Disruption 6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. 7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards. (Job 5) Most of us can agree with the end of the Bible verse above. Trouble will certainly come into everyone’s life. There is a story of an old priest trying to work in the vestry at Church sorting out rotas, and managing registers, but just has he got something into his head, a visitor would come in the church and ask him something, which he would help with. By the time he got back to the vestry it had gone out of his head, and he would start again trying to remember where he was up to and what would be the best way to organise the papers. He was disrupted several times that day and ended up getting very little done. In his prayers later, he confessed to God how he had failed to do so much of the work he had intended for that day. But as he waited for God’s response, he felt firmly that the message from God was that all those interruptions were the work that God had in mind for him to do that day – and that he could do his own work another time. I suppose I am the sort of person who likes to plan out the day and have a good idea where I am going. But we believe in a God who likes to be a part of our day – which will not always mean going along with our plans. During Lent we seek to prepare ourselves to be members of God’s family and to follow His ways more closely. There will be Lent Lunches in some Churches, and an Alpha course in Mayfield as well as the various small groups where people can explore their faith. But God will always have people we have not thought of, who were not part of our plan, but He wants us to get to know them and to help out where we can. Many of the stories in the Bible tell us of Jesus doing great things, and yet He is interrupted. Once he went to heal the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5 and Luke 8). And yet on the way they are interrupted by a woman who wants healing. Jesus takes it in His stride and heals the woman and then later the little girl is raised from death. How do you take being interrupted – can you work out which times it is actually God breaking into your day, helping you to take a step of faith? One of the advances in teaching from when I was at school is that nowadays the teacher is actively looking out for the student who is getting lost, raising their hand to ask for clarification. The idea is that the flow of teaching is usefully broken by a lost student asking a question, rather than by carrying on until the end, by which point the lost one (and there may be many lost) can’t see their way through the logic of the lesson. If you have a belief in God, then you should expect God to break into your day. So, feel free to have conversations with Him, pray while walking, make your decisions before the Lord. God loves us to interrupt Him too – He is never too busy to hear our concerns or offer guidance or healing or peace. Interruptions don’t work so well in Church unless it’s from God. That’s why we have several small groups which Christians are encouraged to join. Then you can interrupt the discussion, ask your question, and go deeper into why our faith holds together so well in theory and in practice. If you’re in a group, I encourage you to continue going. If not – why not think about the new Alpha starting in Mayfield which you don’t have to join at the beginning – it is put together to allow people to join as it runs. Let me finish with an interruption we have recently been celebrating 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ (Luke 1) Brian Leathers (February 2025)
New starts1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. (Psalm 51)Many people will now have discovered that their new year’s resolutions have started to falter. All the best intentions can fail after a little time and ordinary life. We start out so well, but then time and circumstances take their toll, and we lose sight of what we had hoped for.In the Church year, at the beginning of February we change over from finishing the Christmas season into starting to prepare for Easter. The idea is that we move from one celebration to another through seasons which prepare us appropriately. Lent will start, there will be Lent Lunches in various parishes, and this year there will not be a Lent course as such. The Alton Alpha course members are moving into a regular small group so they can continue to grow in their fellowship and faith. But there will now be an Alpha course starting at Mayfield on 3rd March, weekly on Monday evenings to which people from all the parishes are invited. Do come and grow in your understanding of your faith. There are so many things unstated in our lives that it is good to sometimes have a chance to think about how things are going and how we might improve. Our society now considers many things acceptable which used to cause terrible guilt (divorce is one); and conversely, we now look down on things which used to be perfectly acceptable (smoking is one). There is an intellectual idea that if we can remove the restrictive ideas of the past, then we shall no longer feel guilt. Guilt is an internal feeling imposed on ourselves by memories of the past. Shame is when that guilt is imposed from other people. The Church looking down on divorced people where it wanted to promote marriage caused huge guilt and shame in those who were divorced. In society, those who were divorced were excluded from certain social events. Nowadays we feel differently – many people have this trauma in their lives and there should be no need to keep heaping guilt upon them. (I hope any divorced readers are not finding their emotions churned up as you read). Our society is trying to remove guilt and shame for many things of the past, by saying all these things are acceptable. However, individuals still feel that guilt, and our faith shows us how to deal with it. Now so many things are acceptable you would think guilt would be decreasing, but studies show that the mental health of our nation is deteriorating, the guilt is not going away – it seems to be getting worse.Those with a Christian faith need to be reminded again and again that we have a Saviour. We celebrated His arrival at Christmas, and we celebrate His victory over sin and guilt at Easter. What we need to do is accept what is our part in the failures of the past, and then bring them to our Saviour and ask for his forgiveness and mercy. Then we need to receive that forgiveness and start to move into a newly forgiven part of our lives.I have found the prayer of “Celebrate recovery” really helpful in my life, and especially the serenity prayer which guides us to seek God’s help, and I commend it to you.God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Brian Leathers (January 2025)
https://www.youneedtotalkaboutgod.com/filmsFollow the link to five short films
Join us in learning all about bellringing with St Peter’s Tower Captain Alan Walters and take a tour to see and hear the history of the bells.If you would like to try bellringing for yourself or want to find out more about the Alton Bellringers, please contact them via email at: zalton@nsacr.org.ukClick on the link below to watch the video on YouTube:https://youtu.be/-9rUwv0I9Eo?si=Kp8Tv46a032VlT1I
