What was lost....

I have a problem.  At church there is a safe which contains all the legal stuff, like marriage and baptism registers etc.  I don't need to access it very often, as we don't have all that many weddings, and I tend to keep the baptism register in the church office.  I decided this week, after conduction what is likely to be my final baptism before we leave Doncaster, that I ought to return the baptism register to the church safe.  Unfortunately I discovered that the key to the safe isn't in the place I expected it to be.  What's more, there isn't a duplicate!  At least the next wedding isn't for several weeks, which gives me a little time to search for the key.

I must confess that this isn't the first time I've managed to misplace a church safe key.  The first time happened when I was a minister in Stoke-on-Trent many years ago.  I was due to conduct a wedding, and some time in advance I discovered that the safe key was missing.  As the due date approached, I became quite concerned.  I searched high and low, but the key was not to be found.  I even went to have a chat with a locksmith to see what could be done if the key remained lost.  It was certainly going to be a very expensive job!

It so happened that the weather that year had been extremely dry (not unlike this year, until the last few very wet days).  Then one day the rain came, and it came very heavily.  On my way out of the house I reached for an umbrella, and lo and behold, when I opened it up, out fell the missing safe key!  It must have fallen in, unnoticed, some weeks earlier.  What was lost had been found, and we didn't have to hire a safe breaker!

the lost key has reminded me of 3 stories which Jesus told, recorded in the 15th chapter of Luke's gospel: the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (or prodigal) son.  The three stories have variations, but each concern something which was lost, and the great rejoicing when it was found.  In telling the stories, Jesus is highlighting the tremendous love of God for all people, and how God longs that those who are alienated from him might return to him and experience his love and grace.  However far away from God we might roam, he is always waiting with open arms for us to come back to him.  When someone turns back to God, says Jesus, there is great rejoicing in heaven.


I hope and pray that there will soon be great rejoicing in my heart when the lost safe key is found!

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Church Actually - God's Brilliant Idea

I spent 6 days last week at Butlins in Skegness. You may be thinking that April is not the best time of the year (if there is a best time) to spend at Butlins in Skegness. To be honest, in the normal course of things a holiday at Butlins would probably not be my first choice (nor my second or third!) However, I was there because it was the venue for the annual Spring Harvest event.

Spring Harvest takes place each Easter at the Butlins sites in both Skegness and Minehead. The event has taken place annually ever since 1979. It is a gathering of thousands of Christian of all ages, denominations and backgrounds, with a programme of activities, including Bible teaching, worship celebrations, seminars, workshops, sports, recreation, and late-night entertainment. It was several years since Sue and I last attended Spring Harvest, and we were very much looking forward to it.

This year’s theme was “Church Actually - God's brilliant idea”, and we were reminded that God invites the Church to be involved in his mission: to take the message of his love, in word and deed, to the world (as someone at Spring Harvest said, ‘God didn’t create the Church then give it a mission, he has a mission so created the Church’). William Temple once said, “A church is the only organization that exists primarily for the benefit of non-members”. If a church is to be effective, it must be outward-looking. The problem is, we can sometimes forget that, and become inward-looking, mirroring the consumer-oriented culture around us.

I thoroughly enjoyed the week, not least because we were part of a group of around 20 from our churches on Doncaster. It was good to be able to spend several days with other members of our church family. I think that each member of the party benefitted from the experience in different ways. One downside was that it reminded us of how much we are going to miss our friends here in Doncaster when we move to Leicester in the summer.

It was good to see so many young people as part of Spring Harvest. Separate worship celebrations and activities had been arranged for various age groups. One evening I went along to the 18s-30s worship celebration, along with 3 other members of our group (and I was allowed in!) For me, that evening was probably the most memorable event of the week. There was a real sense of God’s presence, and it was clear that those leading the celebration were in tune with God’s Spirit. Amongst other things, I felt that God reaffirmed that although Sue and I are soon to take the big step of moving from Doncaster to Leicester, with many elements of our future unclear, he is in control, and he has a plan and a purpose worked out for us.

When Jesus called the first disciples, he simply said, ‘follow me’. He gives the same invitation to people today. In some respects it’s a journey into the unknown. If we decide to follow Jesus, we don’t know where he will take us. Sometimes the journey will be scary, sometimes it will take us to places we might not naturally choose to go. But there’s no better place to be than with Jesus. That’s what real life is all about!

Saved From The Void

'Saved From The Void' is the title of an interesting article which I read recently in 'Catalyst' the magazine of the Christian organisation CARE. The article highlights the work of a 16-strong team of chaplains who regularly patrol a six mile stretch of the Sussex coast around Beachy Head. The cliffs around Beachy Head rise up to 600 feet above the sea, and are, apparently, a favourite destination for people who aim to commit suicide.

The team of chaplains, supported by around 100 prayer partners, seek to do all they can to persuade people not to take their own lives. The article reports that, remarkably, the team have saved some 1,500 lives since the ministry began in 2004. Despite the great work of the chaplaincy team, and the lives they have saved, still some 200 people have taken their lives in the Beachy Head area in that time. Statistics suggest that the suicide rate in the UK is on the increase. I find it desperately sad that there are people who come to such a desperate point in their lives that they feel that there is no way out other than to "end it all."

It is perhaps significant that I read the article during Holy Week, when we remember the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. Last Friday I took part, along with 2 or 3 hundred other people, in the Walk of Witness with the cross in Doncaster town centre, to remind people of the significance of the day. We can sometimes forget what it must have been like for Jesus' disciples, and those many others who loved and believed in him. They saw him arrested, beaten, condemned to death, and crucified. It seemed then that all their hopes and expectations had been dashed. The one they believed in was dead! What was there left to live for?

And I think particularly of two of his disciples: Judas, who betrayed him, and Peter, who denied him. Both filled with bitter remorse at what they had done. Judas responded by taking his own life. Peter later met with the risen Lord Jesus, and was graciously forgiven and recommissioned. He subsequently became a great leader in the early Church.

I can look back over my own life and remember times when everything has seemed dark, the outlook has appeared so bleak, and life has been a real struggle. Probably we all face times like that. But the message of the gospel is that after the darkness comes the light of dawn, after despair comes hope, after death comes new life; in all the darkness, the light of the presence of Jesus is never extinguished. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Fateful journey

This month sees the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, still one of the most iconic vessels in nautical history. A number of specially commissioned programmes are being shown on TV to mark the anniversary, and the hugely popular 1997 Titanic movie is being released in 3D. Despite the intervening 100 years, the Titanic story still holds a great fascination for many.

One of the special programmes being shown is fronted by Len Goodman, of "Strictly Come Dancing" fame. In it, Len makes the point that the real interest in the story is not so much in the ship itself, but in the people whose lives were affected in some way by the disaster. Over 2,200 people were on board the ship when it set off on its fateful journey from Southampton to New York. Each individual on board had, I'm sure, their own hopes and expectations of the journey. People of all ages and backgrounds, both passengers and crew, were on board. Little did they know that over 1,500 of them would perish in the icy Atlantic waters.

This week is Holy Week, when we commemorate another 'fateful journey', the journey of Jesus, which led to his own death, through the agonising suffering of crucifixion on a cross. Those who died on the Titanic had no idea, when their journey began, of what lay in store for them. Jesus, however, knew very well, when he began his journey to Jerusalem, that suffering and death lay before him. On several previous occasions he had told his disciples what lay ahead, though they had struggled to take it in, as it didn't seem to make sense to them.

In Paul's letter to Christians in Rome, he wrote, 'God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' Jesus freely and willingly laid down his life, so that through faith in him we might know the joy of our sins forgiven and the assurance of eternal life. What love!