A Faith Focused on Jesus

This was my first Sunday back after a four month sabbatical - it was good to be home!

Welcome and Call to Worship

36 O God beyond all praising

Prayers and Lord’s Prayer

The Faith we share – finds its focus in Jesus

Let’s hear the first five verses of chapter 2 of Philippians and then we will all join in at verse 6 and say verses 6-11 together – so please pause after verse 5 and then we shall all come in together.

Philippians 2:1-11

Receiving Paula Rea into Church Membership

It’s great to be receiving Paula into church membership.  Church matters, it makes a difference.  And it’s important. And we are church.  In a fortnight the Big Welcome – do think of someone you can invite – maybe in your family, maybe a neighbour – the big welcome invitations arfe for us to take and use!  And then let’s be welcoming.  We were reminded by Jean of the McCullough rule – 3 minutes – spend three minutes talking with someone you don’t know before getting into conversation with someone you do!  Try it this morning!  And let’s give a ‘big welcome’, holding on to the vision we have for our church that Highbury be a

… place to

share Christian friendship,

explore Christian faith and

enter into Christian mission

with Christ at the centre

and open to all.

Highbury Congregational Church is affiliated to the Congregational Federation, a fellowship of independent Churches who come together to share resources and to support each other.

We are committed to each other by belief in the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

We trust in our Lord’s promise to be with His people who meet in His name.

We affirm the scriptural right of every Church to maintain independence in the ordering of its affairs according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We recognise the oneness of all Christians within the rich diversity of the world-wide Church.  We seek the unity for which Christ prayed by the means He wills.

We are partners in God’s mission with the Churches of the Council for World Mission, a world-wide mission partnership, and with Churches Together.

We worship, work and serve with all who love our Lord to realise His Kingdom in the world, and to help people everywhere to know the joy of His companionship.

God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation: there can be no other foundation.  Jesus said, “Where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.  I give you a new commandment to love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

1 Corinthians 3:11, Matthew 18:20,  John 13:34-35

Church Membership: its basis and responsibilities

Church Members are admitted to the Church

·         on confession of faith in God and in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour

·         by renewing that confession of faith on transfer of Membership from another Christian Church

Names of potential Members shall be considered and approved by the Minister, Deacons and Church Meeting.

The Deacons will keep a written record of those who are Church Members and shall review this on a regular basis and present it to the Church Meeting for formal approval on an annual basis.

Each Church Member is asked to be committed to one or more areas of Church life in action and / or prayer.

Church Members are called to

·         Worship God regularly with the whole Church family

·         Remember the covenant with God in the Lord’s Supper

·         Read the Bible and pray regularly 

·         Share in the life and work of the Church Meeting gathered together in Christ’s name.

·         Witness by the power of the Holy Spirit to the truth of the Gospel through what they are, what they do and what they say.

·         Give their gifts of time, service and money to the work of the Kingdom as they are able.

In all they do they rejoice in the forgiving love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, knowing that when they fail they do not give up but go on in the strength of God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  Love your neighbour as yourself.    Mark 12:30-31

Receive Paula into membership

Helen and Shirley to give right hand of fellowship

Faith for the journey

My tribute to Mary Clifford

The story of Who would true valour see

One of those great publishing events – bookshops open at midnight – Terry Pratchett’s last Discworld novel.

World of Terry Pratchett … and J.K.Rowling is full of scary things – hobgoblins, foul fiends.

So I got Tabi to track some of them down.

42 novels in all.

It’s what you do when you have a good novel published.

The very first English novel was written by John Bunyan … and it too was full of giants and hobgoblins fierce frightening lions, a fire breathing dragon like monster – Mary Clifford grew up in John Bunyan’s church … we miss her.  So this is my tribute.

Mary Clifford took great pride in having grown up in John Bunyan’s birthplace and of a remarkable family association with John Bunyan’s church that stretches continuously from 1889 to the present day!

At a time when people were not free to practise their faith in this country, John Bunyan was imprisoned for his faith.  It was in prison that he wrote a wonderful story about Christian and his journey from this world to that which is to come. Pilgrim’s Progress.  It was such a success he did what all good writers do and wrote a sequel.  That told the story of Christian’s wife, Christiana and her journey from this world to that which is to come, a journey she made with her children.

This is the story Mary grew up with, it’s the story that has shaped her faith.  The faith in this story is not one that gives us the opportunity to escape the horrors of this world and its nastiness.  It’s a faith that enables us to have strength to face those horrors and say as Mary did just before she died, “No, I’m not fearful.”

Towards the end of the journey Christiana meets up with two friends – all the people on the road in Pilgrim’s Progress have wonderful names – you can’t trust Mr Worldly Wiseman, but as for Mr Greatheart he had room for everyone in the love he had for all – and Mr Valiant for Truth stood by the truth at all costs.

Greatheart is in conversation with Mr Valiant for Truth who describes the journey Christian took, the journey Christiana took, the journey he himself had taken.

It’s a journey that speaks of the whole of life – Mary’s life included.

As Mr Valiant for Truth says, the world can be a pretty horrible place – as you sometimes have to go through “the wood and dark mountains of the Hill Difficulty” as you face the menacing lions, and ‘the three giants, Bloody-Man, Maul and Slaygood’.

The journey through life can be something scary – Christian came up against ‘the foul fiend that haunted the Valley of Humiliation”  He found he had to “go over the Valley of the Shadow of death, where the hobgoblins are , where the light is darkness, where the way is full of snares, pits’ and horrible traps.  He had to go through the Slough of Despond and meet up with Giant Despair in Doubting Castle.

Mr Valiant for Truth spoke of the Enchanted Ground Christian had to go through as he came nearer to dying, that drowsy, dreamy time as a kind of sleep came over him … and he spoke of the final river he had to cross.

All the time, Greatheart has been listening with some fear and trepidation. He turns to Valiant for Truth and asks …

“And did none of these things discourage you?”

“No,” said Valiant for truth, “they seemed but as so many nothings to me.”

“Then, this was your victory,” said Greatheart, “even your faith?”

And Valiant for truth said, “It was so.  I believed and therefore came out, got into the way, fought all that set themselves against me, and by believing am come to this place.”  To this place of passing from this world to that which is to come.

Who would true valour see,

Let him come hither;

One here will constant be,

Come wind, come weather,

There’s no discouragement

Shall make him once relent

His first avowed intent

To be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round

With dismal stories,

Do but themselves confound;

His strength the more is.

No lion can him fright,

He’ll with a giant fight,

But he will have a right

To be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend

Can daunt his spirit;

He knows, he at the end

Shall life inherit.

Then fancies fly away,

He’ll fear not what men say;

He’ll labour night and day to be a pilgrim.

CP486 Who would true valour see

Activities for all over 3’s

Later in our service our communion collection is for Mary’s Meals – that will also be part of our harvest appeal.  I had a phone call from David and Sheila Mitchell with great excitement because … well let him explain!

David Mitchell on Mary’s Meals

Philippians 3:10-14

The Way to follow

A great big thank you to everyone at church from Felicity and me for making our sabbatical possible.  I’d been reluctant to have a Sabbatical but I am persuaded.  I feel as if I have cleared the cobwebs and done really important things with family and the project I have been doing.  And the church has had to do things differently and in new ways which we all hope we can now build on … and not just go back to what we did before!

I’ve spent the last four months immersed in the world of the Bible.  And it’s the world we live in.

I passionately believe that it’s through the words of the Bible that God speaks his word to us and shapes the way we lead our lives.  Sometimes we just need a word of comfort, sometimes we need a word of challenge.

What we don’t need is an expert to tell us what to think.  Maybe we all of us need to be prepared to listen to each other, to explore things together and take seek through all the words we read and the words we share that Word of God we need to hear.

Not what I say that counts

But what each of us hears in God’s Word and then what each of us does in response – that’s what matters.

So … over to you – think of this last week – it may be at work, it may be stuff in your own lives, it may be the stuff that’s going on in the news at the moment.

Now take hold of the Bible – is there anything from the Bible that’s speaking to something that’s going on at the moment this week for you, or anything that’s going on in the news.

If this is the moment when you go all cold and cannot think of anything at all, let alone anything to say … then that’s the point you will be just like me.

That’s the great thing about sharing and coming together in church – it may be that something that’s struck someone else is just what we need to hear.

If you want to, just have the conversation with someone near you – and share anything that’s come to mind.

But first, let’s just pray.

Gracious loving God open our minds to the Word you have for us in the words of Scripture this day and open our hearts that we may act on what we hear.

And what about me.  It has been great to have a sabbatical … a big thank you for giving us the opportunity.  I am passionate about the Bible and us all really getting to grips with what can be a difficult book.  The New Testament was written 2000 years ago in a world different world.  As we begin to dig into the Bible one of the really important things to do is to look into that world – then we see how the text of the Bible really spoke into that world.  It was a Jewish world and it was the world of the Roman empire.

Enter into that world and you can make connections with our world … and suddenly the Bible comes alive in new and unexpected ways.

Some people go to Rome to find out about the Romans – we went to Colchester.  It was grand daughter Edith’s idea!   She was just two months, and thought Taid’s idea [that’s the Welsh for Grandpa] was a brilliant one.  The keep of the Norman castle in Colchester is the biggest in the whole of Europe – and it still stands really high: you can go up into the battlements and down into the dungeons.   – it was designed by the guy who built the Tower of London – but it’s even bigger – it’s the biggest Norman Keep in the whole of Europe.  Wow!  And the dungeons are the best bit, except they aren’t really the dungeons, they are the vaulted foundations of the original building on that site.

When the Emperor Claudius decided to conquer Britain he set out just as Paul was starting his missionary travels on the other side of the Mediterranean.  Colchester was his City of Victory as he called it and became the most important city in Britain.  And so Claudius set about building the most enormous temple dedicated to himself as the son of god, complete with great statue of himself.

This was an incredible statement of power.  That’s the kind of world that Paul was travelling round.  Some of the key cities he visited had the same status as Colchester.  In each of his missionary journeys he travelled through a place in the middle of modern Turkey called Antioch in Pisidia and when he first came over to what we think of as Europe, he went to Philippi.  They were each a Colonia of Rome.  Colchester was too … and Lincoln [both have col in their names] and our own Gloucester too.

What happened to Paul in Philippi and what he was getting at in his letter to the Philippians all makes great sense if you get an idea of what a Colonia was.

I’ll tell you lots more on Tuesday evening at Explore and Wednesday afternoon after our lunch … but that’s why I turned to Philippians today.

And what do you find?   Paul maps out what it takes to be a citizen of  God’s kingdom for each of us and how each church can be a kind of colonia of the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

And what does it involve.

It all hinges on Jesus Christ.  He’s the one at the forefront, he’s the one all around us, he’s the one at the centre of all we are and all we do.

Those words from the beginning of Philippians 2:1-5 – that’s what we should be like together as a church – Paul may have been a Roman citizen but he did not look to the Emperor to shape his life, he looked to Jesus as the one to whom every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, the one every tongue should confess is anointed and Lord.

And then for us individually – again it is Jesus who shapes our life – I find that a great comfort and a great challenge … we need to keep going in the race – Paul uses wonderful imagery from the sports field – the Romans loved their sports Colchester has its chariot racing stadium – an athletics track is 400 metres round – each length of Colchester’s chariot racing stadium is 400 metres – not that you can actually see much now, but in the Castle museum you can have a go on a chariot racing simulator!

Philippians 3:10-14

I find that a comfort … personally. – he became as we are and shares in our sufferings, so that we can share in his sufferings – and sometimes when horrible things happen it is that way.  He shares in our sufferings so that we might share in his glory.

All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, ¹¹in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.

And then we keep going – keep at it … and do as Jesus would have us do.  That’s the thing that is the challenge, not least in the face of the kind of news we have all been aware of.

¹²I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. ¹³Of course, my brothers and sisters, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. ¹⁴So I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.

33 Now thank we all our God

Prayers of Concern

S 19 Make me a channel – chosen by Paula

The Lord’s Supper

543 God be in my head

Words of Blessing

Retiring Collection

Music: Frank Guppy & HySpirit (HTC)