Dear friendsI reflected a lot last Sunday about saying "no" and saying "yes". We heard Jeremiah's lament of "it's not fair" in our Old Testament reading, and it was wonderful to explore with both congregations at 8.30 and 10.30 those areas of our lives and in our world that make us want to repeat this lament. This led to much reflection on how we might respond to those areas, in the things we ignore and collude with, or the times we might speak up and speak out - when do we say "no, I will not be part of this" or "yes, I want to live differently". The intercessions at both services gave us space to seek God's revelation of what this might look like in our lives in the days to follow.After the morning services, it was a great privilege to baptise two adults who had reached a moment where they also wanted to say "no" (and in the words of the baptism service this refers to turning away from evil and rejecting sin) and "yes" (again in the baptism, turning to Christ). We catch glimpses of those moments, don't we, where God reminds us of the invitation to respond to his love, once we have received it.This weekend we will be joining in the celebrations of two individuals who are saying "yes" to the call of God on the rest of their lives: with Rosemary as she is priested on Saturday, and as she continues in her curacy, and with Phil as he says "yes" for the first time in his ordination as a Deacon and joins us for the next 3 years or so to serve his curacy.
I know that God isn't calling everyone to be ordained, but He does call each of us into a relationship of love, and the inevitable consequence of this, once we truly and deeply know this love, is a desire to respond, to become part of the priesthood of all believers. This requires a dying to self, and a rising to new life with Jesus - again part of our baptism, but equally an ongoing part of our faith journeys.How might you respond to this? Where is your "no" and where is your "yes"? It could be something really simple, a behaviour or habit that you know is no longer a necessary part of who God is seeing when his gaze falls upon you: the "no". Equally it could be a nudge or sense that there is a deeper way of connecting with God, or with others: that conversation you're putting off, the apology you need to make, the prick of your moral compass that there is a different way to approach a decision ...: the "yes".We will only have a brief time to gather together this Sunday at St Martin's, at the 8.30am service, as we will hopefully be together at the Cathedral at 10.30am to welcome Phil. However, I would be really pleased to reflect together more on the "no" and "yes" moments that you are facing. Over the Summer we will go a bit deeper on what it is to be church, with a number of additional ways to gather, reflect and pray together in addition to Sunday mornings. I hope these will be a fruitful opportunity to consider these things more deeply then.In the meantime, you're invited to come along on Sunday - 8.30am service only this week, or at 10.30am to Bristol Cathedral.With every blessing, as everBecky
I know that God isn't calling everyone to be ordained, but He does call each of us into a relationship of love, and the inevitable consequence of this, once we truly and deeply know this love, is a desire to respond, to become part of the priesthood of all believers. This requires a dying to self, and a rising to new life with Jesus - again part of our baptism, but equally an ongoing part of our faith journeys.How might you respond to this? Where is your "no" and where is your "yes"? It could be something really simple, a behaviour or habit that you know is no longer a necessary part of who God is seeing when his gaze falls upon you: the "no". Equally it could be a nudge or sense that there is a deeper way of connecting with God, or with others: that conversation you're putting off, the apology you need to make, the prick of your moral compass that there is a different way to approach a decision ...: the "yes".We will only have a brief time to gather together this Sunday at St Martin's, at the 8.30am service, as we will hopefully be together at the Cathedral at 10.30am to welcome Phil. However, I would be really pleased to reflect together more on the "no" and "yes" moments that you are facing. Over the Summer we will go a bit deeper on what it is to be church, with a number of additional ways to gather, reflect and pray together in addition to Sunday mornings. I hope these will be a fruitful opportunity to consider these things more deeply then.In the meantime, you're invited to come along on Sunday - 8.30am service only this week, or at 10.30am to Bristol Cathedral.With every blessing, as everBecky