Dave spoke this morning from Mk 2:1-12, which tells us more about Jesus’ amazing ministry to people. He had already driven out evil spirits from a man in the synagogue at Capernaum, He had healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, and He had made a man with leprosy whole again. When Jesus met these needs, He was doing more than healing physical hurts; He was restoring wholeness to the lives of people and giving back to them an opportunity to live a normal life. Word spread all around about His great power to perform miracles and about His preaching. So when He returned to Capernaum, everyone knew it. They rushed to the home He was staying in to hear and see this man. The people crowded to Him. They filled the small house, and they gathered around the doors and windows until there was no more room.

The friends of a man desperately in need of healing were not put off by this, however, using the roof as a means of getting the paralysed man to Jesus. Jesus, seeing their faith, surprised everyone by initially talking about sins forgiven, which He then went on to demonstrate through physical healing. All must have been amazed and stunned by this miracle, and we can take great comfort from the fact that Jesus is still in the business of forgiving sins and healing our infirmities. So often, we judge or condemn people for their conditions (like the scribes and the Pharisees), but what we really need are good friends who will bring us to Jesus, who will see beyond our conditions to love us as God does.

The  man himself was helpless to help himself, but he placed his faith in Jesus. He braved the humiliation of the crowd. He gave up any pride that was left and allowed his friends to carry him to Jesus.

His friends were faithful, determined, ingenious and flexible enough not to be put off by adverse circumstances. We need to be friends like that, for the world is full of people who are desperate and in need of the unconditional love and help of Jesus.

Nineteen of us gathered last night to watch ‘The Jungle Book’ and enjoy chip butties and cake after the film!

Our thanks to Alex at Fishfella’s for supplying the chips and for those who helped throughout the day and evening.

One of the metaphors for Christians in the Bible is that we are pilgrims ‘on a journey to reach our home’ (‘Children of God’, Phil Wickham). We had pilgrim footprints leading to different places in the church building so that we could find the answers to a variety of questions about our particular church.

From this, people found out that the first meeting of our church on Market Street was on 6th June 2010, with the official opening being on 3rd July 2010. They learned that the date on the stone outside the building is 1960 and counted the number of windows in the community room and the number of crosses in the Worship Room. We also learned that the parish church is celebrating its centenary this year and that the next ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be on 17th September at our church!

Meanwhile, in the Worship Room, we had songs and photos reminding us of all that has happened over the past six years, along with visual representations of various Biblical metaphors for the church. We had a bride’s dress, soldier’s uniform and body diagram to remind us that the church is called the Bride of Christ, that we are the army of God and that we are the body of Christ.

We also had a house to play in, reminding us that we are God’s house (Hebrews 3:6):

There were photo displays of different services and events over the past six years:

Despite the poor weather, there was great enjoyment of craft activities at the Community Open Day today. There was a variety of activities on offer:

Glass-painting (the jars hold candles to remind us ‘we are the light of the world’)

Making key-rings:

Building bodies (for ‘we are the body of Christ’)

Working on family trees (reminding us that we are all part of God’s family) and building towers

There was also the opportunity to have your face painted.

Our thanks to all the volunteers whose crafty skills made this a great event!

Eugene Peterson makes the wise comment ‘all the water in the ocean cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside; and all the trouble in the world cannot harm us unless it gains entrance to our hearts.’ (‘Praying With the Psalms’)

A wooden ship had to be made waterproof through pitch and caulking, pitch being the resin or glue spread on fibres which were pushed in the wedge-shaped seams between boards to make those seams watertight. Provided there was no leak in the ship, she could sail on the mighty oceans quite safely, but a leak could easily lead to disaster and the sinking of the whole vessel.

Faith, Eugene Peterson goes on, is to the soul what pitch and caulking are to the ship. As long as there is faith in our hearts, circumstances cannot sink us. While we hold on to Jesus in faith, we have protection from every storm of life: ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33, see also Ps 91:3-16).

Paul shows us what this looks like in practice: ‘we are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed.’ (2 Cor 4:8-9)

Let’s ensure our lives are watertight, so that even when trials, doubts and questions come, we are not destroyed; our faith is not capsized. Paul urges us to hold on to faith and a good conscience so as to avoid suffering shipwreck with regard to faith like Hymanaeus and Alexander. (1 Tim 1:19-20). With God on our side, who can be against us?