Dear Friends in Christ,
August can be a strange month. For many it’s a time of holidays-especially those having to fit in their vacations with schools. Yet on the flip side it’s also when students get their exam results, with all the attendant worry and excitement that goes with it. It brings us this coming last Bank Holiday until Christmas. I always remember hating to see all the ‘back to school’ signs in the supermarkets reminding me that my lovely 6 week break was coming to an end!! Mind you-I’m sure a fair few parents also count those days down with anticipation! We also notice the nights starting to get dark again and the first hints of autumn.
Change-good and bad-is a fundamental part of life. No matter how hard we may fight it, we can’t avoid it. The future is something that can excite or terrify us, the past often becomes distorted through nostalgia. I now seem to view the 1980s as the best period ever simply because I was young then with hair and lots of energy. We have to be so careful that this nostalgia doesn’t blur our vision of the present and dictate how we look at the future.
In our Gospel reading this Sunday the disciples argue about which of them would be regarded as the greatest. They’re projecting to a future they don’t understand rather than being present in that moment with Jesus. He in turn challenges their views on authority but also promises them thrones to judge alongside him-a somewhat contradictory message but one that we can unpack.
Ultimately, we can learn from them to not be defined only by our past and how that might shape our future, but to be in the present moments that’s where our life is happening now, and to not do so means we may miss the bad, but we also miss so much that’s good.
Amen
This Sunday 24th August Bartholomew the Apostle
8.00am Holy Communion - All Saints
10.00am. Holy Communion - St. Marys
10.30am Café Church - All Saints
The Week Ahead
Wednesday 27th August
Morning Celtic Prayer 9.00am - All Saints Church
AA Meetings 7.30pm - St. Marys Church
Thursday 28th August
Holy Communion 10.00am - St. Marys Church
Friday 29th August
Living after Loss 11.00am. St. Marys Church
Saturday 30th August
Saturday Lunches 12noon to 1.30pm. St. Marys Church.
Next Sunday 31 August Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
8.00am. BCP Holy Communion - All Saints
No service at St. Marys
10.30am. Benefice Holy Communion - All Saints
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, evermore. Amen.
Blessings,
Fr Kester de Oliveira