Brothers and Sisters
As I write this, we are once more plunged back into lockdown. My children are attending zoom meetings at odd hours to find out if they are to be furloughed again and my husband is girding up his loins as numbers of funerals increase. I wrote last week about the darkness before the dawn, but it seems it is still to get darker. And yet, we have a hope that is steadfast and certain and I find myself again and again being drawn back to a teenage memory of a preacher quoting another preacher – a famous sermon, so wonderful that 35 years later I still remember it, so wonderful that it can be found printed out on the internet, that amazing repository of human endeavour and God-given understanding.
The preacher quoted was Shadrach Meshach Lockridge and the sermon, too long to reproduce here begins:
It’s Friday Jesus is praying
Peter’s a sleeping
Judas is betraying
But Sunday’s coming… …
and ends…
It’s Friday Jesus is buried A soldier stands guard
And a rock is rolled into place
But it’s Friday
It is only Friday
Sunday is a coming.
Brothers and sisters, it is Friday and it will be a long Friday and a long Saturday, but we have a vaccine, we have a plan, we have an extraordinary group of people ready to execute that plan, we have a level of resilience that humanity finds over and over again when things become difficult. It’s Friday, and Saturday will be a long day. But Sunday is a coming.
This Friday I shall have the honour and the sorrow of conducting the Funeral of Neville Smith, a man who I spoke to only twice and only on the telephone. It will be the first funeral that I conduct in this Circuit, but it won’t be the last. Friday is tough, and it is not over quickly, but Sunday’s coming and we are a Sunday people, we are a resurrection people, we are an Easter people. As we prepare for this next period of waiting and watching of staying home, (2) protecting the NHS and saving lives, we remember that we are doing it so that we are all here to stand together on Easter morning and celebrate Sunday once again.
God bless.
Vicci
A Reflection on ‘Christmas’ by Shirley
Recently, I found myself pondering on the word ‘Christmas’. Obviously, we all know Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, hence ‘Christ’ and then the syllable ‘mas’ which we understand as coming from ‘mass’ church services, and also associated with the celebration of saints lives. Hence (3) there is no other name for the great celebration other than ‘Christmas’. As I dwelt on this, I thought sadly of all the people to who don’t see Christmas as the great celebration of the birth of Jesus but only as a celebration of families/friends getting together with material presents (often unnecessary indulgences), pretty decorations, and eating and drinking. Not necessarily wrong but oh so sad to know what they are missing! Maybe for them, as they take the ’Christ’ out of ‘Christmas’, they are left with M and S! No disrespect to Marks and Spencer!! So, as our job is spread the ‘Good News’, we’ve got our work cut out …….
Prayer: ‘Holy Father, please give us the love, wisdom, and energy we need to melt their hearts, and open their eyes and minds to You.’
News from the Circuit
Conference declared 2020/2021 a year of prayer so that our Church-wide commitments to evangelism, church growth, church at the margins, and pioneering and church planting will flow from a deep, contemplative orientation to God’s grace and love. Be part of this movement of prayer as we ask the Holy Spirit to help us be a growing, evangelistic, inclusive, justice-seeking Church of gospel people.
Weekly Online Prayer Meeting - Tuesdays at 12.45pm. Join others across the Methodist Church to pray together every Tuesday from 12.45 to 1.00pm You will need to copy and paste this link into your browser:
https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-work/our-work-in-britain/evangelismgrowth/year-of-prayer/
You will need to register to receive weekly prayer guidance. To join on zoom one has to register but once you have the link it works every week. It starts promptly but sometimes it goes on for a minute or so but always down before 1.03 pm.