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By Revd Philip Smith

This Thursday is momentous when our Prime Minister visits the President of the United States of America, and someone we know very well becomes a Bishop. I’m always intrigued by Jesus’ relationships with other readers who are nothing like him and I often imagine conversations Jesus has with the disciple Peter.

Peter: Jesus.

Jesus: yes Peter, this better be good.

Peter: I’m not sure you should go round calling the leaders a ‘brood of vipers’.

Jesus: Why not! They are a brood of vipers.

On another occasion he says of Herod ‘Go and tell that fox for me’ Luke 13:32

Jesus doesn’t always appear to hold back as I guess he sees through all the layers of bravado and sees them for who they really are. He’s certainly not fond of hypocrites, a word that comes from Greek actors wearing different masks as they play different characters. Most people can spot a fake a mile away. I doubt if they would do it, but I think all leaders should have to wear badges like Formula One Drivers, showing who sponsors them. Perhaps there should also be a sign at every meeting between them that reads: ‘Leave your egos at the door’.

For those of us in the Wycombe Deanery we have a special relationship with our new Bishop because we know him and have grown to appreciate his servant heart. We can see why he has been given this opportunity and great responsibility especially at a time when all Bishops are under a spot light. Please pray for Dave & Helen, we know he does for us.

Sadly, when world leaders and politicians behave in dubious ways we are not surprised, as expectations of integrity are often low. Leaders in the Church however are rightly held to a greater standard as we and they seek to follow our Lord’s example especially when he says that the Kings of the Gentiles Lord it over their subjects, it should not be like that with you.

Bishops, Prime Ministers and Presidents hold great responsibility, but they are human like us all and like us need much prayer as they seek to serve, but they are no more or less important than any of us. Jesus said that if we want to be the greatest, then we must become the least. It’s why seeing Pope Francis washing feet is so powerful. Pray for him too.

Here’s Peter and Jesus again.

Peter: Lord, what do you want me to do?

Jesus: What part of act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with me don’t you understand Peter.

Peter: Don’t you mean walk humbly with God.

Jesus: That’s what I said.

Always remember that the most important person on Airforce One is the pilot.

Keep the faith, but never ever to ourselves.

Love Philip x
PS It’s only a week till Lent. How might we do it differently? Please reread Lucy’s blog below.
*The first rule of the All Blacks.

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By Revd Lucy Austin

The Sermon on the Mount – Jesus’s greatest hit, if you will – doesn’t waste a single breath telling us what to believe. Instead, it’s all about what to do and how to be.

Fast forward three centuries to the Nicene Creed, and suddenly it’s all about beliefs, with no mention of action! Talk about a plot twist.

It’s rather like going from “be good to each other” to filling out a theological questionnaire. I suspect Jesus would have preferred the former – he did seem more interested in whether we’d feed the hungry than whether we could recite complex doctrines.

Christians happily quote the Ten Commandments (mostly “don’ts”), yet often get a bit squirmy when you mention the Sermon on the Mount (mostly “dos”). Perhaps because “blessed are the peacemakers” sounds rather inconvenient when you’re trying to start an argument in Parliament.
Also “blessed are the merciful” might raise a few eyebrows in today’s rather punitive courtrooms.

Agreeable spirituality is preferable isn’t it? It keeps things nice and orderly – let’s have everyone sitting quietly in their pews, thinking lovely thoughts about heaven.

When people start taking Jesus’s actual words seriously things get a bit uncomfortable for those enjoying the status quo. Funny that, isn’t it?

This Lent, instead of just giving up chocolate (though that’s perfectly fine too), what if we embraced being what I like to call “prophetic troublemakers”?

Don’t worry – I’m not suggesting anything too dramatic.

Repentance is not about a “sackcloth and ashes” spirituality of guilt, legalism, and self-recrimination. The focus of repentance is not on what we’ve done, but on what we will choose to do and become in the future.

We all want to make a positive mark on the world. We want to live good lives that matter and that contribute to making our corner of the world a little better. And there is no better guide than Jesus’ teachings about authenticity, generosity, compassion, connection, and building a better society together. Sometimes the smallest acts of kindness can create the biggest ripples.

It might be as simple as making someone smile, sharing your last Hobnob with a colleague, or choosing to listen rather than speak when someone needs to be heard.

You see, that’s the clever bit about the Sermon on the Mount – it shows us how small, intentional actions done in secret can transform society. Rather like throwing a pebble into a pond – you never quite know how far those rings will spread. One kind word might just be the thing that helps someone keep going. One generous gesture might inspire a chain reaction of goodwill In a world that seems increasingly fond of anger and division, these small acts of love become rather revolutionary. They’re like tiny sparks of hope in what can sometimes feel like rather dark times. And the brilliant thing is, anyone can do them. You don’t need special training, fancy credentials, or even a theology degree (though if you have one, well done you!).

So here’s to being blessed troublemakers this Lent. May our small acts of kindness cause just enough good trouble to make the world a slightly better place. May we be less concerned with ticking boxes and more interested in touching hearts. And if anyone asks why you’re being so nice, you can always blame it on Jesus. He started it, after all!

Remember, as we journey through Lent, it’s not about grand gestures or perfect performance. It’s about letting love be the driving force behind our words, attitudes, and actions. And who knows?
Those little ripples of kindness might just turn into waves of transformation.

Now wouldn’t that be something worth giving up chocolate for?

Come, Almighty to deliver;
Let us all thy grace receive;
Suddenly return, and never,
Never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve thee as thy host above,
Pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
Glory in thy perfect love.

PS Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the 5th of March this year.

much love and many blessings
LucyA

By Judy Taylor

I recently came across this photo of a little pansy which had somehow managed to push its way through a seemingly impossible place, you could say between a rock and a hard place. How did it get there I wonder? Was it a tiny seed brought by the wind or maybe dropped by a bird? A little seed like this would not be expected to flower, to flourish in such a hostile place and yet, against all the odds here it is, brave and beautiful, a glorious splash of colour against the greyness and hardness of the rocks surrounding it. In order for it to grow it would have needed a little earth and water. There must have been just enough soil between the cracks of the rock to enable the seed to grow and the rain would have trickled down between the cracks to encourage it to flourish. Its journey up through the tiny crack would have been a struggle but just enough light would have encouraged this little flower to keep going until it reached the light, the third element needed to grow, (earth, water and light).

How often do we feel that we are ‘between a rock and a hard place’? When it seems that whatever choice we make will not bring about the solution we want. It may be that decisions we have taken have brought us to this place or it may be situations beyond our control.

In the bible, there are many stories of people who must have felt like this, among them, Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, who was a victim of betrayal and must have felt helpless and hopeless at times. Daniel faced captivity in Babylon, threats from jealous rivals and the lion’s den. Paul, who endured numerous hardships including beatings, imprisonment, shipwrecks and eventually martyrdom. And then our dear Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane desperately praying that the horror of what was to come could be avoided. Real people with real feelings. In spite of everything however, they all held on to what gave them life, their love of God. Somehow they dug deep, found that little piece of soil to anchor themselves to and with perseverance they came through into the light, against all the odds.

We cannot all be heroes such as these but we can, when things seem impossible, reach into what grounds us, our love of God and his for us. If we can let his love wash over us which may be through others we will find the strength however tenuous to start that journey into the light. Think of the little pansy again – this little flower is somehow declaring that it has arrived! The beauty of its colour, its very being there is a testament to perseverance and the miracle of life itself.

God is with us, God will always be with us especially in the tough times. If we think of the little pansy, we can perhaps find the soil (God) to encourage us and strengthen us, the rain to help us to believe and have courage (which may be the support of others) and with these we can start our journey towards the light knowing that we have come through. We can bathe in the warmth of that wonderful light allowing it to warm us and dispel our weariness. And we can rest too until we, with God’s love are able to embrace life once again knowing that our strength comes from God and He will see us through wherever the path of our life takes us.

Psalms 18:1-3. I love you, LORD; you are my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my saviour; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.

At this time of year we can get too much into buying presents and pretty wrapping paper , and we sometimes forget the wonder and hope of Christmas.
I am not saying that buying presents is bad , of course it’s right and nice to buy people things.
However, we need to have the right outlook on this.

We need to fix our minds on celebrating the coming of Jesus , and what fantastic things and people we have.
Jesus cares about what we think about, and how we do Christmas. so let’s make the best of the Christmas Season !

(Tim, a member of Stokenchurch St P and St P., lives life from a wheelchair.)

Harvest is the time of the year when  we remember and give thanks for the food and the many good things that God gives us.

However,  do we  sometimes  forget to give thanks for what is good, because sometimes we let bad things colour and shape our thinking?

I think that this is not how God wants us to be, because in the Bible God  talks a lot about give thanks for what we have.
Some people don’t have much and some have lost almost everything,  but we can give thanks to our outstanding God for everything that we have.

Harvest is a good time to start giving thanks more!

For a Season I am going to do short talks for this church and my hope is that God and the Holy Spirit will help me to write something helpful.
We are in Lent and I wonder what are we thinking about and are we forgetting that Jesus was in a nasty and difficult place for a time? (Matthew 4:1-11).
He was in the desert without friends and family. However the thing was that God was with him and that was his hope.
He  was having a really, really bad Time but God was with him.
This church is in the desert place of not knowing who will lead us, however we have to remember that God is with us and he will answer at the right time.
Let’s look at what Jesus did:
Like Him, we need to fix our hearts and minds on what the Bible says, and this will help our  church too.
Tim Ford

This month some of us are raring to go, full of plans for the year and already making headway, viewing the future with optimism. Tennyson’s words may sit easily with you:

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’ (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Or you may be among those who already realise that new year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside and it’s difficult to maintain one’s spirit against the variable winter weather and the continual drain of negative news in the media; for others the circumstances of their life may have taken a negative turn and God seems to have turned a blind eye. He doesn’t seem to care because their prayers are unanswered and there is the temptation to feel abandoned by God and alone in the world.

No doubt the majority of us are somewhere in between these extremes. Whatever our personal outlook or circumstance, which can always change, the Christian message is that in Christ we have a firm and confident hope that will not disappoint us. Paul wrote this:

‘We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.’ ( Romans 5: 2-5)

Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? If we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8: 24-25).

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12: 12, 21)

Paul and the Roman church had endured suffering and showed perseverance. These words are echoed by Christian leaders and writers who have also found them to be true.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Hope is being able to see there is light despite all of the darkness. (Desmond Tutu)

Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don’t. You are in good company… You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope. (John Piper)

I trust you have a hope-filled and good year ahead. Originally published in the South Chilterns News, February 2017 By David Crozier

Non-biblical quotes from http://www.brainyquote.com

A few years ago someone coined the phrase ‘being economical with the truth”. It seems that the latest phrase is ‘fake news’. Whatever it is called, deliberately making up falsehoods or withholding information to discredit someone is dishonouring God. It will incur His judgement sooner or later.  Do people need to use ‘fake news’ to keep up with others who are doing so? Or will God honour those who reflect His nature of truthfulness?

The boss of the world’s largest company, Tim Cook of Apple, has called on governments to launch a public information campaign to fight the scourge of fake news, which is (to quote him) “killing people’s minds”. Mr Cook says, further, that the epidemic of false reports is a big problem in a lot of the world. He says that “it (truthfulness) has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public, there has to be a massive campaign by governments”. Whilst he may be correct in his assessment, he does not seem to include in the remedies the prospect of parents passing on to their children the importance of always telling the truth.  As a society we seem to increasingly by-pass the influence in the home, and expect the schools and the governments to sort out social issues.

Mothering Sunday falls on March 26^th, this year. The day is a timely reminder each year of the importance of the role of parenting. In Psalm 34 the writer says: (verse 11f) “Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.  Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it”. Oh that in every home in the land parents will be showing their children, by word and example, the values of keeping their lips from telling lies. To be effective it would need to be done gently and lovingly without use of force; but if enough parents teach it consistently the ‘tide can turn’.

The alternative, namely a nation growing up without a sense of  honesty in dealing with others, leads to that nation collapsing under the weight of corruption. No nation will achieve 100% honesty and completely root out corruption; but it is a question of the predominant ethos – truth or corruption.  Perhaps there is a ‘tipping point’, in which the prayers of the church in that land has a vital role. God is looking at and listening to the prayers and attitudes of the church in Great Britain, and in every other nation on earth. The issue is, will the church here continue to humble itself, acknowledge its total dependence on God, and cry out to him for mercy for the sins of both the church and the nation? Will the church support parents with prayer in their role of ‘setting the tone of the nation’? What does seem to be clear is that a nation cannot be blessed if corruption and lies are pre-dominant. As God said via the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 7 v 28: “Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips”. I leave you with that as a challenge.

Peter Wainwright