Sunday Letter

Benefice of St Mary’s Chard, Combe St Nicholas, Wambrook and Whitestaunton First Sunday after Trinity and the first in Ordinary time. Hi everyone, Today I am going to cut my front lawn, no big deal you may say quite rightly, but every year I leave it until about now when the cowslips, primroses, and violets have finished flowering in the lawn, also the dandelions have gone to seed as well. Every year I feel a bit guilty as daily I drive past the immaculate lawns around us, but I just can’t bear to hover over the beautiful flowers, and yes, I do love daisies too, our cowslips are gradually spreading as the seed is scattered by the mower. So, you can imagine how delighted I was to hear on the news that May had been “No Mow May” I had unintentionally taken part in it not hearing till the very end of the month that it had taken place. Joy and relief took over from guilt, I felt a tiny bit proud that I had taken part as well. Hearing the news on the radio changed the way I was feeling about the lawn, yes, it is in some ways an insignificant thing and hardly worth a mention and yet once I started to think about it, I wondered about how many times we hear or see something that changes our perception of life, possibly just a little and for some quite a bit. Affirmation allows us to feel wanted and cared about in lots of different contexts, it can come from neighbours, friends, family, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and through the media of life. This week’s reading from the Gospel challenges our thinking about family. Mary and Jesus’s brothers are worried about him and go to try and take him home for a while, this would seem perfectly reasonable Mark says “the crowd came about so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat” they are concerned about his well being and from the sounds of it his mental health in that moment. But we know from John ch 7:5 that his brothers did not believe in him, his mother would as a woman be powerless even though she did believe in him. He is early on in his ministry and going about preaching and healing many including those possessed by demons. He is noticed there is a growing following for him and his words of life. He clearly shows he has greater authority than the scribes, who here have come from Jerusalem to question him, they are being called to answer for their accusations against him. Jesus tells them that the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit cannot be called Satan, and that they utter blasphemy. The followers of Jesus have given up everything to come with him and there is an encouragement to them as Jesus identifies with them that we are all bothers and sisters and mothers in doing the will of God. Families can be places of strife and conflict, as well as places of love and nurture, Jesus is pointing us towards being part of the eternal family of God and enabling us to be blessed in all things eternally, regardless of our experience of human family. Be Blessed this week Rev Georgina