Bible Sunday

When I was very little, my father could do no wrong in my eyes. He was the best father in the world, and everything he said was always right, and I would punch anyone who said different. He could answer all my questions. He could mend my Scalectrix when it went wrong. He knew everything. But then, when I was a teenager, I saw him from a different perspective. He seemed so old, so out of touch and so utterly uncool. It was as though he was living in a different century. He couldn't do the simplest problems in my physics homework. He had the most old-fashioned ideas about when I should be home at night. He was incredibly stingy with money and, as for his political views, he made Attilla the Hun look like a woolly Liberal.

But later on, when I had learned a bit more about the world, my view changed again. I began to see my father as a friend, as a man of long experience and mature wisdom, someone to respect and someone to rely on. As Mark Twain put it, 'When I was fourteen I thought my father was an old fool. When I was twenty-one I was amazed what the old man had learned in seven years'.

It occurred to me recently that our attitudes to the Bible probably change in much the same way. When you were little, many of you were taught the chorus The best book to read is the Bible, and that everything in it is absolute, literal fact: 'Gospel truth'. You knew that you should read the Bible every day, and believed that if you did it would help you with everything. But when you grew older, grew thoroughly bored with the dull old volume. Friends told you that it had been 'disproved' by science, and that the Ten Commandments were a waste of time. Increasingly you discovered parts of the Bible that you couldn't help but disagree with. It all seemed a mixture of fairy tale and heavy morality, and you put the wretched tome back on the shelf to gather dust.

Today is Bible Sunday. I don't know why, but there it is. For many years it rested happily on the Second Sunday in Advent, but now the Liturgical Commission have moved it to the Last Sunday after Trinity. No matter. At least it has not been forgotten altogether. And Bible Sunday prompts the question: did we ever get the Bible off the shelf again, or is it still there mouldering away? Have we blown off the dust and read it once more? Have we grown into that maturity ourselves whereby we can see the Bible as a friend, as a story of divine wisdom and human experience, as something to respect and to rely upon?

I do hope that the Bible is not still collecting dust and cobwebs on your shelf, because I have a horrible feeling that, for all the modern translations which sell so well with their lavish photographs and pictures and clear modern English, the Bible is in fact being read less and less by Christians today. And that is a tragedy. For although it does not give us - it does not pretend to give us - the latest scientific knowledge and technical data, it does offer us timeless and changeless insights into what it means to be a human being, and of God's way with men and women. For people still make love and go to war for the same motives and with the same passions as they did in the days of Noah. We still suffer anguish and know heartache just like the psalmist. We still know pain and fear and happiness and hope, just as the people did when they clustered around Jesus. And God, the Most High God, still loves us and cherishes us, yearns for us and weeps for us, sits with us in our sorrows and enters into our joys, as he did throughout all the biblical centuries.

There was a moment in the Coronation Service, immediately after the Queen had been crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, when the Moderator of the Church of Scotland presented a copy of the Bible to Her Majesty with these words: “Receive this Book, the most valuable thing this world affords.” And this Bible Sunday my plea is that we should all blow the dust off this most valuable thing, and read again the lively oracles of God.

Perhaps you need to acquire a modern version, I recommend the NRSV and you can buy one or order one through any bookshop or Christian bookshop. Perhaps we will be helped by a scheme of readings or Bible notes, and a Christian bookshop can help you there too. Perhaps we might even want to talk to the clergy about our spiritual and devotional lives, for that, after all, is what we are here for. But above all, read the Bible, read it carefully and prayerfully, and you will discover the most profound and permanent insights into the foundations of human living; you will discover how God deals with you and me; and in the words and the works of Christ you will discover the true and authentic picture of what God is like and what he has done for us.

As they grows up, there will come a time when my children Joshua and Gwyn are no longer bothered by the discovery that their parents aren't infallible. They will no longer be worried that we do not know the answer to everything and that sometimes we disagree with them. The boys will learn that what is important about their parents is not that we should be some kind of walking encyclopaedia, but people of love and wisdom, of laughter and tears, of comfort and encouragement. And that's what I find in the Bible, too: not dull, encyclopaedic facts about God, but the red-blooded story of his involvement in this one world, his laughter and his tears and his deep, deep love, and the story of men and women touched by the finger of God, whose touch has still its ancient power.

And for that, thanks be to God.

“Festival of Christmas Music”

On Friday December 14th we are hosting a “Festival of Christmas Music” to raise money towards the cost of a new organ for the Parish of Barnehurst.

The festival will feature seasonal poems and readings and music played, on a Wyvern Organ, by Jeremy Allen Director of Music and Senior Organist at Saint Laurence, Upminster.

The cost for the evening will be just £5:00.

The festival will be followed by refreshments including mince pies and The Vicar’s famous mulled wine!

We would like to thank Wyvern Organ Builders for the loan of the instrument over the Christmas period.

Organ Project!

Organ Project!

No sermon from me this week, but please read about our Organ Project.

The organ that we have at Saint Martin’s was built originally in 1870 and would have served in a small chapel or private house. The organ was moved to Saint Martin’s some time in the 1950’s. The organ was never really powerful enough for the building especially when we are full such as at Christmas or my Collation.

The Saint Martin’s organ was built with just 10 stops and a single manual. It has been proposed by the PCC that we aim to buy a brand new digital organ early in the new year. The cost of the new organ is likely be just over £10,000 + VAT. This may seem like a huge sum but when you consider that my previous parish spent over a quarter of a million pounds on an organ this amount becomes quite realistic, and even more realistic when you know that I have been able to obtain a grant of £5,000 towards the cost of the organ from the City Parochial Fund through Archdeacon Paul.

The proposed new organ, subject to faculty, has a carefully chosen traditional specification of 31 speaking stops and two full compass 61 note manuals with a 32 note pedalboard. The emphasis is on quality of tone rather than an extensive stop list. This instrument is particularly suitable for the accompaniment of congregational singing, and has more ‘weight’ in the Pedal department plus a 16’ reed on the Swell. The organ will have its own custom build audio system with speakers up high on the west wall, in a decorative case and also in the quire area of the church and this system will help produce the character of a very good pipe organ! We hope to buy a Wyvern Sonata CH6 Digital organ (pictured below).

The Diocesan Organ Advisor, Paul Isom, has been involved with this proposal from a very early stage and was responsible for much of the system design with myself and the proposed organ builder.

I would like to see this organ installed in Saint Martin’s by March 15th 2008, the day before Palm Sunday. This means that we will have the new organ in place for the Easter Festivities. If we are to achieve this we have to raise the rest of the money. This is being looked into and many events planned including concerts, dances and a festival of Christmas music. We will also be selling “bonds” as we did to fund the replacement of the kitchen. If you would like to help with the funding of this new instrument please contact me also if you have any ideas for fundraising please also contact me.

Wyvern Organs will be kindly lending us a similar organ to use over the Christmas period. We will have it in place for the Saint Martin’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday December 16th for which my father-in-law, John Knight, is playing. Also on Friday 14th December we will be having a “Festival of Christmas Music” with Jeremy Allen, the Director of Music from Saint Laurence, Upminster, on the Organ, to raise money towards this project, followed by Mince Pies and Mulled Wine.

Please “get behind” this project as this new organ, together with the younger members choir studying for the Royal School of Church Music Voice for Life awards, can only help to enhance the music and worship of our church.

Many Blessings, Gareth.

Harvest time is a time for remembering to give thanks:

Harvest time is a time for remembering to give thanks:

• for our food – which is more abundant and varied than at perhaps any other time in human history. We never have food shortages – the shelves of the supermarkets are always well stocked. It wasn’t always like this, as those who were alive in the war can no doubt remember.

• For our farmers – both those who produce crops and those whose farms involve livestock. So our thoughts and prayers must continue to be with all those livelihood is precarious, and those who see no alternative but to give up.

• For the modern agricultural system from which we all benefit. Farming in many parts of the world, including much of Africa, still relies very much on large numbers of farm labourers carrying out the tasks by hand. In many developing countries tractors and other forms of agricultural machinery are scarce. Animals are often used for ploughing and hauling loads. The labour-saving machinery which is available to us is certainly not affordable to many of the world’s farmers.

Harvest time is also a time for remembering to use the earth’s resources wisely and sustainably:

• ‘sustainability’ is a word that’s being applied to more and more aspects of life today – including agriculture. It reflects an attempt to make sure that the long-term consequences of today’s actions will not jeopardise the livelihood of generations to come. The idea of sustainability goes back centuries – even though the word itself, in this context, is new. Even as far back as Old Testament times, the ancient Israelites tried to ensure that their agriculture was sustainable; that too much was not taken from the earth without giving it chance to recover. This meant giving the land a rest every seven years, and also every fiftieth, or jubilee year.

• Today we have different ways of ensuring that agriculture is sustainable; but the need to consider future generations is no less important. This may involve getting a better balance between large-scale and small scale farming; more support for those farmers who wish to go organic; and fewer subsidies for those farmers in the US, Canada, Japan and the European Union who produce crops on such a massive scale that vast food surpluses result. These are often sold at below cost price in developing countries, undermining farmers there and contributing to rural poverty.

Harvest time is also a time for remembering to share the fruits of the earth:

• Jesus often talked about the perils of having too much and keeping for oneself what should be shared with others. He told a parable of the rich man whose crops were so abundant that he planned to build more barns in order to store them. He did not sell or share his harvest; but then he died, and was not able to enjoy the results of his wealth. The parable shows that acquisitiveness and hoarding are not virtues in God’s eyes.

• At harvest time we in the churches do generally think about those in need – especially those organisations which benefit from our harvest gifts, maybe harvest time is an opportunity for trying afresh to get the balance right between providing for oneself and one’s dependents, and building a world which is based on mutual support and help for those in genuine need, rather than on materialism and greed.

Harvest time is, finally, a time for remembering that God sows spiritual seeds in our hearts, and wants them to bear an abundant harvest. I hope we can see that our celebration of God's harvest is just as relevant today as when the idea of the harvest festival was first conceived.

How much is enough?

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "

This is a fundamental question for all of us: How much is enough? Especially when words such as “stewardship,” “pledge,” “proportional giving,” and “tithe” are in the air.

Luke has told us in no uncertain terms that Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. On the way, Jesus talks endlessly about the life of discipleship. He talks about hospitality, welcoming and helping strangers, seeking lost sheep, visiting prisoners, lost coins, prodigal sons, the rich man, and Lazarus. Then he lays it on in Chapter 17 by saying if you cause anyone to sin, may you as they said in the film the Godfather sleep with the fishes! And you must rebuke those who sin, and forgive those who repent seven times a day.

Is it any wonder the disciples cry out, “Increase our faith”? They are being asked to assume major leadership positions in the community of Christ. And no one wants to end up in the proverbial sleep with the fishes.

For much of the gospel, Jesus has questioned the faith of the disciples. “You have such little faith,” he says often. “Where is your faith?” he asks on the stormy sea. So it is only natural that they cry out, “Give us more. … Give us more faith. … Increase it, please, so we can succeed at all of this.”

It is a familiar cry. Whenever the church is faced with challenges, we say we need more: we need more resources, we need more planning, we need for people, we need more, more, more of everything before we can possibly do what Jesus calls us to do.

We all know just how the disciples are feeling. We put off leading Bible study until we know more about the Bible. Or we put off increasing our giving until we are earning just a bit more money.

Jesus response exemplifies what is wonderful about Jesus and his method of training us and developing our discipleship. Hear what he says. Jesus says you do not need to increase your faith; you just need the tiniest bit of faith imaginable. A grain of mustard seed’s worth of faith can empower you to do great things. Which is to say, unless you have no faith, you already have enough.

You have enough! What you have is sufficient.

As it says in Common Worship, we are to bear witness to Christ wherever we may be, and “according to the gifts given us, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.” This is the definition of lay ministry in the church. For this we were baptized.

This acknowledges that we have all been given gifts and resources. As Saint Paul makes clear in his letter to the Corinthians, we do not all have the same gifts, but we all have gift necessary to do the things Jesus does. And most astonishing of all, in the fourteenth chapter of John, he tells us, “and greater things than these you will do.”

Pause. Try to take this in. We are promised by Jesus that with the gifts we have been given, we will do greater things than he does. What an incredible assertion. What a promise!

Jesus goes on to say that, at the end of the day, when you have used the gifts you already have been given, you may still feel as if you have not done enough – that you do not have enough to give. You will still feel unworthy somehow. That it is only your duty to have done these things Jesus calls us to do.

This is only natural, because you are so filled with the love of God, so filled with the Spirit of God, so perfectly created in God’s own generous and giving image that you will always want to do more for God’s sake and our neighbours’ sake.

Trust what you have – what you have been given. Trust what you have to give. It is more than enough. You can uproot trees. You can move mountains. The lame will walk, the blind will see. Loaves multiply so there’s enough to feed everyone. As you sow, you shall receive. As you follow Christ, you will begin to lead. If only you have faith as small as a mustard seed.

The kingdom of God is at hand. We can reach out and touch it, feel its nearness, participate in its fullness. If only we have the tiniest bit of faith, God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.