Keeping Count

•September 13, 2020 • Leave a Comment

This is the script of the worship I prepared for our online service this morning, led almost entirely by prerecorded slots.

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” answered Jesus, “but seventy times seven, 23 because the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants’ accounts. 24 He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt. 26 The servant fell on his knees before the king. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay you everything!’ 27 The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.

28 “Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said. 29 His fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ 30 But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. 32 So he called the servant in. ‘You worthless slave!’ he said. ‘I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. 33 You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.’ 34 The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount.”

35 And Jesus concluded, “That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35

Last week on a day when my lungs were really bad, I had to ring 111 for advice.  The doctor told me to take 10 puffs of Ventolin in one dose, two puffs at a time.  I very quickly discovered that ten is a difficult number to keep count of.   

Seven is a number beyond that which I would struggle to keep track of unless I was doing bars and gates! So seventy times seven is basically saying not keeping count – beyond any number that you can keep track of – just do it.  That is Jesus advice in the question of keeping tally in how often we, or more specifically I, might want to forgive someone.  Don’t count, there is no magic number assigned, just keep doing it.

Forgiveness is part of the Christian life, not being walked all over, but letting go of those things that someone has done to us that has hurt us, no longer letting it have any power in our life, or in the relationship with the person we feel has ‘sinned against us’.

Last week’s reading, the previous few verses to these, was about how to deal with disagreement in churches.  The first thing you had to do was not chunter about it behind their back but go and talk to them about it.  Probably if you haven’t got the guts to do that, you should let it go…

Jesus, as he often does, uses an exaggerated story – but to good effect. A man has had a huge debt forgiven him, but immediately goes out and threatens someone who owes him a very small amount.  It seems that he has immediately forgotten the kindness that has been done to him and is determined to have back what he is owed.  Ultimately that cost him the forgiveness and freedom that he had been gifted.

So I wonder, is one of the new paths God is opening up to us of forgiveness?  That is a radical way to live – a way we could all benefit and live freer lives from.

If we live in awareness of all that we have been given and forgiven, that must surely make us live a generous and forgiving life.  God’s grace in me, his generosity and forgiveness in my life, should lead to graciousness towards others.

God takes us to a new place, to live a new way.

In the Exodus passage God opens up the seas for his people to pass through to a new land and a new life.  As I said, when I read that passage, the immediate thought in my head was ‘What is God opening up to us?  What new land is God leading us to?’

Life feels like a constantly changing new land at the moment.  The sand seems to be constantly shifting beneath our feet, just when we think we have worked one piece out, something else changes, we are constantly reassessing.  But God is opening up a new place.

We have become part of a new Circuit, we are exploring where both physical and Zoom services are going, but God is taking us to a new place, opening the way before us.

Whatever that place will be, it must be a place of grace, of love, and of mutual forgiveness, living the life God has given us, the freedom from where we were, the release of the burdens we were carrying, that we affect our lives and our reactions.  That we may be patient with others, as God is with us, and live by forgiveness and grace – that free gift of God to each one of us.

May God bless us,
each on our journey with God
and each other.

May you know God’s presence,
this day
       and always.
          Amen

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Opening Up

•September 11, 2020 • Leave a Comment

19 The angel of God, who had been in front of the army of Israel, moved and went to the rear. The pillar of cloud also moved until it was 20 between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel, and so the armies could not come near each other all night.

21 Moses held out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind. It blew all night and turned the sea into dry land. The water was divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides. 23 The Egyptians pursued them and went after them into the sea with all their horses, chariots, and drivers. 24 Just before dawn the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic. 

25 He made the wheels of their chariots get stuck, so that they moved with great difficulty. The Egyptians said, “The Lord is fighting for the Israelites against us. Let’s get out of here!”

26 The Lord said to Moses, “Hold out your hand over the sea, and the water will come back over the Egyptians and their chariots and drivers.” 27 So Moses held out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water returned to its normal level. The Egyptians tried to escape from the water, but the Lord threw them into the sea. 

28 The water returned and covered the chariots, the drivers, and all the Egyptian army that had followed the Israelites into the sea; not one of them was left. 29 But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides.

30 On that day the Lord saved the people of Israel from the Egyptians, and the Israelites saw them lying dead on the seashore. 31 When the Israelites saw the great power with which the Lord had defeated the Egyptians, they stood in awe of the Lord; and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:19-31

Caught in a hard place,
a place of terror.
A place where home
and the place of rescue
had become
a burden
and where we were enslaved.

God stood between God’s people
and their enemies,
giving protection,
shining God’s light
to see the way forward.

We had to step forward,
into the way we were shown,
without knowing how
or why.
But we went
only in God’s strength –
not our own.

Today, what is God opening up before us?  Where is God taking us?  From the fear and disorientation of the last sixth months, where might God be leading me and you?

May God bless us,
each on our journey with God
and other.

May you know God’s presence,
this day
       and always.

Posted in bible, calling, church, faith, follow, God, hope, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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“It’s Not Church Without The Singing”

•September 5, 2020 • Leave a Comment

This is meant to be an encouraging post for all those who are worried about worship without no singing, or feel that it just is not church without some element of singing. After all, Methodists especially are known to be ‘Born in Song‘. As churches start to go back to the buildings, at least in part, but without being able to sing – how can that be worship?

Music, and particularly singing, have always been a big part of my life. Indeed my mum’s pearl of wisdom to my husband when we got married was, “If she’s not singing within a couple of seconds of putting her feet on the floor in a morning, you are in trouble! She’s either grumpy or ill”.

Music has always been a major element I used in leading worship. So often a song can say what you have been struggling to. Picking hymns/songs always took the longest part of preparing a service, to ensure that they carried and enhanced what was being said and offered to God.

So, I can understand the feeling of people who cannot comprehend worship without music, and cannot imagine what it will be like, and how it can be true worship at all. But, we are having to find new, meaningful ways of doing so many things – and different does not always mean worse, we can find a new worth and value.

When my illness first took hold fifteen years ago, and probably the thing that initially immediately stopped my ministry of preaching and leading worship, I lost all power to my voice. As anyone who has heard me speak will know, my voice goes hoarse very quickly when I start talking, especially at any volume, and my struggle with breathing makes it very difficult to regulate even talking. If I need to talk for any length of time, even in conversation, my throat aches so much for days afterwards. Pre-recording at my pace, with lots of gaps no one else sees has become an opportunity for me to do some small parts of worship again, but it is not something I could do live, or frequently. Singing therefore is impossible.

Hence why this is, I hope, encouragement to those who are struggling with worship with no singing. At first I hated not being able to sing. It wasn’t me. Singing was how I expressed everything in my life (if we could have Pamsperambulation – the Musical, we would!), including my worship of God, and I was bereft without it. But I am here to tell you that it is possible, you can get used to it, we can find other ways to share our worship with God. It may take time and effort, but the new ways that we discover may offer a different slant to our worship, a new facet to our relationship to God.

One of the things I have found is that the less noise I can make, the more I can listen and hear God. God get’s a chance to speak, because I am quiet!

I am certain there are other people for whom singing is difficult, or uncomfortable for varying reasons, or actually it is just not their thing.

So, please don’t despair, don’t think this is the end of worship – we may yet discover a richer seam and a new encounter with God – because after all, worship is about God and not the method.

Basically, what Matt Redman says:

Posted in calling, church, community, disability, faith, God, hope, life, Rants and Ramblings, Religion, theology, worship
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