Hi Everyone,

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about deserts this week, not to be confused with desserts (although I do think about those quite a lot too). In films and cartoons deserts are often shown as places with miles and miles of sand, nothing and no one to be seen for miles and miles. It’s hot and oppressive – a place of despair. 

Often in churches preachers speak about desert times in our lives referring to times in our lives when God seems absent. I think deserts can actually be really positive places. In the early church there was a group called the Desert Fathers. These were people who deliberately separated themselves from the rest of the world in order to seek God. For them the desert was a place of God’s presence not his absence. 

On Sunday we looked at the story of Jesus in the wilderness in Mathew 4:1-11. Read it again here.

The first thing that we read is that Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit – God was very present in that place. It was a place where Jesus prepared for ministry, where he resisted the temptation to take the easy way out and where he was ministered to.

Perhaps a message to us here is to not be afraid of the desert but to actively seek those places where we can be quiet with God. It can be a challenging place as we are confronted with our true selves without filters or the photo shopped image we might want to portray to others. But it is a place where God meets us, challenges us and transforms us by his Spirit. It is a place where we are known completely and yet loved completely.

As Chris Tomlin sings in his song Indescribable:
“You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same.”
​
Why not take some time out this Lent to seek out the desert (wherever that might be for you). Take some time to be quiet and alone with God, to allow him to examine your heart and to minister to you as we begin our journey towards Easter.

With love

Jess

Hi Everyone,

You don’t have to know me well to know that I’m not a dedicated follower of fashion. My dress sense hasn’t particularly changed much since I was a teenager, my music taste is stuck in the 80’s and my favourite films and TV shows are mainly from the 90’s. Truth be told, when I find something I like, I stick with it (good news for the husband). Occasionally there are new things that catch my attention. For instance, putting jelly beans and popping candy into chocolate bars – now that’s an innovation I can get behind!

On Sunday we continued our series about the Kingdom and we looked at Matthew 13:52 where Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like someone who brings out treasure old and new. We thought about the parables that Jesus told as being like those old treasures that we love and that speak to us deeply about the good news of the Kingdom. Everyone then had a shopping bag full of all sorts of objects and together we thought of new analogies (treasures) for describing the Kingdom of God. Here’s a few of the things that we came up with:

• The Kingdom of God is like a clothes peg that holds us together with God.
• The Kingdom of God is like a party where everyone is invited.
• The Kingdom of God is like a cup that is empty and ready to be filled.
• The Kingdom of God is like an elephant; it is big and strong.
• The Kingdom of God is like a giraffe that doesn’t eat the easy things to chew but reaches up high and chews on the prickly leaves.
• The Kingdom of God is like medicine that brings healing.
• The Kingdom of God is like a train track, bringing direction.
• The Kingdom of God is like a tissue that brings comfort
• The Kingdom of God is like a candle that lights the way.

My treasure was the reminder that the Kingdom of God is all around us and amongst us. The wisdom of the Kingdom is in each of us; from the youngest to the oldest. The Kingdom is not some far off hope – it is here with us now but there is still more to come. 

I hope you can join us at 10:45am on Sunday when Andy will be sharing some more Kingdom wisdom with us. Please do join us on Sunday evening at 7pm when we will be continuing to think together at Engage about faith, sexuality and inclusion.

With Love

Jess

Hi Everyone,

I have to confess I’m a bit of a telly addict. One of my favourite programs at the moment is The Repair Shop. This is a programme all about restoring family treasures that people just can’t part with despite them being broken. I was catching up on an episode yesterday where a rocking horse was being restored. This horse had been well used and loved by generations of children in this family but was now falling to pieces. It wasn’t an easy repair, the damage ran deep into the structure of the horse and required the expertise of a number of skilled artisans to complete the work. I was struck as I watched it that it may have been simpler and much more cost effective to simply get rid of the rocking horse and replace it with a new one. Yet there was something about this family treasure that meant that it was worth more than it’s material cost.

On Sunday we thought about the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price as part of our series looking at our motto text: First…. The Kingdom. I offered us two pictures of what this parable might mean related to the idea of value. In the first picture we looked at us being the merchant in search of fine pearls; the greatest of these pearls being Jesus. In amongst lots of good and worthy things that we might pursue (and perhaps some less worthy things) Jesus is ultimately worth seeking after because in him we find life, meaning and hope.

The second picture we looked at was the idea of Jesus being the merchant and us being the pearl of great price. Jesus is the one who gives up everything in order to pursue the people he created and loves because somehow, despite all of the ways we have been damaged and how deep that damage runs, Jesus declares that we are worth it. Both of these pictures show two halves of one of the eternal truths of the kingdom that as we are in pursuit of God, he is also in pursuit of us. He is the God who runs to find us and the God who allows himself to be found. 

Whatever you are doing this week, have a great week. I hope to see you on Sunday, if not before, when we will be continuing to think about the Kingdom of God together.

With Love

Jess

Hi Everyone,

The decorations are down and the Christmas tree is looking a little sad outside by the green wheelie bin waiting to be collected. I normally quite like taking the decorations down. Suddenly we have all this space and it feels like possibilities are opened up. The thing I don’t like packing away is Jesus. 

When our Christmas decorations go up, an empty basket is place beneath the Christmas tree to represent the manger. It helps to remind me through the busyness of Advent who we are preparing for. On Christmas morning, a doll representing Jesus is placed in the manger and he stays there all through Christmas. For me it is a really special moment but I suspect it is largely ignored by the rest of the family as another one of my eccentricities. 

Usually the weekend before the children go back to school, the decorations come down and Jesus and manger are unceremoniously bundled into a bag and put on a shelf in the garage until next year. It is a moment that is counterintuitive but necessary - Jesus doesn’t stay as a baby in a manger and he is more than a cosy Christmas tradition.

On Sunday, we celebrated Epiphany: the visit of the wise men to Jesus. Simon reminded us that when the wise men visited, Jesus was no longer a baby in a manger but was more likely a toddler by then and certainly no longer sleeping in an animal trough. When all the drama of his birth had died down and the angels song had faded, the wise men crept in to worship Jesus bringing gifts fit for a king. For me there is something quite significant in that. 

It is often easy to worship Jesus in the middle of a big festival with all the decorations, traditions and special events. In someways, it is much harder to worship Jesus in the midst of normal life; away from the excitement, when we’re back to the routine and the mundane. Yet there is something in the persistence of the wise men that calls us to continue to pursue Jesus and to worship him. 

On Sunday we’re going to be revealing our new motto for the 2020 that will help us to focus our thoughts as we continue to worship Jesus. I hope you can join us.

With Love

Jess

Hi Everyone,

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”

Three of the four advent candles are lit, children are rapidly running out of doors on the advent calendar, we’ve had our community carol service and we’ve already had two Christmas parties in Positive Steps with at least three more to go. If you’re anything like me you can also add to the list: a pile of Christmas cards that have not quite made it to the post box, presents still to be wrapped, a feast to prepare and a complex matrix of visits to organise. The build up to Christmas can be a magical time that is filled with wonder, hope, love, joy and peace but it can also be a time that is filled with stress, worry, grief and loneliness. Often Christmas films fill our imaginations with a perfect ideal of what Christmas “should” be. We are offered images of the perfect gift, the perfect decorations, the perfect romance, the perfect family - Hollywood raises our expectations but reality is often somewhat different.

Probably the best Christmas film ever is “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It shows a life fraught with challenges and yet, just when George Bailey thinks that the world might be better off without him, he sees that actually his life means quite a lot. He discovers that it is in the small everyday decisions that he made in his life that other people’s lives were made better. In amongst all of the strain and stress he realises that he matters. I thought long and hard about what I wanted my Christmas message to you all to be and it is simply this - you matter. God loved the world so much that he sent his son into the world to be God with us. 

Whether your Christmas is a thing to rival a Hollywood film or if you’re having the Nightmare before Christmas remember that you are loved beyond measure. And if your Christmas is a bit of a simple affair, it’s okay, don’t forget that the first Christmas was too.

This weekend we will be holding a Christingle service in place of our normal 10:45am service. Do come along and listen again to the message of God’s deep and enduring love for the whole world. Then on Christmas Day, why not join us to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

With love

Jess

P.S. if you are struggling this Christmas and the season is a bit much for you, please don’t suffer in silence come and speak to myself or Simon or Mo - you really do matter.