Click here for the pewsheet for the week beginning Sunday 25th September 2016.
From Gordon…
ClergyThe Conundrum of Rich and Poor
In today’s Gospel, St Luke describes the lifestyle of a rich man who dresses in purple and fine linen and is able to feast sumptuously every day. His table, however, does not seem to offer fellowship and companionship but rather isolation and exclusion. Lazarus, the beggar, ill and starving, subsists on almost nothing and has dogs, rather than humans, as companions. Loneliness remains a major issue for many in our society who are poor and marginalised.
Things are the opposite in heaven for Lazarus. He joins the company of Abraham and the angels. He had almost nothing on earth and is now richly blessed in heaven. For the rich man, however, existence has become a torment. He remains alone – the hell of loneliness – and no longer has his fine possessions and sumptuous lifestyle. Yet, he still carries with him his earthly assumptions. He attempts unsuccessfully to speak to Lazarus, his perceived inferior, through an intermediary, Abraham. He wishes to warn his brothers on earth about the prospects of hell but doesn’t make any connection between their privileged, uncaring lifestyle and its inappropriateness for the life of heaven, a point made very powerfully in today’s reading from Timothy.
In essence, the Gospel reading is less about inequality and more about connection. Those who are rich have within their power the capacity to offer benefits to the poor. The Church has within its power the capacity to reach out to all and commend to them the reality of God’s concern for all and the unqualified gifts of love and grace that God offers to all. This offer transcends all our earthly difficulties and inequalities. It is a breath-taking reality.
Pewsheet for Week Beginning 18th September 2016
PewsheetsClick here for the pewsheet for the week beginning Sunday 18th September 2016.
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From Revd. Gordon Parry
ClergyWealth and God’s Economy
Our Gospel reading deals with the management of wealth – a subject that preoccupies almost all societies both historically and today. Wealth can be very divisive and it clearly threatened the relationships between the corrupt steward, his master and his debtors.
Today we worry about wealth, having sufficient to lead a reasonable life, the widening gap between rich and poor in our society and many others, the management of our national wealth and the stewardship – good and bad – of corporate wealth by companies and banks. Within the retailing sector we have recently seen the devastating effects on tens of thousands of people through the closure of BHS, in part at least through individual greed. In contrast the John Lewis Partnership offers a model of shared wealth where all employees are partners and benefit from the profits made by the business and their efforts within it. It is interesting that two current Sunday evening TV series, ‘Victoria’ and ‘Poldark’ both have as their subtexts the relationship between rich and poor, opulence and destitution and the power and privilege that wealth and social position confer.
Then there’s spiritual wealth. We are familiar with Matthew 6:21 (or Luke 12:34). ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ The Church encourages the accumulation of spiritual wealth or ‘spiritual capital’ as it is often called. Such wealth or capital is renewed and augmented by our life as a Christian community. Through prayer, worship and a constant awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, it truly becomes wealth to be shared for the greater good of all.
Gordon
A Walk in the Churchyard in Late Summer
PewsheetsWe had a query come in via the website from someone tracing their ancestors, so on a baking hot September day, Mark, our resident history-sleuth and myself (keeping him company) took ourselves up to St Nicholas’ to peer at ancient inscriptions and scratch our heads at Victorian paper plans of the graves.
Many are worn beyond reading and apparently you aren’t supposed to scrape off the ancient moss as it could be rare. Rare moss…. hmm. Luckily we were also armed with a book from the Sixties, in which someone had painstakingly typed all the inscriptions legible at that time, which filled in a few literal blanks.
We’d started off our discussion at the back of church to escape the baking heat of the day, and saw that two visitors were looking round, using our new handy quick guides. They had good camera equipment and we left so as not to disturb them.
While kneeling on the grass trying to work out if that was an S or an F on a gravestone, the visitors approached us and got chatting about buildings – one man was a self confessed “Norman architecture freak” and the other “came along to take the pictures”. We were able to point them next in the direction of St Margaret’s at Ifield as another site of interest (especially as it’s near a pub!) and in return, the kindly photographer has just sent me a disk of the photographs he took of St Nicholas’.
A lovely morning for all. Here are some of his photographs. Thank you David!
Fr. Roger Brown writes..
PewsheetsYesterday I read the obituary of Dr. David Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham. He was a very radical, passionate believer and teacher. I remember hearing him speak at the General Synod about our understanding of the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection. He said the Resurrection was more than ‘a conjuring trick with bones’, that he was ‘not clear that God manoeuvres physical things but was clear that He works miracles through personal responses and faith’.
Bishop Jenkins challenged simplistic clichés and the way we often use words without thinking what they really mean. Of course he was mocked by the media especially at Easter when he was accused of not believing in the traditional statement about the bodily Resurrection of Jesus. As a statement of belief it poses more questions than it answers. Words matter and we need to use them with care.
A phrase that is used so very often is speaking of a dead person as having ‘passed away’. We don’t pass away or pass to the other side. We die. Even today people try to avoid speaking about death. At the heart of Christianity is the belief that Jesus died for our sins. He didn’t ‘pass away’ for them. He died.
So let us make sure we do use words with care and conviction.
Fr. Roger Brown
Pewsheet for Week Beginning 11th September 2016
PewsheetsClick here for the pewsheet for the week beginning Sunday 11th September 2016.
A Thank You Video
Special ServicesOn September 4th, we came together in a parish-wide service at St Nicholas’ to celebrate the work that Anthony and Steve have done for us. At the service, members of the parish promised to help with various aspects of parish life, in line with our Parish Plan and vision. Many of the couples who have been married in the last two years returned to join us for this uplifting sung service, which was followed by a drinks and a barbecue afterwards on the Rectory lawns.
This video is just a little thank you for the work of Anthony and Steve and their families.
From the Rector…
Pewsheets“Let mutual love continue” is a fittingly poignant scripture passage to have as a text for my final contribution to the column which goes online and in the pew sheet.
Our vision as a parish is to be a “Christian community growing in faith, hope and love” – and, as I am regularly reminded at weddings, St Paul declares that “the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13.13). So, with the fifth anniversary of the Ball family moving in to the Rectory having just passed, I look back and recall my response to (I think) Bishop Mark at my interview.
Q. “What would you plan to do as Rector?”
A. “I’d want to love the people of the parish into a fuller experience of the joy of life in Christ” (or words to that effect).
Of course, I’ve failed more times that I’d care to admit. But, even when struggling with parish admin late at night or perceived hostile comments, that motivation of love (received as well as given) has been a constant encouragement. As another interregnum looms, I pray that I am not kidding myself in feeling there is a spirit abroad of greater confidence, a deeper sense of community and even some excitement amidst the anxiety for the future. The fruit of mutual love, perhaps?
Going forward please, “do not neglect to do good and to share what you have”. Most especially share, with each other and those who know it not, that precious gift of joy in the life of Christ.
Thank you for your love – receive mine.
+Anthony
Pewsheet for Week Beginning 28th August 2016
PewsheetsClick here for the pewsheet for the week beginning Sunday 28th August 2016.
Tip: If this, or any other, PDF document opens at too large a size, here’s what you do:
- Open Adobe Reader, for example, by opening a *.pdf document you have on your computer.
- From the Edit menu, click Preferences.
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- Now any time you open a PDF, it will open at this zoom level.
Worth Parish 