“That You would leave Your throne
And make this world Your home
Forsaking majesty
Embracing mundane
And all of its shame…” (Aaron Shust, ‘Wondrous Love’)

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9)

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:5-8)

These verses and this song have kept me reflecting on the mystery that is the Incarnation. I can’t get my head around this! Why Jesus would want to leave the majesty of heaven to dwell on earth is beyond me. I can’t comprehend such love, only receive it gratefully.

Even more amazing in a way, though, is the fact that Jesus came in the flesh, as man, and lived over thirty years as an ordinary man. It wasn’t all about miracles and glorious sights. So much of it was just, as Aaron Shust says, ’embracing mundane’. I love that phrase. The idea of ’embracing’ (with all its fervour, passion and connotations of love) and ‘mundane’ (‘of this world, rather than the heavenly world’, but more commonly, ‘lacking interest or excitement, dull, common, ordinary, banal’) is indeed an oxymoron. Jesus knew what it was to be fully man. He knew what the banal, the ordinary, the everyday life looked like. He ‘knew rejection, loss and grief’, as the song says, or as Hebrews puts it ‘we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.’ (Hebrews 4:15) We so often crave excitement, adventure, spiritual highs… but God Himself knows what the monotony of the ordinary is all about. He’s lived it.

The chorus goes on to say:
‘What wondrous love is this
What wondrous love is this
That You would lay aside Your glory for my soul!
What wondrous love is this
What wondrous love is this
That You would lay down Your life for my soul!’

We are left reassured that God knows what it’s like to live in our world and encouraged by the fact that this wondrous love took our place, bore the agony of the Cross for us and ‘loved a world that nailed You to a tree’. God is so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXlqJqsAD7A&noredirect=1

Stephen preached last night on the covenant God made with Noah. The last time he preached on Noah, we looked briefly at Genesis 6:18 (“But I will establish my covenant with you”) and this time, Stephen developed the idea of what a covenant is.

A covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties. In the Bible, covenants are usually sealed with blood, with sacrifice. There are many covenants described in the Bible (with Abraham, with David, the ‘old covenant’, the ‘new covenant’, the covenant of marriage, for example), but all have the idea of a permanent and fixed agreement and the concept of faithfulness.

In Genesis 9: 9-17, God expands on the idea of covenant: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you— the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you— every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. So God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

In this passage, we see God’s promise of an everlasting covenant and the fact that He gave a visible, physical sign to remind us (and Him) of this binding agreement. When we see the rainbow, we are reminded of God’s promise never to flood the whole earth again. May we learn to rely on His faithfulness and understand the binding nature of covenants so that we too become faithful people.

Dave preached from Matt 7:24-29 this morning, the very familiar parable of the wise and foolish builders. Inspired in part by admiring the apparently sound Methodist building last week (built over 200 years ago) but realising that in actual fact this building is in such poor state of repair that it will shortly have to be demolished, he commented that storms are an inevitable part of life and they actually simply reveal what the real you is actually like. The MPs’ expenses’ scandal did not make the MPs dishonest; it simply uncovered what was really going on behind the scenes. Similarly, Jesus noted that the storms of life – which come to everyone at some time – are not what make believers either wise or foolish. The storms simply REVEAL who is wise and who is foolish.

This parable comes at the end of the Sermon of the Mount and is a disconcerting ending, to say the least. What Jesus has just laid out is a blueprint for discipleship. It’s not about flowery words or memorable metaphors, but life or death issues, words which must be heard but which also must be done. The difference between the wise and the foolish is that the wise put into practice what they have heard.

Jesus taught with authority, we read, not as all the other teachers. He taught with the authority of God Himself, so His words are not mere recommendations that we can take or leave with little or no consequences one way or the other. They are life-giving commands to be whole-heartedly obeyed.

It’s a bit like cement. A bag of cement doesn’t look particularly solid: it looks like a sand-like powder which even a child could move. But when mixed with water, it becomes a substance that will set as hard as a rock, that is immovable. Similarly, Jesus’s words, on their own, are a little bit like that bag of cement. They need the water of faith and action to become cement in our lives.

We need to try to fit all of life – the good, the bad and the ordinary – into our discipleship. We need to see ALL of life through the lens of discipleship. God is interested in building our characters – not just ‘image’ or ‘personality’, but character – which emerges from whole strings of good habits cultivated over a lifetime. We have true character when doing, saying or thinking the right thing, even when no one else is watching or listening. We need to learn to look beyond the importance of things, Jesus says, to the overarching glory of having treasure in heaven. We need to understand that thinking the right way about people is as important to God as what we actually do when we are with them. It goes far beyond surface actions, digging deeper into motivation and our whole way of thinking.

The first people to hear the Sermon on the Mount had jaws slack in wonder and eyes wide in amazement as Jesus concluded. We too need to hear His words with the same sense of awe and wonder and need to mix the cement of His words with the faith of obedience if we are to cultivate lives that can withstand all of life’s storms.

Continuing the harvest theme at the Family Service last night, we identified different fruit and vegetables from pictures and anagrams in the quiz and then Mark took things a step further by getting people to taste various foods and identify them from taste alone:

Karen correctly identified this as ‘a spice’; it was root ginger (also described by Ellen as ‘onion wrapped in sugar’!)

Karen identified this as ‘date’ straightaway:

Jimmy had a cola-flavoured sweet to identify:

Other things tasted included kiwi, grape, chocolate, raisins and melon.

Mark preached from Ps 34:1-10.
The psalm starts by worshipping God, no matter what the circumstances. Praising God has to become our modus operandi, the way we function in all situations, our automatic response to life.

God is faithful to deliver those who seek Him. We are to seek Him and will find Him utterly faithful and able to protect us and deliver us. He even gives angels the job of guarding us!

Verse 8 tells us “taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Just as the people tasting the food found it very difficult to describe the food to the rest of us, so we need to be prepared to actually take the plunge into all that God has for us. We need to be responsive and receptive to God. We also need to serve Him in the way He is calling us, rather than just in the way we might want to. Those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing (vs 10). We need to have the faith to take the risk and actually prove God in our own lives, dwelling in His word, which is sweeter than honey (Ps 119:103, and there was some of that for Dave to taste as well!)

Often children are reluctant to try new foods and have to be urged by parents ‘Try it: you might like it!’ In the same way, we have to be willing to step out in faith to try the things God puts on our hearts. To refuse to do that is disobedience and leads to us missing out on God’s best for our lives.

This morning we held a joint service with Furlong Road Methodist Church at Bolton-on-Dearne.

Along with hymns of thanksgiving and children’s songs, we were challenged to think of which fruit or vegetable we’d like to be and why. Here are some of the suggestions:
* “I’d like to be a cabbage so I could roll around all day!”
* “I’d be a pineapple because I’m exotic, sometimes prickly on the outside but tangy to the taste.”
* “I’d be a cucumber because I like eating cucumbers!”
* “I’d be a banana because it’s good for you.”
* “I’d be a sprout so no one would eat me.”

Mark’s sermon looked at God’s faithfulness (Gen 8:22) and at the fruit we are to grow in our lives as Christians (Gal 5:22-23). Love, joy & peace are the first fruits mentioned in the list – quite the opposite of the hate, misery and discontent in the world. God wants us also to develop long-suffering or patience, kindness (“the ability to act for the welfare of those taxing your patience”) and goodness – fruit that has an effect on other people. Our Christian conduct should also include faithfulness (being loyal, dependable, trustworthy, reliable, not changing your attitudes every day), gentleness (‘having a disposition that is unpretentious, balanced and a strength under control’) and self-control (being in control of our emotions, thoughts, actions and bodies.) These fruit are developed in us as we read God’s Word, pray, worship and fellowship together.

Gifts of food and produce were given during the service; these will be distributed to those in need served by the Lighthouse Project (http://www.lighthousehomes.org/.)

Many thanks to all who attended the Macmillan Coffee morning yesterday. In total, we raised £140, which is a fantastic achievement. Many thanks for all who contributed!

On the Macmillan website there are some great recipes for things that go well with tea or coffee! Here’s one of the recipes for you to try out at home:
Basic Scone Recipes
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 15 minutes
Makes: Enough to serve 9

The key to a light scone is a light touch. To rub in, lift the mixture to get some air into it, and as soon as it is of the right consistency, stop. This basic scone mix is versatile and easy – one bowl, no cutters or rolling, just bake and share!

Ingredients
50 grams Butter unsalted
200 grams Self Raising Flour
1 tbsp Golden Caster Sugar
Salt pinch
125 ml Milk

How to Prepare
1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC, 200ºC fan, Gas Mark 6.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
3. Rub the butter into the flour, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the sugar and salt.
5. Make a well in the centre of the mix and stir in the milk. Stir until the mixture is even and the dough comes together.
6. Turn out onto a floured surface and shape into a rough square about 3-4 cm thick.
7. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
8. Brush all over with milk and score into nine rough squares.
9. Bake for 15 minutes until golden and cooked through.
10.Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.