Seasons...As I write this on a rather balmy September evening a Forage Harvester is taking off the maize over at Marbury Hall, it’s engine forging through the crop that hasn’t seen its best over this long dry summer…and yet I am surrounded by beautiful, lush green grass here at The Vicarage that I never thought I’d see again to be quite honest. ‘There is Time for Everything’ it says in Ecclesiastes, a short book in the Old Testament that is written by a philosopher more than a theologian, whose words of poetry and prose remind us that Time doesn’t stand still. I welcome the change in the seasons; this is one of the great things about living in this part of the world. Even though we experience changes within the seasons itself we still sense the Four Seasons that the UK and Europe have always known. We don’t celebrate Harvest in shops and supermarkets, I expect it wouldn’t bring in as many sales as summer holiday paraphernalia and cheap Halloween tatt! We’re far more likely to hang a ghost on our door these days than a Harvest Wreath, tell me how that works in our children’s thinking? Turning the Wheel of the Seasons should surely be about how our lives interact with God’s Provisions, not the economics of super-powers who continue to pour rubbish into our country at every opportunity? Surely taking a breath to stop and appreciate nature in all its glory and thanking our Creator God for the things that only He brings to us is a far more healthier lifestyle choice than any other? I would choose to take my own Grand Children out for a walk pointing our blackberries and shiny red rose hips over a trip down the aisle at a shop anytime, to bring to their attention the natural beauty of the natural world and how God is always at work within it. Harvest is followed by a period of Remembering in the Church as we head into November and the Winter, a time when things sleep and are restored, blessed and rested. But I guess that won’t be promoted in our stores either! We’ll make the remarkable jump from Halloween to Christmas without a Supernatural Star or miracle of a divine birth in sight. You bet I’m complaining because the very existence and nature of humankind is being coerced and controlled by money rather than the co-dependency of God and Mankind. We’re missing out! You’re missing out! God gives to every season as He holds the world in His Hands, He asks us to walk through these seasons with Him, yet we so often choose to walk without Him tempted by the shallow gods that crave our attention: money, materialism, consuming more and more - where will it all end? Come back to God, leave worldly things behind and seek the things that last eternally. Enjoy the seasons in the way they are given to us for he made the world to turn and placed everything in its place for it to do so, and the time to appreciate it all is NOW! Yours Veronica x
Left to our own devices… You may be familiar with the above phrase thanks to the Pet Shop Boys, who wrote a song back in 1988 with the same title. Neil Tennant writes about the conflict between ambition and the desire for lazy independence, with a hint of his struggle for identity and memories of feeling isolated as a young teen. Nearly 40 years later, I wonder how much has changed for any of us? In the Bible, the above is spoken about in terms of living in the flesh and living in the spirit. The age-old struggle between being human and giving in to human desires, or being led by the Spirit of God, who knows that not all our decisions are in our own best interest, or the best interest of others and our Home —this world that we are encouraged by God to take responsibility for. Every day we are faced with decisions, each one with its own personal or social consequences, and every day those consequences affect everything around us. Generation after generation has its share of brilliance and shame, and yet the stubbornness of the human head and heart often fails to learn from either. The Bible is the story of one nation who, despite being called by God to be His own, experienced all the above. This Book with its countless examples of leadership and direction — both brilliant and shockingly woeful — is where we learn about the relationship between the God who knows best, and His people who think they know best! We are not God, and yet how many times do we see these traits in our own lives and the lives of others. God does not suggest utopian living. He has already laid out a plan, a purpose, and a means of achieving life in all its possibilities in a way that so many of us cannot begin to imagine is possible. But with God, ‘all things are possible’, especially if He has already promised — and He has. Why are we missing great leadership at present? Could it be that we have lost our respect, belief, and trust in the Creator God of the Cosmos, and in His Spirit who hovers around us as He has since the very beginning of time? If so, how do we change this culture? The Bible says it takes a ‘spiritual transformation’ — a miraculous work of God’s Grace — to remove hearts of stone that have no true feeling and replace them with hearts that are responsive and do! God wants to work with us. He always has, He always will. But until humankind works it out for itself, we will always struggle like Neil Tennant and everyone else! Change in our perspective begins with each one of us, not those who purport to govern us, but with each human being God gifts with wisdom and love. It’s time for us to build some momentum in bringing back respect, moral values, and a shared common interest in our neighbours and the places we live, and all this begins by saying sorry to the God we have forgotten about. Left to our own devices, we will continue our own demise. Turning back to God will change EVERYTHING! Revd Veronica. x
