A Birthday Gift for the Church

We all like to receive gifts and many of us like even better to give them for us the apostle Paul noted that Jesus said ‘it is better to give than receive.’ Acts 20:35, though we’re not too sure where Jesus said that, but we know he would have done.

Choosing gifts for a friend or member of the family at any time, especially on an occasion is difficult whether you know them well or not. What do you give the person who has everything. The carol ‘In the bleak Midwinter’ suggests: our heart.

I love this Church billboard. ‘Give Jesus a present this Christmas, wrap up your kids and bring them to church’.

As staff we have an idea for this Pentecost Sunday, where we all reflect on the ways we give, which is, our Time, Talents and Treasure. We would love us all to bring a simple Pledge Card and place it in the offering plate on the 24^th May. These will then be brought forward and prayed over. You can also bring them to our Team Service on Trinity Sunday at Holy Trinity at 10am. Here there will be separate plates for our four Church communities for you to put them in. These will be added to the ones we have already received and given to the Church Councils for encouragement.

If you would like to know about the biblical principles of giving, there are some notes on our Welcome Table.

But one of the key principles is that a gift is a gift. Giving to a church is not a subscription for membership, nor is it a tax, because the Church is not a club where we all think the same, or a cult where we are told what to think. It is an intergenerational community of people who love God and want to serve him and our communities as best we can. Our Giving is a sign of our maturity, so our gift, comes without strings attached as an offering to God who gives us everything. We often pray: All things come from you O Lord, and of your own, do we give you. 1 Chronicles 29:14

Remember this is our giving not anyone else’s. We all have different circumstances which change throughout our lives. The widow in the story Jesus told gave everything she had whilst the religious hypocrites made a big show of their giving. Jesus is never impressed with this.

Check out this fab Townend/Getty song ‘Simple Living’ which features the wonderful Kate Rusby, and has the line, ’Not what you give, but what you keep is what the King is counting.’

So, what might we put on this pledge card. We may write that we’ve reflected seriously on all of this and want to make some changes to the way we give to our church community. Or, we will bring items for Community Matters whenever we can. Or we wish to join the Parish Giving Scheme and we have looked into it or signed up for it. Or we will give regularly to the Church, whether we are there every week or not to help the treasurers plan their budgets.

Whatever we do. keep it personal and follow it through with God’s Grace who loves a cheerful giver so I end with a joke.

Two men are stranded on a desert island. One says you don’t seem worried. The other says, I give a lot to our church, they will find me.

Keep the faith, but never ever to ourselves.

Love Philip x

I love change, but I appreciate that many find it difficult and unsettling. Thank God we are all different and it’s very important that we understand our differences, respect them, whilst at the same time move forwards with some aspects of change.

But what is change, for there are some very important differences in three specific types of change. Firstly, there’s the big changes like the Early Church deciding to make the first day of the week the main day of worship. There are currently no plans by the Pope or others to go back to keeping a Sabbath on Saturdays. Or take the ordination of women, which in my opinion should have happened when the Early Church changed the day of worship. Because it didn’t, it took far too long to make the permanent change because views got entrenched and the nature of Jesus and the understanding of our founding mothers & fathers got lost in creating an empire rather than building a kingdom.

For some removing pews is a big change because there’s usually no going back. The beautiful St Paul’s Bledlow Ridge took them out because of unforeseen circumstances in the 1970s. No one since has suggested putting them back.

Secondly there are changes in Church life such as reviewing the monthly pattern of services that can be experimental and if a complete disaster can be reverted back to what previously happened or adapted to suit a changing situation.

The change I’m drawing attention to here, are more like going away on holiday, or as they say ‘a change is as good as a rest.’ For me changing what I might wear in a service or using different prayers and formats, eucharistic liturgies etc., and even moving the chairs are changes in this category. They may be for one service or a short season. They may be to show the possibilities of what can be different but they are rarely if ever permanent or without reflection after hearing a wide variety of views. These changes also allow for creativity to flourish, so that we don’t feel tied to strict traditions or ways of doing things. As someone said ‘if we do what we’ve always done, we get what we’ve always got.’

We all change throughout our lives, our attitudes, our health, even some hardened beliefs. It’s natural so that every generation can and ought to make their mark on the next or the next generation will wonder why the last one didn’t. Our children and our children’s children live in a fast ever changing world and so they learn how to adapt. Some may feel that the church is some bastion of changelessness, but that is only ascribed to God who gives us gifts to navigate all the changes we will ever face.

As the famous oracle of Rural Ministry Leticia Cropley once said ‘everything has to change, especially traffic lights’.

And remember if you didn’t like the change however temporary, somebody else loved it, and if you loved it, someone else didn’t. And that is why Christ’s call to love one another is more important than any changes we might experience.

Don’t fear change, embrace it, for none of us are the same as we were yesterday or will be tomorrow.

Keep the faith but never ever to ourselves.
Love Philip x