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On 5 January 2020 Jonny led worship supported by Jacob and Amanda. Tim preached from Isiah 60 1:6

Have you ever felt like an outsider, not getting the joke. The magi were summoned as outsiders . They were invited to celebrate the light that had come into the world. By the time that Matthew is writing the story of the magi, the message of Christ is being broadcast around the known world. Jesus is the light of the world that has come amongst us. The nations will come to be included in the blessing. It comes at a time when people are struggling And Isiah speaks into this darkness .

The cloud over the people reflects the separation of the people from Israel. The things going on in the world seems to reflect the similar situation. We’ve put away the lights and January often feels dark in any case.

But remember what we celebrate at Christmas.

For a time it would be pitch dark in the lower regions of Jerusalem but the temples where higher on the hill and lit first and last at sunrise and sunset.

This part seems to have been written as the people are returning to a broken Jerusalem.aybe their hopes hadn’t been fulfilled in the return so the prophet looked forward to a time of light.

Matthew describes Jesus as God with us Emmanuel! It’s no accident that the wise men were drawn by the light of a star.

Johns gospel reflects that in Jesus was life and that in Him was light for all.

Imagine that it is possible to move from darkness into light. If we follow Jesus there is no need for us to stay in darkness we can have the light of life.

Light drAws people in. The Old Testament says that when god returns it will be for the benefit of all peoples. We see this in the passage today. People coming to learn rather than to conquer.

The wise men who came to Jesus were the first of thousands of gentiles. Our church needs to be a beacon and we need to share the light. Isiah reverses this a little . God remains at work in our world despite the darkness. If we lift up our eyes we will find God ahead of us in the world. The church has to arise to its mission. Take heart that the light has come. We can arise out of despair and get on. Jesus used the symbol of light, as the light of the world,

As you pack away your lights, with all that’s going on it’s easy to think that darkness is winning. But remember the light always wins. Darkness is defeated by the smallest glimmer of light. The gospel writers reflect this all the time. On the cross darkness is defeated, light wins! In 2020 be the light in your everyday things.

Nations will walk in the light, God’s dwelling will be among people.

Jesus tells us we are the light of the world, flawed as we are. Lots of people are hungry for spirituality. Let them see the light through us.

Let us go and share that light with others.

Tim and Jonny led today and Penny brought us some news on the BMS work planned in Africa . 

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

A letter to Christians not unlike us. Paul seems a little harsh here. Tim compares this to the professional performers in Strictly where people are all in sync. Imagine the Red Arrows all in sync. 

What happens when things go wrong. It looks a mess. Verse 6 says watch out for those who step out of line. The display is being spoilt, the flow is damaged, the outsiders see something is wrong. “I command you” from Paul is a strong message. 

This passage is a call to work, to be busy. The idlers may be those who think God is coming soon so why bother. There are those today who think that working for justice today is a waste of time and God isn’t bothered about this little planet .. God is before all things and reconciles everything in the passage edris read today. Think about the issues affecting our planet climate change etc. 

Maybe it also refers to people taking advantage of an incredibly generous community. 

Not so sure these are who Paul is talking about. 

Third possibility is the wealthy who expect others to do things for them.

We don’t know who Paul is referring to. This scripture has been used to deny help to others. The key to interpretation of this is really the last phrase focussing in on “do not weary”. 

An alternative interpretation is that those being referenced are trouble makers. V11 the word play is even true in the Greek, busy bodies causing grief and trouble using their efforts for chaos rather than serving the community. This is nothing to do with who deserve help, but simply saying do not stop helping. Expectations that people would follow what the disciples had handed on to them. Tradition is a tough word in churches, pew vs chair, modern versed established ways. If we limit our view to this letter think of the encouragement of verse 1. The grace, the relationship with the father, the relationship with Jesus and the disciples, follow the ways of Jesus. Jesus will speak the truth and annihilate the liar. 

This can be the reality in our society. What does our dance look like? 

Common life of the disciples is essential to the well being of the community. 

Reminder is to be the kind of community life that focussed on the good of all and not the individual. Charity at times was not very loving. Do people in need deserve help? Of course we believe they do but we have had experience where sometimes it’s not received with gracefulness. 

Don’t give up! Don’t give up! 

If you are unwilling to help then shouldn’t be fed! Maybe this isn’t as harsh as it sounds. Maybe what it is saying is if you don’t get involved you can’t grow. Think about our own experience with Filling Station. Think about the unlikely friendships we now have with people we might not have got the chance to meet.

Tim shared an image of people’s vests in the Durham cathedral art installations. As we sit together as God’s church this is us! Nothing more workmanlike than a vest. This is us filled with God’s Light, a church in step together. 

We are part of the dance encouraging others whether in Africa or simply going to school and college. Never stop doing good, don’t be discouraged, as we perform this dance together.Let’s stay in formation. Let’s never tire of doing good. 

27 October 2019

Tim preached on Psalm 84. He asked us we were having fun. Had we woke up today excited to come to church?

Psalm 84 shows the joy of the pilgrim on the day to temple. Maybe we look forward to other things. It’s difficult to look at our church and initially get excited. It’s an unremarkable building and indeed Tim reflected that when he and his family came here the kids called West View Baptist Church the garage! (Was this prophetic given our later Filling Station outreach?)

But people keep coming back week after week so there must be something about it, the excitement and awe of the pilgrim trudging up the hill towards Jerusalem. What makes it different. It is the dwelling place of the Lord of Hosts. Yet still real amongst his people amongst mortals amongst us.

John in Revelations says something similar. V2 talks about the living god, not static, not trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. This God is the Lord of Hosts the living God. The psalmist remembers the longing the singing, the use of the language of birth using the imagery of the swallows. The psalmist likes birds, nesting flying with the wings of a dove. The birds need security to nest in the temple. Think about just standing in a doorway of the huge house of god being better than living in the tents of evil doers! The temple was viewed as the focal point but v6 shows that God was present in other places. The Valley of Tears or Baca is a dry serous dark place yet they find springs there courtesy of the Lord of Hosts! . The presence of god makes a difference! A dry valley yields springs and is covered in rain. They go from strength to strength. Sometimes we don’t feel like going to church, yet they are the times we most need to be there! It is important that there are special places and times to find god. We need these anchors in life. Ways that we profoundly enter into life with god! God promises when we share communion with him. These are the times that sustain us in the dry valleys and the life journeys where we might not expect to see god. Our places of worship are set aside in the hope that they might encounter the living god!

The importance of the place is not about the bricks and mortar. There’s an ethical dimension here. No good thing is withheld from those whose walk is blameless. We might run from that but the psalm singers were Just like us. They come to the temple to receive righteousness from god and renewed in worship and service to the community. Therefore we should not back away from the call from god to do his service. People should be glad to see us when we leave this building. The psalmist longs to be there. Imagine being a bat in gods belfry, a bird nesting in gods building. Can we imagine being them. Places we sing our favourite songs, celebrate family events, share sorrow at funerals. The valley is close, the years feature regularly in our lives. As we leave this place we know that he the god of the living place will walk with us. God in Christ is present with us and even sparrows fall no further than into his nail scarred hands.

Esther brought us the Word from Colossians 1 1:14 on 14 July

Fix your focus is what Esther calls this passage. It’s our job to pray for people who are struggling. Colossi people were just like us. Paul never visited Colossi in modern day Turkey. He spent about 3 years in Ephesus. Epaphras was probably the one who brought the word to the Colossians, it wasn’t a massive place.

Colossi is a trading crossroads, a crossroads for ideas , a place for Jewish refugees from Jerusalem, and a lot of other nationalities and cultures, including the Greeks and Romans, lots of their gods. In Acts it tells us that Paul even found an altar to an unknown god. The Romans really covered their back. The Jews and the Christians were the party poopers the wierd ones, the atheists of their day because they only worshipped one god, they didn’t join in the local feasts for local gods. Imagine trying to share your faith there. It’s a bit like what we do today.

Standards and values today risk us losing our focus. David, Esther’s husband had physically had experience this week of problems with sight both with focus and with pain. Irisitis was the diagnosis, thanks to a doctor checking with a colleague. It was a tough experience with injections into the eye, but following the treatment things will start to heal.

God was really teaching Esther about the value of focus. Faith and love spring from hope stored in heaven. Our lives are in Christ and Christ is in us. Faith in Christ Jesus , love for the people. It’s possible to love without knowing God but it is not possible to know God without love. Who was your Epaphrus who introduced you to God’s grace in all its truth. jump forward to verse 27 and the mystery . Think on chapter 9 of Daniel and his prayer for salvation. Paul is here praying for the faithful ones in church. We don’t what’s around the corner for our country but we need to show people the way.

Daniel and all the prophets did not know what we know. They did not know the mystery that we know, that God’s intentions are to save all people and not just the Jews. Imagine Daniels reaction to Jesus coming amongst us , living in us and through us. Daniel was a man of incredible focus.

Esther asked how old Daniel was when he was thrown into the lions den. We often see bible story images of him as a young man. He was 80 when it happened! He’d been faithfully praying three times a day looking up to God! Esther was with her grand daughter Ava watching tv and found out dogs have gaze bias. Dogs always look right if you ask them something. Imagine if we always focussed on the right hand of god! Paul encourages us to be filled with the knowledge and understanding of God, when we know that we know that we know. When we joyfully give thanks, we ate brought from the dominion of darkness into the light.

Ann Graham Lotz wrote about Daniels prayer. Ann talks about prayer as life’s compass. If prayer is our compass in life then the needle needs focussing on God Focussing on God first rather than on our problems fixed our focus. Grow in knowledge, know the Word, know what God intends.

Think about the moon landing , the knowledge it took to go there. Neil Armstrong overcame the death of his three year old daughter prior to undertaking this mission. Imagining victory is what Simona Halet, focussed from the age of 10 on winning Wimbledon!

Where’s our focus, where do we want to be? Esther’s new glasses have sharpened her distance vision! Our vision should be similarly focussed and sharpened on God.

Our True North

Mark and Amanda led worship on 30 June and Yvette brought us the word . Amanda used bindweed to illustrate how we can be snarled up with problems. She showed how we needed to get rid of the things that snare us like bindweed.

Yvette told us we’re on a journey today and asked ” Have you packed everything?” This is the call to discipleship, Jesus is heading for Jerusalem, no wandering the equivalent of the A1 despite knowing that he is heading for the cross. He knows time is short and nothing is going to stop him. He looks on it as the time he will be received in heaven. He set off for Jerusalem for the blessings that he receives. We can share in that, God isn’t going to let us go through it alone. Samaria is a big obstacle on the ways. 3 Kings sets the scene with the Assyrian invasions. Jews thought of these settlers now known as the Samaritans as half breeds and not as good as them.

The good news of Jesus should be our answer. Notice how polite Jesus was, He sent men to try to prepare the way. James and John wanted to return hate for hate, but we all know how well that works. John and James had been told what you should do when faced with rejection ie move on, James and John showed great confidence in the power of Jesus. We need to use the power carefully in the way it should be used . To quote Peter Parker’s uncle Ben “with great power becomes great responsibility “

How many times have we leapt to God’s defence. God is perfectly capable of defending himself. You only have to look at social media to see how is it has got perfectly reasonable Christian people to end up attacking those who are different. James and John gave been told off and Jesus moved them on.

We encountered three blokes the first gets the answer that Jesus has no home. The man thinks he’s getting riches and fame and Jesus shows he doesn’t even have a home! The man did not know what following Jesus would mean and what the cost would be. Jesus goes into rough places today thanks to people who count the cost and go anyway. Let go of the bindweed that ties us up and drags us down. Nothing here on earth is permanent.

Bloke number 2. Asks to bury his dad first. He wanted to do his duty by his father, but it’s an excuse. How many times have we said yes lord but….

Bloke number 3 wants to go back and say farewell to his family but Jesus tells him that he can’t look back if he wants to serve the kingdom of God.

We need to use and trust Jesus to take care of us. Why don’t we want to get close to God? Are we scared? Yvette’s mum asked her once would she go to Australia without Dave and the kids, Yvette really struggled with this and God eventually showed her that he would never ask her to do anything she couldn’t.

What about other people’s opinion? What about struggling to read the Bible. Take it small chunks use the lectionary in the In Touch to help you week by week.

Be obedient trust him to take care, don’t follow the crowd, don’t look back,

Don’t cling to regrets or mistakes.

If we want to follow Jesus we need to count the cost and then follow anyway.

People will try to hold you back. We need to be Jesus to a broken world. Our journey is over for today but remember Jesus is our navigator.