Hello everyone,
Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Our newsletter is sent out regularly to share reflections from services, Bible readings and church news with our church family. You can find previous issues on our church website here.
We would love to hear from you and are always looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter. If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)
During the school summer break, Look-In will be produced fortnightly. The next issue of Look-In will be on 16 August.
Opening Prayer
Holy God, you know our hearts and all that has happened in our lives this week. Draw us to yourself, convict us of anything that keeps us from you and transform us by your redeeming love.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
Reflection from 28 July
Reading – John 6: 1-15
I’m going to tell you the story of John 6: 1-15 but I’m going to use different words and tell it in a different way. What I want you to do is to get seriously comfortable and picture yourself there. When we read the Bible, it’s not a story in the same way as a novel is a story. it’s something that really happened and we’ve got to see it for ourselves. It’s got to be a living story and so I ask you to listen to this story and picture yourself within the story.
Picture yourself in a boat with Jesus and his followers as you travel across the Sea of Galilee. You have made a slow crossing of the northern end of the lake to get away from the crowds and find some solitude. You’re all sitting in the boat enjoying the calm of the water. Unfortunately, you can see that the crowds of people have hurried along the shore and are rushing to get there ahead of you. As you climb out of the boat, Jesus welcomes the people and for the second time of the day, he sets to work telling them about God’s kingdom and healing everyone who is sick.
It’s now late in the afternoon, and one of the followers interrupts Jesus. “Master,” he says, “you need to send the people to surrounding villages and farms to find a place to stay and buy something to eat. There is nothing for them here. It’s like a desert.” Jesus replies, “You give them something to eat.”
Phillip, the disciple, is shocked and explains that they cannot possibly afford to do that, but then someone says, “we have five small loaves of bread and two fish. If you want us to feed this lot, we are going to have to buy an awful lot more food.” You look at the crowd. There must have been 5,000 men alone, not to mention all the women and children. Jesus tells his followers to get everyone to sit down in the grass in about groups of fifty. When this is done, Jesus takes those five loaves and two fish, the boy’s lunch, and looks up towards heaven and blesses them.
He breaks the bread and hands it to the disciples to distribute, and then he does the same with the fish. The food continues to be passed around. Somehow, everyone has eaten all they need. Jesus then dismisses the crowd, who head for their homes. The followers start to pick up the leftovers as people leave. The leftovers will easily fill twelve large food baskets.
Picture Jesus as he walks across the space. He heads towards you. He invites you to sit down on the grass with him and to share whatever is on in your mind and whatever is in your heart. Just take this opportunity now to sit with Jesus and to share with him, and now listen as Jesus responds to what you have shared. Just be open to his response, whether it be in actions or as a feeling or an image or in words. Hear him speak your name and wait for his response. Hold on to anything that Jesus has shared with you; hold on to your feelings and just be still for a moment in God’s presence, resting in the warmth of his love.
When we read the Bible as if it is a living story, as if it is part of our lives today, it changes our experience of what we read. If we read the Bible in that way, some of our questions will be answered.
At one stage in my life, I used to be the Alpha coordinator for my area. One of the things it says in the alpha course is that the Bible is an open love letter to us from God and sometimes if we read it in that way, that truly happens because it doesn’t matter how many times you read the same story, you can have something new and fresh from it.
I just want to think about that Bible story for a few moments. I don’t know if this has been your experience, but I’ve served in many churches. Some of them have been large churches, some of them small churches; some of them have been town churches and some have been village churches. What I found is that often the best outreach and the most outreach came from the smallest churches with the smallest congregations, some of them filled with very elderly people.
I had one particular church that I spoke to them about a vision that I have for doing stuff for children. I was by far the youngest member of that community, and I was in my mid-50s at the time so I was not quite sure how they’d take it, but they took it and ran with it and we managed to start doing stuff. We started doing Lego church and I used to go into the schools and do things too. During Covid in this particular village, there were a lot of isolated elderly people and the local council started sending out food parcels. Within the food parcels there would be puzzles to do as well to try and make it a kind of package. While it was a parish initiative, it was mainly church volunteers who delivered it. Some of those in their late 70s and 80s made cakes. They were the ones that were going to receive this food parcel, but they wanted to give something back and they wanted people to have homemade cakes and so every week they would make them. I don’t know how they did it, but they made sure that whatever cakes say Beryl made didn’t come in her food parcel, she got cakes from somebody else.
Throughout the whole of lockdown people delivered this stuff and made the stuff. It was a most amazing outreach, and it had an impact on the churches. They didn’t have much to give, but they gave what they could. In the Circuit, there was another church that decided they needed an allotment. Every time an allotment became vacant, they took it over and it’s become a whole village project with different members of the village working on it and the harvest surface happens at the allotment. Those who attend the harvest service don’t necessarily come to church the rest of the time, but it’s a church project that has grown and people come to worship God there.
Another church that I was associated with decided no more Christmas presents, and instead would give people third world gifts, such as donating chickens or a well, in order to reach third world countries and they included and shared the message with those that they met in another church. At Christmas and harvest, we would go into the village and give, so at harvest we would invite people to have an apple or whatever it was we had in our baskets at Christmas they got some fair-trade chocolate and a Christmas message to go with it that contained all the services of all the churches in the village. Different things that didn’t necessarily involve money, because a lot of the time what we gave had been donated.
They were people who didn’t have money, and they could quite easily have said, “well, I haven’t got much so I can’t help others, I’ll have to help myself,” but they didn’t do that. Instead, what they said was, “well, I’ve got a little bit. How can I use that to help others?” That’s what they did and as a result they were blessed because of what they were doing. When we first went out for the harvest and gave people fruit, people’s immediate reactions were that they wanted to give us money. What we were saying was, “no, we’re a church, we want to give you something. We don’t want money; we want to give you a blessing. This is the harvest, and we want you to be blessed.”
So here we have a boy who gave out his lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish. I know many boys who if they were asked to share their lunch, the answer would be very short and sweet, and it wouldn’t involve sharing it with anybody else, but this particular boy did.
The barley loaves tell us a lot about him. You may or may not realize, but barley loaves were the bread of the poor. It wasn’t the bread of those who had a lot. So, the boy shared his lunch, and he gave some hope. Phillip saw the fish and the bread and he looked at the crowd, and he thought those two do not go together. Of course, he didn’t allow for the fact that somebody had given Jesus a little bit, just in the way congregations do, and Jesus did a lot. They all had as much as they desired; they were filled.
Jesus had fed them spiritually all day and then he fed them physically as well through a miracle that involved a blessing. Jesus could count on that boy and his generosity the way he expects us to be generous too. Our gift might be the gift of music, or one of technology. It might be being a computer whizz, it might be being a teacher, it might be because we can give money. There are lots of different things that we can give and, in the scheme of the kingdom, we’re not giving much. We are only giving a little because that is what we’re called to do, but that little we give is amazing. That little gift we give can make a huge difference when we share with each other.
In the earlier congregations that I shared about, one person couldn’t really do much by themselves, but by coming together as a group, amazing things can happen and that is what God calls us to do. He calls us to share what we have with others, not a grudging gift, but a willing gift. Not a gift where ‘well, I’ll do it if nobody else will’ or ‘I’ll give it if nobody else does,’ but a generous gift; a gift wanting to show God how grateful we are for all that he does for us, for the grace and the mercy and the blessings that he shows us every single day, even though we don’t do much to deserve it. As we share with others as we do, and step out for the kingdom as we pray, as we reflect on the Bible having been part of the story, God will fill us with a vision just as he has in the decades and centuries since Jesus was physically here on Earth because he is still there for us each and every day and he blesses us when we share our gifts when we share our talents, when we share our faith, and when we share the love of God with those that we meet.
One small act of kindness for someone at work, in the shopping centre, at a coffee morning. Wherever. One word of praise, one sunny ‘good morning’ when you meet somebody in the street. That phone call made when you speak to somebody and for whatever reason they say, “gosh, I really needed to hear from you today, I was really feeling fed up or alone and you happen to make that phone call.” I don’t call that a coincidence, I call that a God-incidence. It’s amazing what God can do with the small part of what we can give.
Revd Margaret Dudley
Readings for 4 August
John 6: 24-35
24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Jesus the Bread of Life
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Exodus 16: 2-4, 9-15
- Psalm 78: 23-29
- Ephesians 4: 1-16
Readings for 11 August
John 6: 35, 41-51
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- 1 Kings 19: 4-8
- Psalm 34: 1-8
- Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2
Our worship
We meet at 11am for our Sunday services, which are also live-streamed on our YouTube channel. If you wish to view our services online, you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/@christchurchuxbridge
You can also view a recent service on our church website. Our service this week will be led by Christ Church members, Joanne Mackin and Louise George. You can find the order of service here.
If you are unable to join us in person or online for our Sunday services, but would like to receive a recording of them on a memory stick to watch at home, please let us know.
Forthcoming services
4 August – Christ Church worship group
11 August – Neil Mackin (Christ Church member and trainee URC lay preacher)
18 August – Jeremy Day (URC preacher)
25 August – Revd Dr Claire Potter (Methodist minister)
Save the date: Induction service for Revd Wilbert Sayimani
Saturday 21st September, 2.30pm at Christ Church
The induction service for Revd Wilbert Sayimani will take place at Christ Church on Saturday 21st September at 2.30pm. The service will be led by Revd James Fields and refreshments will be served following the service. More details to follow nearer the time.
Holy Communion arrangements for August and September
There will be no communion service on the last Sunday of August as the following Sunday’s service on 1 September will be a covenant service with a kneeling communion and will be led by Methodist minister, Revd Dr Claire Potter. The September communion service will be on the 4th Sunday of September (22 September) instead of the last Sunday, and will be led by our new minister, Revd Wilbert Sayimani.
Children’s Corner
Dates for your diary
| 4 September | Welcome Wednesday |
| 8 September | Congregational Meeting |
| 18 September | Welcome Wednesday |
| 21 September | Induction service for Revd Wilbert Sayimani |
| 24 November | Congregational Meeting |
Praying for other churches
August
Throughout August, we hold in prayer the churches in the Circuit, LAG and around Uxbridge.
Closing prayer
Holy Lord, you are just and true.
We receive your forgiveness and carry it with us this week.
Give us courage to confront those in power who have forgotten to act with your love and care.
Inspire us to speak in a way that will help them to hear your voice and live according to your love.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
