with local people. There were different types of fishing practised in the area (using a line and hook as mentioned in Matt 17:24 or one person using a net), but a common type of fishing was to use a dragnet, where two or more men would use the net to collect fish. In this parable, we see all kinds of fish were collected in this manner and these would be separated (good from bad) later on.

Matthew 13:47-50.

Jesus spoke much about judgment and hell (see Matt 8:12, Matt 23:33, Mark 3:29, John 5:29) and it is necessary for us to take this subject seriously. Jesus said, ‘If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.‘ (Mark 9:23) The reality of hell and judgment was something Jesus spoke about frequently, stressing that what is required is a response now to God’s open invitation to repent and be born again (see John 3:16-21). God does not want anyone to go to hell (see 2 Pet 3:9, Ezek 18). He offers us a way to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:20-21), but we need to have ears that hear God’s warnings. Not only is it imperative that we follow God on the narrow path that leads to eternal life, it is also imperative that we take this message of reconciliation and hope to the world which is largely ignorant of and indifferent to God’s ways.

We’re now in April and there’s lots happening at GPCC!

Today we have services at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m., with the evening service being our monthly ‘Little Big Church’ where there’ll be songs and stories for children during the service.

This week will be the last week before the Easter holidays for our Monday youth (8th April) and Parent & Toddler group (12th April). Come prepared for Easter activities and chocolate! We’ve been getting new equipment for both groups, so come along to check out the new table tennis tables and pool tables for youth and the new play equipment for toddlers! We’ve been blessed to have Lisa and her team from the Dearne Family Centres helping at our Parent & Toddler group over the last few weeks, so she’ll be leading craft activities again this Friday between 9.30 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. There will then be two weeks off, with Monday youth resuming on 29th April and Parent & Toddlers back on 3rd May.

Midweek meetings (prayer meetings/ Bible studies) will continue on Thursdays (11, 18, 25 April) where we’ll be continuing our studies through Acts and coffee mornings will be on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 12 noon (13, 20, 27 April).

On Saturday 13th April there will be the opportunity for our church children to watch an Easter film called ‘The Lion of Judah’ at 5 p.m. Food will be provided.

Next Sunday (14th April) we’ll be at Cherry Tree Court in the morning at 10.30 a.m. and at Market Street at 6.00 p.m.

On Good Friday (19th April) we’ll be having a fellowship meal at 5 p.m. and a service to remember our Lord’s death at 6 p.m. On Easter Sunday (21st April) we’ll have services at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. as usual.

On Wednesday 24th April, ‘Churches Together’ will be running another Family Fun Day at GPCC between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Easter crafts, games, stories and activities will be on offer, along with free lunch.

On Tuesday 30th April there will be a ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at the Salvation Army at 10.30 a.m. All welcome.