Isaiah 45.22-25; Romans 15.1-6; Luke 4.16-24

There are some things that really don’t make sense.

Why, for instance, when we want to turn off our computers do we click our mouse on a button that says “start”?

Why do people who don’t have watches always look at their wrists when someone asks them the time?

Why do Dads buy toys for their children and then play with them themselves?

Why do people order a whopper burger and a large fries or a massive sticky pudding and then drink diet coke?

Why does St Paul tell the Romans to have hope when their life was pretty terrible?

There is a definite split between the Christians in Rome - those from Jewish backgrounds on one side against those of Gentile origins. There had been a number of expulsions by the Romans of the Jewish people from Rome, and it is quite probable that one of these expulsions during the reign of Claudius, was caused by the rise of Christianity.

Not long after Paul wrote Romans, Christians were being accused of all sorts of things by the Romans including incest and cannibalism. They were even, in the reign of Nero, labelled by some as “the enemies of the human race.” The early Christians suffered opposition, beatings, torture, a lack of job prospects and so on.

So, they were not living in a situation where hope would have been either easy or the obvious reaction. So, what does Paul mean by asking them to hope?

Here are some of the things that we might hope for:

“I hope it won’t rain today ‘cos we’d planned a long walk. It was so lovely yesterday.”

“I hope England wins the World Cup.”

“I really hope that Auntie Sue gets better.”

The thing about each one of those statements is that our hope is conditional. We can’t know that it won’t rain tomorrow until we live through that day. We can’t know that England will have practised hard enough or be talented enough to beat their opponents or whether the opposition will have a better match, though we can guess that South Africa might win. We can’t know whether Auntie Sue will recover but we can express our desire that she will.

Hope in Paul’s terms is something different. Hope for Paul is more about certainty than about uncertainty.
Paul’s hope is a certainty because it relies on the promises of God not on the vagaries of the weather or on human skills.

Paul’s hope is a certainty because it relies on the character of God not on the imperfections of the sinful humanity.

Paul’s hope is a certainty because it relies on the activity of God and not on the weakness of people.

And he knows about God through his own experience and through the pages of Scripture. For Paul, of course, Scripture meant the Hebrew Bible, what we know as the Old Testament. But I think we can apply his approach to our own Scriptures which includes the New Testament as well, and his Letter to the Romans from which we heard today.

I want us to think about verse 4 of chapter 15 for a bit. It says: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”

Two things stand out here: first that Paul saw Scripture as being written for our instruction; and second that the scriptures bring encouragement, which leads to hope.

As we think about the letter to the Romans, let us remember that it was written not as a systematic theology but as a letter responding to a particular situation in a particular time.

We can crudely divide the letter into three parts, with an introduction and an ending.

The first part looks at how Christianity arises out of Judaism, at why God sent Christ and how the Good News of Jesus works in practice.

Part two addresses the Jewish rejection of the Gospel, and how this does not mean that ultimately God’s promises will remain unfulfilled.

The third section looks at living out the Gospel i.e. its practical implications in Church, society and the home.

The verse that we are thinking about today comes from this final section, and, if we look closely at its context, we can see that it is set in a passage about how Christians who disagree with one another might learn to live in harmony. In this passage, Paul is not looking to Scripture as a source of doctrine but rather of inspiration and encouragement.

All Christians needs encouragement. God did not design us to go it alone. We’re not always very good at encouraging one another but it is quite a prominent theme in the New Testament. And not only can our encouragement come from each other but also from our Bibles.

And yet, so many of us struggle to read our Bibles outside church services. But the Bible is the beginning of the story which we are now living out. The Bible gives us encouragement because it tells us about God. It tells us about God’s character - how God is good, how God keeps his promises, how God is faithful to his people.

Our Bibles tell us also what God thinks about the human race - that each person has been created by God as unique and special, that God cares for us deeply, that God loves us. And the Bible outlines for us what God’s plan for creation is from beginning to end and beyond to eternity.

All these things are encouragements to us. But how much of that story do we know? If I had come into church this morning with a DVD and shown you five minutes from the middle of a film, it is very unlikely that you would know what was going on.

You might in five minutes gain a rough idea of who the characters were or the type of film - gangster, movie, western, romance, comedy and so on. But it would be very unlikely that you would be able to work out the complete story from just looking at five minutes of film.

And, yet, that’s what many of us do when we read the Bible. We hear certain parts in church on a Sunday morning; we might have favourite bits we read when we are in need of comfort; but many people never read the whole story.

And it’s not just a story of a load of people who lived a long time ago - the Bible story is our story, the story that we are continuing to write today, next week, next year. Of course, it’s our story because it’s God’s story and we are caught up in that drama, because God has chosen to make us part of that.

God’s story is a story of hope. However bleak and hard life might seem at times, the ultimate story of the Gospel is one of resurrection and hope and eternal life. The Bible reminds us of that. It reminds us of God’s faithfulness and God’s future for creation. It encourages us towards that hope. Let’s reminds ourselves of that verse: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”

A hope based not on the uncertainty of the weather or other people or politics or the economy but on God. A hope centred on God’s promises, God’s character, God’s faithfulness and God’s activity. A hope centred on the God who raised Jesus from the dead, and the God, who through the power of the Holy Spirit, can work in and through us to give us that deep sense of hope and joy that makes no sense in worldly terms, but that reminds us always that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom”.

(with thanks to the Bible Society for some of the ideas in this sermon which came from their Bible Sunday 2007 material)

Genesis 32.22-31; 2 Timothy 3.14-4.5; Luke 18.1-8

The scene: Tesco
The situation: a busy time when the shop is crowded
The characters: a mother and child

“Oh, please, Mum, please let me have that. It’s really good.”

“No, dear. Not today. You don’t need that.”

“But Mum. Everybody else has got one. I really do need it.”

“I’m sure not everyone else has it. And besides I’ve said no.”

“Oh, Mum. That’s not fair. Joe’s Mum bought him one, and Sam’s got one too. Why are you so mean?”

“I’m not mean. Stop moaning. We need to get on with our shopping, so that we can get home by the time Dad comes back from.”

“I hate you. (stamping foot) You never let me have anything. It’s so unfair - everybody has things, and you never give anything to me. You’re so mean and horrible. I hate you.”

This is a scene that is similar to what often happens with children. The mother has two options: to keep firm in her view that little Johnny really doesn’t need the latest television tie-in and to continue her shopping, or to give in to little Johnny because she can’t stand the fuss he’s making and she’s getting embarrassed by the scene in the middle of a busy supermarket.

The child is persistent and perseveres with his plea for what he wants.

I wonder how many of our prayers are a bit like that. Do we sometimes batter God with our requests for what we want, getting more and more frustrated when we don’t receive the answer we desire.

Luke’s parable is a difficult one. On first sight, we might assume that the judge represents God, except when we look more closely at his character. He is someone who has no respect for God nor for other people. He obviously has a lazy streak, since he doesn’t wish to fulfil his role as judge. He holds the power in this case, since his decision will hold sway. He is apathetic and faithless, and unwilling to carry out his duties.

So clearly Jesus is not saying the judge is God. This is one of those times, and there a number of them in the Bible, where the message is - if the bad, unjust person behaves like this, how much better God’s response will be.

God is not like the unjust judge, for God is faithful and just. God cares for the outcast and widow - we only have to remind ourselves of the words of the Beatitudes to see what values are those of God’s kingdom.

The widow is persistent. Her demand is for vindication. She desires justice against her opponent. The judge is not bothered about justice. All he wants is a quiet life, so, like the mother in the supermarket who gives into her child because she can’t stand the fuss any more, the judge gives in to the widow’s search for justice.

The judge has all the cards in his hand. Women did not usually go to court, since that was part of the world of men. The fact that this widow has gone to the judge herself for justice implies that she has no one else to speak on her behalf. She, as a widow on her own, would probably have been poor. But she ignores her status and the conventions of society in order to persevere and fight for justice.

She seeks vindication. Her faithful endurance in the end gives her the result that she wants.

But let’s think about what it is that she requires. The woman is after justice. What does justice mean? In the eyes of God, justice is much more than whether something is fair or not.

Justice is about the way we treat others, about how we view the children of God. Justice is the opposite of oppression. It’s about enabling people to be free to live in peace with the basic requirement of life. It’s about recognising that all people are equal in God’s eyes and living that out in how we deal with them It’s about living out the values of the kingdom of God about which Jesus taught so much.

If we think back to the words of the prophet Micah: what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God, we see that this affects us too. We are called to live lives that work and pray for justice.

There are many types of prayer, but at its heart prayer is about walking humbly with God. It’s about a relationship of love. It’s about helping us to attune ourselves to God’s ways and to put aside our own desires, which so often conflict with the ways of God.

This prayer of the widow is a prayer for justice. She is crying out, as many do, for  help. The judge heard her prayer only because he thought, if he answered, she would stop badgering him. God always hears our prayers. Unlike the judge, God’s desire is for justice.

And God will bring justice, the parable tells us. But we have a part to play. We need, as the widow was, to be persistent in our prayers for justice. We need to keep persevering with prayer, even when it feels as if God is not listening.

There are many things that can distract us from prayer. It’s all too easy to say we don’t have time - that’s a question of priorities. It’s all too easy to give up when we don’t feel that God is with us - but a relationship is about much more than how we feel. A relationship is about trust and faithfulness, not about how we feel inside.
The widow received her vindication, and when the Son of Man comes, all people will be judged by God. Will faith be found, Jesus asks his disciples. Will they continue loving and loyal and seeking justice? God’s justice will come.

Jacob was another who persevered with God. He was not looking forward to his encounter with brother Esau, and with good reason, for many years earlier he had cheated him out of his birthright. He has sent his wives and maids and children and everything he had on ahead of him across the stream where they spent the night, but he himself has stayed where he was.

His night is taken up wrestling with a shadowy figure, who he assumes is God. All night long they wrestle. It’s a strange fight for we are not told who wins. Jacob is left with a limp, but he’s still persevering. As day breaks, he asks for the man’s blessing.

Unlike the blessing he previously wrested away from his brother Esau, this is a blessing for him. It’s a blessing that enables him to continue his journey and face his brother Esau. Jacob has persevered and receive vindication.

What do these stories mean for us?

When the Son of Man comes, it will be faith that he is looking. There are so many things that distract us, but it is our responsibility whether we persevere or not. We have many helps - worshipping together, the prayers of others, fellow Christians with whom we can talk and share our faith, the Bible, study groups and so on. But so often we give up or push our faith to one side.

But the reward for persevering will be our vindication too. We will be granted justice when the Son of Man comes again. We will be released from the power of sin. The key to keeping our faith strong is, in the words of Luke, to pray always.

Prayer is the way that we communicate with God - both speaking and listening. It’s how our relationship with God grows and develops. If you feel yours isn’t going anywhere, ask yourself how much time you spend in prayer. For it is prayer that helps us to recognise the love of God and to respond to it. Prayer is our response to God’s love but it also helps us to deepen our awareness of God’s love and increase our love for God.

If the lazy judge listens to the widow, how much more will God listen to the cries of our hearts?

The Lord’s Prayer sums it up as well as any other words: thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. True justice is about God’s will; that is where our prayers should be aimed, so that we too can echo with deep felt sincerity the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: yet not my will but yours be done.

Sunday 28th October - Bible Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion + Junior Church, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday Party of Light (all-age worship), St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 29th October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
7.45 p.m. Barkway VA First School Governors’ meeting

Tuesday 30th October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
7.45 p.m. North Buntingford Group: The Very Revd Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, speaking on St Mark’s Gospel, Rushden Village Hall

Wednesday 31st October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 1st November - All Saints’ Day
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway
7.30 p.m. Service of remembrance and thanksgiving for the lives of those who have died, St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 2nd November
10.15 a.m. Church Mice (stories, songs and prayers for pre-school children), St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Saturday 3rd November
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 4th November - All Saints’ Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
11 a.m. (-4.00 p.m.) Barley Christmas Market, Town House, Barley
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Tuesday 6th November
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Sandon Vicarage
2.15 p.m. Funeral of Leonard Bridge, Cambridge city Crematorium

Wednesday 7th November
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 8th November
10.30 a.m. (-1.30 p.m.) First incumbents meeting, Barton-le-Clay

Saturday 10th November
9.30 a.m. Barley PCC Mission Sub-Group meeting

Sunday 11th November - Remembrance Sunday
9.00 a.m. Holy Communion with act of remembrance, st Mary’s, Reed
10.40 Service of Remembrance, Barley, starts at War Memorial
10.45 Service of Remembrance, Barkway, starts at War Memorial

Saturday 17th November
a.m.  Church working party, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Sunday 18th November
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. CW Morining Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
3.00 p.m. Baptism of Charlie Macintosh, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Monday 19th November
2.00 p.m. Ready and Waiting: Advent study course, The Rectory, Barkway
7.00 p.m. Barley VC School Governors’ meeting

Wednesday 21st November
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Sunday 21st October - Trinity 20
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism welcome, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. CW Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Monday 22nd October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 23rd October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 24th October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 25th October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
1.00 p.m. Interment of ashes of Jean Cheyne, Barkway churchyard
8.00 p.m. Deanery Pastoral Committee, The Rectory, Barkway
8.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church committee meeting, The Old Post Office, Barkway

Friday 26th October

Saturday 27th October
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
2 p.m. Church/village hall jumble sale, Reed Village Hall

Sunday 28th October - Bible Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion + Junior Church, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday Party of Light (all-age worship), St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 29th October
7.45 p.m. Barkway VA First School Governors’ meeting

Tuesday 30th October
7.45 p.m. North Buntingford Group: The Very Revd Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, speaking on St Mark’s Gospel, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 1st November - All Saints’ Day
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway
7.30 p.m. Service of remembrance and thanksgiving for the lives of those who have died, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 4th November - All Saints’ Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
11 a.m. (-4.00 p.m.) Barley Christmas Market, Town House, Barley
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 6th November
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Sandon Vicarage

Wednesday 7th November
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 8th November
10.30 a.m. (-1.30 p.m.) First incumbents meeting, Barton-le-Clay

Saturday 10th November
9.30 a.m. Barley PCC Mission Sub-Group meeting

Sunday 11th November - Remembrance Sunday
9.00 a.m. Holy Communion with act of remembrance, st Mary’s, Reed
10.40 Service of Remembrance, Barley, starts at War Memorial
10.45 Service of Remembrance, Barkway, starts at War Memorial

Deuteronomy 26.1-11; John 6.25-35

Harvest Festival has a very long tradition. In pre-Christian times, the Jewish people celebrated a harvest festival, known as Succoth, or the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths. In fact, Jewish people still celebrate this festival today.

Succoth was one of the three great pilgrimage festivals for ancient Jews. It was one of three festivals at which every Jewish male was bound by law to make an appearance. It came at the end of the year, when all the produce of the fields had been gathered in. Its name originates from the booths or tabernacles which were built for this festival and then decorated with branches from trees and fruit and so on. The people lived in these booths for a week, as a reminder of their exodus from Egypt.

These early Jewish people had a real connection with the land. If they didn’t sow and reap, they wouldn’t eat, as simple as that.

The first Jewish Christians probably continued to celebrate Succoth. But by Anglo-Saxon times, the harvest was mainly celebrated at Lammas-tide on 1st August. Lammas derives from the words loaf and mass.

Farmers would each cut their first sheaf and turn them into flour which was used to make a large loaf of bread used in the eucharist. It was an offering to God of the first-fruit, an idea that we meet a fair bit in the Old Testament, such as in tonight’s reading from Deuteronomy. The end of Harvest was usually celebrated with a party but no religious ceremony.

In the agrarian culture of those times, again people were directly connected with the land.
In most places Lammas-tide died out in the time of Henry VIII, and Harvest Festival was not re-instated until 1843, when the Revd Robert Stephen Hawker of Morwenstow in Cornwall introduced a harvest-festival service along the lines of what we know today.

It’s no coincidence that the harvest hymns we sing today often originated in the 20 years after 1843. We plough the fields and scatter was translated from German in 1861; Come ye thankful people, come, written in 1844; Fair Waved the golden corn in 1851.

Hawker was very struck by Psalm 116, particularly the verse that reads: “What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

It was his reflections on this Psalm that helped him towards the idea that there should be some kind of Christian acknowledgement of the harvest. At this time, in Cornwall, most people again would have been highly dependent on the harvest of land or sea; their well-being dictated by how good the harvest was. His parishioners were extremely poor.

Hawker was a colourful character. As a student at Oxford, he enjoyed playing practical jokes on people. He wrote poetry and hymns, and owned a pet pig, and a large number of cats. There is a story that he excommunicated one of his cats after it caught a mouse in the church - to do such a thing, thought Hawker, showed that the cat was clearly not a Christian.

Hawker would wear a flamboyant hat, fisherman’s jersey and wading boots, which reminded him of his calling to be a fisher of men. He talked to the birds, and collected bodies of shipwrecked sailors and gave them Christian burials, marking their graves with the words unknown yet known, a reminder that though these were anonymous people, they were all precious in God’s sight.

Hawker had a favourite hut with a view across the sea, in which he would sit and pray while smoking opium from a pipe. Though an Anglican all his life, and vicar of Morwenstow for 40 years, on his death-bed he converted to Roman Catholicism.

We remember Hawker particularly for his institution of harvest festival, but he was very clear himself that there was more than one type of harvest. He had constantly before him the idea that God would harvest his people at the end of time, and that this had a bearing on how he and his people should live their lives.

He was aware that we are dependent on God. Harvest is about thanking God for the gifts of creation, it’s about remembering those who provide for us, but it’s also about recognising our dependence on God and acknowledging that.

It’s so easy in this day and age where most of us go to the supermarket and pick our food up from a shelf or out of a freezer to forget our dependency on God and on those who grow our food. There’s an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality that is all too easy to get into.

The rise of things like farmers’ markets and the awareness of food miles is doing something to help us begin to realise anew the role that our farmers’ play in providing for us, and also, sadly, the misfortunes that affect the farming community raise the profiles of farmers too. This year we’ve had flooded fields, rain at the wrong time, foot-and-mouth disease and more recently bluetongue.

The rise in grain prices is good news for arable farmers but not for those who keep livestock. The consumer demands cheap food accessible all year round.

So these days our harvest festivals need to include prayers and thanks for not just our farmers at home but also across the world, many of whom live in far poorer conditions than we do.

Farming is not an easy business. We tend to take our farmers for granted, both in the way that they provide for us, but also forgetting that much of our countryside is it is, because of the care and attention they give it. Farming has become a much more solitary business than in the past. I’ve taken many funerals for people in their 80s who worked on the land, at a time when most rural people were connected to farming in some way.

But with the rise of machinery, farming has become much more isolated. Big machines can do in a fraction of the time the work that people did in the past - just think of the size of some of the combine harvesters we see around at harvest time. And most big machines need only one or two operators rather than a group of people. So, our farmers very much need our support and prayers.

But our Gospel reading today reminds us that physical food is not all we need. It’s something of which Robert Hawker was all too aware. We need earthly food to keep our physical bodies going, but listen again to the words of Jesus from that Gospel reading: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the son of man will give you.”

He reminds us that, if we want true life, a life that goes beyond the bounds of our physical earthly life, we need to recognise that we find that in him. Jesus said: “I am the bread of life.” We eat each day because we know that our physical bodies need feeding. Our spiritual lives are the same, but it is all too easy to forget that. It’s all too easy to forget that we do need to go to God daily, to spend time with God, to acknowledge before God our dependence on God.

Hawker lived his life always aware that God’s harvest was about the harvest of souls as well as of produce. We need to remember that, important as food is, our spiritual lives need attention too, for we will be part of God’s harvest of souls at some point in the future.

It’s important to take time to look at our relationship with God, at whatever stage it is at, and to think about our relationship with God.

It’s all too easy to reach the end of one’s life and realise that we haven’t paid attention to our spiritual life in the same way as we have to our physical well-being.

The great harvest hymn, which we’re not singing tonight, but I’m sure you can recall/with which we opened our service this evening “Come, ye thankful people, come” links together very well the idea of the harvest of grain and the harvest of souls, so I’m going to end this evening by reading one version - there are several - of it to you.

Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God, our maker, doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God’s own temple, come;
raise the song of harvest home.

We ourselves are God’s own field,
fruit unto his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
unto joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
grant, O harvest Lord, that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall purge away
all that doth offend that day;
give his angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in His garner evermore.

Then, thou Church triumphant, come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
all be safely gathered in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in God’s garner to abide:
come, ten thousand angels come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

Sunday 14th October - Trinity 19
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion with baptism of Jake McPherson and Oliver Hay, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
3.00 p.m. Baptism of Oscar Hamblin, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Monday 15th October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 16th October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 17th October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Thursday 18th October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 12th October

Saturday 21st October
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
7.30 p.m. Friends of Reed Church Race Night, Village Hall

Sunday 21st October - Trinity 20
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism welcome, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. CW Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Thursday 25th October
1.00 p.m. Interment of ashes of Jean Cheyne, Barkway churchyard
8.00 p.m. Deanery Pastoral Committee, The Rectory, Barkway

Saturday 27th October
2 p.m. Church/village hall jumble sale, Reed Village Hall

Sunday 28th October - Bible Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion + Junior Church, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday Party of Light (all-age worship), St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 29th October
7,45 p.m. Barkway VA First School Governors’ meeting

Tuesday 30th October
7.45 p.m. North Buntingford Group: The Very Revd Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, speaking on St Mark’s Gospel, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 1st November - All Saints’ Day
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway
7.30 p.m. Servoice of remembrance and thanksgiving for the lives of those who have died, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 4th November - All Saints’ Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
11 a.m. (-4.00 p.m.) Barley Christmas Market, Town House, Barley
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 6th November
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Sandon Vicarage

Wednesday 7th November
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

2 Timothy 2.8-15; Luke 17.11-19

I wonder whether any of you know the story “The Runaway Bunny”, written by Margaret Wise Brown and first published in 1942.

It goes like this:
“Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I am running away.”

“If you run away,” said his mother. “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”

“If you run after me, “said the little bunny, “I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.”

“If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, “I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”

“If you become a fisherman,” said the little bunny, “I will become a rock on the mountain, high above you.”

“If you become a rock on the mountain, high above me” said his mother, “I will be a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are.”

“If you become a mountain climber,” said the little bunny, “I will be a crocus in a hidden garden.”

“If you become a crocus in a hidden garden,” said his mother, “I will be a gardener. And I will find you.”

“If you become a gardener and find me,” said the little bunny, “I will be a bird and fly away from you.”

“If you become a bird and fly away from me,” said his mother, “I will be a tree that you come home to.”

“If you become a tree,” said the little bunny, “I will become a little sailboat and I will sail away from you.”

“If you become a little sailboat and sail away from me,” Said his mother, “I will become the wind and blow you where I want you to go.”

“If you become the wind and blow me,” said the little bunny, “I will join a circus and fly away on a flying trapeze.”

“If you go flying on a flying trapeze,” said his mother, “I will be a tightrope walker and will walk across the air to you.”

“If you become a tightrope walker and walk across the air,” said the bunny, “I will become a little boy and run into a house.”

“If you become a little boy and run into a house” said the mother bunny, “I will become your mother and catch you in my arms and hug you.”

“Shucks,” said the bunny, “I must just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.”

And so he did.
“Have a carrot,” said the mother bunny.

There are some verses in Psalm 139 that remind me very much of this story. They say this “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

“If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is
as light to you.”

What a wonderful message - that wherever we go, God is with us; whatever we do, God will remain.

Oliver and Jake will do well, if they grow up with this message at the heart of their lives. Their parents have so far done a good job during their short lives in caring from them physically. But today, they are making a statement about how they wish to care for their children spiritually as well.

God doesn’t wait until we are old enough to understand before he starts loving us. God’s love extends to Jake and Oliver, to their families and to all of us. In our reading this morning from the letter to Timothy, we heard these words: “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure with him, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”

None of us can live as somebody we’re not. We may want to be someone else with someone else’s gifts but we’re not. Each of us is unique, and created that way by God. But nor can God live as someone other than God. God’s very nature is love and faithfulness, so even if we are faithless, God remains faithful.

God doesn’t want Jake or Oliver to pass a particular exam before they have a place in his family; all he wants them to do is recognise his love and care, and know that wherever they go, that love goes with them.

We all have a part to play in helping Oliver and Jake come to know God’s love for themselves. Their parents and godparents have a key role in doing this, but the rest of us too in a moment will pledge ourselves to welcoming them and upholding them in their new life in Christ. As part of God’s family, we all have a responsibility for these two boys whom we are baptising and welcoming today.

At the end of our service, we will give them lighted candles as a sign of Christ’s light. It is particularly appropriate that we do this at the end of the service just before we go back out into the world to our daily lives, because it offers us a reminder that God is not confined within a church building but that as we leave this place today, God goes with us, and is, in fact, already where we shall be.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Amos 6.1a, 4-7; 1 Timothy 6.6-19; Luke 16.19-31

A famous preacher was greeting his congregation after the service when a woman told him off for repeating a sermon he had preached a few weeks earlier in another church. He asked if she had put it into practice yet. As she fumbled for an answer, he said, ‘Well, my dear, I’ll keep preaching it until you do.’

It seems that Jesus’s attitude towards the Pharisees is a bit like that. He often tells stories against them and the way they lead the people astray, away from God’s true teaching and towards their own interpretations of it. And in this morning’s parable we see him addressing again one of his favourite subjects - the use of money and wealth.

We see from our reading from the letter to Timothy that it is taken for granted that some Christians will be rich, so money in itself cannot be the problem. They are told to be generous and to remember to rely not on their earthly riches but on God. But money is a difficult thing. It can easily take over and become our master. The Pharisees to whom Jesus was talking are described as those who love money, rather than sitting lightly to it and trusting God.

The Pharisees believed that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing and that they, who had wealth, must be living a life of which God approved, while the poor were being punished for their sin. They do what many 21st century Christians do, and pick and choose the parts of Scripture that fit with what they desire and ignore great chunks that say the opposite.

So they concentrate on passages like some of those in Deuteronomy that imply that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, while ignoring the many, many passages that require those who have to share with those who do not have, to care for the poor, the foreigner, the widow and the orphan.

In the reading from the prophet Amos, we see a warning for rich people who feel secure, lazing around on their beds and couches, eating lots, drinking wine - some commentators suggest that idle songs means drunken warblings - and not paying any account to the devastation that has befallen their country. Such complacency!

Their revelry won’t protect them from exile though - in fact they, who have been given the responsibility of wealth, will end up being the first to go into exile. They have forgotten the poor and their religious duties to care for them. Wealth for their own ends leads only to exile.

The problem with money is that it can so easily separate us from God. Last week’s Gospel reading reminded us that no one can serve God and wealth. It is not possible to have two masters.

We may not think that we are rich but someone earning £20,000 is actually in the top 4% of worldwide earnings. Someone earning £40,000 is in the top 0.83%. Even someone in this country working full-time on the minimum wage is in the world’s top 12%.

The rich man had missed the warnings. He had had Moses and the prophets but he’d ignored their message. Instead of being a blessing, because of the way he’d approached it, his money had led to his separation from God.

The first part of the story was a well known tale of the time. Normally the person asking to send a message to those back on earth is granted their request.

But, as so often with Jesus, the parable packs a punch at the end. At the start the Pharisees are probably thinking - oh yes, we know this story. But Jesus turns it on its head. By changing it, his message becomes more powerful. The rich man can’t send a message because they’ve already heard the message through Moses and the prophets, but have chosen to ignore it. They won’t listen, Abraham says. Even if someone rises from the dead, they won’t listen.

Echoes of Jesus’s resurrection, and still nobody listens.

Here’s Heather Johnston’s retelling of the parable.

Ritchie got home from work and switched on the television to see the weather forecast.

He was playing golf in the morning with an important business associate and he hoped to clinch a lucrative deal with him over an expensive lunch afterwards. The forecast was good.

It was followed immediately by an appeal for aid for the famine crisis in Ethiopia. Ritchie turned off the television and went to shower and change ready for dinner with a glamorous model at the city’s newest exclusive restaurant, followed by a film premier.
 
The next morning he picked up his newspaper from the mat. The front-page headline read ‘New famine crisis in Ethiopia’. He turned straight to the financial section to check on the share index. Good. He’d made the right investments.
 
The mail arrived next; he was pleased to see a letter from a business colleague inviting him to stay in his holiday house in the Caribbean. The rest – including an Oxfam appeal for those faced by famine in Ethiopia – was junk mail, so he binned it.
 
He went off to his golf club. On the way he stopped to fill up his Porsche. As he was paying, a woman came and asked the garage-owner if she could leave a collection tin for the Ethiopian crisis on the counter. Ritchie walked out without a glance.
 
After golf, he clinched the deal over an excellent lunch, drank a celebratory bottle of champagne and drove off home in his Porsche. However, his judgement had been somewhat impaired by the alcohol; he took a corner too fast, wrapped the Porsche around a large beech tree and was pronounced dead by the paramedics at the scene of the crash.
 
When Ritchie arrived at the gates of heaven, there were thousands of people streaming through the gates. They all appeared to be waving tickets and being ushered through. He tapped one on the shoulder and asked what was going on. The man said they were Ethiopians and they were going to a great banquet.

Ritchie brightened up – dying wasn’t so bad if there was a banquet to greet you. When he got to the gate, the gate keeper asked him for his ticket, and, when Ritchie said he didn’t have one but he would pay for it now, the gatekeeper shook his head firmly, closed the gate and locked it, leaving Ritchie standing outside in shocked disbelief.
 
He sat down on the ground, trying to think of what to do next. Money had always been able to buy him what he wanted before. He felt tired and hungry. Soon, the most wonderful smells of cooking came wafting past.
He got up and peered through a knothole in the fence. There he saw the Ethiopians sitting down to the most wonderful banquet of every conceivable dish.

The gate seemed to have disappeared so he banged on the fence as hard as he could. The gatekeeper came and called over the fence, telling him once again that he could not come in without a ticket. Ritchie said he was very hungry and asked if it would be possible for one of the Ethiopians to come and bring him some food. The gatekeeper replied that on earth Ritchie had enjoyed all the good things in life while the Ethiopians had had nothing and in any case, there was a very wide, deep pit behind the fence that no one could cross.
 
Ritchie thought for a moment. Then he asked the gatekeeper if one of the Ethiopians could go and warn his brothers to change their ways so that they might get a ticket to heaven.
The gatekeeper answered. He reminded Ritchie of the TV appeals, the newspaper coverage, the collecting tins and all the other publicity that he had seen about the plight of the Ethiopians. If, like Ritchie, his brothers chose to ignore all of this, then there was no more that could be done.

“As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” We are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for ourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of the life that really is life.

Sunday 7th October - Trinity 18/Harvest Festival
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Harvest Festival Service, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
6.00 p.m. BCP Harvest Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 8th October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 9th October
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Royston

Wednesday 10th October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 11th October
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
12 noon NSPCC lunch, Town House, Barley

Friday 12th October

Saturday 13th October
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.00 a.m. (until 4 p.m.) Mission-shaped children training day, Christ Church, Bushmead, Luton

Sunday 14th October - Trinity 19
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion with baptism of Jake McPherson and Oliver Hay, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
3.00 p.m. Baptism of Oscar Hamblin, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Wednesday 17th October
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Saturday 20th October
evening Friends of Reed Church Race Night, Village Hall

Sunday 21st October - Trinity 20
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism welcome, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. CW Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 25th October
1.00 p.m. Interment of ashes of Jean Cheyne, Barkway churchyard
8.00 p.m. Deanery Pastoral Committee, The Rectory, Barkway

Saturday 27th October
2 p.m. Church/village hall jumble sale, Reed Village Hall

Sunday 28th October - Bible Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion + Junior Church, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday Party of Light (all-age worship), St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Tuesday 30th October
7.45 p.m. North Buntingford Group: The Very Revd Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, speaking on St Mark’s Gospel, Rushden Village Hall