- Hits: 347
Howard Writes
"Time to reflect more deeply during the Kingdom Season."
In our Liturgical Calendar, we celebrate the Kingdom Season during November. This season begins with our celebration of All Saints Day on Sunday 30th October, when we remember the example of all those who have gone before us declaring their faith in Jesus, even to the point of dying for their faith.
We also will have our All-Souls memorial service at 3pm on the same day, when we remember those of our own families and our community before God. As Christians, we believe in the Church Triumphant, those in heaven who are in God’s closer presence, and the Church Militant, those who struggle in this world, against sin, the world and the devil, and together they form the Communion of Saints.
The liturgical colour of the Kingdom season is predominantly red, which signifies the blood of the martyrs and represents the fire of the Holy Spirit, although white is used to celebrate All Saints Day.
The significance of the Kingdom Season is that we begin to reflect more deeply upon the values of God’s Kingdom, namely love, compassion, justice and freedom. We also ask of ourselves how we can live more fully as God’s Kingdom people, such as:
- reflecting on our stewardship - of gifts, time and money.
- recalling how God has guided us together as his Kingdom people, both individually and as a community.
In our personal worship, offering to God a list the things for which we want to give thanks.
- acknowledging our failure to follow Jesus and our need of forgiveness and reconciliation.
- celebrating what has been - and beginning to plan next steps in our journey as God’s Kingdom People - effectively making our new Year Resolutions on Advent Sunday!
- formally renewing our commitment to journey together.
Remembrance Sunday, which is November 13th, plays a significant part in the Kingdom Season, and this is good oppportunity to invite someone along to our service, whether in church or online, as part of our wanting to establish a welcoming church. By inviting others to share in our worship, we are recognising that we need to become a Church which is focussed on serving our community, again reflecting God’s Kingdom values.
It is particularly poignant that lives are still being lost in wars and we continue to pray for an end to the conflicts in the Ukraine, the Sudan, Afghanistan and the Holy Land. It is a stark fact that wars still continue because our world, although redeemed, still chooses to live against God’s Kingdom values.
If we want to reflect on God’s vision of how we might deal with oppression, then we have only to read how Elisha dealt with the invading Aramean armies in 2 Kings 6:1-23. When the invading armies were temporarily blinded, Elisha led them into the city of Samaria, fed and clothed them, opened their eyes and then sent them home. If we want a more modern example of God’s vision of dealing with oppression, we might reflect on the way in which the Truth and Reconciliation Committee worked in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. As a help in our reflection about all this, there will be a service of Readings, reflections and Music on Remembrance Sunday Evening at 6.30pm in the Parish Church.
The Kingdom Season ends on the feast of “Christ the King” on Sunday November 20th, when we try to envisage Jesus enthroned in His glory. At this time, it is good to take to heart and contemplate the wonderful line from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, “The kingdom of this world, is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; And He shall reign for ever and ever,” which the choir will sing on that day.
In his earthly life, Jesus taught that God’s Kingdom had come amongst the people of Palestine and that it could be observed if only people had the eyes to see. We are all too often like those people whom Jesus taught, only seeing a world torn apart by conflict and war, and failing to see that Jesus has conquered sin and death and that he has given us access to the values of his Kingdom by the power of his Holy Spirit, enabling us to be the people that God intended us to be.
One day in the future, God’s Kingdom will indeed be complete, the time when Jesus will return to judge the world, but that is what we shall be thinking about in our next liturgical season - Advent.
“One day in the future, God’s Kingdom will indeed be complete, the time when Jesus will return to judge the world…”
May God bless us in our Christian Journey.
Howard.
- Hits: 457
Howard Writes
"Getting to know Jesus better - making Jesus better known."
Is your glass half full or half empty? I know that as a former teacher, half way through the six-week summer holiday, my thoughts would turn to school and the new autumn term. It couldn’t be avoided any longer.
I wonder how full/empty our glass is when it comes to our Christian faith. One of my assignments during my training was to write a magazine article answering the rather depressing question: “Is the Church in terminal decline in England?” I had to approach it from both sides, assessing the case for and against.
Some of us are by nature optimistic and some of us are pessimistic and I think that I would put myself as an optimist.
At this time of interregnum, there are those who take the pessimistic view that things are going from bad to worse. At PCC on Monday evening of this week, it became apparent that, yet again, we are unlikely to pay anywhere near our parish share for this year and also that our congregational numbers are in decline, at least at the parish church.
On the other hand, since our return to Church after Covid, the numbers at St Saviours Church are almost back to what they were before Covid and there are those who have taken the opportunity to become more involved in parish affairs and to look forward to enjoying Christian fellowship.
The Church however is not about being optimistic or pessimistic. It is about being faithful.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 11 describes faith as: “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We already know the end of the story (just read chapter 21 from the book of Revelation to hear about the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem). We know that all things are in God’s hands and that his love will overcome all the evil of the world. This result is ensured by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
It is up to all of us as Christians to share that love with all our neighbours. Those neighbours may be our family, our friends and relations, the people on our street, the people we work with or the general community of East Crompton.
There are many ways of doing that but the best approach is to follow the advice of St Francis: “Preach the Gospel at all times and only use words if necessary.” Living out the truth of the Gospel in our thoughts and words and deeds is the best way of attracting people to follow Jesus, because they see the difference that it makes in our lives.
So, as we approach the last quarter of this year may we seek the opportunity of getting to know Jesus better and making Jesus better known.
May God bless us in all that we do,
Howard."“Living out the truth of the Gospel in our thoughts and words and deeds is the best way of attracting people to follow Jesus.”