Tag Archives: welcome

Minister

Gather Us In

I am writing this on 16 May. According to the test kit I have Covid, and so does Chris. Her symptoms are a bit more obvious – but mine  are so similar to my usual asthma when the rape seed is in bloom, that once I had taken a test and found it to be negative, I just assumed it was asthma and carried on as normal. It was only when Chris tested positive that I checked again and found that we were both infected. So we hope we have not infected others and I’m annoyed because I’m stuck at home and even though we have learned that so much of life can move online – it’s just not the same as being amongst people. 

As I use some of this enforced time at home to advance plan some of the worship for June, I realise that three years ago I was using this same material to plan worship that would only be delivered by post or online. It includes the great story from Genesis where Abraham welcomes three visitors to his encampment – I noted that welcoming strangers was not allowed! To live through a pandemic brought great changes and it has continued to do so. For me, at the moment, Covid is an irritant. But for many people it has brought immense grief and totally re-shaped the way they imagined these years would be lived. There seems to be a lack of confidence amongst us, an intense harking back to how things used to be (or at least how we wish-remember those days). Yet some things will not change – still the stranger seeks a welcome and God continues to visit with purpose.

As I flick between 2020 and 2023, the tune I’m singing is a favourite one:-

Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away. …

Gather us in – the lost and forsaken,
gather us in – the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name. 

I love the hope within it, even as we recognise our different abilities. The image of new light streaming into a place creating new images and perceptions. And as the hymn comes to a close it takes us out of our buildings and heavenly dreams to concentrate on the here and now, the places we are set, the communities we are called to love. 

Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in – and hold us forever,
gather us in – and make us your own.
Gather us in – all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

© Marty Haughan, GIA Publications, Inc, 1982

May we each know God’s light streaming into our lives. 

be blessed

Minister

Be Blessed

What does it mean to be blessed?
Your answer might depend on what you understand by the word. For some it means they are lucky, they have good fortune, they are happy and content with life. For others it has a deeply sacred tone. My thesaurus lists – holy, sacred, divine, hallowed, sanctified, adored,
exalted, revered, spiritual, canonised, godlike. Others may use it to replace a swear word or to ward off the perils of a sneeze.


If our preacher on 29th January chooses to follow the lectionary readings then we will hear Matthew 5:1-12, a passage known as the Beatitudes or “The Blessings” and in the two weeks that follow until it is interrupted by Lent, we will hear the beginning of Jesus teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount. These passages are key to Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ life and teaching as they speak of a community that is blessed, that knows God’s favour and spells out the ethical and moral responses expected of such a community. The first remarkable thing about this community is that many people would not look upon them
and see people who are blessed – they are broken, vulnerable, grieving, meek, angry, do-gooders – who are persecuted and insulted because of their perceived weakness. Yet they are the salt of the earth, the light of the world called to let their light shine so that goodness can be experienced and God be praised. The second remarkable thing is that the vision of what it means to live as a Blessed Community is a radical way of life that is a struggle to achieve because it involves an openness, a love, a care for people who are different from ourselves and a trust in God to care for each of us in place of material possessions.


Ghandi was one who was greatly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount, so much so that he modelled many of his teachings on non-violence upon it. The problem for Ghandi was that much of what he experienced as passing for Christianity was a negation of the Sermon on the Mount. I would love to be able to claim that was no longer so – but in reality as I look around I know that it continues to be so. So what are we to do about our own struggles to live as the community Jesus calls us to
be? I think we need to be honest with ourselves, and know the ways in which we fail one another, we need to know our own brokenness, vulnerability, grief, meekness, anger and hunger for goodness and welcome the ways in which we receive God’s blessing despite
ourselves. In such ways we might just discover the salt and light that Jesus promises and we can be a church that invites and joins with other broken, vulnerable, grieving, meek, angry, hungry people in order to know blessing and share blessing.


be blessed
Craig