Dear friends,

Please find below details of what’s coming up tomorrow, and over the next few days across Middle ESK Moor, plus a copy of my sermon from last week.

I’m also absolutely delighted to congratulate Rosa and Phil on their marriage last Saturday. We had a wonderful celebration in Goathland, at St Mary’s and then in The Hut, to celebrate their civil marriage together, which had taken place at the Registry Office in Whitby earlier in the day. The whole event was such a wonderful occasion! Do get in touch with me to discuss further if you or someone you know would like to get married in one of our beautiful church buildings. We have seven more wedding celebrations booked so far this year.

Looking forwards to catching up with you soon.

With love and blessings,

Reverend Anthony

Coming up this week… Sunday 30th June

9:00 Traditional Holy Communion in Lealholm at St James'

10:45 Traditional Holy Communion in Egton at St Hilda

7:00 pm Esk Valley Concert Band at St Matthew's Grosmont - see poster attached.

6:30 pm Sharing Space - please contact us for further information.

8:30 Contemplative Communion in Goathland - please contact us for further information.

3:00 pm Advisory Council Meeting at The Vicarage

5:00 pm Deanery Evening Prayer on Zoom and at St Hilda, Egton

6:00 pm Worship Planning - Tea with John Day - at the Vicarage

10:30 - 2:30 Vi's Community Cafe in Grosmont at St Matthew's

1:30 - 2:30 Play Space in Grosmont at St Matthew's Grosmont

9:00 Traditional Holy Communion in Lealholm at St James' Lealholm

10:45 Traditional Holy Communion in Goathland at St Mary's Goathland

Please note there won't be any Fellowship Space sessions in July and August.

Our next Community Forum meeting will be taking place alongside a joint meeting of our four parochial church councils (PCCs) on

Saturday 20th July, 2:30-5:30 pm at St Hilda’s and Egton Primary School (note new venue)

Further details to follow, but all are welcome to attend - you don’t need to be on one of our PCCs.

Last Sunday’s Sermon

In Eularia Clarke’s painting, the ‘Storm Over the Lake,’ the Lake is the Sea of Galilee, and the scene is the one we’ve just heard in our Gospel reading. See this link for further information.

Now, some of you might know that my first time as a student (long before I trained to be a Priest) was spent learning about ecology, physical geography and geology. So, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2019 I was quite interested in the geology around the Sea of Galilee, as well as the historical basis to Christianity, of course. The rift valley that runs down through Africa – a zone where two tectonic plates are gradually separating – that zone extends up through the West Bank and ends in the mountains North of the Sea of Galilee.

The River Jordan runs down from Galilee towards the Dead Sea, which is below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. And the Sea of Galilee is below sea level too. The Jordan essentially drains downhill into the Dead Sea and the water evaporates, which is why it’s so salty. This evaporation, the mountains surrounding Galilee, and it’s low level relative to the Mediterranean Sea, creates some strange climatic conditions, which can lead to severe and quite violent storms. Those storms can start and stop quite surprisingly and very quickly, and this makes fishing on the Sea of Galilee quite a perilous occupation. But fishermen would have been used to this rapidly changing weather. And they would have been very burly and tough too; used to working in very harsh conditions.

Jesus chose fishermen to be some of his disciples; and those disciples would have experienced some quite severe storms. But the storm in the picture and in our Gospel reading must have been the most severe one; certainly a life threatening one! It’s quite a surprising scene. And surely it isn’t anything like the experienced fishermen could have imagined.

Eularia Clarke shows Jesus leaning forwards, calming the storm.

The boat is in extreme danger of being swamped, with several people already swept overboard and in severe danger. The crew seem to have had the presence of mind to tie down the sail when the storm arose. The blue, black and white pillow (looking more like a travelling rug) on which Jesus was sleeping, is portrayed in the stern of the boat. In an interview for the Methodist Church’s art collection, the artist Eularia Clarke said, ‘I keep praying, “This is meant to be your Son, don’t let him look like just any ordinary human.” I wouldn’t be dragged all that way to Church by a man who just lived and taught a long time ago.”

Eularia Clarke believed her special calling from God was to make the Gospel scenes come to life. And I think she’s certainly done that here. But I wonder what you can see in the picture?

I’ll read the passage from Mark again now. While I’m reading it keep looking at the picture. You might want to imagine yourself as being one of the people in the boat. You could try and imagine the feelings that the disciples in the boat might have had.

Mark 4.35-end On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

This is a serious, life-threatening storm; there is fear on the faces of all; although for some you can only see their hands; it’s overwhelming; no one other than Jesus appears to have any control; people are trying to hold on to something to give them an anchor point.

But Jesus, surprisingly, is lying down and is calmly in control of the situation.

The gesture of his hand echoes the image of a dove, the Holy Spirit.

I’m sure that we’ve all had many storms that have unexpectedly blown into our lives.

And in those storms, I’m sure we’ve had feelings of fear, alongside many questions that we asked to try and make sense of the situation. One of the questions might have been: ‘Don’t you care, God’?

It’s easy to judge the disciples with the benefit of over 2 millennia of hindsight but, in the face of a great and sudden storm, they’re understandably frightened. And it appears as if Jesus is doing nothing. He remains calm and has fallen asleep. And don’t forget this was the storm of all storms, one that was defeating the hardiest fishermen. The disciples’ immediate reaction is to assume that Jesus doesn’t care. But when Jesus is woken up, he calls for peace and immediately the storm is stilled.

It’s not at all clear in our passage what the disciples expected Jesus to do, but his stilling of the storm certainly appears to have been quite a surprise. Jesus here is reminding us to have faith. Jesus invites us to walk with him through the storms of life.

All of our storms.

Especially the most severe ones;

certainly the life-threatening ones, like the one depicted in this painting.

But, for me, what this Gospel story says is that in those storms we should expect God to act in surprising ways. Ways we can’t possibly imagine. Just as this is quite a surprising scene, nothing like the experienced fishermen could have imagined, surprising answers to our prayers will come to intersect and settle our storms. Along our journey of faith, I think Jesus asks us to wait for those surprising and life-giving actions; actions that can only come from God.

Amen.

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The Reverend Anthony Bennett

middleESKmoor.org 
Enriching– Sharing - Knowing

Bible passages are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England (2000-2024). material from which is included in this email, are copyright © The Archbishops’ Council.

These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:

Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.

Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.