Talking about disability and healing

Here are a few thoughts that I put together for a sermon at another local church. The idea was to choose a current topic of interest and link it to the Bible. I possibly went a bit off-piste on that one, but here is where I ended up.

I decided at the beginning of the week that I would say something to you about one of the major news items this week, and there have certainly been a lot to choose from. But if you have watched the BBC at all this week, the most important news item seemed to be related to the live week on Eastenders, So today I will be talking about the death of Lucy. But this is not the death of Lucy Beale, it's someone you have probably never heard of. This was a very small news item that caught my eye. Lucy's death was not widely reported because it was not violent, but it was very sad because when she died last month she was only 29.

Lucy Glennon had a genetic disease called  epidermolysis bullosa  which causes the skin and internal body linings to blister at the slightest knock or rub. The effect is equivalent to a third-degree burn and Lucy lived a life of constant pain. The disease was also progressive, so got worse as she got older.

Read more about Lucy here.http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/17/lucy-glennon-disability-activist-real-effects-of-cuts?CMP=fb_gu

You have to read the whole of the article to understand that this was someone who, despite all her problems, was witty and lived life to the full. Also, despite everything, she was a committed Christian. Her sister told of how Lucy was once asked how she could believe in God when she was in so much pain. “She stopped and thought about it,” says Sally, “then said that over the years she thought of all the people who looked after her, and nursed her, and she sees God and love in every one of those people.”

Lucy was someone who lived an almost disregarded life, despite her impressive qualities. I rather think she is with her Father now, healed at last. Jesus always had compassion on those in need of healing, even if they were people others ignored. Our Bible story is a case in point. It is one of the least quoted healing miracles and tells of a woman with a long term spinal condition. We are told she could not straighten herself up properly. Imagine what it was like living with that for 18 years. It was so long that probably people did not even notice this woman's problem any more. However Jesus noticed her. She may well have been elderly, and as a woman was not viewed as important, but we know Jesus always noticed the humble, the disregarded. She did not even seek healing – maybe she had given up hoping. But Jesus called her forward (as a woman she would have been at the back of the synagogue) and placed his hands on her and healed her. Sadly the synagogue ruler is more interested in upholding the letter of the law on the Sabbath than on rejoicing the fact that this woman is freed from her captivity to Satan. Jesus cared about everyone equally – think about the people he healed. He healed the son of a hated Roman centurion as readily as he healed Jairus's daughter. He healed Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. Everyone is equal in the kingdom of God.

How did you feel about Lucy's story? It seemed a bit unfair that someone so obviously good and hardworking was afflicted with such a dire condition. Why wasn't she healed? We see people who get amazing healing – and we see people who do not get healed. In truth we all await the final healing in heaven. In a book I am reading called Becoming a true spiritual community By Larry Crabb the writer tells of how he shared with a group about he struggled with, his need for approval and to gain glory from his calling. But as he spoke he was worried that people would try to 'sort him out' whereas all he wanted was acceptance, because he believed that he would never be healed in this life, not because he did not believe in healing but because he knew it was too too deeply entrenched in his psyche to sort out in this life, and that also maybe because it was this sense of being a wounded person that kept him seeking after God.  

Sometimes people give us negative messages about healing; that God would heal us if only we believed, or confessed sin in our lives. But we're not put here to be turned into perfect beings in this life, rather to go on a journey with and to God. To do that involves being honest with God and with ourselves and acknowledging that we all have messy, unsatisfactory things in our lives because we live in a messy, unsatisfactory, broken, fallen, sinful world – call it what you will! And we know that we have a heavenly Father who loves us. We know this God loves the Coptic Christians who were murdered because of their faith. He also longs to reach out to their executioners. He cares equally for those on both sides in the conflict in Ukraine. God cares so much he sent his only Son into the world and Jesus says we can see him in everyone in this world who is in need. We can see him in the black man jostled off a train in Paris...and his Father seeks out the lost, including the Chelsea fans who abused him. God is alongside the Muslim parents desperately praying for their daughters to return home, and with Lucy's family as they mourn her loss. I hope you will take with you this knowledge that you are loved, and I pray that we can all take that love into the world either through our words or through our actions. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.

He is the image of the invisible God

If you were explaining your faith to someone who knew next to nothing about it they might ask you 'why do you worship Jesus? Who is he?' Imagine trying to answer that question, maybe to someone you had met briefly, trying to explain the importance of Jesus in one paragraph. Well, in his epistle to the Colossians St. Paul does a very good summary in verses 15 – 20.

The passage divides into three sections, and each one tells us a different thing about Christ, all of which add up to explain why He is at the centre of our faith.

Firstly we are told that Jesus is 'the image of the invisible God' - Jesus shows us what God is like, and more than that , he is so close to God that he was there when creation began (like wisdom, and you may recall John 1: Jesus is the word, and God's word is wise). Jesus has a unique role in creation: he helped create, he rules over it all and he holds it together. You may be reminded of John 1 as well as Proverbs 8:22, which tells us that the first thing God created was wisdom: so in that light, does that mean Jesus is Wisdom, and Proverbs, when it talks about 'wisdom' really speaks of Jesus? I don't think any commentators believe this: some believe that when New Testament writers wrote about Jesus they were influenced by the Old Testament – they wrote according to their faith tradition, and so they used the descriptions of wisdom to help them express the centrality of Jesus to God's plan. In Isaiah 11: 2 we are told that the Messiah will be the one on whom God's spirit of wisdom rests. So Jesus being equated with wisdom , and being someone who was known for his wisdom, shows that He is the Anointed One.

There is something else going on here. The fact that Jesus is so much part of the big picture reminds us that when he created the world God planned everything. For atheists the very existence of the world is random. Everything is because of chance. Despite evidence that our very existence, the size of our planet, its closeness to the sun, the presence of water, needed to exist within very narrow parameters, for many everything is a result of random mutations. But the Bible tells a very different message. This is not about evolution versus creationism, it is about plan and purpose versus accident and chance. As Christians we believe in a world that is here for a reason, where God has an overarching plan, and our lives have real meaning, and at the centre of that meaning is Jesus.

Then in verse 18 we have a shift in emphasis from the transcendent figure of Christ, the Messiah, Creator and Son of God, to Jesus the head of the church. What a difference. Suddenly we, as members of the church are connected to the creator of the universe. You may be feeling very very far away from Jesus at the moment. In body terms you might feel like the big toe: but we all know that if you stub your toe it has an impact on the head – the mouth usually says 'ow'! Toes might not feel very important or even very lovely at times, but we know they come in very handy when you need to walk anywhere. And even though it is a long way from the head the big toe is controlled by the head. Despite the times we feel distant from Jesus, we are connected to him: the same blood runs through the whole body. We have a relationship with Jesus, he walks alongside us.

The third thing I want to highlight is how Paul describes Jesus' role in life – his job description. It is not to do miracles, preach sermons or make disciples; it is to 'reconcile to himself all things.' And how does he do that? Through the cross. The problem with the wonderful relationship we should have with God is that too often we don't have it (remember Adam walking in the garden with God?). Our relationship gets spoiled. Sometimes we have distractions in our life, or we may have had life events that drove us away from God, but the root problem is sin. And sin is not just disobedience to God, it is also the breaking of a precious friendship. It was to restore that broken relationship that Christ gave his life. And what is truly mind-blowing is that it is not just to make us acceptable to God, to give us the confidence to stand in God's presence, that Christ died; he died to bring all things on earth and heaven – everything to that place of reconciliation. The cross is not just our place of reconciliation, it is also a reminder that the final goal of creation is reconciliation to Christ.

This passage is amazing, and beautiful, but it may seem remote from your daily life. I believe we may learn things that can help us today. Firstly we learn that we are created for a purpose. God's world is made for a purpose, and we were made for a purpose too. Our lives have real meaning. I want to ask you a question: do you truly believe your life has real meaning?

Secondly we realise that we are created to have a relationship with Jesus. We are part of his body. Do you know Jesus, do you sense him walking beside you in your daily life?

Thirdly, we may feel very distant from God because of life events, or because of sin. But we know that through Jesus' sacrifice we have the confidence to approach God's throne. The cross puts all things right – it gives us reconciliation with God. So, are you feeling at peace with God, or are there jagged edges in your life that are making you uncomfortable?

Compassion

Taken at the Benedictine foundation at the traditional site of the miracle of the feeding of the 4000

Mark 8: 1 - 5
The miracle of the feeding of the four thousand starts from the place of God's compassion. Jesus sees a crowd of hungry people and turns to his disciples and says 'I want to feed this rabble because I care so much about them'. The disciples are horrified: how can we do this, we do not have the resources, we have barely enough to feed ourselves. The story that unfolds tells of a miracle, of the multiplication of those scarce resources. It says to me that our response, as a small church, to the needs in our community is not good enough. We say 'we can't do it, we don't have the people or the money.'

My question is, where is the need in our community, who do you discern God has compassion for?

A while back a local pastor wrote these prophetic words for our church community, 'Guard yourselves well and make it your aim to be fruitful and feed others with the fruit you grow.'

I pray we can make headway with this task in the year to come.

New year reflections

At this time of year I am often reminded of the story behind King George VI's 1939 Christmas broadcast. Those of us who watched The King's Speech will remember seeing the dramatisation of his speech to the nation at the outbreak of World War II, but this broadcast is possibly better known, because it included some lines from a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins.

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.

And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

The story is that Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, had seen the poem and brought it to the attention of the king, and after it was read out on air (much to the surprise of its author) it quickly caught on in popular imagination. The poem was later read at the Queen Mother's funeral in 2002. I used to have a copy of it that I kept as a bookmark for many years. Some believed Minnie Haskins was American or Canadian, but in fact she came from the Bristol area, and was a Congregationalist who studied and lectured at the London School of Economics, and published a few books of poetry as well.

Surprisingly, the poem was written many years previously, having been published in 1908,yet it captures perfectly the sense of dread that must have been felt by so many in the early days of the Second World War, when Britain and the Empire were isolated, and the fear of what could happen if Germany invaded our nation made the future seem very bleak.

The poem reminds us that when we are faced with an unknown future there is only one remedy, and that is to put our trust in God. Too often fear can be paralysing, and stop us moving forward, but we are told to go forward boldly into the darkness, because it is only there that we will find the guiding hand of our God. The rest of Minnie Haskin's poem is not well known, but is worth reading. I would like to quote one more verse, which includes the original title to the poem, God knows.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Church Register of Burials 1912 - 1992 (reproduced from a register in the church - no records exist before 1912)

SURNAME	CHRISTIAN NAME(S)	AGE	DATE	REGISTRAR'S ENTRY NO.
ADAMS	Mary Rachel	75	18/04/35	99
ANDREWS	Thomas A. C.	67	19/10/62	133
ANDREWS	Elsie Lavinia	72	25/02/63	253
ANDREWS	Doris Maisie	49	29/11/69	148
BEVAN	Sarah Jane	73	10/02/25	87
BEVAN	Charles	80	19/12/30	145
BEVAN	Dorothy	32	23/06/31	189
BEVAN	William	79	01/12/31	89
BEVAN	Louisa	87	03/02/33	461
BEARD	John Thomas	75	11/06/36	COR.
BEVAN	Dorothy Lillian	3 months	18/11/37	60
BEVAN	Sidney	70	24/02/46	414
BEVAN	Kathleen May	29	06/02/46	404
BENNETT	Valerie Ann	21 days	18/03/46	273
BEVAN	Michael	30 minutes	03/05/48	113
BEARD	Alfred Thomas	57	01/09/50	COR.
BEVAN	Harold	62	28/01/52	COR.
BEVAN	Harry	58	11/03/55	COR.
BEVAN	Edith Blanche	66	08/02/56	_
BEVAN	Richard	82	21/08/56	83
BEARD	Mary Ann	90	29/08/57	246
BENNETT	Keith	12 months	25/12/58	130
BARRETT	Horace Albert	85	16/04/68	29
BRAIN	Hannah Elizabeth	77	27/06/69	67
BRAIN	Bertie Ernest	76	24/08/73
BEARD	Eliza Sarah May	80	08/11/74
BARRETT	Louisa	105	31/08/79	241
CHILDS	Sidney Douglas	7 months	11/01/26	185
CRICHTON	Still born child of Dr. and Mrs.	0	06/10/28	6
COOPER	Violet May	25	04/05/31	355
CHIVERS	Alexander Vleters	58	13/07/42	441
CHILDS	Matilda	80	06/04/53	326
CHILDS	Sidney	80	05/06/53	372
CARPENTER	Emma Jane	84	30/06/54	159
CARTER	Harold John	55	29/10/56	COR.
CHIVERS	Mary Sophia	85	08/06/69	88
DUBERLEY	Joyce Edith	29	18/05/48	309
DUGGAN	Edith Hannah	56	11/05/55	465
DAVIES	Lilian May	79	07/08/60	34
EVANS	Mary Ann	88	26/07/59	275
FLETCHER	Samuel E.	47	25/12/15	War Grave
FLUCK	Frances Mary	17 months	09/03/25	168
FLETCHER	Jean	81	09/07/26	303
FLUCK	Albert Kenneth	18 months	09/01/28	452
FRANKLIN	Archibald Ernest	52	11/09/37	39
FLUCK	Matilda Jane	54	08/01/43	101
FREEMAN	William Arthur	48	03/09/46	60
FOX	Gladys	32	12/02/47	498
FREEMAN	Henry Thomas	55	09/08/47	COR.
FLETCHER	Jessie Lydia	77	16/11/52	204
FLETCHER	John Isaac	81	31/01/53	257
FEAR	Herbert	74	22/02/54	63
FLUCK	Albert	71	18/02/57	133
FLEWELLING	Eliza Catherine	84	19/07/58	374
FLEWELLING	Edmund John	87	25/10/64	162
FLUCK	Jane Elizabeth	3	08/11/68	166
FLEWELLING	Ada	69	12/04/77
FLEWELLING	Kathleen	77	11/05/92	238
FLEWELLING	George
GWILLIAM	Sarah Jane	82	07/05/55	171
GUNTER	James	66	09/01/56	336
GUTHRIE	Rosalie Esther	72	22/11/58	88
GEORGE	Arthur G. E.	50	06/06/61	280
GUTHRIE	Edward John	78	08/02/64	_
GUNTER	Emily Agnes	70	05/09/64	337
HUSSEY	Joan	9 months	20/03/26	290
HUSSEY	Eva	67	18/05/27	496
HYETT	Kenneth John Samuel	3 days	10/01/28	453
HARDING	Elizabeth	73	25/04/30	5
HYETT	Stillborn child of Samuel and Ivy	0	17/03/33	38
HARDING	Stillborn child of Frederick and Ellen	0	13/10/35	38
HARMAN	Osborne John	3 years	20/03/36	257
HARPER	Joseph Thomas Ayland	22	25/08/36	COR.
HARDING	John	82	03/07/37	26
HARPER	Ethel Flora	57	25/07/39	239
HARDING	Alice	84	14/11/39	275
HUSSEY	Thomas Henry	88	06/02/42	500
HARMAN	John	72	20/12/47	70
HARMAN	Sophia Mary	83	02/04/49	259
HUSSEY	Oliver	72	22/02/51	246
HALE	Joseph Thomas	72	29/01/53	COR.
HARMAN	William Leonard	88	14/06/54	101
HARMAN	Flora	84	27/10/59	337
HARPER	Morgan John	84	04/03/64	14
HATTON	Ada	73	24/03/64	CREM: 7022
HUSSEY	Clara Elizabeth	77	29/03/65	279
HARMAN	W. Alfred John	68	23/02/66	478
HARDING	Albert John	79	29/06/66	74
HARRIS	G. R.	ashes interred in grave of above.
HALE	Eva Annie	88	16/09/71	44
HARMAN	Florence	79	07/05/78	COR.
HUSSEY	William John	93
HARMAN	Ellen Louisa	82	02/01/81	279
JONES	Annie	37	20/06/24	308
JONES	George Rudge	57	24/12/33	49
JONES	Albert Raymond (ashes)	55	15/12/62	4/876264
JONES	Florence Edith May	78	28/04/66	35
JONES	Henry Benjamin	83	31/12/68	197
JONES	Marion Louisa	89	06/07/99	1521 (cremation)
KNIGHT	Richard	84	14/10/25	233
KNIGHT	Charlotte Elizabeth	67	17/01/30	160
KNIGHT	Jean Mary	2 years	22/01/31	197
KNIGHT	William George	26	04/06/31	184
KEAR	Mostyn Donald	6 months	24/10/32	COR.
KNIGHT	Gladys Winnie	72	15/05/71	166
KEAR	George	78	16/07/72
KNIGHT	Robert George	70	12/09/73
LATHAM	Mrs.	82	01/02/42	417
LEWIS	Edith Matilda	65	21/04/71	182
LEWIS	William Leonard	69	29/05/74
LATHAM	Marguerite Annie (ashes)	87	29/08/76
MADLEY	Isaac	73	18/01/26	261
MARTIN	Mavis Keziah	27	17/07/27	397
MAPP	Mary Ann	54	29/09/29	126
MADLEY	James Lloyd	49	21/10/31	346
MADLEY	Margaret Louisa	49	06/07/33	385
MAYO	Frederick William	75	23/07/42	58
MASON	Joseph Thomas	77	14/08/43	159
MARTIN	James Churchill	70	27/07/45	355
MARTIN	Gretta Annie	43	08/09/45	180
MASON	Priscilla	76	09/08/48	60
MEREDITH	Doris Ena Minnie	43	31/10/55	285
MARTIN	Stanley	69	14/03/59	204
MORRIS	Douglas L.	61	08/09/67	349
MAYO	Frances Elizabeth	69	16/05/68	45
MORRIS	Frederick Joseph	65	26/09/73	20
MORRIS	May Ethel	66	24/12/75
MARTIN	Margaret Ann	88	24/12/78
MORRIS	Marjorie E.	69	04/01/79
NEAL	Bartley	85	24/04/52	53
NEAL	Rhoda Eliza	85	19/03/53	425
PHELPS	Joseph Herbert	59	18/05/29	326
PHELPS	Augusta Alice	59	08/05/33	9
POWELL	Charles	70	10/11/42	83
PHELPS	Ivy Beatrice	47	21/02/47	16
PRICE	Ester (ashes)	53	04/06/47	650
PHELPS	Edward Arthur	10 months	22/08/50	66
PRICE	Arthur William	47	19/05/51	329
PRICE	Mary Jane	88	21/02/56	377
POWELL	Elizabeth Kate	85	26/07/56	336
PRICE	Gwendoline A. M.	59	24/04/65	293
PHELPS	Leonard Joseph	70	15/10/66	130
PHELPS	Annie Emily	82	18/07/67	314
POWELL	Doris May	69	29/12/67	430
POWELL	Leslie Conrad	70	11/01/69	208
PHELPS	Arthur	87	02/06/69	44
PRICE	Thomas Henry (ashes)	79	11/03/70	13752
POWELL	Sydney Ewart	75	30/01/72	142
POWELL	William Frank	73	03/12/73	669
POWELL	Kathleen Florrie	78	09/06/81	309
POWELL	Esther	92	25/06/86	270
ROBBINS	Richard	84	25/03/31	147
ROBBINS	Elizabeth Ann	85	05/10/33	56
ROBERTS	William Henry	59	30/05/50	18
ROBERTS	Elizabeth Louisa	62	26/12/54	140
RAY	Alfred Stephen	75	?/10/62	134
SNOOKS	Baden Henry	70	18/11/70	8
TAYLOR	Thomas A. C.	54	17/12/12	315
TAYLOR	Emma	70	11/01/32	COR.
TAYLOR	Stillborn child of Thomas A and Kate	0	26/04/35	3
TAYLOR	Frank	1 day	19/03/38	99
TURNER	Sarah Jane	89	16/10/57	281
WATKINS	Margaret Annie	54	30/07/24	470
WILLIAMS	Alice	76	05/09/27	48
WHITE	Ernest Edward	30	20/07/33	11
WALFORD	Ellen Mary	61	01/06/35	182
WILLIAMS	Margaret	23 hours	05/04/39	214
WALFORD	Dolors	45	22/05/41	COR.
WADLEY	John	70	28/08/41	456
WILLIAMS	Lena Evelyn	40	03/02/49	144
WHITTINGTON	Frederick John	68	16/01/53	COR.
WADLEY	Laura	80	27/01/55	203
WEBB	Margaret	65	18/06/55	203
WALFORD	Winifred	57	29/01/56	475
WILLIAMS	Giles	73	18/09/56	13
WALFORD	Thomas Richard	86	21/09/57	236
WHITTINGTON	Polly	77	22/01/61	158
WOODHOUSE	Arthur John	74	26/11/63	419
WOODHOUSE	Winifred E.	85	27/12/67	214
WILLIAMS	Ethel Louise	87	20/01/70	184
WOODHOUSE	A. R. Maxwell (ashes)	47	28/01/68	11031
WEBB	James	79	28/08/71	33
WALFORD	Grace Kathleen	86	20/09/72

Thoughts on Remembrance Sunday

This weekend we observe Remembrance Sunday in the centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War. In the burial ground at the rear of our church there is a war grave, housing the remains of Private Samuel Fletcher, who died in 1915, and was buried on Christmas Day that year (I have found details from contemporary records online that state he died 21st December rather that November).

 Sam was born in Pontypridd and had been living in Ystradgynlais near Swansea when he was called up at the advanced age of 46 or 47 to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps (he was apparently a stalwart of the local St. Johns Ambulance Brigade). He was sent to Aldershot for training, and was on the verge of departing for the war in France when he suffered a fatal asthma attack. One wonders if this was brought on by the anxiety of his situation, and also what the authorities were thinking to call someone up who probably had a pre-existing medical condition. It seems a terrible waste of life, that left his wife with six children, the younger of whom would have been dependent, but then one is reminded that there was so many lives unnecessarily sacrificed in that war.

We may wonder why Sam was interred in Lydbrook. This was at the request of his widowed mother, who lived in Lydbrook (though was not well enough to attend the funeral, at which the Rev. Mostyn Jones officiated). Obviously the family had lived in Lydbrook for many years, with a number of Sam's children being born here, and must have worshipped at our church. Sam had worked in the tin plate works in Ystradgynlais prior to being called up, so we may surmise that he worked in the tin plate works at Lydbrook while living here.

This Sunday as we make our act of remembrance we will remember Sam, one of so many men who lost their lives due to the conflict with Germany, one of so many who have lost their lives in wars since then. We remember in the hope that we will learn peace one day.

Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place...All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them Acts 2, verses 1 and 4.

I am always inspired by this passage of Scripture - God intervenes through his Holy Spirit on a massive scale. As I prepared to preach what really spoke to me was the sheer life-giving energy of the Spirit (I was reading an extract from a forthcoming book by Brian McLaren, We Make the Road by Walking). So I brought this into my sermon, how the signs of the Spirit ; water, dove, wind or breath and even fire all have connections with bringing life.

What also struck me is that the Spirit breaks all the rules. Church growth of over 2000% overnight is crazy, as happened that Pentecost Sunday. Today church growth is a topic people write about and teach about and some of that works, but even so how it happens and why it happens defies the rules, and surprises even the experts. There is usually prayer involved, and committed, long term prayer at that. But it all boils down to the fact that it comes from God, and that true growth involves lives changing, not just bodies shifting from one church's pews to another.

Our small Forest churches struggle to hold on in the face of declining attendances and ageing congregations. I believe what we do here has value and worth, and is part of God's kingdom coming to the earth. I also believe that unless we are open to the Holy Spirit, we may be hanging on to the wrong things in our urge to be good servants of our Saviour. Maybe church traditions and church buildings are less important than loving our neighbours and sharing the love of Christ with them.