As November begins there are lots of opportunities to remember. The Christian Festivals of All Saints and All Souls encourage us to think about those whose example we follow and to celebrate loved ones who have died. The loss may still be fresh at times, but hopefully there are good memories and special moments to recall. Among the family fun of bonfires and fireworks on Guy Fawkes night, it also reminds us of the need to protect and value the freedoms we enjoy, and the potential impact that one person can have, for good or ill, in the life of a community or country. Finally, Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday bring these threads together. We remember the men and women who served our country in various ways during two World Wars and more recent conflicts, giving of themselves to protect our freedom. As the poem by John Maxwell Edwards says, for our tomorrow they gave their today. Reflecting on all those who have shaped, nurtured, and sacrificed for us, the words of Jesus come to mind: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”This challenges us to respond – what will we give up for future generations? What legacy will we leave? What example will we set? How can I show my love
Opening Prayer:May God take these human words and transform them through his Holy Spirit for the purposes of the Kingdom. Amen.Introduction – Stewardship vs. ownership Have you ever been tasked with taking care of something or someone? Perhaps you’ve house sat for a friend, or looked after a pet for a neighbour who was going away on holiday. Childminders and teachers take on responsibility for the growth and development of the children and young people in their care.The expectations are different in how you behave, though, compared to something that is yours, aren’t they? There are things that I might say to my own children that I wouldn’t to others. When I was paid by a neighbour as a teenager to water their plants and mow their lawn while they were away, I was far more diligent than I manage in my own home. When it comes to pets, I’m not sure we actually own our cat, Pepper. I’m pretty certain that she doesn’t see it like that.In all these ways, and more, in every-day life we are invited to be stewards of things, of creatures, of people.This is a theme that the season of creation places before us, and at times this raises some difficult questions, as our two readings do today.Genesis: God creates, provides, entrusts Our reading from Genesis might be familiar. It’s the second of the two creation narratives at the beginning of the Bible, a complement to the days of creation outlined in Genesis 1. The emphasis and action of the passage is clear – God creates and provides abundantly, and humans are part of that creation and provision, that intention and purpose for the world. But verse 15 is also key – “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” The Garden, and by extension the whole of creation, is not something that we have made ourselves, or have earned. It is not for us to possess, but rather for us to steward, to care for, to work with God to look after.This is the original vocation ordained by God for which all humans are made. We are not meant to be ravenous consumers of our world, like a plague of locusts devastating all in our path. We are called to be stewards of our world, working in harmony with it.Luke: What do we do with what we receive? This is reinforced by our reading from Luke of the parable of the rich fool. Jesus tells this short parable, having avoided adjudicating a dispute about inheritance. The question we’re invited to consider is “why is this man a fool?” It’s not because he has an abundant harvest – that is a blessing from God. Joseph and Pharaoh were not fools when they stored the abundant harvest in the good years in order to provide for the people in the years of famine.The issue is in the rich fool’s mindset when this blessing comes.Let me read verses 17-19 again, but I’ll put some emphasis on some of the pronouns:He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.”18 ‘Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”When presented with a blessing from God – whether in part due to his own hard work or prudence, or primarily down to the weather and conditions – the rich man thinks only of himself. There is no thankfulness to God or prayer about what he should do. There is no thought for the community or others. It is all about pleasing his own desires. There is no sense of gratefulness, gift or responsibility, of loving his neighbour or God.Stewardship vs. ownership revisited The purpose of any parable is to get us to reflect, to place ourselves within the context of the story, and to ask questions of ourselves.The challenge of both readings, and of this season, is to think about how we, as Christians, treat the world and the things, creatures, and people in it. Do I really own the money in my pocket, or my car, or my family, my pet, this church, the world? Is it mine to do with as I please, to bend to my will? Am I an owner, or am I actually a steward, a caretaker?For some of us, perhaps, we are uncomfortable with the idea that our hard-earned house and possessions, our cherished friends and family, our skills and abilities, our time, are not completely ours. “I earned them, they’re mine.” For others there might seem an easy answer: “of course we’re stewards of God’s creation,” but perhaps there are other parts of our lives that we want to keep God out of, or time when we treat the world as ours to use as we will.I’d hope we don’t go to the extreme of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings – “It came to me, my own, my love... my... preciousssss.” – or even saying to others or God “We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.” However, if I’m honest there are moments when that’s exactly how I respond to God. “You can’t have it, it’s mine!”There’s a danger, perhaps, that we end up feeling resentful, like God has an unfair claim on what we have, or thinking that God is treating us like we’re slaves, but that’s not what God wants for us either. Ultimately, though, everything we have is God's gift. We say the prayer of David sometimes when we offer our collection and gifts to God during communion services – “Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour, and the majesty; for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.” Christian stewardship asks us to prayerfully consider what God wants us to do with what he has entrusted to us. It does not demand, but instead invites us to be generous in response to God’s generosity to us, rather than having a scarcity mindset.Christian stewardship in practice Now this might seem good, even easy, in principle, or safe when it comes to how we treat animals and the world. However, it is really hard when we start to think about other areas of our lives as individuals and as a church. It isn’t easy to talk about money, for example. We don’t do it often in church and I’m not sure we often do it well. I have known I needed to preach this sermon for some time, and it’s been one of the hardest I’ve ever had to write and give. I hope it will come across in the way it’s meant, which is with compassion, love, and hope.Good stewardship as a church So for us as a church, good stewardship means we are working to be more honest and open about our church finances. The leaflet we’ve written and given out today is part of that, and talks about where things stand at the moment.Myself, the Wardens, and our PCC are trying our best to be good stewards of what we’ve been entrusted with by God and previous generations. We try to be both prudent and generous, looking outwards to our mission as God’s people in our community. However, all that costs money and our buildings need some attention if they are to serve God and Hucclecote well for years to come. We are trying to make sure our expenses are reasonable, and to raise funds through events, seek grants, and hire our buildings. However, the reality is that we are heavily reliant on donations, both regular and one-off.We need to make sure that our giving is sufficient to not only sustain the ministry God has entrusted to us, but also to realise the vision he has given us for where we go next on our journey.Good stewardship as individuals I know that many of us, many in our community, already give generously in various ways, and I want to say a huge and heart-felt thank you for your faithfulness. I realise that many of us are on tight budgets and fixed incomes, and that there are many pressures on our personal finances at the moment too, often outside our control. Giving to church should never be at the expense of health or cause hardship.I’m also realistic that there are many good causes that we might, as individuals, feel called to support. So I’m not going to give a crude call to ‘give us your money’ or set a particular target. Instead, I’d invite everyone to prayerfully reflect on what God is calling them to give out of what he has given you.If you give regularly to our church, thank you! If you don’t and would like more information about how to, there is an A5 information sheet on the table by the door. Our preferred method is via the Parish Giving Scheme, because they automatically obtain gift-aid on our behalf, and there is even an option you can select which ensures that your giving amount keeps pace with inflation every year.Wills We have also been blessed in the past few years with a number of unexpected legacies - gifts given in people’s wills. You may not have noticed, but this week has been Remember a Charity week where over 200 charities collaborate to encourage people to think about leaving gifts in their wills. Legacies have become a significant source of support for charities in recent years - among charity supporters aged 40 and over, 22% say they have already included a charitable gift in their Will, compared with 14% in 2010.As a PCC we are in the process of developing a policy around legacy giving to make sure that we are good stewards of such gifts, while also setting healthy boundaries in line with safeguarding. Legacy giving should never be at the expense of taking care of family or personal needs, but it is another way that people can contribute to the sustained mission of our church, and we as PCC are committed to making sure this is for clear and tangible projects. For example, the money to pay for the new church noticeboard at the front gate came from a Legacy given by Nancy Lockwood.Let me stress – no-one should feel an obligation to give a Legacy, but if it’s something you would like to do and would like more information, then are packs in purple envelopes at the back. We’ll also show a video which has been put together by our Deanery at the end of the service.Time & talentsAnd of course money is not the only way that we give of ourselves and are good stewards, any more than caring for creation is. We can give our time and our talents, and on this I feel so blessed as your Priest-in-Charge because so many people give of themselves in this way across our church. If there are other ways that you’d like to give and would like to find out how, please talk to myself, Chris, Kevin, Margaret Edwards, or others you see already volunteering. Thank you for all the ways that people give of their time and skills. It is so very much appreciated, and an amazing witness to others.Remembering our primary vocation as stewardsAs I come to a close, let me return to our first reading. Ultimately, our primary vocation as human beings is to be stewards. We are invited by God to be good stewards of this world in all it’s beauty and fragility, good stewards of the blessings that God has given us in terms of our time, our talents, and yes our finances and possessions too. Good stewards of one another as we journey with Jesus.Our challenge is to prayerfully consider what God wants us to do with what he has entrusted to us. My prayer is that we are given more opportunities and more capacity to be generous in response to the generosity that God has shown us. Amen.
‘Respectful rustics’ The church was consecrated by the Bishop on Wednesday 30 April 1851, and a report on the service appeared in the Gloucester Journal on the following Saturday. It described St Philip and St James as ‘the little new church erected in this pretty village … The sacred building, which lies a short distance off from the left of the road, was crowded by an attentive congregation, including the principal residents of the neighbourhood and numerous rustics, who, however, demeaned themselves in the most respectful manner.’Hucclecote hazardous to health? Cesspools and Coke stovesNot only was the bishop on consecration day suffering from ‘chest complaints’ that required the ‘the stimulus of cordial medicine,’ but also, the first two ministers of the church resigned due to health issues. The second, Revd James Pruen (Hucclecote 1957-1959) developed TB. As his friend later reported, ‘ill health, promoted if not induced by deficient drainage, for I believe a cesspool then ran under the foundation of the parsonage house, compelled Mr Pruen to leave after a short time, and he went to reside at Weston-Super-Mare…’A rather alarming report in the Gloucester Citizen in January 1895 described how the members of the congregation were nearly asphyxiated during a service due to faulty ventilators in the coke stoves used to heat the church and ‘… ‘the service was abruptly brought to a conclusion …’Calming the cowsOn a happier note, one musically gifted vicar’s daughter, Helena Heather, crops up several times in the early years of the church in the local press. In October 1881 she is reported as ‘presiding on the pianoforte’ during a parish concert in the schoolroom. And in April 1890 she sang solo and played a piano solo in a grandly titled Hucclecote Philharmonic Society concert also held in the school room. In May 1891 she reported that on a trip to Colorado with her brother she had been looking for ‘sketchable bits’ when she was surrounded by menacing looking cows who she apparently calmed by singing them the Soldiers Chorus from Gounod’s opera Faust!If you have found these snippets amusing do take a look at the page on our website titled The History of the Church for more historical (usually serious!) insights. You can also take the Tour with the file attachment below.
Thought for the month: The unchanging in the changing.By Pastor Simon Duan (Hillview Church)The start of this new academic year often brings notable changes to many. Some will be starting new schools, colleges, apprenticeships, Universities, or jobs. Others may have moved into a new area (welcome if that is you). Some may have just retired or lost a job or sadly even a loved one. Others maybe struggling with a loss of their previous good health and independence. Even for those who do not have these significant changes the truth is we are all impacted by change around us much of which we cannot control. Some of us are better at embracing change, others really struggle and are fearful of what is ahead. I am not sure who you turn to when these changes happen and how you get through them but as each of us step into this new season whatever it may hold it is good to be reminded that there is a God who is unchanging. The Bible describes God as a ‘rock,’ solid, dependable and a firm foundation under our feet whatever challenges life brings. The unchanging in the changing.
