Jeremiah 31.1-6; Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18

A rather grouchy husband made it into heaven along with his wife.

Strangely, though, he still seemed to be rather grumpy.

“What’s wrong now?” asked his wife. “Can’t you see, we’re in heaven? This is beautiful — the music’s great, the food is out of this world, the mansion has everything and more we’d ever dreamed of, the golf course is the best we’ve ever seen, there’s no fees, no taxes, our health is fantastic, why aren’t you happy? What’s wrong with you?”

The husband replied, “you we hadn’t made me eat that miserable oat bran, we could have been here ten years ago.”

What a sad view of one’s experience of heaven! The husband is so bound up with what he’s previously missed out on that he has lost all sense of celebration and thanksgiving for all the joys in his new existence.

The Christian Church too so often loses sight of the resurrection and the life and joy that it brings. We keep the 40 days of Lent, but it seems that once Easter Day itself is over, the 40 days of Easter pass us by. People go back to work after a long weekend off, the Easter eggs eaten, and life returns to normal.

Life never returned to normal for those first disciples who rushed to the tomb that first Easter Day. Mary Magdalene, according to John, was the first to arrive, early in the morning. She is panicked by the fact that the stone has been removed. We’re not told that she gets as far as looking inside, but she’s obviously made the assumption that the body is not longer there.

So, not sure what to do, she rushes off to find Peter and the other disciple. They dash to the tomb to see what has been going on. The other disciples, who is never named, peers into the tomb, notes that the linen shroud is still there, but then hangs back from going inside.

Peter, though, is never one to hang back. He goes straight inside the tomb, and spots not only the linen wrappings but also the cloth that had been around Jesus’s head. Then the other disciple follows Peter in and believes.

We’re not told exactly what it is that he believes. John wrote his Gospel in order that people might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing they may have life in his name. And that, for John, is what faith is about.

But what the disciple believes in this story is made somewhat ambiguous by the sentence that follows about them not understanding the scrupture that Jesus must rise from the dead. The two disciples go back home, believing that the body has gone, but as far as we know, not that Jesus is alive again.

But Mary is too upset to go anywhere. She stays where she is weeping. And now she too looks inside - something she hadn’t done earlier. She sees two angels there. They ask her why she is crying. She explains that Jesus has been taken away and she doesn’t know where he is.

And then she turns round and finds a man standing there, who also asks why she is crying. Her mind can only cope with rationality - her conclusion that this is a gardener makes absolute sense in some ways - who else would be in a garden?

And if anyone was going to have moved a body, then the most likely person would have been the gardener.

It takes only one word to transform her perspective from the normal sphere of human thinking to the joyful recognition of the resurrection. “Mary.” There must have been something in the way that he said it. I imagine it was a bit like the way in which a mother, in spite of a clamour of noise from other children, will always know the cry of her own child.

Mary, in spite of the clamour of voices going on in her head, knows immeditely who this gardener is once he has spoken her name.

And now he has returned she tries to cling on to him. She doesn’t want to experience the pain of separation from him again so tries to hold fast to him in the hope that he won’t disappear.

But he won’t let her, and gives her a message to take to the disciples and bids them hurry to pass it on. “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

The resurrection is important, it is a sign of God’s decisive action in our world, it makes a difference. However, we are not to spend ages staring at the marvel of the empty tomb, but to carry the message of the resurrection to others.

Mary does as she is asked, although the initial message she gives to the disciples is somewhat different from the one Jesus asked her to convey - I have seen the Lord, she tells them - though she then goes on to tell them what Jesus has said.

We come to this scripture so many years after the events it describes. But it has not lost any of its power. It has transformed lives, brought hope, joy and salvation to millions of people down through the ages from the time of those first disciples.

Our reading from Acts is a speech given by Peter in Cornelius’s house. We become aware of how he has been transformed by the power of the resurrection. Just a few days ago, we heard how he denied Jesus three times in the courts of the High Priest. All through the Gospels he has seemed an unlikely figure for Jesus to have chosen as the foundation stone for his church.

He’s the one who so often get sit wrong, or speaks out before he has really though about what he is saying.

Peter should give all of us hope, since God takes who he is and uses that - he doesn’t ask Peter to become something or someone else before he uses him to deliver the message of the resurrection. He uses Peter as he is. And God wants to use us as we are.

Of course, once God starts using us, transformation follows. After the resurrection Peter is radically transformed: he preaches Christ crucified and raised from the dead, so that those who hear him believe and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is no longer the simple fisherman with a gift for saying the wrong thing, he has insight and wisdom and he teaches with courage and conviction. But, at the same time, he is still Peter.

The message of Easter is in part about God’s mighty power: God’s power to raise Jesus from the dead, God’s power to save us from our sins and to bring us to eternal life. But it’s not just that.

It is also a message about a message: a story about the importance of passing on the story, of not delaying, of sharing the good news.

Jesus is risen, we do not need to be afraid. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. So we are freed from our fears and our sins, freed to carry the message of the resurrection through our words, free to carry God’s love to others through our actions. God has shown that His truth and love are more powerful than sin and death, so we can have new confidence to live our lives so that they bear witness to that truth and they show that love in action.

On his return from 16 years spent in Africa, David Livingstone told the students of Glasgow University “What sustained me amidst the toil and hardship, and loneliness of my exiled life? It was the promise, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end.’”

That is the message that we too have to share with the world. Because of the resurrection, Christ is no longer confined to one place or a particular moment in time. Mary could not cling on to him and make him stay where she was, for he could not be confined. He is with us, right now, to the end.

He is with us in times of sorrow and in times of joy. He is with us when life is painful and when we are celebrating. If we believe in the power of the resurrection, our lives can never just go back to being normal, for once we have met the risen Christ, we too are transformed. It will affect everything we do - the way we live our lives, the way we react to other people, the way we conduct ourselves.

Christ’s life is our life. Christ’s life is blossoming all around us - we just have to look up and see it.

Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, says this: “Where God’s people celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection, they discover new possibilities opening up in front of them.”

May we, like Mary, open our eyes to new possibilities opening up in front of us, as we celebrate the resurrection.

Christ is risen, alleluia!

Sunday 30th March - Easter 2
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Andrew’s, Buckland

Monday 31st March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
11.30 a.m. Funeral of Peggy Downey, Cambridge Crematorium

Tuesday 1st April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Wednesday 2nd April
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 3rd April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Friday 4th April

Saturday 5th April
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
evening Friends of Reed Church Race Night, Reed Village Hall

Sunday 6th April - Easter 3
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Maragaret of Antioch, Barley, with the Revd Mervyn Terrett
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway, with Frances-Mary Blydenstein

Monday 7th April
No Morning Prayer

Tuesday 8th April
No Morning Prayer

Wednesday 9th April 
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 10th April
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
4.30 p.m. Churchwardens’ Meeting, The Rectory
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Friday 11th April

Saturday 12th April
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 13th April - Easter 4
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed, followed by Annual Parochial Church Meeting (Barkway/Reed) and bring-and-share lunch
 

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 15th April
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Cottered Vicarage

Wednesday 17th April
8 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, Aylwins, Roe Green

Thursday 17th April
11.30 a.m. Women in Theology Group, The Board Room, Holywell Lodge

Saturday 19th April
a.m. Friends of Barkway Church Plant Sale
7.30 p.m. Concert by Rebecca Starling, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 16th March - Palm Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Holy Communion for Palm Sunday, meet at Barley VC First School

Monday 17th March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Tuesday 18th March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 19th March
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
12.45 p.m. Funeral, Joyce Fletcher, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed

Thursday 20th March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
10.00 a.m. Barkway VA First School end-of-term service, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
1.45 p.m. Funeral, Maisie Gilham, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion and Watchnight Vigil, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Friday 21st March - Good Friday
10.30 a.m. All-Age Good Friday service, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
1.30 p.m. (-3.00 p.m.) Meditation on the Passion with hymns
7.30 p.m. The Way of the Cross, words and music for Good Friday

Saturday 22nd March - Easter Eve
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 23rd March - Easter Day
6.15 a.m. Sunrise service with holy communion and breakfast
9.00 a.m. Easter Holy Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Easter Holy Communion, 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 24th March
No Morning Prayer

Tuesday 25th March
No Morning Prayer

Sunday 30th March
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Holy Communion, St Andrew’s, Buckland

Tuesday 1st April
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Wednesday 2nd April
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley

Thursday 3rd April
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Saturday 5th April
evening Friends of Reed Church Race Night, Reed Village Hall

Sunday 6th April
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Maragaret of Antioch, Barley, with the Revd Mervyn Terrett
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway, with Frances-Mary Blydenstein

Sunday 2nd March - Mothering Sunday/Lent 4
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Mothering Sunday service with communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley, followed by PCC accounts meeting
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 3rd March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory

Tuesday 4th March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 5th March
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 6th March
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Friday 7th March

Saturday 8th March
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 9th March - Passion Sunday
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, with talk by journalist Rachel Harden, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday - Rhinos and Rainbows, 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 10th March
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory
7.00 p.m. Barley VC First School Governors meeting

Wednesday 11th March
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 12th March
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Saturday 15th March
5.00 p.m. Steve Price, Gospel Illusionist, Greneway School, Royston

Sunday 16th March - Palm Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Holy Communion for Palm Sunday, meet at Barley VC First School

Monday 17th March
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Tuesday 18th March
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 19th March
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion, St Mary’s, Reed

Thursday 20th March - Maundy Thursday
10.00 a.m. Barkway VA First School end-of-term service in church
8.00 p.m. Holy Communion and Watchnight Vigil, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Friday 21st March - Good Friday
10.30 a.m. All-Age Good Friday service, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
1.30 p.m. (-3.00 p.m.) Meditation on the Passion with hymns
7.30 p.m. The Way of the Cross, words and music for Good Friday

Saturday 22nd March - Easter Eve

Sunday 23rd March - Easter Day
6.15 a.m. Sunrise service with holy communion and breakfast
9.00 a.m. Easter Holy Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Easter Holy Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Exodus 17.1-7; Romans 5.1-11; John 4.5-32

There’s something wrong. There’s something most definitely wrong.

Jesus and his disciples are in Samaria, a place Jews normally avoided like the plague, preferring to take the longer route through Jericho when they were travelling from Judea to Galilee in the north.

The disciples have gone into a Samaritan town to buy food from, presumably Samaritans. But Jews and Samaritans have no dealings with each other.

There’s something wrong. There’s something most definitely wrong.

It’s midday but a woman is out collecting water. People just don’t do that.

They don’t come out in the hottest part of the day to do a heavy job. Women usually fetched water in groups, enjoying the chance for a chat and catching up with the latest gossip. But this woman is on her own.

There’s something wrong. There’s something most definitely wrong.

And we could go on. Jesus starts a conversation with the woman. Men just didn’t do that in those days. Here’s a quote from rabbinic law: “One should not talk with a woman on the street, not even with his own wife and certainly not with someone else’s wife.” And another one: “It is forbidden to give a woman any greeting.”

And the woman he’s chosen to talk to is not only a Samaritan and an outcast, she’s cast in the story as immoral, living with a man who is not her husband, having already been married five times. And Jesus is on his own with her. Not the done thing.

It’s a bit like those children’s puzzles where you have to spot what’s wrong with the picture. There might be someone hoovering the floor but the plug is not in the socket but trailing behind the vacuum. There might be a picture of a bicycle without a chain or a piano with no keys.

If this story were such a picture, we would find lots of things wrong.

The contrast between the woman at the well and the person Jesus encountered in last week’s Gospel reading could not be greater.

Last week those of us in church heard about Nicodemus, a man, a learned teacher, a respected Jewish leader, member of the Sanhedrin, the council, a man who followed the law strictly.

But there is something the two have in common - an encounter with Jesus.

It’s an encounter with Jesus that God longs for each one of us to have. And sometimes that encounter will take us to places that we’d perhaps rather not go to.

When Jesus started talking about the woman’s marital situation, she changed the subject rather rapidly and started a conversation about where worship should take place.

I expect many of us have things we’d rather not talk about, things perhaps in our lives of which are ashamed, or things that just hurt too much to be reminded of them, things that might bring the tears welling up to our eyes, or the resentment building up inside.

Jesus offers the woman living water - the word used for living is the same as running. She’s a bit confused to start with since there is no river or stream nearby. But she’s pretty keen for it; “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Without water, no one can live. Without Jesus’s water of life, no one can be fully alive.

But encounter with Jesus can allow that living water to seep into our lives.

I wonder how we, twenty plus centuries later, can also have such an encounter. We’re not going to go to a well and find Jesus sitting there, but I guess many of us long for more in our lives.

Perhaps we long to feel God’s presence more closely, or to sense that deep joy that some others seem to know. Perhaps we long for a deep hurt to be healed or for God’s comfort in a time of loss.

So, how can we encounter Jesus today?

I think there are a number of ways.

Sometimes people experience Jesus’s presence out of the blue and as a complete surprise. The woman was not expecting to meet Jesus when she went out to get her water.

But for most of us, that’s not how it works most of the time. We need to set time aside away from the busyness of daily life. We need to put other demands on hold so that we can give priority to God. We need perhaps to reassess what takes first place in our lives.

We can encounter Jesus through the pages of Scripture. That’s something we can do each Sunday here in church as we hear the Gospel reading, but it’s also something we can carry on during the week.

If you find it hard knowing where to start with reading the Bible or difficult to understand, why not try using Bible reading notes. The Bible Reading Fellowship is well experienced at these and produces different types of note for different levels of reading - as does Scripture Union. If you’re interested in knowing more, come and have a chat at some point. They can be a helpful way in, especially if you’re not sure where to start.

Through reading our Bibles each day, we can grow in faith and learn more about what it means to follow Jesus and to receive that living water.

And we can use our Bibles in different ways. We can read them as we would any book, perhaps using notes to help us understand more. But we can also read in a different ways.

We can take the stories of Jesus and read them reflectively, perhaps concentrating on one story for a whole week. Read it and mull it over. Ask whether there is anything Jesus might be saying to you through it.

A Reader at a church I used to attend would liken it to eating a boiled sweet. When you have a boiled sweet, unless you’re very impatient, it takes a while to eat it. We roll it around our mouths, licking and sucking it, and letting the taste develop. We stay with it for a while before we crunch it.

One way of reading a Bible story which often leads to an awareness of encountering Jesus is to mull it over, reflect on it, pray through it, ask what it might mean for me today, ask what God’s message might be for you. Take time to know Jesus through the Bible’s pages.

But there are, I believe, other ways too in which we can encounter Jesus. The woman stepped aside and took time to talk to him. She could have ignored him or given him the drink he asked for and gone on her way. But she didn’t. She took time to listen and respond to him. If we want an encounter we Jesus, perhaps we too need to step aside and take the time to talk and listen to him.

Deepening our spiritual life takes effort. So often we see God as an add-on to our lives, when in fact, the first commandment is to love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.

Only we can make that decision for ourselves. We can decide that we haven’t got time to make the effort. We can decide that coming to church on a Sunday is perhaps enough for us. Or we can decide like the woman at the well that we’re going to allow our whole life to be affected by our encounter with Jesus.

At the end of the story, the woman leaves behind her water jar and dashes back to the city to tell everyone about Jesus. Commentators see symbolism in her leaving the jar behind. It’s a sign that she has left behind her former life and started on a new path. She has been transformed from outcast to evangelist.

What I wonder might we have to leave behind if we are to allow space for a life-changing encounter with Jesus?

Lent is a good time to think about where our priorities lie. It’s a good time to ask whether we want those springs of living water welling up with in us. It’s a good time to pay attention to the spiritual side of our life.

It’s a good time to assess our priorities and to ask where Jesus fits into our life and think about whether we want more.

It does take effort and time, but the riches that we gain, as the woman discovered, are immeasurable and beyond anything we might have to leave behind.

And we don’t have to do it alone. We have each other and we have the Holy Spirit to help us along our journey to a deeper encounter with Jesus.

Amen.

Sunday 24th February - Lent 3
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Joint service at Barkway Chapel

Monday 25th February
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory

Tuesday 26th February
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Buntingford Church
2.30 p.m. Funeral of Jeff Bradford, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
7.30 p.m. Barkway VA First School RE information evening

Wednesday 27th February
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 28th February
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Friday 29th February

Saturday 1st March
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
7.30 p.m. Barley Village Supper, Town House

Sunday 2nd March - Mothering Sunday/Lent 4
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Mothering Sunday service with communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley, followed by PCC accounts meeting
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)

Monday 3rd March
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory

Wednesday 5th March
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 6th March
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Sunday 9th March - Passion Sunday
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, with talk by journalist Rachel Harden, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday - Rhinos and Rainbows, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 10th March
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory
7.00 p.m. Barley VC First School Governors meeting

Wednesday 11th March
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 12th March
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Saturday 15th March
5.00 p.m. Steve Price, Gospel Illusionist, Greneway School, Royston

Sunday 17th February - Lent 2
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
5.00 p.m. All-age Service, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Monday 18th February
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory
7.30 p.m. Commissioning of Margaret MacCormack, BRAVE youth worker, Edwinstree School, Buntingford
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Tuesday 19th February
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 20th February
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
11.45 a.m. Funeral of Philip Austin, Harwood Park Crematorium, Stevenage
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church AGM, Manor Farm
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 21st February
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
2.30 p.m. Sarah to speak at Barley Over-60s, Town House, Barley

Friday 22nd February

Saturday 23rd February
9.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 24th February - Lent 3
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Joint service at Barkway Chapel

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 25th February
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory

Tuesday 26th February
12 noon Deanery Chapter, Buntingford Church
2.30 p.m. Funeral of Jeff Bradford, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
7.30 p.m. Barkway VA First School RE information evening

Wednesday 27th February
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
7.45 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 28th February
8.00 p.m. ICES Worship and Psalms, The Rectory

Saturday 1st March
7.30 p.m. Barley Village Supper, Town House

Sunday 2nd March - Mothering Sunday/Lent 4
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Mothering Sunday service with communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley, followed by PCC accounts meeting
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 3rd March
2.00 p.m. Lent Course, The Rectory

Wednesday 5th March
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Margaret House, Barley
12 noon (- 2p.m.) Lent Lunch, Town House, Barley
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Group Lent Course, Rushden Village Hall

Thursday 6th March
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Sunday 9th March - Passion Sunday
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, with talk by journalist Rachel Harden, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Discover Sunday - Rhinos and Rainbows, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

A family was sitting with their children in a restaurant.

The baby was in a high chair, and, as the mother looked around, she noticed that everyone was quietly sitting and talking.

Suddenly, the baby squealed with joy, and made a baby happy noise. He banged his hands on the high-chair tray, and giggled and smiled.

The mother looked and saw that the source of the baby’s glee was a man whose baggy trousers had their zip at half-mast. The man’s toes poked out of holes in the end of his shoes. His shirt was dirty, his hair uncombed and unwashed.

She was too far away from him to smell, but was convinced that he would. He was talking and waving at the baby, smiling and enjoying the baby’s response.

‘What should we do?’, the mother asked her husband, concerned about this man who was communicating with her baby. He wasn’t the sort of person that they wanted their precious child to be associated with.

Other people in the restaurant began to notice the man and the baby. Especially once the food had arrived, and the man began calling out - “Boo! Hey, look, everyone this baby knows how to play peek- a-boo.”

Everybody felt embarrassed. Other diners wondered what the family would do. The man was obviously drunk. The family ate their meal in silence, feeling uncomfortable, but not wanting to leave the food for which they were paying.

Eventually, they finished and headed for the door. The husband went to pay the bill, while the rest of the family went to the car park to get settled for their journey home.

But the old man’s seat was by the door, so they had to pass by before they could reach the street.

“Let us just get out of here,” the mother silently prayed, “without him saying anything or drawing attention to us.” As she drew closer to the man, she turned her back trying to sidestep him. But the baby had other ideas. Before his mother could stop him, he had reached out to the old man, who had taken him in his arms.

In an act of total trust, the baby laid tiny head upon the man’s ragged shoulder. The man closed his eyes, there were tears hovering beneath his eyelashes. His old, dirty, creaking hands patted the baby on the back.

As he rocked and cradled the baby in his arms he opened his eyes and looked at the mother. Then he said in a firm voice, “You take care of this baby.”

Then he pried the baby away from his chest and handed him back to his mother. There seemed to be a look of pain in his eyes. “God bless you,” he said. “You’ve given me a precious gift.”

Later, when the mother reflected on that meal, she came to realise that what that man had shown to her child was the love of God. The man had seen a precious baby; all she had been able to perceive was an old, smelly, worthless tramp.

Simeon and Anna recognised that the baby brought to the Temple that day for his dedication to God was more than seemed at first sight. They recognised in that child that he was God’s salvation, that through him God would reveal again his love and light to the world.
Perhaps Mary and Joseph were a little perturbed when this elderly man in the Temple started talking to them. We’re told that they were amazed at what he said to them. And I wonder what they thought about the elderly woman who saw them and then began telling everyone else about what she had seen.

Simeon’s words “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” remind us that God’s light was a light for all people, that God’s love and blessing was for all.

In baptising Flynn today, we too are echoing Simeon’s thoughts and words. We are acknowledging Christ as the one who brings salvation through forgiveness.

In the water of baptism, we recognise that because of that baby in the Temple and what he became, when we get things wrong God can wash all the bad away and make us clean again from the effects of our wrongdoing.

At the end of the service when we give Flynn a candle as reminder of God’s light, we are reminding ourselves of what Simeon perceived that day in the Temple, that Christ is our light. Christ is the light, not just for a particular nation, not just for a particular type of person, but for all - baby, adult, respectable person, tramp, outcast.

Christ’s light and love extend to all, and we are asked to take that light and love out into the world to share it with others, with all types of people.

As Flynn grows, my prayer for him is that he will come to recognise God’s light in the world around him, and that he will be drawn to that light, and want to share it with others too.

6th January - Epiphany
Barkway: Isaiah 60.1-6; Psalm 72.1-15; Matthew 2.1-12
Barley: Isaiah 60.1-6; Psalm 72.1-15; Ephesians 3.1-12; Matthew 2.1-12
Reed: Isaiah 60.1-6; Psalm 72.1-15; Ephesians 3.1-12; Matthew 2.1-12

13th January - Baptism of Christ
Reed: Isaiah 42.1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10.34-43; Matthew 3.13-17

20th January - Epiphany 2
Barkway: Isaiah 49.1-7; Psalm 40.1-12; 1 Corinthians 1.1-9; John 1.29-42
Barley: Isaiah 49.1-7; Psalm 40.1-12; 1 Corinthians 1.1-9; John 1.29-42
Reed: tbc

27th January - Epiphany 3
Barkway: Isaiah 9.1-4; Matthew 4.12-23
Barley: Isaiah 9.1-4; Psalm 27.1,4-12; 1 Corinthians 1.10-18; Matthew 4.12-23

3rd February - Presentation of Christ
Barkway: Malachi 3.1-5; Psalm 24.1-10; Luke 2.22-40
Barley: Hebrews 2.14-18; Luke 2.22-40
Reed: Malachi 3.1-5; Psalm 24.1-10; Hebrews 2.14-18; Luke 2.22-40

6th February - Ash Wednesday
Joel 2.1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51.1-18; 2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10; Matthew 6.1-6; 16-21

10th February - Lent 1
Reed: Genesis 2.15-17; 3.1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5.12-19; Matthew 4.1-11

17th February - Lent 2
Barkway: Genesis 12.1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4.1-5, 13-17; John 3.1-17
Barley: tbc

24th February - Lent 3
Barkway: Joint service at Barkway Chapel
Barley: Exodus 17.1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5.1-11; John 4.5-42

2nd March - Mothering Sunday
Barkway: Exodus 2.1-10; Psalm 34.11-20; Luke 2.33-35
Barley: tbc
Reed: Exodus 2.1-10; Psalm 34.11-20; Colossians 3.12-17; Luke 2.33-35

9th March - Passion Sunday
Barkway: tba
Reed: Ezekiel 37.1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8.6-11; John 11.1-45

16th March - Palm Sunday
Barkway: Isaiah 50.4-9a; Psalm 31.9-16; Philippians 2.5-11; Matthew 26.14-27.66 (Also Matthew 21.1-11)
Barley: Isaiah 50.4-9a; Psalm 31.9-16; Philippians 2.5-11; Matthew 26.14-27.66 (Also Matthew 21.1-11)
Reed: tba

17th March - Monday in Holy Week
Barley: Isaiah 42.1-9; John 12.1-11

18th March - Tuesday in Holy Week
Barkway: Isaiah 49.1-7; John 12.20-36

19th March - Wednesday in Holy Week
Reed: Isaiah 50.4-9a; John 13.21-32

20th March - Maundy Thursday
Barley: Exodus 12.1-14; 1 Corinthians 11.23-36; John 13.1-17, 31b-35

21st March - Good Friday
Barkway: tba
Barley: tba
Reed: tba

23rd March - Easter Day
Barkway: Isaiah 65.17-25; Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24; Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18
Barley: Isaiah 65.17-25; Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24; Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18
Reed: Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18

30th March - Easter 2
Buckland: Acts 2.14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1.3-9; John 20.19-31

Isaiah 9.1-14; 1 Corinthians 1.10-18; Matthew 4.12-23

Jesus had a dream. In John’s Gospel, we find him praying that those who believe in him might be one. It’s something that we think about particularly every year during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which was celebrated last week and ended on Friday.

The fact that we have to have a particular week to remind us that we are all one in Christ highlights the fact that Jesus’s dream has yet to come true.

It’s a problem that has been with the Church since the early days. Our epistle reading came from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, one of the first Christian documents. Already, possibly as little as 20 years after the death of Jesus, divisions have crept into Church life.

Much of what we read in this letter is concerned with different divisions and factions.

Today’s passage concentrates on four groups. It seems that the Corinthian Christians have divided themselves along party lines. Some follow Paul, others Apollos, and other Cephas, also known as Peter, the apostle.

Commentators are not entirely sure who those are who say they follow Christ, quite possibly a group of people fed up with all the wrangling, who are adamant that they have gone back to basics and are only bothered about Christ. But in taking that line they too have caused divisions.

Another option is that there was a person named Chrestus, who had a following like Paul, Apollos and Peter.

What we see here is people building boundaries, forming groups in which they feel secure, but to which other people appear to be a threat. Everyone is clamouring for their own cause, but few are taking the time to listen to what others are saying.

They have become quarrelsome and jealous of each other.

I think we only have to look at some of the modern Church debates to recognise that these problems still remain.

Paul’s response, and much of this letter, is about the Church’s being the body of Christ. He points out the absurdity of the body pulling itself apart limb from limb from the inside.

There was enough opposition from outsiders without Christians creating enemies within.

And I think there are parallels here with our Church today too. No one can deny that the number of people belonging to church communities has dwindled over recent years. There are many competing demands in our world today, much as there were for the Corinthians, and in the face of those demands, the Christian community needs to be united.

I wonder if any of you have read C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. Some of it is fairly dated now, but I think it’s a book with a lot of truth in it. A senior devil is writing to his nephew, the much younger and less experienced, Wormwood, giving him advice about how to turn his patient away from God.

At one point, Screwtape gives this help to his nephew:

“I think I warned you before that if your patient can’t be kept out of the Church, he ought at least to be violently attached to some party within it.
“I don’t mean on really doctrinal issues; about those, the more lukewarm he is the better . . .

“The real fun is working up hatred between those who say ‘mass’ and those who say ‘holy communion’ when neither party could possibly state the difference . . . in any form which would hold water for five minutes.

“And all the purely indifferent things - candles, clothes and whatnot - are admirable grounds for our activities.”

It’s the things that divide Christians that get us into the papers - just think of two recent issues - the debates on sexuality and women priests. It’s when Christians are seen to see each other as enemies that the world begins to take notice. How sad! No wonder that so many feel the Church is irrelevant.

It’s not only the big ethical issues that get people upset. How we worship gets people going too.

We all have our own preferences when it comes to worship.

Some people like formality, others a much more relaxed approach. Some people like modern worship songs, others will only sing the traditional hymns. Some people like guitars and drums as accompaniment, others will not contemplate anything other than the organ.

But, Paul says, what should be happening is that the cross of Christ should be binding us together, should be uniting us so that we have the same purpose.

He makes it clear later in the letter that he’s not expecting everyone to be the same – that’s not real unity - but to love those who are different.

Paul points out that his task was to proclaim the Gospel. Though some people have particular callings as evangelists, part of being a Christian is proclaiming the Gospel in our words and deeds, in the way that we live and behave.

Part of living the Gospel is to accept people as they are, to welcome them and to love them for the people they are. That is God’s way with us. God loves us and accepts us, and desires that our attitude towards others is the same.

Christian unity is not only about unity between Christians with different ideas about things or different views about worship. Christian unity is needed within congregations as well as across churches. Real Christian unity is exhibited when the Christian community is as accepting and welcoming and loving as it can be.

Real Christian unity is about being built into a community of believers, not being a group of separate individuals who happen to worship in the same place. If someone new joins us, we should be asking ourselves an important question. Are we willing to welcome this person into the Christian community, and love them and accept them, or will they become just another separate individual, who happens to come to church?

If we focus on the cross of Christ, Paul says, all other things will pale into insignificance.

If Christ is truly at the heart of our faith, then we will be able to love those with whom we disagree, and to listen to them with an open mind, so that together, as the one body of Christ, we can continue his work here on earth.

Loving and welcoming those with whom you have difficulties, whether that be the things they believe, the way they behave or something about their personality, is a risky business, but it’s one that follows the path of Christ.

As I travel around the benefice, I often sense that many people, and some have said this to me, feel that the church is not for them, that it’s about a small group of people with fixed boundaries as to who is in and who is out.

I have no straightforward answers as to how we can change that, though it will need each and every member of the congregation to reflect and ask whether there is anything more we can do to help people feel welcomed and accepted. It will need prayer, and we’ll need God’s guidance. It was lovely to see how the crib exhibition at the beginning of Advent did draw people in and create community.

Is this church congregation part of a Christian community or is it a group of separate individuals? Perhaps different people experience it in different ways.

But everyone who professes to belong to the Christian community has a responsibility to ensure that we welcome and accept others - the kingdom of heaven’s boundaries are very wide. If God’s love has no limits, who are we to decide who is lovable and who is not?