Holding it all together

This week I have been enjoying the comforts of the Willersley Castle Hotel in Derbyshire. It is situated in a very rural and stunningly beautiful setting (if you are a facebook friend you may already have seen a few images of the area which I have uploaded).

Willersley Castle is on the edge of the village of Cromford, which is principally known for its historical connection with Richard Arkwright, and the Cromford Mill which he built here in 1771. It also houses an extensive second hand bookshop which I much enjoyed perusing!

I should point out that I wasn't on holiday, but was attending a 4 day residential course on using multimedia in worship, run by Mike Bossingham of the Family Friendly Churches Trust. It is often said that people tend to have a much better memory of what they see than what they hear. Preachers and worship leaders are increasingly using modern forms of visual images in worship, and I thought that it was about time I learned a little more about the whole issue.

Of course, as with any training event, the proof of any benefit can only be seen in what happens as a result. I have been to several training events over the years at which I seemed to learn a great deal at the time but ultimately the learning was lost because it was not put into practical use. Hopefully this one will prove more fruitful in the long term.

One of the memories which I know will remain with me forever came at almost the last minute. We were preparing to pack up for lunch after the final session when Mike happened to mention laminins. I can't remember ever having heard about them. Wikipedia states that "laminins are a family of glycoproteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding in almost every tissue of an organism." Put simply, laminins are what hold us together and stop us becoming a blobby mass or falling apart! Remarkably, the image at the top of this page is what a laminin looks like. Remind you of anything? Paul's words to the Colossians come to mind:

'He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER.'

Ain't God just amazing?

I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa

I recently received an e-mail from a friend, Nick, with whom I hadn't been in touch for a few years. We first got to know each other when I was a minister in Sheffield and Nick worked as a lay worker in the area. I remember one occasion, at a meeting of preachers, when Nick was trying to get them to understand that it's not particularly helpful to children and young people when we ask them to sing very old hymns with antiquated language which even adults sometimes struggle to understand. To do so, he got the preachers (most of whom were middle-aged to elderly) to sing a children's song, "I just want to be a sheep" There are some great actions to go with the song, and a good number of the preachers were very embarrassed at having to sing this children's song. Nick certainly got his point across!

Jesus told a story about a lost sheep, and this week I have been out searching for sheep. Not real sheep, of course, but the cuddly toy kind of sheep. There are lots of cuddly toys about, but very few sheep! In the end I managed to buy two relatively inexpensive sheep on a market stall. You may be wondering why I have been sheep hunting? No, I haven't developed a sheep fetish, nor a sheep obsession. I want them to use in Sunday morning's family service.

The image of sheep and shepherd is used quite often in the Bible. Human beings are, on occasions, referred to as sheep. The prophet Isaiah writes, "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own." He is speaking about the human propensity to chose our own way rather than God's way (just look around our world today to see what happens when we chose our own way!) The good news is that God still loves us, even when we stray from his path. He sent his Son, Jesus, who spoke of himself as the Good Shepherd. Jesus came, as he said, "to seek and save the lost". Hymnwriter Robert Walmsley, in his hymn "Come, let us sing of a wonderful love", puts it like this:

Jesus is seeking the wanderers yet;
Why do they roam? Why do they roam?
Love only waits to forgive and forget;
Home, weary wanderers, home!
Wonderful love, wonderful love,
Dwells in the heart of the Father above.

And I say Amen! to that (baa baa baa baa)

A time to remember

This morning I attended the two minutes silence outside the Mansion House in Doncaster (Today is Remembrance Day; the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the signing of the Armistice, on 11 November 1918, to signal the end of World War One). It was a solemn and dignified occasion, though spoilt a little by the fact that the pa system was working only spasmodically, meaning that much of what was said by the Mayor went unheard by the majority of those gathered there.

I am always particularly moved by the contributions of those who have actually served in conflict situations, and especially veterans of the World Wars. One or two of the veteran standard bearers were struggling at times to maintain a hold on their standards in the strong wind.

A few months ago someone came into Priory asking if we had a plaque commemorating those church members who lost their lives in the First World War - I think that the person was researching family history. It seems that when Priory was redeveloped in the late 70s the plaque was taken down and stored away. After much searching, it was located, and will be restored to a position on the wall in the chapel at Priory. It is very poignant to read the names on the plaque: husbands, fathers and sons who never came back. What enormous pain and sadness for their loved ones.

According to Wikipedia (which isn't always the most reliable source of information), approaching 100 million people lost their lives during the two world wars. And the sad thing is that we human beings never seem to learn the lessons of history. The conflict and killing continues. How God must weep that we disregard his way of peace. In our lunchtime Bible study this week we were considering the world of Jesus, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." For all who know the peace of God in our hearts, that is our challenge.

The Archbishop, the footballer and a barrel of laughs

Reflections on a great weekend...

On Friday evening Sue and I attended an event at the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough, entitled “Sentamu By The Sea”. An almost full theatre listened intently as the current Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, shared something of his life story, and then answered questions from members of the audience. He really is quite a character, not at all the typical image of an Archbishop! He told of his very humble beginnings; how he was baptised as a new born infant because no-one thought that he would survive; his upbringing in a very poor family; his coming to faith at the age of 10 and subsequent passion for sharing the good news of Jesus; his training in law, and then persecution and imprisonment under Idi Amin, which led him to flee to the UK. He told the story with a mixture of humour and pathos. His message was both challenging and inspiring.

On our way back to Doncaster we called in to the Living Hope Church in Hull. As a life-long Hull City supporter, one of my heroes of a few years ago was former Northern Ireland international Stuart Elliott. It was a great joy to me, as chaplain of Doncaster Rovers, when Stuart signed for the Rovers two or three years ago. Although things didn't really work out for him at Rovers, it was great to get to know him during his time at the club. Stuart was well known as a Christian, and he recently made the decision to hang up his boots and become assistant pastor at Living Hope Church. Having a Sunday off gave me the opportunity to visit Living Hope and catch up with Stuart. It was great to see him and great to worship at the church. We were very warmly welcomed and felt very much at home. Clearly God is doing great things there, and Stuart is passionate about Jesus.

On Sunday evening we were with friends in Lincoln attending the first night of “The Seriously Funny Tour” with Jeff Lucas and Adrian Plass. It is a long time since I have laughed so much. It was wonderful to be reminded that a sense of humour is given to us by God, and it seems so sad that some Christians appear to have had their sense of humour removed! Laughter is great medicine. Interspersed with the humour were some very reflective and insightful moments. It was a privilege to be there.

Three very different events, each were blessed by God's presence. God is a God of rich variety, and so are his people!