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)
Opening Prayer
Father God,
whether our hearts are full of songs of joy,
or songs of sadness,
we come before you this day,
offering you all that we are,
that our whole lives may become a song of praise to you.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
Reflection from 10 November
Readings – 1 Kings 17: 8-16 and Mark 12: 38-44
Some words from that New Testament reading, Mark 12: 44 – “she gave all that she had.” One of my responsibilities, one of my privileges indeed, as Secretary of Methodist conference, is to relate to the various Methodist and Methodist-established charities. One of the smaller of them, and one of the less well known, is the Fund for Human Need. The Fund for Human Need only has a very small amount of reserves. It has quite a small income and it specialises in making micro-grants to people who are destitute. People who have absolutely nothing can apply to the Fund for Human Need and on one occasion only they can have a grant of up to £120. It’s not massive in terms of everything, but the principle on which the Fund for Human Need is established is that when you have nothing, a little is a lot.
When you have nothing, a little is a lot, and of course it works the other way around. 30-odd years ago I was in Rome and had my pocket picked. Fortunately, they didn’t get my passport or my credit card, but I was on my way back from the bank and I’d taken out all the cash that I thought I was going to need for the next two to three weeks. Nowadays, I think a loss of that size would hurt me, but wouldn’t bother me unduly. When I was a poor student struggling on a grant, it was a very different question altogether. Because when you have nothing a little is a lot. It’s obvious.
Wealth is proportionate. What some people find expensive, other people can afford out of loose change. And that has guided often in the church our thinking about our giving. When I was a circuit minister and from time to time had to speak to the congregations about how we were going to increase the collection, the point that I would make is that giving is supposed to be proportionate, proportionate to the needs of the church and also proportionate to one’s own income. And like many other ministers, I guess I would from time to time trot out the story from Mark 12 of the widow in the temple. Jesus’s argument that those who had plenty could have given more, and that those who had little were giving in a way that was costly. Except, of course the gift of the widow, two tiny copper coins, was not proportionate. She gave said Jesus all that she had to live on.
It’s an extraordinary act of generosity. The widow lets go of everything. She lets go of next day’s food, lets go of the possibilities that she might have used that money in other ways. She lets go in a sense of hope. And it’s not surprising that the compilers of the lectionary linked this passage it to the story in 1 Kings of the widow at Zarephath, because again, we see something of huge, unimaginable generosity here. Here is somebody who is down to her last meal, and it wasn’t going to be a very good meal at that. And yet Elijah tells her to feed him first, to give what she has to him. And she does so. It’s reckless. It’s sacrificial. It’s total. All that she had to live on. The next day’s food, the next day’s possibilities, the next day’s hope all entrusted to a stranger.
2024 saw the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kohima. Any who are military historians will know that Kohima is now regarded as one of the turning points of the Second World War in the east. The battle in India was an extremely costly battle, but it seems that on that battle the tide of the war turned. After the battle, a memorial was erected at Kohima for those who had fallen and the words that were inscribed on that memorial are those that will be used in ceremonies up and down the country today. Originally, they were used as a response to the First World War, and they were based among the much older epitaph written for the Spartans in the 3rd century BC:
“When you go home, tell them of us and say, ‘For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’”
For your tomorrow. Except what they gave was not only their today, it was their tomorrow. Reckless, sacrificial, total giving. And that is what is remembered at war memorials around the Commonwealth today. The same as the gift of the widow at Zarephath: her tomorrow. The same as the gift of the woman in the temple: her tomorrow. And Jesus, who comments on that, is Jesus who was called to do the same. The cross reminds us that we worship the Lord, who gave totally of himself, who let go of his tomorrow. Recklessly, sacrificially, completely, and did it for us. There are no words that can express what that means. We can only adore. Silence is the most appropriate response to one who has let go of everything with a generosity and a courage and a love beyond our imagining.
I struggle to work out what it was that would have enabled the widow at Zarephath to give to Elijah out of her poverty, but that’s partly because I find it hard to imagine being that poor. I’m not somebody without support. I am generously supported by the church with a house and a stipend, and should, for any reason, that all that go wrong, I have a family around me who, I am sure, would rustle up some sort of support. And even should that fail, I have paid in my National Insurance contributions and I live in a society where there is a welfare state and there should be support offered to me if I am without the means to earn my own living or find other methods of supporting myself.
I don’t know what it is like to be destitute. Yet many in our world today know. I do not know what it is like to experience three years of drought. But with the effects of climate change as well as of war, there are many in the world today who have absolutely nothing. And it’s important to remember that the background to the story of the widow at Zarephath was a time of conflict and a time of natural disaster. Three years of drought, a drought which Elijah had announced because of the wickedness of King Ahab. So the story of the widow at Zarephath is a story that is set in the context of sin and wickedness, and her destitution was the consequence of that sin and wickedness.
I’d be very surprised if today was the first time you heard the account from Mark 12 of the story of the widow’s mite. Jesus seems to be praising her generosity. But what he is not doing is praising the situation. The context of her giving, Jesus says, was anything but praiseworthy. And I have to confess, having dined at an Eton and at Lambeth Palace earlier last week and dressed like this, those who eat at fine places and wear long robes may be pointed at, some of us in this room more than others. But remember what Jesus said. The teachers of the law were demanding more than their due they were reducing people to poverty in order that they might enjoy the lifestyle that they had. They were devouring the houses of the widow for their own aggrandisement. And so, Jesus sees extraordinary generosity. He sees it in the context of sin and wickedness, of which it is the consequence. The widow’s extraordinary generosity should never have been necessary.
And the same thought is in our minds as we remember those who have died in conflict. The conflicts that in which people have given their lives were a sign of a world where things have gone wrong. We remember today not only the loss, but all that led to that loss. We remember the militarism, the jingoism that led up to the Great War. We remember the harshness of the settlement in 1919, the bizarre acceptance of fascist ideas in Europe in the 1930s, and the events since 1945. The conflicts that followed the ending of the Cold War, the failure of Bosnian and Serb to live together. Conflicts in Northern Ireland, the failure of Protestant and Catholic to live together. The various occasions when racial discrimination has boiled over in violence, the failure of black and white to live together. The conflicts around the world that have resulted from the failure of colonists and coloniser to live together. In our minds today is the situation in Gaza, in Lebanon, and in Israel. The failure of Jew and Muslim, of Israeli and Palestinian to live together.
Sacrifices are made. But they should never have been necessary. And the things that have lain behind those conflicts are the things that sent Jesus to his cross. The greed and the refusal to let go of the religious elite. The power games that were being played between Herod and Pilate, between Roman and Jew, between the colonists and colonised. The oppression that created misplaced hope, and the violence that some saw as the only reaction to that oppression. When we think about the things that led Jesus to his cross, we realise that we’re being faced with the whole mess of the world’s sin and wickedness. And the cross stands as judgement on the world as we have made it. As Christian people, we also know that the cross stands as hope for a better future. I think the words were written before the poppies were spotted on Flanders Field, but we have just sung, “I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red life that shall endless be.”
When the widow fed Elijah, she did not give up her tomorrow, but she created the hope of a new tomorrow. When the widow placed her coins in the treasury in the temple, she was investing in hope for a new tomorrow. When the Kohima veterans stood for the first time on the newly inscribed memorial, remembering a battle fought against overwhelming odds, they knew they were speaking of hope of a new tomorrow. The Cross of Christ inaugurates that hope. We meet around it in church and at war memorials. Never to justify the wickedness that took rise to the cross and have caused many others to give sacrificially, but to give thanks for those responses that are reckless, sacrificial and total. Because through them the world is changed. Amen.
Revd Dr Jonathan Hustler
Readings for 17 November
Mark 13: 1-8
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Daniel 12: 1-3
- Psalm 16
- Hebrews 10: 11-14, 19-25
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 member and trainee URC lay preacher, Neil Mackin. 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
17 November – Neil Mackin (Christ Church member and trainee URC lay preacher)
24 November – Revd Wilbert Sayimani – Holy Communion
1 December – Christ Church worship group
8 December – Revd Wilbert Sayimani – parade and gift service
From the Circuit
RAF Community Concert at Ruislip Methodist Church
Tuesday 10th December, 7.30pm
The RAF Central Band will be back at Ruislip Methodist Church performing a free community concert on Tuesday 10th December at 7:30pm. Refreshments will be available during the interval, and people are free to make charitable donations if they wish. There is free parking at the church car park. If you are a wheelchair user please contact Karen Macaulay (A1macaulay@aol.com) and Terry Dean (famdean@blueyonder.co.uk) to arrange accessible seating. All are welcome to come along and enjoy the performance.
Salvation Army Christmas Fayre
Saturday 16th November, 11am – 2pm
Salvation Army, 16b Cowley Road, Uxbridge
The Salvation Army are holding a Christmas Fayre on 16th November, 11am – 2pm. There will be fancy goods, bric-a-brac, produce, clothes, cakes, refreshments and Santa.
Children’s Corner
Dates for your diary
| 2024 | |
| 24 November | Congregational Meeting |
| 27 November | Welcome Wednesday |
| 11 December | Welcome Wednesday |
| 18 December | Carols and mince pies |
| 2025 | |
| 8 January | Welcome Wednesday |
| 22 January | Welcome Wednesday |
Praying for other churches
This week we hold the following churches in our prayers
- Ruislip Manor Methodist
- St Margaret’s & St George’s, Harlesden (URC/ Moravian)
- Uxbridge Quakers
Closing prayer
Lord, as we go into this week,
may we be confident that our lives
are built on the sure foundation
of you, our Rock.
Amen.
(Based on 1 Samuel 2: 2, taken from Roots)
