Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week.’

Friends

I was a bit stumped for ideas this week, but on looking back at last year to see if there was inspiration to be had, I discovered that we had been talking about Jonah and that I had reflected on coming out of lockdown being somewhat akin to coming out of the belly of the whale and wondered what it might look like for us as Christians, what distinctiveness we might bring to a post-covid world. A year later, we are as a country having another stab at the same question and some wag has posted “2022 – 2020’s third attempt to actually happen” on my social media.

It’s tempting, in the face of apparent governmental disregard for rules, horrific stories of child abuse, threat of war in Ukraine and a steady rise in knife crime to think that what we bring that is distinctive is an ethic – a Christian morality that speaks against such things. However, it is not exclusively the domain of Christians to speak out or act against immorality, illegality and social breakdown, and the belief of the secular world that this is what exercises us is in itself part of why we are not perhaps as genuinely popular as one might imagine a faith built on the premise that “We love, because God first loved us” might be. God loves people and so we love people may be our strapline, but the world tends to see it as “God judges people and so Christians judge people and we don’t want any of that.”

The ethic-based, Christian morality model is not in and of itself a bad thing, but it is a temple model, based on the law and not on Christ. Christ after all tells us that we are going to fail, that we are imperfect beings in an imperfect world. In the face of the temple model, with its rules and regulations, Christ offered to wash his disciples’ feet, to walk with the most marginalised in society and to promise love and forgiveness for all who sought it from God, through him, strengthened by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Our call as we try once more to leave the belly of the whale and speak truth to Nineveh is perhaps not to point out all that is bad in society – after all, most can see it for themselves – but instead to underline that which is good: to tell the stories of those who have sought to help, who have found new purpose, who have loved in the face of adversity and brought hope to those who feared they had none.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week.’

Friends

I’ve recently rediscovered those wonderful detective stories by Dorothy L Sayers, whose hero, Lord Peter Wimsey is always charming, apparently vague and frequently incisive. One of the short stories, is about a man who had an unknown, long-lost twin who was running around London committing terrible crimes while pretending to be him. In the story, the twins meet in a doorway and the one, believing himself to be looking into a mirror, fainted in shock when the reflection as he thought, turned around and walked away. I think I too might have fainted in such a scenario!

It did, however, remind me of our calling both to follow Christ and to reflect him in the world. In the story, it was easy for the twins to reflect each other, they were each the mirror image of their brother. For us, who call Christ brother, it is harder. When do we find the time to study the stories of Jesus deeply enough to find the truth which we should reflect? How do we build our relationship with him strongly enough to develop in ourselves the personality of Jesus? How can we welcome the Holy Spirit into the very depths of our being in such a way that we too speak God’s truth into a broken world?

Here at the start of the year, not long after we have promised anew to serve God and reflect his Son in the Covenant service, we are once more called to spend time in reading and prayer, in meditation and contemplation and in action as we seek to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world. There are days when the reflection is poor, and there are days when we might be told we are made in God’s image, but it is hard for us to believe it. Still, as we walk towards the door, it is not our self that comes to meet us, but the living, loving Lord Jesus, seeking to show us such love, such truth, such faith and hope that we reflect him not because we have promised to try, although we have, but because in the face of such light, in the face of such love, we can do nothing else but share it – there is too much for us to hold selfishly to ourselves.

Centred in such love, it is hardly surprising that Jesus should say “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). I must admit to you that I have yet to achieve such heavenly perfection, but aspiration is a wonderful thing, and perhaps 2022 will be my year!

God bless,

Vicci

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci

Friends

Another Christmas and New Year has been and gone and I don’t know about you, but for me and my family, it all seems to be a long time ago already. The work of the Circuit continues apace, and as the senior circuit steward and I grapple with still more paperwork around stationing, and boilers stop working and roofs start leaking and things that have been planned are cancelled and future plans are made, the first few days of the year are flying by.

In the lectionary, everything has moved on apace also. The shepherds may still be wondering over the event they witnessed less than four weeks ago, the Wise Men are almost certainly still wending their way homeward, but the Gospel reading has moved us speedily to the early days of Christ’s ministry when, having already started to build his team of disciples, Jesus’ hand is tipped by his mother and he starts his ministry with the miracle of the water becoming wine.

We too, here at the start of the year wish to be filled with the transformative power of Jesus’ Spirit, do we not, to bring something special to the feast that is the life we have all been given. It’s not easy, especially at the moment, yet sometimes we see hope for the future in the very thing we thought was a worry. At Windsor, we have had to cancel the planned Burns’ Supper on the 22nd of January, but this has freed me up to attend the District Candidates Selection Committee where I have been asked to give due thought to becoming District Candidates Secretary. The hope for the future is surely strong when there is a need for someone to organise those who are exploring a call to ordained ministry.

We have very little information about Jesus between the birth and the reappearance on the world stage at around 30 years of age. We see him in the temple when he was a few days old, and then again at about 13, and then not again until he is ready to start his ministry. What was he doing? If he had not been working his family would not have survived. If he had not been praying, his relationship with God would not have seen him through all that was to come.

If he had not been studying the scripture, he would not have been able to understand and interpret all that was to come. As we too study, work and pray, may his example guide us in the coming days.

God bless,

Vicci

New Year message from Rev'd Vicci

Friends

As we start the New Year, with its round of New Year’s Resolutions, Covenant Services, hopes and fears, we wonder if by next year we will be living with a Covid that has become manageable. We may also be wondering what a return to normal will look like. What is normality in the context of a world that has been so changed over the last two years? We can look back in the history of the country, or indeed the world, to see how everything returned after previous pandemics and two world wars, but it is still hard to imagine what it will be like in our time. Our exit from the European Union has also been murmuring along in the background, but it has not been as front and centre as it would have been if it was not overshadowed by the international efforts to manage this massive health crisis and we still don’t know what further impact we will experience from this.

It is all to easy to ask “But what is God’s response? What is God doing? Why is he allowing this? Where is his redemptive act in all of this?” We want to see God at work now, and we are faced with other people who, having always challenged the idea of a loving Creator God, now feel that their scepticism is borne out. And yet…

Two thousand and twenty years ago, give or take a couple of years, a baby was born and laid in a manger because there was no room for him at the inn. In that single act, all of the answers were given and the events that were set in motion, events we will follow in the lectionary between now and Pentecost, tell us that the answer is the work of God through God’s people, enabled by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We cannot ask what God is doing about the pandemic because he has already done it. And setting in place this chain of events, he equipped us to respond to all the exigencies of life leaning on his power, following the pattern shown to us by Jesus, strengthened and led by the Spirit. Not a magic, wand-waving, three wishes and all your problems are solved sort of response, but a way of life set out and enabled by a loving parent.

Jesus was able to live that life perfectly and we should certainly aspire to do so also. However, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” * and aspiration is usually all we can manage. Someone who has always been honest about his “fallen shortness” and yet who has spoken with great eloquence about his love of God, is the singer Johnny Cash. At the end of January, when all the Covenant services are complete, we are going to do something a little unusual. On the 30th we are going to have a morning Circuit service, which will be at High Street, and also streamed, and which will be led by a Christian band who use the songs of Johnny Cash to speak into the life of faith. For those of you who would find that too challenging or not conducive to worship, we are asking the churches to offer a low-key local arrangement, but the hope of the staff team is that as many people as possible will attend, either on site or online, as we explore something different in our worshipping life.

High Street is the ideal church for this because of the tech support it can offer and I am grateful to them for agreeing to host this. Although parking is always an issue in this circuit, the Nicholson carpark is free on a Sunday and the staff team and I hope to see you there. In the meantime, may I wish you all the very best for a wonderful 2022 and may God’s blessing rest upon you this Epiphany and always.

God bless

Vicci

*Romans 3:23

Christmas thoughts from Rev'd Vicci

Brothers and Sisters

“Do not be afraid” the angel sang, “Do not be afraid” the hilltops rang. Round about was filled with glory, drawing them into the story Saying “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid,” they sing today. “Do not be afraid,” oh hear them say.

For the world is turning onwards, God has got his hands upon us Saying, “Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.” “Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.” Luke 2:9

Sheila Cassidy writes in the book: Confessions of a Lapsed Catholic – “Christian society in Britain has domesticated the Gospel. It is geared to loving God in moderation. We may give alms to the poor, visit the sick and the lonely, hold annual bazaars and flag days for those in need – in fact do any good works that do not threaten the pattern of our society. But to demand justice at the expense of people’s comfort or security – that makes us troublemakers.

” Well, you can decide for yourself whether or not you think she’s right. But we have domesticated our thoughts about angels. We make cutesy little figurines, we put on annual plays in which tiny little four-year olds in white pillow cases with a sprinkling of silver tinsel stand before the congregations and proclaim with varying levels of confidence “You don’t need to be afraid.” No, of course I don’t need to be afraid! You are a third of my height, you weigh a tenth of what I weigh, if you do something I don’t like, I merely have to pick you up to stop you doing it – why on earth would l be afraid?

But the shepherds were afraid. The messengers of God inspire awe and the glory of God is both fearful and wonderful. Let us stand for one moment today and allow ourselves to feel the fear that we would feel if that angel stood before us and we, with no knowledge of how the story was to unfold, felt the glory of God around us. Have a wonderful Christmas.

God bless,

Vicci

Live Nativity this Saturday 11 December from 11 - 2pm & Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci Davidson

On the third Sunday of Advent, we light the Joy candle.  Advent is a solemn time of fasting and preparation, and yet also we have the joy of what is to come, the birth of a baby who changed the world. 

At this time of year, we are urged to remember that not everyone finds Christmas a happy time.  There are those who have suffered at this time of year and find the memory of old hurts and deep griefs amplified by their contrasts with the gaiety of Christmas.  There are those who are worried that they cannot fulfil the hopeful wishes of expectant children and who may end up getting into debt and struggling to try to manage.  There are those who are lonely and who, faced with the television’s relentless reminder that, according at least to the programmers, Christmas is all about family and coming home for the season, feel depressed and anxious that their lives do not look like that.

We are not wrong, and we are never wrong, to remind ourselves that not everyone sees the world as we do, and that things that may be lovely for us may be less so for others.  However, we might also remember that we celebrate Christmas as the birthday of our Saviour, Lord and King.  That we celebrate Christmas as the beginning of a 33-year story that culminates in Good News for all, joy to the world and death is not the end. 

Joy is a more deep-rooted experience than happiness and can, I would suggest, exist even alongside sadness.  It is an experience that recognises that when Julian of Norwich said “All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well,” she wasn’t being trivial but deeply, truthfully speaking out an absolute belief in the depth of the care of God for God’s people.  Joy is a grateful optimism that believes that this is true not just for Julian of Norwich but for all people and at all times.  That we are loved, and cared for and that because of this love, Jesus was sent. “God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)  It is in the recognition of this faith that we light the Joy candle this week, as we prepare for the moment when the angels sang “Joy to the world and on earth peace and goodwill to all people.”

God bless

Vicci  

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3: 4b – 6)

In the middle of the Lamlash village green where I grew up, there is a small hillock. It makes no sense – the rest of the green is flat – and apart from small children climbing to the top and rolling down, it has no function. Or so we thought. Until one night a local farmer who was plagued with a pointless hole in the middle of a field that was almost exactly the size of the hillock came and took it away smoothing down the green and simultaneously removing the enormous pothole in his own land.

The valley was indeed filled and the hill made low. However, the ensuing furore was immense. We may have all thought that it was a pointless hillock, but actually, it was the vantage point from which the local minister had blessed those about to sail to Canada in inadequate ships having been forced to emigrate by English landowners during the time of the clearances, when small-scale tenant-farmers were thrown off the land to allow for sheep to be farmed. The little hillock was representative of a massive mountain that these people had to climb in order to survive on the other side of the world. The farmer had solved the visible problem – the lumpy green and the holey field – but the underlying history of a people who were dispossessed because of greed could not be dealt with by removing the memory. Such things need long healing and careful conversation, repentance, sorrow and a determination to learn from the past. The promise of Jesus is like this: The valley will be raised up and the hill be smoothed over and the road will become easier, but not in a casual, fly by night sort of way, but through the long care, the self-sacrifice, the determination of a caring God to bring redemption and healing to those who would turn away from greed and love of power and towards his kingdom values of mercy and justice and a humble walk with a loving Father. May this Advent be for us a time to understand this truth more deeply than ever before as we prepare for the coming of our Lord.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters At this time of year, with Advent calendars being opened and Christmas trees going up in at least some homes, with early Christmas celebrations vying with Advent we are perhaps more aware than any other time of the cost of everything. The presents, the food, the crackers, the extras, the parties and the staff lunches, the Christmas cards or the notice on Facebook to tell all your friends that you are not sending cards this year but have instead purchased a flock of chickens or a goat for a family being supported by Oxfam. It all costs, and we complain or at the very least note, that the cost of living is going up and up.

The cost of a life in the time of Jesus was 30 pieces of silver – that’s why Judas was paid that much, 1600 years earlier in the time of Joseph, his brothers sold him for 20 shekels of silver. A shekel was worth around 60p and a piece of silver was around £18 so over 1600 years, price had gone up from about £12 to about £540. When we look at the lives of so many of our brethren who are being impacted by deforestation, by flooding, by lack of water, we may want to say that the cost of living has indeed gone up, but the cost of a life has never been lower.

Over the next few weeks, as we consider how to celebrate with and for our own loved ones, we can perhaps also wonder about how to speak to the value of every life in this world. It may be that we choose to shop from one place rather than another, or to adopt an animal or support a village or one of the other myriad ways in which we can try to make a difference. Perhaps most importantly though, we can in our own thinking and conversation remember that all people matter. God made all of us in his own image and that must mean something more than just a saying – it must mean that we treat all people, even those we don’t know, as important.

During this first week in Advent, we remember that the first candle is associated with God’s people and with hope. As God’s people we hope for the promised return of Christ, but also the coming ever nearer of the perfecting of God’s kingdom. A perfection that can surely only be when all people matter as much to us as they do to God.

God bless you this Advent-tide.

Vicci

‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. '

With the permission of Dr Micha Jazz, author of Every Day with Jesus, here are his notes based on Matthew 11:25-30.

‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’ (v28-29) ‘At times, we feel the weight of life heavy upon our shoulders. It takes the edge off everything. There are remedies, many quite debilitating. Those in management roles tell me they get home and reach for a glass of wine to relax them. I’m not critical, I’ve had my flirtations with alcohol dependence, both the buzz and to quieten my anxiety.

Burden is an idea that originates from the drone we associate with bees. What starts as a background sound we can easily ignore, eventually dominates and becomes all we can hear, interrupting our peace of mind and the focus of every waking moment.

Any of us can be subject to a dominant theme that grows into an intolerable burden to wear us down. Many marriages lose their way, distance grows between child and parent, work pressures no longer lift on our commute home.

Again God invites us to respond to His invitation to lay our burdens on Him. In exchange, we yoke ourselves to God so that now we work in concert in managing them better. Whilst solutions aren’t immediately apparent, we can find confidence, despite our worst fears, and experience inner peace.

This is a process we improve as we move through life. We can learn to exchange fear and anxiety for the presence of God as we are joined in heart with our loving Father.

A prayer to make:

‘Lord, teach me to bring my burdens to You daily, and find my promised rest. Amen.’

Community Youth Worker

An exciting new opportunity has opened up in the Thames Valley Methodist Circuit. Reporting to the Superintendent Minister the prime focus of the role will be to engage with families and young people across the circuit, which covers Maidenhead, Slough and Windsor. This is a part time appointment, averaging 20 hours per week. For further details please see the Church notice board.

Windsor Foodshare:

Because of the increasing demand on Foodshare, our church has restarted weekly collections. The basket can be found at the front of the Church and your contributions will be most welcome.

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters,

Only a few weeks after the brutal killing of Sir David Amess MP, I find myself less inclined than usual to mark Guy Fawkes Day. Part of me enjoys the fun, the fireworks and the opportunity for one last sausage and soup picnic before the year really is too cold, and part of me finds that which we are remembering is too close to the knuckle. Of course, we are celebrating the failure and not the success of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators, but faced with this recent assassination, with the inevitable memories of Jo Cox and before her of the bombing of the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, it puts me slightly on edge. And then of course, there are the dogs who are petrified of the “big bangs” and all those who, having escaped to this country from a place where bombing and shootings were commonplace may be re-traumatised by what we see as a celebration.

On the other hand, it is a very British response to tough times. We take them, we laugh at them, we subvert them, we make them into something else. Ring-a-ringa-roses was a song about dying from the plague; Baa baa black sheep was about workers’ rights and Georgie-Porgie, Pudding and Pie was about inappropriate sexual demands made by someone who was too powerful to refuse. Songs that have become children’s ditties were originally reminders, teaching tools and a way of claiming back some power.

This upside-down, back-to-front way of seeing the world is perhaps a reflection of our understanding of the upside-down of Kingdom values; our interpretation of teaching that says “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you”, and takes the cursed death of hanging on a tree, mixes it with the ritual uncleanliness of blood, and declares it to be God’s way of washing clean the sins of humanity. Whether the back-to-front nature of taking the Great Fire of London and writing a song about it to be sung as a four part children’s round is in fact Godly, or simply a particular way of healing difficulty through dark humour, it is true that we are called to live in this strange world of God’s where the first will be last and the last will be first, where it is easier for a small child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than a rich and educated ruler and where the blind can be healed, but the priests and the Pharisees see less and less of what is going on.

Whatever the case, when we see those sparkling fountains in the night sky, let’s send up after them a prayer of thanksgiving for Jesus, the light of the world.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson & a request to all knitters/crotchetiers (see below)!

Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday falls on All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween as it has come to be called. The day before All Saints’ Day on the 1st and All Souls’ Day on the 2nd of November. It ushers in what has become a season of remembrance in the Church with Remembrance Sunday to follow.

In the very early days of the church, Christian martyrs were given a day to mark their martyrdom and so for example, St Stephen’s Day, marking the death of the very first Christian martyr is on the 26th of December, although we more usually call it Boxing Day. Eventually though, there were so many martyrs that we simply ran out of days in the year and so in the 8th century, the 1st of November was declared All Saints’ Day to mark the death of all the martyrs. It was then decided to designate the 2nd of November All Souls’ Day to mark those who had died in the faith. Over the years in various well-meaning sermons, I have heard preachers say that we are all saints and that All Saints’ Day is for everyone. I do believe we are all saints in one meaning of the word, and I do believe that when we sing “For all the Saints, who from their labours rest” we are talking about all those who have gone before us, but I sort of want to reclaim both days, because it is no small thing to have died because of your faith and although we do not usually run that risk in this country, still today there are countries where those who affirm Jesus as Lord are putting themselves at risk.

Perhaps because of Newton’s 3rd law (“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”) when faced with the celebration of All Saints and All Souls, the ancient Celtic tradition that ghosts returned to earth on the 31st of October before their New Year on the 1st of November, was marked by certain people as a time when the fabric between earth and heaven became thin, and people dressed up to scare off the ghosts or perhaps to confuse them. Who is to say? We are faced with the inevitable march of capitalism which requires that any and every day that can be turned into an opportunity to demand money shall do so and we now have the chocolate consuming, zombie-fest that is today’s Halloween. Like it or loathe it, it is here to stay for the moment, but whether we put up a pumpkin and offer the 6-year-old witch some sweeties, or whether we close our doors and curtains and pretend to be away, let’s take some time this week to remember all those who have gone before us and whose teaching and actions has lit for us the path that leads to Heaven.

God bless,

Vicci

Reminder of Rev’d Vicci’s request to all knitters/crotchetiers!

“As we move towards the darker evenings of winter, and thoughts of Christmas with Angel hosts singing of peace and praise, I wonder if members of the congregation would like to create angels to give away, as we did last year. The knitted angel project encourages churches to knit angels, attach a small label saying “A gift from Windsor Methodist Church” including our website, and possibly an invite to bring them to church to be blessed (to be confirmed) and then distribute them by putting them through neighbours doors, and leaving them on walls and trees to be picked up by delighted strangers passing by. So, will you join me in knitting (or crocheting) angels to spread across Windsor this Christmas, sharing once more the Good News that angels first sang to the world. The pattern can be found here:

http://www.christmasangel.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Christmas-Angel.pdf

Brothers and Sisters

The founder of our Methodist movement, John Wesley, considered there to be two types of holiness: personal holiness, which is growing your personal relationship with God and social holiness, which is showing love to others through caring for their physical needs.  This understanding takes very seriously such passages in the Bible as James 2:15-17 – “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”

I want to both challenge and affirm this.  On the one hand, when Wesley talked about social holiness, he was talking about holiness through worship, partaking in holy communion, Bible Study and hymn singing.  He felt that withdrawing from the world in search of a purely individual holiness was not the way to go.  Yet at the same time, he was passionate about social justice, which is what we have come to see social holiness as meaning.  Wesley and his friends visited the sick, the dying and those in prison, worked for social reform, education, abolition of slavery and against the distillers – not so much because he was anti-alcohol as because they unfairly exploited the poor.  John Wesley was all for social justice, but when he spoke about social holiness, that is not what he meant.

However, language and its meaning changes through the generations as we know.  The important thing is not so much which words John Wesley used to describe it, but what he intended Methodism to be about.  Written into our DNA is the singing, the preaching, the learning but also the caring, the social justice, the determination that we will not rest until our mother’s glib response to our cries of “It’s not fair” with “Life’s not fair” should cease to be true. 

Life at the moment is not fair.  We see it in the fear and the worry in the world around us where we are faced with political assassination, concerns as to rising costs and worries about shortages.  I would suggest however that a Methodist response to the reality that life is not fair, is to figure out why and for whom and dig down into how we change the story.  We will not be able to change it for everyone, but this winter, let’s strive to make life a little bit fairer for those who are put in front of us.  Whether we call it social justice, social holiness or living the Jesus way, it’s what we are called to do and who we are called to be as Methodists. 
God bless, Vicci

More thoughts about holiness from Rev'd Vicci

Brothers and Sisters

Last week, I spoke a little about personal holiness, and today I thought I would write on corporate holiness.  1 Peter 2:9 tells us:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty arts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”

This of course has resonances of the promise God made to the Jewish people when he first called Abraham (or perhaps when he called to all people and only Abraham answered him).  Now however, the call to be God’s chosen ones, a holy people set apart, is for all, or at least for all who heed God’s call, who repent and turn to him through the mercy offered by Christ. 

This passage reminds us that all are called and all are welcome, even if not all respond.  But it is also a passage that reminds us that we must not be critical and unkind to our fellow members of the Church.  We are all a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and we are called both to be holy and to recognise our familial ties to all others who proclaim Jesus as Lord and God as Father.  It’s not that we cannot note or give advice when things are not being done correctly, but it is that we are all grafted into the same vine, which is Christ Jesus, and that the health of each branch affects us all, and so we should and we must care for each branch.

We are all guilty of criticising “The Methodist Church” when we see another set of requirements that call us to be still more professionalised in our response, still more administratively organised, to find still more time to ensure that everything is not just being done, but also being planned and recorded appropriately.  Some days, these requirements can feel incredibly difficult, and I am so grateful to the many people in this circuit who shoulder that burden with good humour and care.   It is not an obvious leap to say that this very activity of form-filling and risk assessing is an example of corporate holiness, and yet it is designed to keep us as a body on the straight and narrow, so that we can be and can be seen to be, a body of people who are doing things as well as is humanly possible and then giving that to God.   

God bless

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters, I have, incredible though it seems, been writing these “thoughts for the week” for a year now and thought that I would do a short series on holiness. I will look at personal holiness this week, corporate holiness next week and social holiness the week after. (Then I’m going on leave for a week to recover!)

The meaning of the word holy is “set apart or consecrated to God” and personal holiness therefore means the idea that we set ourselves apart for God. It requires that we ask God to receive our lives as a gift for him to use as he will, and it is a returning to God that which he gives us by giving us free will. We say that we recognise and are grateful for our free will, but we choose to use that free will to do the things that we believe God wants us to do so that as we read in 1 Peter 2:5: You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The problem is that to do that really well, we would need to be aware every second of every day that this is the goal and dedicate every second of every day to God, and that is not an easy task. As we seek to put into place in our lives patterns of prayer, Bible Study and attendance at worship, we are more able to stitch the reminder that this is what we have offered God into the fabric of our lives, but it takes these disciplines to remind us, and they themselves can fall by the wayside if we are not careful. Personal holiness requires a decision to go deeper in our discipleship, to leave the nets and the fishing behind us and follow Jesus.

As we watch the news trumpeting the contents of the so-called “Pandora papers” we see illegal behaviour, but legal behaviour that just feels unethical in the face of the great inequalities of the day. Personal holiness is about taking a decision, not because it is the law, but because it is the right thing to do. I have never forgotten my mother telling me of the time when, as a young nurse, she asked her father’s advice about joining her colleagues in strike action. He advised her that she should do what her conscience dictated, but that if her striking colleagues won extra pay or better conditions, she could not accept what others had fought for if she had remained at work herself. Personal holiness is about taking the Jesus-road, even when that is a tough decision. May you be blessed in your seeking of that path this week.

God bless,

Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson & Celebration of the Victorian Revival

A wonderfully different service led by Rev’d Vicci to celebrate the Victorian Revival of Methodism in Windsor, many of the congregation dressed in styles of the Victorian era and enjoyed singing some of the beautiful old hymns and listened to a sermon by ‘Gypsy’ Smith. Cake and conversation followed this special time, if you missed it this year not to worry as it will be repeated!

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

I wonder how many of you remember the old hymn:

When we walk with the Lord in the light of his Word

What a glory is shed on our way

When we do his good will, he abides with us still

And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

It hasn’t made it into the new hymn book – perhaps the sentiments are too Victorian – but I have been thinking about it quite a lot this week as we have seen the fuel shortage problem roll out across the country. There was an initial breach of confidentiality in the leaking of the story anyway, but from then on, a lack of trust in government voices telling us that there is enough fuel if we just continue to buy as normal, and perhaps lack of trust in each other, since we can see people are not buying as normal, has resulted in massive queues at the pumps. Even where we are not looking to buy petrol at all, journey times have been exaggerated to the point that a trip that should have taken me between 15 and 20 minutes on Saturday morning ended up taking me 80 minutes as I got caught in successive tailbacks.

This is not the place for commentary on contemporary British politics, but God’s Kingdom demands of us that we trust his Word and are obedient to his counsel. I am lucky in that I had just filled up my car a couple of days before all of this started and so am able to hold the line and not join the panicstricken fuel buying, but I can see that it is hard to trust that things will be okay quickly and my family are getting increasingly concerned about how they get to work if it carries on for much longer. Yet we know we can trust God’s word, that we are loved, that we matter, that the world matters and that there is enough – enough to eat, enough to drink, enough to wear and enough worry for the day, but not to borrow worry from tomorrow. As many of you will have learned it in the King James version: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” or as the NRSV has it: Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:34)

God bless,

Vicci

Words from John Wesley and a Reflection from our own minister Rev'd Vicci Davidson

On 24th May, 1738 …….. John Wesley said, “I Felt My Heart Strangely Warmed In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. ………………… “ And founded the Methodist Church. Thanks be to God!

Inspiring words by Rev’d John Wesley: “Give me your hand. I do not mean, ‘Be of my opinion.’ You need not: I do not expect it or desire it. Neither do I mean I will be of your opinion. I cannot. Keep your opinion; I mine; and that as steadily as ever. You need not endeavour to come over to me or bring me to you. Only give me your hand. We must act as each is fully persuaded in their own mind. Hold fast that which you believe is most acceptable to God, and I will do the same. Let all these smaller points stand aside. If your heart is as my heart, if you love God and all humankind, I ask no more. Simply, give me your hand. John Wesley”

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see… In Exodus, we read of Moses and the burning bush. It is one of our seminal stories and we are very familiar with it. Moses sees a bush burning without being consumed by the fire and he wonders how that could be. So he stops and goes and has a look and “When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see” he spoke to him and nothing was ever the same again. The story of the Jews and their relationship with the land to which Moses led them has resonated throughout the histories of Jews, Christians and Muslims and through the Middle East, America and Europe ever since.

And I have a question. What if the bush had been burning for some considerable time? What if several shepherds had passed by but it was only Moses who stopped to have a look? What if God is constantly calling to multiple people but only some of them ever stop to listen? What if you or I, our attention momentarily caught by some anomaly, stopped and went close – turned aside to see – and said, “Lord, was that you?” What might we hear?

As I write, there are only four more days until I can finally let my granddaughter move the symbol on her picture calendar from summer to autumn. The hedgerows and the trees through which we drive, or walk will shortly start to change colour and briefly before they drop, we may have a moment when, catching early morning or late evening sunlight through golden leaves, we too might wonder if it is aflame. Perhaps it is a moment in which we are called to pause, to send up that quick prayer: Lord, are you calling me?

Or perhaps more truthfully: Lord, I hear your call. To what are you calling me? In his book “Called or Collared?” Francis Dewar makes the case that we are all called, and that sometimes people, sensing the call, assume it is to ordained ministry because that is what they associate with vocation. But actually he says, we are all called to something and finding out what that something is can be the work of a lifetime.

As I look around the churches in which I serve and see the dedication and the vocation of so many, I am in no doubt that many are responding to the call. Nevertheless, perhaps the autumn, with its flame-filled trees and bushes, is a challenge to us all to turn aside for a moment and say “What would you have me do Lord?”

God bless,

Vicci

Every Day with Jesus

With the permission of Dr Micha Jazz, author of Every Day with Jesus, here are his notes for Sunday 19 September based on Ecclesiastes 7:8-9.

‘The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.’ (v8) ‘My many years serving as a mediator gave me the privilege of being brought into diverse disputes. From commercial disagreements to relational breakdown, most people are captured by their past and present, rather than their future.

Ending well is something Jesus illustrates perfectly. Yielding to His call and refusing to be bated by the insults of His enemies or the disappearance of His friends. Hanging on the cross, He calls upon His Father to forgive all who reject Him, even though they casually get on with their own lives, still ignoring the suffering servant (Luke 23:24).

Jesus was incarnate for the long game, turning a lost people back to God and re-establishing friendship forever. Obviously, there was a need to recognise and repent of past faults, yet the reason was never for what lay behind but for as your unrealised possibilities.

Too often, past and present experiences can blind us to tomorrow’s opportunities. We find ourselves making little progress along perpetual culde-sacs because we’ve failed to consider the nature of the context in which we find ourselves. Mediators speak of ‘win-win outcomes’, reminding conflicted parties that there is a price attached. Jesus knew the price tag – and paid it. Will we respond and live for all the future opportunities available to us within the conflicts we face, both internal and external?

Related scripture to consider: Psalm 32; Isaiah 44:21-23; Matt 5:21-26, 6:5-16.

An action to take: Are there unresolved issues that disturb your peace of mind? Ask God how you might best respond and let go of the past to take hold of your future.

A prayer to make: ‘Lord, forgive me, and in owning my past, help me to walk into my future hand in hand with You. Amen.’

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

My diary is full of extra visits and services for baptisms and funerals at the moment, and I am made freshly aware of the cyclical nature of life where we celebrate birth and death. In the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, in the order for the burial of the dead, we have these words: “Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower, he fleeth as if it were a shadow and never continueth in one stay. In the midst of life, we are in death; of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee O Lord, who for our sins are justly displeased?” They are words from a Mediaeval anthem, which itself takes words from the book of Job. As I was thinking about the cyclical nature of things, and those words “Even in the midst of life, we are in death” I realised that what we are currently seeing is a reversal of this: Even in the midst of death, we are in life. I have baptised more babies in the last year than in the three previous ones; the Circuit has received the news of the closure of two of its village churches with sorrow, and yet five new Fresh Expressions congregations have started or are about to start: Lego Church with Margaret at Colnbrook and Poyle; Gospel Church with Anne at St Andrews; Breakfast Church at High Street; Prayers and Bears at Cookham Rise and Teatime for the Soul at Windsor with me. We had five teens and tweens at Life, the Universe and Pizza, led by Elanor on Friday and 12 under-12s at ALOUD!! the singing and ukulele group on Saturday.

As I prepare for a service at Windsor next week to celebrate the lives of those who died during the preceding lockdowns, we are already looking forward to growth and development around the Circuit. We serve a risen Saviour and on days like today when I have met still one more delightful baby waiting to be baptised and heard at the Circuit Leadership Team the work being done in all our churches I am so aware of it. Today we can look forward with worry, concerned that we will once more be locked down, that our freedoms will be taken from us and that fear will win, or we can look forward with hope and wonder that Christ Jesus lives today and walks among us on our streets, in our congregations and in the stillness of our hearts.

God bless.

Vicci

Every Day with Jesus & local news update

With the permission of Dr Micha Jazz, editor of Every Day with Jesus, here are his notes for 2 September, based on Psalm 89: 1-4 ‘I will declare that your love stands firm for ever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.’ (v 2)

Paul, writing to the Corinthian Church, states that ‘love never fails’ (1 Cor: 13:8a). Unfailing love can and will outlast everything. A church as fragmented as that in Corinth needed to heed his reminder to express such love.

Today, our model is Jesus, who emptied Himself to live on earth and whose love did not fail throughout all the agonies of injustice and execution He experienced. In moments of intense pressure, we need both to know the reality of, and invest our hope in, the unfailing love of God.

We seldom go to bed imagining that whilst asleep the world will radically change. There is some comfort in the regular rhythms offered by the seasons. Indeed, we navigate our days by the celebrations that mark out our year. Such rhythms give order and confidence to our daily lives.

When such rhythms are broken, through the loss of a loved one or the terror of a global pandemic, we can experience a rapid rise in stress. It’s important, therefore, to remind ourselves of God’s permanent and unfailing love, even as we feel blown this way and that by forces beyond our control. In it we discover the strength to go on.

This is why we declare our confidence in God’s never failing presence each and every day. Our verbal affirmation resonates throughout creation in affirmation of the Lord of the universe.

Related scripture to consider: 1 Kings 4:29-34; Psa. 62:1-8; Luke 1:46-55; 1 Cor. 2:1-10.

An action to take: Establish daily rhythms with God, in your prayer and Bible encounter, for only by standing on the rock, who is Christ, will we endure uncertain times (Matt. 7:24-29

A Prayer to make: ‘Lord, in peace we shall lie down and sleep, for You alone make us dwell in safety. Amen.’

Windsor ChurchFest took place last Sunday afternoon and was a great success for us and for the organisers, Churches Together in Windsor. Rev’d Vicci thanks everyone for their part in supporting this fantastic achievement. Those of us present felt that Vicci really put WMC in the spotlight for her brilliant concluding Service.

Church Fest this Sunday afternoon from 12.00 - 6pm

At Clewer Memorial Recreation Ground (aka Pirate Park) Each church in Windsor will be providing an activity to enjoy on the day. Bring your own picnic.

Each church in Windsor will be providing an activity to enjoy on the day. Bring your own picnic. The event will conclude with Community Worship led by our own minister, Rev'd Vicci Davidson. Please come and support our church and enjoy this family day out.

HELP NEEDED PLEASE! If you are able to help for an hour or two by manning our tent and handing out leaflets, balloons etc with a smile, please contact one of the Leadership Team