Sunday Service

 

Tom's Newsletter

 

Since beginning my role in September as a youth pioneer in Chard, my role has been focused on understanding what life is like for young people growing up and living in the area, and how this could shape how the church engages with young people in their own contexts. One key aspect of this process has been coming alongside existing youth work projects within Chard, supporting their work and at the same time getting to know young people in the area. This has been a great experience, and I feel that a lot of important relationship building has been able to happen as a result.

 The next step is to look at how the church can step out in a project of its own to engage with young people and explore what Christian community might look like in a different way. I believe that the first part of this will be to deliver detached youth work in Chard, something that has been missing in the community for the past few years. Detached youth work is when we spend time with young people in the places they like to hang out in. There is no set activity or structure to the sessions, but rather opportunities to have conversations with young people, listen to their stories and be a positive presence for the time we are there, building relationships with young people on their own terms.

The aim is for there to be a team of volunteers who have been trained and ready to deliver this detached work in September. This means that between now and summer, the focus of the pioneer work will be towards building a team, praying together, and making sure that all necessary training and safeguarding checks are in place. The hope is that this project will be something that all churches in Chard can be a part of, and that together we will see God transforming lives and spaces in the community in powerful ways. There is plenty of space to come on board, and if you would like to be involved in some way then it would be great to have a chat about what that could look like. I’m certainly very excited about what God will be doing in young people’s lives and am looking forward to seeing where He takes us on this journey together.

I am also providing training and support for similar work in Ilminster and hope, soon, to be able to meet with members of churches in the villages who would like to undertake some outreach to their young people.

It goes without saying that I would appreciate your prayers for our young people, for the coming together of a team of volunteers and for where God will be leading us in the coming year.

 

Tom Tame

Chard Youth Pioneer

Tomtame7@gmail.com

Sunday Letter Feb 28

 

Benefice of St Mary’s Chard, Combe St Nicholas, Wambrook and Whitestaunton

 

28^th February 2021  Second Sunday of Lent

 

Dear All

 

On Monday, we held the first session of our Zoom Lent course.  The reading we looked at is from Exodus Chapter 3:

 

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of my favourite readings from the Old Testament.  Here we learn a great deal about the nature of God and his love for his people.

 

But we also learn that when God called Moses he did not leave him to carry out His will on his own.  Firstly, God promises Moses that he will never be on his own.  Later, God also sends Aaron to help Moses, to be his ‘voice’. 

 

God calls us to do His work here on earth, but He will never leave us unequipped.  Firstly, he is always with us, through thick and thin, when the going is easy and, most especially when the going gets tough.  However, he will also provide us with what we need for the task, in the shape of others to support, care and pray for us.

 

Whilst I was training for ministry, my father and best friend both died.  They had been two of my greatest supporters and sources of encouragement.  I wondered if I would get through the rest of the training, but shortly after my father died, we had a new associate minister arrive at my church from Texas.  He was, and remains, a wonderful mentor and friend and he came just as I was wavering and full of fear.  God did not leave me alone but equipped me to carry on.

 

Secondly, God calls Moses while he is out tending his flock, something he did every day.  We may not see a burning bush, but God most often calls us through the everyday, the commonplace and the familiar.  Some people are called, like Moses, to completely change their lives, to take risks and put themselves in challenging places.  Others have quieter callings, to be the light of Christ where they are, in their community, among their friends and family.

 

Whatever our own calling and response to God, one thing is sure.  That we never know when we are standing on holy ground.  Even in the ordinariness of our lives, we never know when we are going to encounter God and what he might be calling us to do.  I am always reminded of one of the last lines of one of my favourite books by J D Salinger: “Seymour once said that all we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next”.

 

With this letter is a newsletter from Tom Tame, our Youth Pioneer, working in Chard and around the Deanery.  Tom answered God’s call to move to Somerset and take up this work, trusting that God would not leave him on his own.  He is already equipping himself by building up a team of volunteers to go out and meet with youngsters where they congregate.  Tom is supported by the Diocese and through networks of other pioneers.  He is now asking for our support by asking us to pray for him.   I hope that you will do this as he sets out on this exciting venture and pray that he will find holy ground in many different places.

 

 

 

 

At the end of our Lent course, we were asked to take the following prayer from the Book of Numbers and say it quietly or silently for some of the people we talk to or pass by, for homes of people we know and for schools, offices, shops and farms we may pass on our walks.  We might also say it for people or situations that we see on our TVs or hear about on our radios:

 

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.”   (Numbers 6: 24-26)

 

A simple prayer, but if we were all to be silently saying this for others, think how powerful that would be.

 

Every blessing

 

Ann

Sunday Letter

 

Benefice of St Mary’s Chard, Combe St Nicholas, Wambrook and Whitestaunton

Letter for Feb 21^st 2021

 

God’s Covenant with his people never to flood the whole land again is the message of our first reading this week.

And haven’t rainbows featured large in lockdown, there are still rainbows in peoples windows and on their fences placed there as a sign of unity and thankfulness for the NHS and all working on the frontline of helping those suffering from Corona virus. The rainbow has been used as a sign of peace throughout the years a place of non conflict and protest peacefully. It has been used as a symbol for the Gay Pride movement  on rallies since 1978. We hear people talk about their pet having gone over the rainbow when they pass away.

Rainbows are a sign to gladden our hearts when we see it in the sky and as a symbol around us. And who can forget the colorful rainbow jumper of Nick Aston on the Time Team programmes. I have just received a bag of rainbow colours in the post to make two rainbow jumpers for our little Granchildren who love to see them in the sky.

Rainbows cheer and encourage us when it rains and the sunshines through, that all is not lost that God has placed it to remind us that he watches over us, and who doesn’t love a double one.

 

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, we came before God to ask for forgiveness where we have carried on in our own sweet ways, to have the opportunity to reflect in these 40 days of wilderness time, on the challenges that lie in each of our lives, the things that obsess us, or take us away from God. A chance to do something different that can re-align our focus back to the path. We used the symbol of ash rather than receiving it upon ourselves directly. We are encouraged to take something up rather than just lying down.

Be inspired if you can, in ways that interest you and that you can engage with.

We are going to come together as community to look at Jesus the light of the world in our Lent Course, which is on Monday mornings 10.30. Can I encourage you to come, as we share ideas together and look at scripture, even if you can’t make every week, do what you can. If you are reading this and thinking I can’t come because I don’t have a computer or do zoom, come in on the telephone, it costs no more than a local call and you can fully participate.

In fact maybe the challenge for you could be to come to the Lent Course especially if you have never been to one before, make this the new thing for this year.

 

In Mark, he wants us to see that God’s love was being shown on the day Jesus went down into the water of Baptism in the Jordan, John protesting, Jesus insisting, (not in Mark though) and the Holy Spirit coming upon him to equip him for the ministry, but first the challenge of the temptation in the wilderness.

The place where the Spirit leads him where there is conflict and tempation to be faced.

 

Charles Royden writes:  “Jesus is shown tempted, surrounded by wild beast and angels. Many people will be able to look inside their own souls and understand the imagery of beasts and angels, the good and the bad at war within our own spiritual nature. In placing Jesus with wild beasts in the wilderness, Mark is making an important point. Protection from wild beasts was considered a sign of God’s blessing, remember Daniel and the lions? Yet there is more than this, the episode has the message of paradise restored. Where Adam had failed, Jesus was now setting things right. The peaceful existence with wild animals, the service of angels, overcoming Satan, all form part of the new order which Jesus brings. No wonder Jesus is shown to speak the words ‘ The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

 

We are told that he is also "with the wild beasts." What is meant by this reference to wild beasts ? People in the first century might have identified the "wild beasts" with those spoken of by the prophet Daniel: "I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another (7:2)." The "great beasts" of Daniel have been identified as the political powers of the world, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Mark might therefore be proposing this confrontation: Satan and worldly political powers on the one side versus Jesus and the angels on the other. This theme will continue throughout Mark, for we are reminded that the worldly political powers are continuing to assert their influence. Immediately after Jesus' encounter in the wilderness, Mark tells us that John the Baptist has just been arrested by those same powers. Throughout the Gospel, Mark delivers a devastating political commentary. He is saying that the powers of the world--the Jerusalem establishment and Rome--are in league with Satan. Jesus' struggle with these demonic powers takes place in the political realm, i.e. this world, but Mark also wants his readers to understand that that struggle is also a spiritual, i.e. cosmic, battle.”

 

Yes that battle goes on still today. Be equipped and armoured in the Holy Spirit to face the struggles of each day, but also to receive the wonders of God’s love for you as we begin this Lentern journey into the wilderness

 

A poem for us.                                          

We bring to God

As we contemplate the luxury

of wilderness,

as we crave the beauty of peace,

as we long for the tranquility

of space carved out

in which to meet the living God,

 

We bring to God

those whose days seem endless,

whose lives seem too full of quiet,

who long for the clamour and noise

of the loved ones they have lost,

and for tasks to fill up their days.

We bring to God

those filled with bitterness and resentment

at brutality and injustice,

those whom God welcomes and longs

to cradle in love.

 

As we contemplate Lenten austerity

we bring to God

those who experience real poverty and need,

day after day after day …

 

And we know that the Christ of the wilderness

hangs back, slowing his step

so that he can walk alongside all

who are bowed down

with the heavy burden

that life has become.

 

 

The Christ of the wilderness

offers food for the journey,

healing for the road,

strength for the weary,

comfort for the sorrowing,

grace, peace and love.

Thanks be to God. Amen

 

Liz Crumlish, Spill the Beans

 

Be Blessed

Rev, George Vye

 

Rev’d Georgina

Sunday Service Before Lent

 

Sunday Newsletter

 

Benefice of St Mary’s Chard, Combe St Nicholas, Wambrook and Whitestaunton

 

14th February – Sunday before Lent

Dear Friends

Have you ever said anything on the spur of the moment, then deeply regretted it afterwards?  I know I have….

In today’s Gospel reading Peter, along with James and John, witnesses Jesus’ transfiguration and blurts out that he and the others should set up three shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.  Then we have the statement in brackets, “He did not know what to say, they were so frightened”.

What must have been going through Peter’s mind?  What could he have made of this revelation of Jesus’ glory as the Christ? 

Peter is someone who we can identify with so strongly in the gospels because he so often gets it wrong.  I doubt we would have done better. 

Peter’s instinct is to preserve the moment for ever, to keep Jesus in his blazing white and Moses and Elijah with him in shelters.  It was in some ways a very natural reaction.  When something wonderful happens to us, we feel like we want to preserve it for ever and, of course, we have the means at our disposal in photographs, videos and on our computers. 

Peter, however, by wanting to keep the transfigured Jesus in a shelter, has completely misunderstood the meaning of the transfiguration.

The story of the transfiguration comes in Chapter 9 of Mark’s Gospel.  This is at the half-way point of the gospel and marks the transition from Jesus’s early ministry to his journey to Jerusalem, his death and resurrection.  From this point in Mark’s gospel Jesus is travelling to Jerusalem and his inevitable death on the cross.

The transfiguration is Jesus showing his most trusted disciples his true nature as part of the Godhead. He then tells them not to tell anyone what they have seen until after ‘the Son of Man is risen from the dead’.  The disciples do not understand what this means and later in the same chapter when Jesus again foretells his death, the disciples again fail to understand.

Peter wants to preserve Jesus in his glory but, along with the other disciples, does not understand Jesus’ predictions of his suffering and death.  This is not how things were meant to turn out.  How can someone who has revealed himself as divine, someone who claims to be the Messiah, now be speaking of his physical suffering and death?

This is a turning point in Mark’s gospel, and it takes the disciples the whole of the rest of the gospel to understand what it is that Jesus is telling them.

We too are standing at a turning point, both in terms of the church year and also in what is happening in our collective lives.

Having just celebrated the end of the Epiphany season, next week we enter Lent and for forty days we travel to the cross with Jesus. We are also, it seems, at a turning point in the fight against the Coronavirus, as more and more people receive the vaccine and politicians begin to speak tentatively about a ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown.

We have been celebrating Jesus as the light of the world, and now through Lent we will see him as the suffering servant.  Before we do, however,  today we are reminded of Jesus’ glory and majesty.  For Jesus is both things.  He is both part of the divine Godhead, and also the one who has to suffer and die for our sakes.  This is the point on which our faith pivots.  God, who is pure divinity, becoming fully human so that he may take on himself all of our pain, all of our brokenness, all of our wilful wrongdoing.

Jesus in his glory cannot be contained in any shelter that Peter could construct.  He has to go through his passion and resurrection on our behalf and because of that he becomes the universal Christ – the glory and majesty of God that cannot be contained.  His mercy, justice and peace is now out in the world and cannot be limited.

So, why do we, so often, try and contain Christ?  Why do we try and limit what God, through Christ, can do?  At times, we want to keep him at a distance, keep him only for Sundays.  We fail  to see him in the faces of others, particularly those who are different from us. We shy away from talking about him out of embarrassment or fear of ridicule.

Would we, like Peter, prefer a contained Jesus, safely in his shelter and not really bothering us.  However, as Peter learns this is not how it works.  For Peter, the disciple, who so often gets it wrong, on the day of Pentecost, is transformed into one of the first great Apostles, telling the good news of Jesus Christ and dying for his faith.

This Lent, in whatever way we can, let us consider how we can open ourselves up more to the call of Jesus to follow him.  We don’t have to make grand gestures or change our lives dramatically, but we do have to pay attention to our attitudes and behaviour towards others, to the way we live, and how we might show in these two things the limitless mercy, grace, and love of God, shown to us in Jesus Christ.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, and we will be holding Morning Prayer at 9.30 am and a service at 2.00 pm. We will be running a Lent Course which will take place at 10.30 am each Monday in Lent, beginning on Monday 22^nd February.  If there are any of you who would prefer an evening for the Lent course please let either myself or Georgina know and, if we have enough people, we will run the course on Monday evenings.

All these events will be happening via Zoom and you will be sent the invitations well in advance.

Every blessing

 

Ann