Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci

Friends

Once more the Christmas decorations have returned to the attic, the Christmas cards have been noted and recycled, the midnight bells have sounded and a new year has dawned.  The wise men have journeyed to Bethlehem and met with the child and his mother, gifts have been given and we are once more in Ordinary Time – that time that is known in Godly Play as “Great, Green, Growing Time.” 

My mother once told me that she loved raspberries best when she was eating raspberries and strawberries best when she was eating strawberries, and I understand that because I love the Great, Green, Growing time of the Ordinary Seasons best when I am in them, and the wonderful excitements of the Holy Days when I am in those. 

We have a very short period of Ordinary Time this winter because Easter is early, falling as it does on the 31st of March and Ash Wednesday clashing whti Valentine’s Day on the 14th of February.

But before then, in these next few weeks of Ordinary Time, disciples will be called, unclean spirits will be cast out, sickness will be healed, and a preaching tour begun, as we hear the old, familiar stories of the early ministry of Jesus.  The speed of the story will be at odds with the news in our own times, when newspapers report that there were fewer people in church over Christmas, and we share our frustration at the impossibility of getting a G.P.’s appointment or the wait for a hospital visit.  While ministers and preachers speak of their busy-ness, the idea that someone might have the time to go on a preaching tour seems laughable.  Yet in these five weeks of story, we hear our own history reiterated, not just as Christians, but as Methodists.  We too have been called to be disciples and with that calling came the in-dwelling Holy Spirit that leaves no space for spirits of other sorts.  John Wesley, one of our most significant founders, wrote a book of homeopathic medicine because he wanted to give access to healthcare to those who could not afford to pay for doctors, and our system of local preachers and itinerant ministry is rooted in the idea of a preaching tour round the circuit for local preachers and round the Connexion for ministers.  As we journey through Ordinary Time, we journey through our own history as “the People Called Methodists” and we hear again the great call to go into all the world and share the Gospel story. 

God bless, Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci

Friends

Happy New Year to you all!  I hope that it has been a good Christmas period for you and I expect that you and I both are settling down to that period of time in the New Year where the holidays have passed, but we are still occasionally caught out and end up writing 2023 when we meant 2024. 

Over the Christmas holiday, I have been reading a book called “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman and I have been particularly interested in what he calls “brain priming”.  This works on the idea that our brains work differently depending on what we set them off thinking of.  So for example, if I talk to you about the importance of washing and ask you whether you prefer a bath or a shower and then show you the letters “S O – P” you are more likely to think that the missing letter is “A”, whereas if I talk to you about lunch preferences, you are more likely to think that it is “U”.  It’s the same phenomenon that means if you ask someone to spell “toast” three times and then ask them what you put in the toaster, they will usually say “toast” whereas the answer is “bread” or if you ask them to spell “milk” three times and then ask them what cows drink, they will answer “milk” whereas the answer is “water”.  Brain priming has been understood as mediated through jokes/brain teasers like these for years, but perhaps only now has it been scientifically observed and analysed.

What it means for us as Christians is, I think, quite significant.  If we start the day with prayer and Bible reading, and the week with worship and listening to a thought-provoking sermon, we prime our brain to be open to the activity of God.  If spelling “milk” three times makes us more likely to assert that “milk” is what cows drink, think how more keyed in to the presence of God we are likely to be if we have started our day and week with thinking about him.  The more we pray, the more we are opening our minds to both ask and answer the question: “Where was God in that?” 

I don’t think that it is helpful for us to suddenly embark on a two hours a day prayer and Bible Study habit if we are used to the occasional prayer time and some quick arrow prayers in times of need, but I do think that the concept of “brain priming” does help us understand one of the reasons why it is good to try to pray more, to read our Bibles more, to go to church as regularly as possible. 

God bless, Vicci

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci

Friends

Those of you who came to the concert on the 2nd of December at Windsor Methodist Church would have heard me read that wonderful series of letters imagined by the hilarious John Julius Norwich and suggesting the reality of being on the receiving end of the gifts of the 12 Days of Christmas.  Having been really rather pleased with the five gold rings (“lovelier in a way than birds which do take rather a lot of looking after”) our heroine, Emily, becomes increasingly distressed with cows chomping on the herbaceous borders and leaping Lords chasing dancing ladies all over the lawns, until she is forced to require the help of a firm of solicitors. 

We all enjoy a rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas, but the song, and the comic book, reference a more serious point which is that Christmas is a 12 day feast from Christmas Day itself until Epiphany on the 6th of January.  Yet so often, once we have done with Christmas Day, we don’t quite know what to do with the odd in-between-time that leads up to New Year and never quite feels like proper days – we often forget which date we are on in that week – and then there is New Year and with a sigh of relief we get back to normality.  We probably spent too long doing Christmassy things in Advent and are all Christmassed out. 

Yet that was not how it once was.  Advent was a serious time of waiting and preparation, sombre, thoughtful, Christmas Eve was a day of fasting and then Christmas Day itself was the beginning of 12 days of feasting and of present opening.  It never was that all the presents would be opened in one fell swoop, but instead a present a day over the twelve days.  It is hard to maintain the “not Christmas yet” feel of Advent when I keep being asked to go to Christmas parties and tell the story of Christmas at schools etc. but somehow this year, with all the political and financial difficulties, and the uptick in international violence, Advent has felt more solemn, more serious, less Christmassy.  My prayer is, for all of us, that this will increase our sense of joy when Christmas arrives and that we might even be able to celebrate the season as it was in days of yore when for 12 days we would feast and rejoice that a virgin had conceived and born a son and that his name was Emmanuel: God with us. 

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

God bless

Vicci

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci

Friends

Every year when we get to December, we in the Church find ourselves living simultaneously in secular and religious worlds.  Secular because Christmas is coming and we need to buy and wrap gifts, support schools, children and grand-children in Christmas activities, take part in Christmas Fairs and so on; and religious because Christmas has not yet come, and the great season of preparation that is Advent has only just begun. 

Theologically, we talk about the “now and not yet” of Christ’s Kingdom.  We know that we are living in the “Kingdom of God” which is justice and truth.  We know that Jesus came to proclaim that the Kingdom had come.  Yet, God’s Kingdom has not been perfected in our imperfect and sinful world.  As with Christ’s birth, and Advent through which we now journey towards the annual celebration of Christmas, we live in the now and not yet.  Christmas has come, and Christmas is coming.  We live differently because we believe that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it was a world-changing event.  Because of that, we want to take time to reflect on what it means that Jesus came.  In addition, although the Christmas festival we wait and prepare for is a commemoration of a birthday long ago, at the same time, we are preparing for the coming of Jesus in the future, an event that we can’t really fully or even partially comprehend.   In effect, we stand in the middle of a see-saw and try to maintain our balance. 

Standing in both worlds, to maintain our equilibrium among sacred and profane, we model the life we must live throughout the year.  A life that recognises that “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again” and yet also seeks to be a part of God’s economy that will enact Christ’s affirmation that he has come “that they may have life in all its fullness.”  To that end, we seek to spend time apart from the world in prayer and worship, and we also throw ourselves into the world to support refugees, the homeless, those in need through ill health, poverty and bad luck.  We are creatures of contradictions: kind and loving, and fierce and determined.  Sometimes those are good attributes and sometimes our kindness is weakness and our fierceness is hurtful.  As we pass through the contradictions of Advent in our era, let’s spare a thought for the contradictions in ourselves.  For as we balance these different approaches between being and doing; praying and acting; waiting and celebrating, we find something afresh of the “now and not yet” of the Kingdom of God. 

God bless, Vicci

Friends

Every year when we get to December, we in the Church find ourselves living simultaneously in secular and religious worlds. Secular because Christmas is coming and we need to buy and wrap gifts, support schools, children and grand-children in Christmas activities, take part in Christmas Fairs and so on; and religious because Christmas has not yet come, and the great season of preparation that is Advent has only just begun.

Theologically, we talk about the “now and not yet” of Christ’s Kingdom. We know that we are living in the “Kingdom of God” which is justice and truth. We know that Jesus came to proclaim that the Kingdom had come. Yet, God’s Kingdom has not been perfected in our imperfect and sinful world. As with Christ’s birth, and Advent through which we now journey towards the annual celebration of Christmas, we live in the now and not yet. Christmas has come, and Christmas is coming. We live differently because we believe that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it was a world-changing event. Because of that, we want to take time to reflect on what it means that Jesus came. In addition, although the Christmas festival we wait and prepare for is a commemoration of a birthday long ago, at the same time, we are preparing for the coming of Jesus in the future, an event that we can’t really fully or even partially comprehend. In effect, we stand in the middle of a see-saw and try to maintain our balance. Standing in both worlds, to maintain our equilibrium among sacred and profane, we model the life we must live throughout the year. A life that recognises that “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again” and yet also seeks to be a part of God’s economy that will enact Christ’s affirmation that he has come “that they may have life in all its fullness.” To that end, we seek to spend time apart from the world in prayer and worship, and we also throw ourselves into the world to support refugees, the homeless, those in need through ill health, poverty and bad luck. We are creatures of contradictions: kind and loving, and fierce and determined. Sometimes those are good attributes and sometimes our kindness is weakness and our fierceness is hurtful. As we pass through the contradictions of Advent in our era, let’s spare a thought for the contradictions in ourselves. For as we balance these different approaches between being and doing; praying and acting; waiting and celebrating, we find something afresh of the “now and not yet” of the Kingdom of God.

God bless,

Vicci

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci

The Parable of the Talents

 

Once upon a time there were three children and they all had a talent for drawing.  One of them was born into a well-off, creative family.  They encouraged him by subscribing to art boxes, art clubs, art classes and eventually helped him to go to art college.  He completed his training, worked as a landscape painter in his spare time and as a graphic designer for a big London company.  He was able to buy a house and take holidays abroad where he visited wonderful art galleries and encouraged his own children in their artistic journeying.  Later on in life, he was able to focus entirely on his landscape painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy and became remembered as a minor but important artist in the 21st century British pastoral tradition.  He died happy, with enough money to leave his family provided for and few regrets.

The second child was born into a poorer family, but they were supportive and encouraged her to engage with the various free arts activities the school and church offered.  She was able to take a degree in illustration and design and made a living as an art teacher.  She has illustrated six books to date and gets better with each one.  Sooner or later, she will probably write her own children’s book to go with some of her illustrations and we’ll see what the market makes of her.  I think that she’s going to do rather well.

The third child had no access to drawing materials or art classes.  He was difficult at school and was punished by not being allowed to do the “fun” stuff.  His most artistic creations were the graffiti he daubed on the local school and church.  He ended up in jail and struggled to find work when he came out. 

Who should be investing in their talents?  They themselves?  Or society around them? 

(Vicci Davidson: 2019)

Friends

As always, this last week has been rather busy. We have had Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and on Sunday Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night. The week 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 and more than a few of the news items on our televisions or in our newspapers have religious implications.

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, 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

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

As I wake up this morning to news of antisemitic rallies in England and a Palestinian child knifed to death by a well-loved landlord in America, to stories of rockets fired on Jerusalem and no signs of the much-needed humanitarian corridor out of Gaza, I simply don’t know what to write.  A 40-year-employed cartoonist is sacked from the Guardian newspaper for submitting a cartoon that is believed to be anti-Semitic and Jewish schools were closed in London on Friday for fear for the children’s safety.  Whatever our stance on the geo-political situation in the Holy Lands, this is war with dreadful consequences for the region.  However hard Israel tries to minimise civilian casualties, and they are meeting with President Biden today to discuss how that will be done, all war has civilian casualties.  Further, Hamas has no such qualms and there has already been more than enough pain to go around.

I was asked on Sunday why I hadn’t mentioned the situation in my sermon.  I pointed out I had led prayers for the region but that I don’t know enough about the complexities of the situation to preach on it.  We hold to the lectionary and in looking at how it dialogues with the world today, I chose on Sunday to speak of our destruction of the planet in the morning, the promise of a joyful harvest, even when sowing in tears in the afternoon and the difficulties in remembering God when our lives are easy in the evening.  These things remain important even in the face of significant “war and rumours of war” in our world today.  While we continue to consume irresponsibly, wars will be fought over resources and land.  Yet we do have a promise that those who “go out weeping carrying seed with them will return in joy, carrying their sheaves”. 

In this situation there is little we can do.  We can contribute to disaster relief; we can reach out to those we know in the community who, by reason of Jewish or Palestinian background, may be experiencing fear or grief; we must pray.  For we follow the Prince of Peace, we work on behalf of the wonderful counsellor, we are the children of the everlasting Father.  At 12noon Friday the 27th of October, after Bible Study at Burnham Methodist Church, I will lead a short service of prayers for peace and reconciliation at Burnham.  There will be the opportunity to pray, to reflect and to light candles.  If you are unable to join us, you may like to light your own candle and pray where you are at that time. 

 

God bless, Vicci.

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci

Friends

We have an exciting series of events coming up between now and Christmas.  On the 21st of October, celebrated Christian singer-songwriter Rob Halligan is coming to Windsor Methodist Church for a 7pm concert.  On the 18th of November at 2:30 at Burnham, Vicci, Mark and a cast drawn from Windsor, Burnham, Cookham Rise and High Street are performing an Old Time Music Hall and on the 2nd of December at 2:30 at Windsor, Vicci and Paul Leddington-Wright are putting on a concert of mainly classical singing and organ music entitled “Through Advent to Christmas.”  It is planned to repeat the Old Time Music Hall show at Cookham Rise on a Friday in November, but that date is still to be confirmed.  Then we have the round of Messy Churches, Live Nativities, Christingles, Carol Services, Christmas lunches and so on to fill December to the brim. 

It is so easy to find entertainment today through our televisions and computers, but in the time of Jesus and until only about a hundred years ago there were only the events put on by the community to keep people amused.  The first public radio broadcast in the UK took place on the 15th of June 1920 – not long ago at all in the grand scheme of things.  As we have developed increasingly cheap technology, it has become more than possible for each of us to enjoy the kind of entertainment we want, without leaving our houses and with no need to share it even with our nearest and dearest.  It is rare indeed now for the entire family to gather together around the radio or television.

As we worry about the mental health and wellbeing of a fractured society, riven with loneliness, these simple concerts and events that run through the church calendar between now and Christmas become important times to gather together friends and relatives and spend time in each other’s company.  As it says in Hebrews 10:25 we should be “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  As we move through these social events towards Christmas, we shall once more start to think about the future coming of our Lord.  What does “the Day approaching” mean?  What will it look like!  Are we ready?  Although Paul was speaking about gathering together for worship when he wrote these words, the opportunity to gather together at all, and to invite non-Church-going friends, is one worth taking.  Hope to see you there!

God bless, Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci

Friends

As we all return from leave, I have been reflecting on the need for rest, the God-given opportunity for rest, and the way in which we struggle to take it in our stressful times.

My nana prepared the Sunday lunch on Saturday afternoon.

Carefully she peeled the potatoes,

Scrubbed the carrots, shelled the peas,

Prepared the chicken, removing the giblets

Filling it with stuffing, rubbing the flesh with lemon and butter

Covering it loosely with tin-foil and placing everything in the fridge

The potatoes in their own bowl of water to prevent discolouration

The pudding prepared,

The whole meal needing only the application of heat.

 

In the morning, the chicken in the oven on a time

And the whole family off to church

With anxious glances at watches

If an over-enthusiastic preacher strayed too far

Beyond the glorious, golden hour of worship.

 

Such days, such preparation brought a rhythm to the week

That we perhaps lack in these busy, pre-packed, pre-packaged days,

But still if we listen, we may yet hear the voice of God wondering

Will they trust me to provide

For one day of rest in these times of travel and of travail? 

 

God bless,

Vicci

Summer Holidays

I hope everyone is enjoying a well earned break and making the most of the long summer days?

There are lots of exciting services and activities coming up at Windsor Methodist Church during the next few months, keep and eye on the website diary for the latest information. We’ll look forward to seeing you there!

Blessings,

Sue

A reflection by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

As I write my final reflection of the church year, and the various newsletter editors take a well-earned break for the month of August, I am reminded of the extraordinary gift we were given when God created rest.  Genesis 2:2-3 tells us: “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” 

In the ancient Hebrew understanding, this was the only time that God rested – just the once and not every week – as he is constantly at work upholding, sustaining and supporting his Creation.  Indeed, it would make a mockery of all we try to do on a Sunday if God was resting!  God surely does not need to rest, but we do.  In his infinite wisdom, God created rest and the idea of a day off a week which was un-known among the tribes of the Ancient Near East and unique to the Hebrew experience. 

After the creation of the Church at Pentecost, there were many martyrs and initially, each of them were given a day to be remembered upon.  For example, St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, has his saint’s day on Boxing Day.  Christians would have these days as holidays (holy days) to reflect and pray, but eventually there became too many of them and they were all encapsulated in All Saints’ Day on the 1st of November.  But the idea of Holy Days as days off for rest, recuperation and reflection held – to say nothing of the Mediaeval fairs -  and so we have our annual “holidays” now.  It is a sad thing that increasingly this is referred to not as “holiday” but as “leave” – short for “leave of absence”.  What were days to reflect on the power and impact of the Gospel story and those who were prepared to die for it, have become days on which we have permission not to be at work.  The result is still the same – days off for the work force – but it helps us to forget that all of this has come from an understanding that God, who created the earth and the heavens and all that was in them and saw that they were good recognised that we too needed time to reflect on the goodness of creation.   As the poet WH Davies said, “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.”

Have a great summer holiday.

God bless

Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

Isaiah 40:28b – 31 tells us: The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and grow weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

I was reminded of these verses on Monday when I had my day off; which is rather ironic if you come to think of it.  I look after my grand-daughter on Mondays and I am trying to get as much quality “granny-time” in as I can because in September, she will be going to school.  We went to Jungle-mania, which is a soft play centre out in Bourne End, and then we did some cooking and baking together and played various games.  By the end of the day, I was exhausted.  However, I have offered to go into Wexham Park hospital two evenings a month, one Monday and one Saturday, to support young people who have been or are being admitted for self-harming, eating disorders and suicidal ideation or attempt.  It is really important work and Monday was my third time of shadowing. 

By 7:30 which is when I have to leave for the hospital, I was almost (but not quite) at the point of praying for a reason not to go.  However, this is not how adults behave and so at the appointed time I drove to the hospital and started my session.  I didn’t at the time think of these verses from Isaiah, but even so, I knew that I would be given the necessary energy to do the work,  and I was.  As we walked through the hospital corridors to our first ward, praying for the hospital around us and for the people we would meet, I felt my energy come back and was sustained through the two and a half hours we were there.  God doesn’t often mess around with my diary (although it has been known to happen that I have suddenly had an unexpected bit of free time when I needed it) but he always gives us the strength and the grace that we need for the day. 

Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing today, my prayer is that you will know his support as you do it. 

God bless

Vicci

Rev'd Vicci's thought for the week

Friends

I don’t know about you, but over and over at the moment, I am presented with evidence of the lasting impact of the previous few years on our mental health.  It is no secret that our young people are struggling, or that the single biggest killer of people between the ages of 12 and 35 in this country is suicide.  Nor is it a secret that things have been done and decisions made by those in power that we have a right to be angry about. 

Martin Luther King says, “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.  He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”   Jesus told Peter, when asked how many times he should forgive: seventy times seven.  These powerful statements are important, although they don’t require of us that we put ourselves in the position where the person can do the same thing again. 

It has been said that “To err is human, to forgive, divine” and perhaps that is the ultimate answer.  We struggle to forgive and keep on forgiving, God does not.  We are told in Lamentations 23:22-24 that “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’”

As we continue to reap the bitter fruits of Brexit and Covid, it is right that where we have been lied to, those lies are exposed.  It is right that truth is told and that anger is allowed to be expressed.  Then I would suggest, we need to dig deep and forgive: our leaders for not having the plans, or perhaps the integrity, we had hoped for; ourselves for not being able to somehow do it better (as if somehow we could have!); and all the various scapegoats that will be presented to us, fairly or unfairly, as the days go by.  These three things: truth, anger and forgiveness may need to be told, believed, experienced, expressed, offered and received before we can move on to address the terrible impact that the last three years, and possibly the last seven, have had upon our psyche as individuals, as communities and as a nation.  We praise God that we have a pattern to follow that shows us how to do truth, anger and forgiveness and that God’s love for us is new every morning, whether we deserve it or not. 

God bless

Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

I wonder if, like me, you have a chore that you don’t particularly enjoy until you remember what it replaced?  My last job of the evening is usually to unload the dishwasher and re-load it with the dinner things before setting it going and my first job in the morning is to unload it and put in the breakfast things.  With six of us in the manse, and eight on alternate weekends, we are usually a two-loads a day family.  This morning as I emptied it, I was grumbling to myself that I didn’t enjoy doing it and I suddenly remembered those early married years when we did all the washing-up by hand.  The excitement of our first dishwasher has disappeared in the daily rhythms of life and now, loading and unloading it are just one more chore.  I feel exactly the same about the laundry, even though as a child we lived without electricity for nearly ten years and had to hand-wash everything.  Times change, and so does our perception. 

This morning however, having caught myself in my negative thinking, I realised that I have fallen out of that old habit that my mother, and I expect many of our parents, taught us.  That of “counting our blessings.”  The old hymn that some of you may remember singing has gone out of fashion and perhaps so has counting the wonderful gifts in our lives. 

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost

Count your many blessings, name them one by one

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one

Count your many blessings, see what God has done.

1 Thessalonions 5:16-18 tell us: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” and who can forget the beautiful lyricism of Irving Berlin’s song from White Christmas:

When I’m worried and I can’t sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep, counting my blessings.

In this day and age of entitlement and knowing our rights, I wonder if it’s time to revive this spiritual habit?

God bless, Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

Sunday the 2nd of July is the UK’s third annual Thank You Day.  According to the Thank You Day website, over the past two years, 15 million people have taken part in this opportunity to say thank you for everyone and everything that make our communities great places to live in and to get connected with the people they live alongside all the year round. 

The idea is simply to remember and give thanks for people who have helped us, recognising that there are many people out there that we want to thank and that we don’t often take the time to do it.

Christians have always understood the importance of thanksgiving and the pages of the Bible are full of songs of thanksgiving.  However, we may also have grown up with the verses from Matthew 6 that begin: Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

The problem with this is that we can take it further as if it means “Don’t say thank you to me because then God won’t reward me.”  As a child, I knew certain adults who if you said, “Thank you” for something would say “Hush, you’re taking away my crowns in heaven.”   Purposefully or accidentally, this has come to mean that we don’t always remember to say thank you to people for things done in church.   The rationale is that they are done for God and therefore it is not for us to thank them, but we all benefit from the time and talent given in our worship and church life.  So I would like to say “Thank you”.  Thank you to the stewards and those who deal with the finance, property, safeguarding, GDPR and other administrative tasks.  Thank you to those who lead Junior Church, toddlers, ShoutAloud!, Geese and all those groups that work with children.  Thank you to those who organise coffee mornings, Thursday Circle.  Thank you to those who pray, formally or informally, to the musicians and Bible Study leaders, to the AV teams and those who take part in acts of worship, pastoral work, outreach online and in person and things that I may have forgotten, but without which nothing that we do would be as good as it currently is.  Thank you to those of you who offer lifts, pick up shopping and drop newsletters into letter boxes.  You will undoubtedly have your reward in heaven, but in the meantime, on behalf of all of us, thank you! 

God bless,

Vicci.  

 

 

Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

I was talking to a friend of mine last week who was passing through on her way from another part of the country.  She was speaking of the palpable sense of the Holy Spirit that she had felt when visiting a particular church which she has since joined, and I came face to face once more with that particular thing that I have found which is that for many of us, the moments when we truly feel the Spirit moving are when we are really singing praise to God in a community of people who are also singing praise.  I have often worried about this, because I usually associate that with really great church musicians, and we are not overly blessed with those at the moment.  However, it came to me last Sunday, that although the musicians help, it is the whole-hearted singing that gives the real sense of God’s presence.  Can we, I wonder, still achieve that without a top-flight organist or a talented band?  Is it a requirement for us to have those in order to sing, or are we able ourselves to sing with such joy to the Lord that the accompaniment doesn’t matter? 

I think of moments when the style of accompaniment has seemed irrelevant and we have really rocked them in the aisles.  Of course, it helps if the songs are known, I do recognise that, and sometimes I think you will know a hymn because I know it and after all, you don’t.  However, I wonder also if there is something about our natural reticence that stops us really singing out.  Miriam in her time and David in his leading the people in a processional dance of praise feels a little awkward to many of us.  Yet we are the people of God whose desire is to praise him.  I wonder, even backed by the hymnal as many of us are nowadays, whether we can’t find that place where the praising of God seems to flow through us and join with the rest of the congregation in something that is greater than the sum of its parts?

Walter Brueggeman, the great contemporary theologian, suggests that worship is after all performance, but it is not the performance of the minister, readers or choir to the congregation, rather the whole of the worship is a great oratorio performance to and for God, with the minister as both conductor and soloist, the worship leaders and readers as principals and the whole of the congregation as the choir.  I wonder what difference thinking in those terms might mean to our worship?

God bless
Vicci

Thought for this week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

The weather really has changed and as we get out our sandals, we also start to experience something of the dirt and the dust on our feet that would have been the daily experience of Jesus and his contemporaries.  That dust, in a world where walking was the usual way around, was inevitably uncomfortable, and so the rules of hospitality involved bringing a bowl of water and a towel to wash your guests’ feet.  When Jesus visits the home of Simon where his feet are washed and anointed by a woman who dries them with her hair Jesus points out that she has only done in an exaggerated way, what Simon should have done as a matter of course.

By and large, our feet remain quite clean.  The roads of 21st century Britain are not as dusty as 1st century Palestine and we walk far less than our far-off ancestors.  I wonder what our equivalency might be?  That regular gesture of hospitality which, when offered in kindness and care shows regard for the needs of those who visit us at home or at church.  Perhaps it is the regular coffee, tea and biscuits that are our equivalency, or perhaps in such weather as this, we could offer fruit juice as a refreshing alternative after church as an extra touch of hospitable thinking. 

More than anything however, I would suggest that when Mary Magdalene, noticing that an act of hospitality had been omitted, made up for it with shameless generosity, she was modelling something very important.  The jar of nard was often worn around a woman’s neck, added to whenever possible, developing a pension pot for future need.  This was not a premeditated action perhaps, but instead a wiping out of the rudeness by treating the slighted Jesus with extra love and extra care, using what was to hand. 

How wonderful to spot that something has been left out, someone has been hurt or treated with disrespect, and without saying anything to anyone else, to make up for it a thousand-fold.  Next time we realise our feet are particularly grubby after a day in sandals, we might use it as a chance to reflect on how best we make sure that no-one in our church feels left out, hurt or treated with disrespect.  To notice and repair the hurt is surely part of our calling as the followers of he who washed his disciples’ feet two thousand years ago.

God bless

Vicci