Generous Giving

I walked past Malmesbury Abbey recently. I normally walk in, so walking past was a simple pleasure. My first thought, as a passerby, was how beautiful the fresh cut lawns looked on a warm sunny evening and how the Abbey and its grounds shape the feel and life of our town. My second thought was what an incredible gift to the town (and by implication, of course, to ourselves) is the generous giving of our Abbey congregations—we paid for the lawns to be cut together. We paid for the weeding too.

The impact of the generous giving of Abbey members is profound. It’s not just grass and buildings and heating, although I would say the stewardship of our buildings and their care and development really matter and point towards something beyond the stones themselves. As we give together we resource the genuine breadth of ministry and worship across our Abbey community, we support a number of our own congregation in mission further afield, and we back our diocese as they train and provide ministers and resource Christian distinctiveness in church schools. And, as I mentioned on Vision Sunday, we’re looking to resource our Junior Church and Youth ministries on a different level in 2014/2015 and the recruitment conversation has already begun. So I’m asking you to review your monthly giving in the next couple of weeks with these biblical principles in mind:

It’s all God’s. As a rather overwhelmed King David cried out to God ‘who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have only given what comes from your hand.’ (1 Chronicles 29:14)

Jesus’ needed money too. We can mistakenly think that genuine Kingdom life and ministry doesn’t need money. But actually Luke records that women travelling with the disciples helped to support them out of their own pockets. (Luke 8:1-3)

Give proportionately. Many use the tithe, the tenth, as a guide to their monthly commitment to the church. (see Malachi 3:10) We should work towards proportional giving as disciples together, because ultimately that is fairer—and those with less in our community aren’t being asked to give more.

Thank you for working with God to sustain the ministry of your church. You can get further information on how to give regularly and  how to giftaid from

chrisjager@malmesburyabbey.com. All communications and giving is treated confidentially.

10,000 Voices

There are two stories floating around basically. The story of God, and the story of you (well, all humanity actually.) And the interesting thing is that they are connected.

Many of us struggle to share our faith because we think it has to be a pretty sophisticated and convincing explanation of the doctrines of the Christian faith—the exhaustive story of God, where I understand absolutely everything about God and dazzle people to the point that they become disciples of Christ. Yes, that’s so going to happen! Consider changing the word ‘faith’ to the word ‘trust’ and suddenly it becomes a bit easier; we’re not explaining our faith, but sharing where we have trusted in God recently. Telling our stories, but not leaving out the bit where our story intersects with God’s story.

If you look at the end of the account of Pentecost in Acts 2, there in verse 41 is one pretty impressive statistic: ‘about three thousand were added to their number that day.’ Well that’s depressing; we must be doing something wrong. However if Pentecost is a unique unrepeatable event, which it is, the life of the Spirit isn’t; so is there anything you and I can learn from that first Pentecost, which we celebrate today? ‘Peter stood up...and raised his voice.’ (Acts 2:14) Peter said something. Basically, Churches grow, when people tell other people about God. Or put it this way: what would be our strategy for the church not to grow at all? Saying nothing; exactly.

So the Diocese of Bristol is after us. It is challenging everybody to share the story of them and God, for 10,000 voices to be raised, in the hope that 500 will be baptised in the next year. You can find out more about this at www.bristol.anglican.org/voicesAnd the challenge is coming in your direction locally, right now, in that I am asking every member of Malmesbury Abbey to share their faith with a non-Christian between now and when the Archbishop of Canterbury visits on September 13th. At all our services we’ll be grabbing people out the front to hear how it’s going and praying for those who have heard something of the Christian message. And then we can invite a lot of people onto the Alpha Course this September. Church is about to get messy.

In the power of the Spirit, Peter raised his voice. Let’s raise ours.

Partnership

In 2010 I had the great privilege to spend 2 weeks with the Anglican Church in Uganda and one week in Kabale, with the Diocese of Kigezi. My host was Canon Stanley Byomugabe (see above), and it was a wonderful chance to eat matoke, to pray and worship with the diocesan leadership each day, to visit schools and watch Canon Stanley dance—Archdeacons don’t tend to do that in the Diocese of Bristol—and to spend a day learning about the inspiring and transformational  work of the Diocese of Kigezi Water & Sanitation Project (see cover). Through Tearfund our special harvest collection is given to this project each year.

So, although I am sadly away on leave, it is a joy as a congregation to welcome the Bishop of Kigezi, the Rt Revd George Bagamuhunda, and the Revd Reuben Byomuhangi, Director of the Water & Sanitation project, to Malmesbury Abbey for our 10.30am service of Morning Prayer this Sunday, May 25th. We are honoured by their visit. Bishop George will be preaching and Revd Reuben will be interviewed about the project by Revd John Monagahan. During the service our offering will be for the Water & Sanitation Project and after the service we will be sharing together the food we have brought and spending more time with our visitors. 

As we looked at Revelation 1, two weeks ago, there was very good and encouraging news, that Christ holds the seven stars, the churches, in his hand. When Christ said ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20) I think our minds naturally travel to the ascended Christ, enthroned, who has sent His Spirit, the Comforter to breathe life into the dry bones of the church. God with us, by his Spirit. But the mysterious writing of Revelation 1 suggests that He is with us always because we are held in his hand. As you stand in Malmesbury Abbey look down and you’ll see a 12th century floor, keep looking and you will see the hand of Christ. And, unless Christ has many, many hands, by implication Kabale Cathedral and Malmesbury Abbey exist in that same hand.

So the joining of the Diocese of Kigezi and the Deanery of North Wiltshire is not just the result of a link that has borne fruit over many years, it is the expression of a spiritual reality, the church is one.

I pray that God will richly bless Bishop George and Revd Reuben on their visit, and that our link may be blessed by God for many years.

Stars

Last Wednesday night we filled the Abbey for a large Diocese of Bristol service where hundreds of churchwardens (including our own, truly awesome, Lesley Wilson and Diana Crowe) were commissioned for a year serving in leadership and administration in their local churches. At the service the Bishop of Bristol, Mike Hill, recounted this true story:

A local church wanted to tell every member of their community about Jesus so they purchased 13,000 DVDs about the life of Jesus and delivered them through the letterbox of every front door in their community in Buckinghamshire. The vicar was delighted until the Parish Office received a call from a surprised member of their town saying that the DVD in the box just delivered wasn’t about Jesus at all, but was in fact the Hollywood movie ‘When Harry met Sally’ starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. (A really funny film, but not something you’d show at the parish supper.) The parishioner in question also informed the press of this huge mistake and the press ran the story that the local church had delivered ‘When Harry met Sally’ to every house in the town by accident, and had a bit of a laugh at the church’s expense. The vicar then phoned his Bishop (Bishop Mike) in a bit of a state.

However the journalist hadn't done his research before he ran his story, and in fact only one DVD starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, the other 12,999 were all about Jesus. But because of the local media coverage, massive numbers of people sat down to watch a Hollywood movie with a glass of wine and instead saw a biopic of Christ. On the back of this, the church had over 400 inquiries about their forthcoming Alpha Course, and many, many people came to faith and were baptised.

Two weeks ago I hope I mentioned that the Last Word in the Bible is one that the Spirit and the Bride say together: Come! We live with hope today because Christ is coming again. Today, as we enter Revelation 2, we discover both the resilience and the frailty of the early church. Issues far more serious than delivering the wrong DVD were perplexing Christians in the first century. But last week we were left with the mysterious, beautiful, but overwhelmingly encouraging image, that  Christ holds the imperfect church, the seven stars, in his right hand. (Revelation 1:20) Before he speaks to the church, he reveals that he holds it, eternally.

This Generation

Let’s not be a dull and distracted generation, because it seems that there are many witnesses to our worship and our mission.

At a small civic gathering last Tuesday, I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for a monk. Not a real monk, but the new Monk in Meditation sculpture in Oxford Street.  Presumably he is intended as a traffic calming measure. As I did this I chose a few words from Psalm 145 as a text:

³ Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    his greatness no one can fathom.
⁴ One generation commends your works to another;
    they tell of your mighty acts.
⁵ They speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty –
    and I will meditate on your wonderful works. (Psalm 145:3-5)

When I have spent time with monks they never really strike me as spiritual superstars, and in truth there is no such thing. Monks come across as wonderfully ordinary people, very hardworking, and with an abnormal communal discipline as they devote hours to the reading and hearing of scripture and the singing of the psalms. Their meditation is not an emptying, more a filling. The works of God slowly marinating their souls; the word, a lamp to their feet.

But last Tuesday I also noticed the generational dimension of Psalm 145:4—a reminder of our role in Malmesbury. The sense that we live and serve in a town with an ancient and significant Christian heritage, and that since the 7th century, generation after generation have prayed to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and not one generation has ceased to tell of the ‘glorious splendour’ of God’s majesty to the next. We are helped to some extent by a building that screams of God’s glory to all who drive up the A429, but nevertheless there are ruins and empty churches across our land. Nice stones won’t do the job on their own, it is up to the living stones. (See 1 Peter 2:4-12)

So let’s not be a dull and distracted generation, because another generation is watching us right now to see if we really are consumed by the ‘wonderful works’ and ‘might acts’ of the LORD. Let us be a people hungry to be nourished by God’s word, passionate with uplifted hands and faces in our worship, silent before his holy presence in broken bread and wine, and eager to speak of his glory to a world we work to transform.  If I see that in another, it will cause me to meditate.

Revelation Intro

Here we go. On the first Sunday of August 2014 Malmesbury Abbey will emerge into the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus found in John’s Gospel. But for the next 13 weeks we read, listen, worship and pray our way, together, through the last book of the Bible; Revelation. Welcome to the most misunderstood and avoided book of the Bible. The book where a large number of Christians have got to the end of Chapter 5 and simply said ‘I’ll think I’ll jump to chapter 21. No harm in that.’ (Thereby missing the Hallelujah! chorus tucked away in Revelation 19.) This blog is a very brief introduction, which includes a number of insights and quotes from Eugene Peterson’s book Reversed Thunder. We’re also recommending Tom Wright’s Revelation for Everybody and Paul Langham’s  Understanding Revelation.

REVELATION?

Yes, a Revelation, not Revelations. The first three Greek words of the book offering us the title: Apocalypse Jesus Christ; a revelation of Jesus Christ. An uncovering, a revealing of and from Jesus. Heaven and earth interconnected through words spoken and written; through the Word. Why wouldn’t disciples of Christ read every chapter, and take time with every word?

65+1=66

There are 66 books in the Bible. Revelation is the last, and it is pretty impossible to read and understand well apart from at least some of the other 65; particularly Ezekiel, Daniel, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Isaiah & Exodus. In the 404 verses of Revelation ‘there are 518 references to earlier scripture.’ Our daily readings in the centre of this news sheet will take us slowly through Revelation with some of the associated Old Testament references. Don’t miss the opportunity to read these.

ESCHATOLOGY

A word that you might hear in the coming months, which simply means the study of cats. Or alternatively the study of the last things. ‘Eschatology involves the belief that the resurrection appearances of Christ are not complete.’ By the time we reach Revelation 21 we should be starting to realise that Easter Day began something unbelievably glorious, transformative and cosmic, which Christ will return to complete. The post-resurrection fish breakfast in Galilee (John 21), the broken bread on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24), and especially the bread and wine of our own Holy Communions are all eschatological. They point to the end, to the wedding supper of the Lamb and his bride. But that’s Revelation 19; July 20th, at a church near you.

IMAGINATION

G.K. Chesterton wrote that ‘though St John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his commentators.’

He was right. And many pastors and teachers have let an uninformed imagination run hopelessly wild as they led many astray in this book. However the challenge is to allow our imaginations to be alive and our faith to be refreshed as we read Revelation, but to stay healthily connected to the orthodoxy of the other 65 books of the Bible.

BLESSING

When we talk of ‘beatitudes’ most people think of Matthew 5. But there are other biblical beatitudes and you’ll find seven in Revelation. (I wonder if that’s a significant number?) The first is this: Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. You and I are about to be blessed. Christ is present with the words of this extraordinary book. Our challenge is to slowly absorb this book, and then to keep it within. Blessed is the one who keeps the words  of the prophecy in this book. (Rev 22:7)

  

God crossing the Road

Last week I had the very unusual experience of being rung up by a reporter from The Sun. She was very pleasant and had my phone number because of the Malmesbury Abbey skateboarding events we run each February. I was asked to write an Easter message for 3 million Sun readers. It would be good, she said, if I included the meaning of Easter, something about the local community, skateboarding and maybe make some of Jesus teaching relevant to young people—in 200 words, maybe 300. As well as writing this I had a photographer come a take my picture, for about an hour. (Apparently he struggled to find that good side.) Anyway, I think this might be a first for the vicar of Malmesbury Abbey, so in case you missed it, it’s printed below in the version I submitted. Happy Easter.

‘Life doesn’t always work. People lie, relationships fail, jobs disappear, bills get left unpaid, family get sick. We all get that, young and old. So if Easter means anything at all, it must mean something about that, about reality. It can’t be just a bunch of songs in an old building - although I like the songs, and the building I work in is awesome.

Jesus tells a story about a man, the Good Samaritan, who crossed the road to help a badly beaten up stranger. And on our better days we’d probably give it a go too, because people matter. But the bigger picture is this: Easter means that God crosses the road towards us when we’re beaten up. When life doesn’t work.

Each year in February we put a skatepark in Malmesbury Abbey. Yes, a 21st century load of noise and wheels in a 12^th century Abbey. We don’t do it because we think the world would be a better place if everybody skateboarded – that would be one slightly weird world. We do it because nobody can afford a holiday in the February half term, and because we want to cross the road to young people and families in our community and say Easter means something.

God looks at the mistakes and struggles of our lives and says the story doesn’t have to end there, with the despair of Good Friday. There is hope on Easter Day, because where there was death, now there’s life. And if God can conquer death, God can conquer anything. Easter means God is crossing the road.’