Just Pray

If ever there were a time to pray 'Thy kingdom come' it is now. This is the video banned by British cinemas. You will find us saying these words every Sunday, and every day either in church or at home.

Paris...and the Prince of Peace

The recent terrible events in Paris have brought the violence that thousands in Syria and the surrounding area have lived with for years into a shocking proximity, and have made us think “Are we next?” The terrorists behind the atrocities are motivated by a religious zeal that feeds on the ideas of holy war and a messianic final battle in which all infidels will finally submit or be wiped out. This is an extreme form of Islam which, thankfully, most Muslims reject. It’s a world view that will not be countered by political appeasement or peaceful negotiation, so, sadly, armed force is probably the only human way to contain it.

But at the same time we, as Christians, should be praying that good will conquer evil, and that peace will triumph over violence. Again and again the bible paints a picture of peace – shalom – in which all people live together under the just and gracious rule of God. This is very different to the enforced caliphate which ISIS dreams of. Rather it is a kingdom in which Jesus – the Lamb of God, the one who was broken on the cross – is King, and in which those who come to him in faith are united as brothers and sisters. A kingdom of peace and joy.

I recently asked the children in our church school “What can’t you do if you are full of joy?” And they soon got the answer: “You can’t hate and you can’t fight.” Our prayer, as we approach Christmas and go beyond into a rather uncertain new year, is that more and more people will come into God’s kingdom of peace and joy as they encounter Jesus the Prince of Peace.

This year in our Christmas services we will be focussing on the message the angels brought to the shepherds: ‘Peace and good will to all people’. And then in turn, we can be like those shepherds – spreading the word about what we have seen and know.

The Alpha Course

The Alpha Course will be starting at St John's on Thursday 24th September at 7.30 pm. It's a great place to bring your questions about life, about the Christian faith, about Jesus, about the church. The evening starts with a meal, then after watching a talk there is plenty of time to discuss what you've heard. Many people have said that their lives were changed as a result of doing Alpha. Why not try it with us?

If you would like to come to the introductory session you can contact the church office: stjohns@coulsdon.net, or 01737 552461.

After the Election the hard work begins

Now the Election’s over the hard work of government begins again, and whatever we think of the result the Prime Minister, David Cameron, needs our prayers for wisdom and justice. We need to pray for Mr Cameron as he chooses his Cabinet – who to invite and who not to.

The UK is politically more divided than ever as Scotland has become what could be described as a socialist one-party state within a state. The comments of Mr Cameron and Mr Milliband about the Scottish voters probably have not helped, and there are bridges to be built. It would be ironic if a Conservative and Unionist government oversaw the breakup of the United Kingdom.

When the referendum about electoral reform was held I voted against proportional representation, but I think I’m changing my mind. It doesn’t seem right that 6 million people can vote for the Lib Dems and UKIP and get only 9 or 10 seats between them, but 1 ½ million can vote SNP and get 56 seats. If this is the future of politics then maybe our electoral system does need to change.

Remember the Poor

I've just been listening to David Cameron at the Conservative Party Conference giving promises about reduced tax for those 'who work hard'. Great! All of us who work hard would like to keep more of our hard-earned cash...but wait a minute: I also remember that in the bible we are told to remember the poor. Mr Cameron did remember them the other day when he spelled out how benefits would be reduced even further in order to reduce the national deficit. Three cheers for the poor who will pay the price so we - the comparatively rich - will have tax cuts!

In Leviticus 19 God gives explicit laws about how to provide for the poor. He tells landowners - note that the bible doesn't condemn land ownership - not to harvest every last stalk of grain from their fields, but to leave some round the edge for the poor to glean. Why? Because this reflects the Lord's holiness, and his desire that no-one should be in want. There is no distinction made in the bible about types of poor people - the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor that our contemporary politicians talk about.

When Cornelius, the God-fearing Roman centurion, was granted a vision of angels he was told that "Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God." He was commended for remembering the poor.Later on, when St Paul was sent out by the church on mission, the only stipulation laid on him was that 'he should remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do' (Galatians 2:10).

Now, you could argue that this has nothing to do with national budgets. Yes, you could argue that as there was no such thing as a national welfare budget until very recently - certainly not in biblical times. It was up to individuals to remember the poor and help them out of their own money. You could argue that if tax payers keep more of their own money they are then free to give to charities that help the poor. I'm not sure if unredeemed human nature would do that as a priority. The problem I have is this: the fact that we DO have a welfare budget means that the poor are a necessary concern of the national budget, of government spending and political decisions. The way the poor are singled out for worse treatment by some politicians (who obviously have an eye on next year's election) makes me feel uncomfortable and makes me question whether I could vote for a party that espouses the sort of  policy that will take even more away from those who have hardly anything already.

In the meantime, support your local food bank - those who are 'food poor' need them more and more.

Finance and Faith: A Call to Generous Giving

I haven't posted a sermon on this Blog before, but I want as many people as possible to see it and respond appropriately. 

Finance and Faith

Sunday 29^th June 2014

Haggai 1:1 – 15; Matthew 25:14 – 30

The circus had come to town and, as a special act, Barney, the strongman, squeezed the juice from an orange between his hands.

Barney, then said to the audience, 'I will offer £200 to anyone in the audience who can squeeze another drop from this orange.'

An elderly thin man came forward, picked up the orange, strained hard and managed to get one more drop of juice from the orange.

Barney, the strongman, was stunned and as he paid the man and asked him, 'What is the secret of your strength?'

'Practice,' the man replied smiling. 'For 25 years I was the treasurer of the local church.'

I feel a bit like that treasurer, and you may be glad to know that this is the last in my series of sermons on the theme of stewardship.

We’ve been reminded in these last few weeks…

·       that money has spiritual power.

·       that giving is a spiritual discipline and an expression of worship.

·       and that generosity in giving is simply giving back to God what belongs to him.

But still it’s a hard lesson to learn.

At the time of the Jew’s return from exile in Babylon a bit over 400 years before the before of Christ, the prophet Haggai had to remind the people that their priority was to rebuild the house of the Lord – the temple – before they saw to their own houses.

It was because they neglected the Lord’s house that their pockets seemed to have holes in them.

“Get your priorities right,” says the Lord, “and everything else will fall into place.”

And in the gospel reading Jesus reminds his hearers that from the one to whom much has been entrusted, much will be expected. This applies as much to the proclamation of the kingdom as it does to our use of the blessings of wealth that the Lord has given us.

Now I’ve tried to be as clear and encouraging as I can be in these last few weeks. I’ve been honest with you about my own situation and practice in regard to giving, and I’ve been encouraged by the 2 people who responded practically with a SO and an increase in giving – one of those living on the basic state pension.

It’s clear what the bible says:

·       give generously,

·       give in proportion to your income,

·       and give first to the Lord.

So let me move on to some facts and figures that may focus our thinking.

Our total income for 2013 was £137,000. Of that £95,000 was from individual regular givers, with Gift Aid added. After that there was £18,000 in cash offerings and the rest was from one-off donations, fees and rental income from the church house in Waddington Avenue.

Our expenditure was £133,000. Of that £94,000 was paid to the Diocese of Southwark to cover the cost of employing me (£52,000), central costs (£11,000) and a further £31,000 to help the mission of the church in areas not able to support a full-time paid minister.

Expenditure was slightly less than income, but we have an accumulated deficit of £-40,529.

Giving in 2013 was lower than in 2010. This was because a number of regular generous givers moved or died, and that gap has not been filled.

In a survey of the range of individual donations my wife Nicy and I come in the top 10% of givers. 20 people give £20 a month or less; 15 give £10 or less.

I really think we can do better.

And in fact we will need to because we face 2 big challenges to our general fund.

The first is that we need to be able to match the income we have relied on this last year from renting out 8 Waddington Avenue, as the availability of that house to the church will determine whether or not we have another full-time stipendiary curate, or other full-time member of staff.

Before agents’ fees and maintenance the rental income is about £14,500 a year.

But we can’t allow ourselves to depend on that income for long because the reason the house was bought by the parish in the first place was to house a curate, not to provide extra income.

And then the 2^nd big challenge is potentially much more serious and urgent.

Since Tim Hill started working for us 2 days a week as our Youth and Children’s Pastor his work for the other 3 days has dried up, and he has had to find work where he can chopping trees and doing gardening jobs.

The fact is he can’t afford that and finds himself in the situation where he must take a full-time job.

And there are 2 such jobs going in churches not far from here.

The bottom line is this: unless we can offer Tim a full-time contract he will have to leave and find work elsewhere.

Not only would this be a great blow to our children and youth work, and our mission into local schools, but it goes against the very strong feeling that came from the Mission Action Planning day last week that expanding our children’s ministry should be a priority. We’ve explored the possibilities for some kind of shared work, but the sticking point is ‘what about Sundays’.

So would it be possible to raise that extra £28,000?

Let’s break it down.

If we assume there are potentially 150 givers in the church who each could pledge an extra £4 a week, that would generate £600/week, £2400/month, £28,800/month + GIFT AID

£4 a week. That’s the price of 2 Lotto tickets, or a cheap bottle of wine. It’s less than the price of a daily paper, and about the cost of daily doughnut from our local bakery.

But the more important question is: is it worth it?

Both areas of need are to do with mission:

Providing housing for a curate who will bring added value to St John’s, as curates have done up to now, and a way that we can, through their training, give something to the wider church.

Our Youth and Children’s Pastor helps us grow our mission and ministry among children and young people – the next generation of the church. Without them, the church will simply cease to exist.

Let me finish with a very specific request.

Please, would you consider giving an extra £4 a week as part of your regular giving.

Without the extra income we will not be able to progress our children’s work as we hope to, and we will not be able to have another full-time curate – it’s as simple as that.

If you are able to make that extra pledge, please fill in the pledge form in your newsletter, and drop it in the box at the back, or to the church office or rectory during the week. We will make sure that they are kept anonymous until they are collected by Tony our Treasurer.

As a PS to this: sometimes people would like to support the work of the church in mission, but genuinely can’t at the time. If that’s the case, we have benefitted over the years from people’s legacies and bequests in their will. You might like to consider the church as a beneficiary: what you leave to charity reduces the value of your estate for tax purposes so it can sometimes be a benefit for both the recipient and the donor’s family. There are some leaflets about that on the table.

Let me finish with this verse

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen

God can do more than we ask or imagine.

But he works his power through us, through our cheque books, bank accounts, and so on.

So that glory may go to him and the church may grow.

Is Britain a Christian country?

‘We should be more confident about our status as a Christian country,’ said David Cameron last week in an article in the Church times (CT 17/04/2014). I’m glad Mr Cameron has the confidence to speak about his own faith, irregular and vague though that may be (by his own admission) but I can’t agree with his basic assumption that Britain is a Christian country. Although 59% of the population of England and Wales  stated ‘Christian’ as their religious belief in the 2011 census, the number of churchgoers on a typical Sunday was around 800,000 – probably more than actively belong to a political party, but a small minority of the whole population.

Yes, you could argue that Britain is constitutionally Christian, with the Queen as Head of State, and Head of the Established Church, and the Church of England represented formally through its bishops in the House of Lords. But that in itself doesn’t make Britain a ‘Christian country’ in the sense of being a theocracy or, more exactly, a Christocracy. The only place that I can think of where that was tried was 16^th century Geneva at the time of Calvin – and what a joyless time that turned out to be.

So what about judging the ‘Christianness’ of Britain by people’s experience of Christ? David Cameron doesn’t once mention Jesus Christ in his article – rather he puts his faith in the Church of England. Oh dear! I’m a fulltime employee of the C of E and I wouldn’t put my faith in it. Rather, my faith is in Jesus Christ – the one person DC fails to mention in his article. That reminds me of J John’s statement that if you take the ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christian’ you are just left with ‘Ian’, and he can’t help anyone.  I think it’s fair to say that the majority of the population have little real experience of Jesus Christ that could be articulated in any clear way. For Mr Cameron church membership seems to be concerned more with maintaining centres of cultural heritage as places of peace and serenity rather than seeing them as centres of mission and proclamation of the good news of Jesus. Yes, he is, by his own admission, probably typical of most members of the C of E.

So is it possible for any country to be a ‘Christian country’?  If so, how do we judge it: by doctrinal adherence, by spiritual experience, by moral values?  Mr Cameron seems to judge by the last of those three – as indeed most politicians would these days. He mentions in his article the Christian values of ‘responsibility, hard work, charity, compassion , humility and love’ but then goes on to say that they are shared by people of every faith and of none. So what is an exclusively ‘Christian value’? Perhaps the unique value we could point to in Jesus himself is self-sacrifice: not popular on the lips of politicians today! DC’s argument is weak here because he goes on to criticise what he calls ‘some sort of secular neutrality’, but that is the very thing he has just given us in his list of ‘Christian values’ – those held by people of all faith and of NONE.

Mr Cameron points to the good works that Christians are involved in, and that is something to be proud of certainly. I support this government’s decision to maintain its level of foreign aid at 0.7% of Gross National Income at a time when some decry that. It’s ironic, though, that the churches, by and large, are picking up the pieces left by the government’s welfare policy, as evidenced by the rise in use of food banks. Don’t believe what the Daily Mail says – these are people in real need and the DM should be ashamed of the way it condemns people who innocently find themselves in crisis moments of extreme poverty.

There was a time when people spoke of Christendom: when political and spiritual power went hand in hand. Those times are long past, thank goodness. They led to plenty of bloodshed and shame in the history of the church. What can we say about the UK today? At best I believe we can describe ourselves as a secular country with a Christian cultural heritage – but even that heritage is weak: you only have to hear the massive silence at weddings and funerals when you invite the congregation to join in the Lord’s Prayer – people just don’t know it anymore.

I’m sure David Cameron wants a better society for all – who doesn’t? I’m sure he wants to win the next election outright – which political leader wouldn’t? I’m sure he has faith in God, however vague and woolly that faith is. But I’m not persuaded by his argument that Britain is a Christian country.  I’m not convinced by his logic, by his authority to speak on the subject, or his (spiritual) passion.  And I would certainly want to direct people to put their faith in Jesus Christ rather than the Church of England.