We’ve all had the experience of touching the highs and then facing normality, both in our secular and spiritual lives. Elijah had just come through the defeat of the prophets of Baal and Asherah where he and all of Israel had seen God move in a spectacular way. And at the end of 1 Kings 18 God sends the long waited for rain. Elijah is obviously on a real high because he manages to outrun Ahab all the way to Jezreel. He must have been full of God’s praises – Israel and Ahab had seen God’s power, seen the false prophets defeated, and fallen prostrate to declare, ‘The Lord, He is God!’ But then there was one of the Old Testament’s favourite baddies, Jezebel, issuing murderous threats against Elijah. And filled with the praises of God, confident in the awesome power of God, Elijah does the only thing open to man – he turns and runs for fear of his life into the desert. So low does he sink that he prays, ‘I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life’. But there, in the depths of his despair, God meets with Elijah and provides for his basic needs – food and water. No great words of encouragement, just a simple, ‘Get up and eat’. Strengthened, Elijah takes himself further into the desert, to Horeb, the mountain of God. Here, twice God asks Elijah, ‘What are you doing here?’ And Elijah responds, rather like a little child, ‘That nasty lady wants to kill me’. And again, there are no words of encouragement, no soothing, ‘There, there’; just a set of instructions for Elijah to follow. This episode in Elijah’s life is a reminder to us that God doesn’t promise us a rose garden. He doesn’t walk ahead of us, clearing from the way anything that we might find tough, anything that might challenge what we believe. At no time did God say to Elijah, ‘Look, old boy, I just want you to go and have a little téte à téte with Ahab. Don’t worry, everything will be fine, just fine!’

Paul put it so well in Romans 8:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wherever we find ourselves, from the mountain top to the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us, gently bearing us, knowing well our feeble frame.
Rev Phil

Trinity Sunday is the day that many ministers have a rest and let their SSM’s, Readers or Elders try and explain the mystery of the Trinity. The shamrock, the three states of water, eggs – all fall short. Even the standard diagram of the Trinity has its limitation. The diagram explains the symbolism. But it’s too fixed. The Bible only give us clues and hints about the Trinity. There are many deep, thick, (boring), theological books which attempt to explain the Trinity. And it is important that we understand, in some small way, the Trinity.

We affirm our faith in the Trinity every time we recite the creed. It is at the core of our faith, it is what makes Christianity distinctive – one God, yet Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Father, Son and Holy Spirit yet one God.

In being Trinity, God displays all the attributes which His church should seek to emulate; community, love for the other, other-centredness, self-giving, caring, listening, collaborative, singing, laughter, dancing.

‘Dance then wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance’, said He
‘And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I’ll lead you all in the dance’, said He

Rev Phil

What is the Holy Spirit all about? Jesus talks about a Counsellor, the Spirit of Truth; Luke talks of tongues of fire enabling everyone to speak in different languages. Paul describes the Spirit of Holiness, being controlled by the Spirit, having life by the Spirit.

The late Pope Francis said:
‘Come Holy Spirit, this is the claim of all the Christians at Pentecost as it is today.
Come Holy Spirit, that is the promise of the Father and the promise of Jesus.
So that the Holy Spirit may enlarge and widen our hearts.
We all have a problem, and that is that our hearts tend to shrink, become smaller and close up.
We can’t solve that problem by ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can solve it.
Come Holy Spirit.
The [Lord’s] prayer … opens the heart and asks the prayer that makes us breathe the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit, come Spirit.
Come Holy Spirit.’

As we receive the Holy Spirit we need to hear God saying:
‘I’m giving you this energy, I’m giving you the capacity to fulfil your calling’.

Bishop Martin Seeley, former Bishop of St Eds & Ips said:
‘When we think about receiving the gift of the Spirit, it isn’t about some warm, fuzzy feeling; it is about enabling us to do something, enabling us to be active in a different way. It’s about doing things differently, behaving differently, living differently, seeing differently, and being orientated in a way so that our lives are directed to God and we are shaped and energized in that way.’

Our prayer for Pentecost must surely echo the words written by Edwin Hatch:
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew;
That I may love what Thou dost love
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Rev Phil

We’re in the period between Ascension and Pentecost. Jesus has ascended into heaven, but the promised Holy Spirit is yet to come. Across the denominations Christians are challenged o pray for people to come to know the love of God as revealed in Jesus, as we pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’. It’s a very simple challenge – to pray for five specific people every day between now and Pentecost, praying that we might have opportunities to speak to them about God. There are some who continue this praying for five throughout the year, and as soon as one of the five starts to attend church, a new name is added to the list. And there are some wonderful testimonies. One of my favourites is from a lady who was praying for her neighbour who she rarely saw. One day she was putting her bin out, ready to be emptied, when she saw her neighbour struggling with their bin. She simply offered to help with the bin, and a conversation naturally ensued. They arranged to meet for coffee in order to continue the conversation. From this came an opportunity to make an invitation to a church service. So often we think of evangelism, telling people the Good News, as something that only specialists do. We’re worried about what to say, about ‘fluffing our lines’. At its simplest, evangelism is having conversations, being interested in our neighbours, the people we meet day-by-day. A simple ‘Good morning’; parting by saying ‘God bless’.
We read in Revelation: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:17, 20 (ANIV). There is an urgency because Jesus is coming again, soon. And as Aslan says in the Chronicles of Narnia, ‘I call all times soon.’ So let’s start praying for five people, praying that they would come to know the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Rev Phil

In order to set up a synagogue you need ten men. As the Jews moved out of the Roman state of Palestine, they settled in towns across the empire. And where they settled, there were people who were interested in the Jewish faith and became believers. This is the case in Philippi. But it was mainly a group of women who had become believers; there weren’t enough men to enable them to build a synagogue. So they had to meet elsewhere.
It seems to have been a practise of the Jews that in these situations they met by a river outside the town or city. It was certainly their practise when in Exile in Babylonia. In Psalm 137 we read:

‘By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.’

And so it was that Paul and his friends made their way to the river side to find a group of worshippers, a believing community. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. They sat with them, got to know them, and started to share the love of God as revealed in Jesus. As they did this, they were welcomed into people’s homes, to share with more people God’s love. And whole families became believers and were baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Paul knew where he needed to go to meet people in order to share the Good News. Where are the places where we know people are? Are these the places to where God is calling us? We need to ask the question, ‘Where would Jesus be?’ I think He would be in our schools, at the Plough, the Stoke Lacy Friendship Group, dog-walking on the Downs, the History Centre, HOBS, the Halo Centre, the Tipsy, the Rosie, the Kings, the Queens, Emma’s Country Café, Cosy Café, at the top of the High Street where the young people gather.

Are we willing to risk following the Jesus to where His is? .

Rev Phil