Friday 1st May - The Apostles Philip and JamesOn Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 weekday programmes well known people from all walks of life are regularly invited to offer their thoughts about ‘What Makes us Human’. Each presents a short reflection about important issues that define the essence of humanity. Every reflection has been insightful and some have helped expand my own thinking and perspectives about what makes us human. For many, our ability to form friendships and to love and care for others is a key issue. Others have emphasised the importance of imagination because imagination can help us reach out beyond our temporal limitations to contemplate and even wrestle with the meaning of life in ways that are deeply personal and spiritual. Well, today we are remembering the apostles Philip and James. We might think of apostles as super-perfect and holy people called by God to live in a state of sanctity but they were people, not unlike us, who experienced doubts and fears and at times questioned their faith and sense of calling. Some of the apostles, according to accounts, were not totally confident in following Jesus because they were fearful about their safety and future and about being persecuted as disciples of Jesus. The apostle Philip was one who did not fully share the confidence and security of faith of of his fellow disciples, according to accounts, but despite his concerns he remained a loyal disciple. He was present at the feeding of the five thousand, preached the gospel in Greece and other countries, and is often represented in religious imagery with his brother Andrew. The apostle James, often referred to as James the Great, was the son of Zebedee and brother of John. James stayed with Jesus throughout his ministry and he was one of Jesus’ closest friends and trusted disciple. He was nevertheless, from some accounts, a somewhat impetuous and hot-tempered disciple (nicknamed ‘son of thunder’) who expressed a level of anger at a Samaritan village for not giving hospitality to Jesus and his disciples. James was one of the disciples who witnessed Jesus’ Transfiguration on the Mount of Olives and his agony in Gethsemane and he was the first of the apostles to be martyred. Life must have been challenging for the apostles as life is and continues to be for many today. Events, hardships, insecurities, fears and doubts about the future can lead us to wrestle with and question our faith but the example of such apostles as Philip and James can help lift us above whatever difficulties and problems disturb us and lessen our ability, willingness and humanness to love and care for one another and live the gospel as people of God. The opposite of faith is not doubt but fear. Love is important because love dispels fear. I think Philip and James knew this and it enabled them, inspired by the Spirit, to trust and believe and get on with the job God called them to do.With love and God bless,The Collect of the day is saidAlmighty Father,whom truly to know is eternal life:teach us to know your Son Jesus Christas the way, the truth, and the life;that we may follow the steps of your holy apostles Philip and James,and walk steadfastly in the way that leads to your glory;through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.AllAmen.Fr Graham
Thought for the Day 30th April - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.During this period of self-isolation, we have been blessed with wonderful sunshine. Just think how awful it would have been if we had been confined during the wet, cold, grey days of last winter.Because I have a dog, I walk her round the Hinckley Road Recreation Ground every day. Many people are now out walking for exercise, we are being very circumspect and moving round each other in semi-circles, but I have met and talked to people that I haven't seen for over 20 years.In normal times they would be rushing out of their house, jumping into their cars and driving off without any personal contact. At present, it is more like the way life used to be, when we walked everywhere.When we moved to Burbage in 1962, there was great rivalry between the surrounding villages, particularly between the football and cricket teams. When I told people in Earl Shilton, that we were going to live in Burbage, I was told that nobody would speak to me because they were a snobbish lot there!How wrong they were!Few of us could afford a car in those days and if we did, our husbands used it to get to work! So we women walked from the Three Pots, up to the village shops. The first time I went there, a lady who I had never met before ran across the road by the War Memorial, looked at my baby in the pram, talked to me and welcomed me to Burbage! I later came to know her, Rita Moore! A truly lovely lady who we all miss greatly.What a difference she made to my life here, just by going out of her way to talk to me and make me feel welcome.It has occurred to me over recent days, that over these years of so called progress, that we have lost a very valuable means of communication with each other because we are always rushing here and there.Could something good come out of this coronavirus pandemic?Jesus walked everywhere. He collected his disciples from people he met and talked to, from all walks of life. People walked with Him and talked with Him.What would have happened if the good Samaritan had been rushing by in his car?How many of the 5,000 people who he managed to feed, would have been there to listen to Him, if they had transport?Would Saul have been walking on the road to Damascus?Hopefully, by the time we can all move about again freely, we shall have learned to talk to each other again. So many people have shown kindness and concern for others. They have shopped for us, phoned us, emailed us and talked to us by whatever means are available. Father Andrew has kept us all linked together as a Church by every means available to him. We have had time to appreciate our gardens and to look around at all the wonderful gifts of nature that God has given to us.So maybe some good can come out of this difficult time?We can only pray for this to happen.Pat Robinson
Seventh Station: Jesus appears to the disciples “Look at my hands and feet: see that it is I myself. Touch me and see: for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Luke 24:39“From ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us” So says the old Scottish prayer, and so perhaps say a good many of us, for we can easily feel uncomfortable and frightened by talks of spirits and ghosts and other strange things that we do not understand. Then there are the science fiction programmes on television that have sent many a child diving for shelter behind the sofa, or requesting the comfortingly solid presence of an adult. And as we read today, the disciples were not made differently from us. When they saw Jesus appear among them, standing before them, very much alive, and they had seen him die only days before, they were terrified. It must have been very confusing.In our gospel reading they stood gathered around the two disciples from Emmaus who had walked and talked with the risen Christ, who had failed to recognise him in the failing light; but who had known him instantly in the breaking of the bread. But all of them, when he came and stood amongst them, took fright. They thought he was a ghost. The Greeks saw reality in terms of concepts, of universal truths, but to Jews, reality was particular and concrete. And so the resurrection was particular and concrete, not just a concept. Jesus really did come and stand with his disciples, risen from the dead. Thomas famously had need to touch in order to believe, and Christ understood that need. “A ghost” he said,” does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” and, for final confirmation of his physical reality, he asked for some food. They gave him a piece of fish and watched him eat it.There is humour in Jesus’ words and actions, verses 40-41, “And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. There is an old saying “Seeing is believing”, but for the disciples seeing was not enough, they had to have that physical experience. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” The way Jesus teases them is part of what helps them to accept that it is really him, really alive.Even today amid all the evidence of the coronavirus, there are sceptics who do not believe that it really exists, because it cannot be physically seen or touched.The sense of Christ’s reality, this absolute certainty that he had risen from the dead and was with them again, came before the strengthening and deepening understanding which was the gift of the Holy Spirit. Unless they were sure, how could they preach with conviction? The faith of those who came after them, would be based on that certainty.When Christ is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. It reminds us too of who we are – we are people of God, with all the promises of inheritance that come with that status. As believers we are not just acquaintances, not just friends, but members of God’s universal family. It is an awesome thought to understand that people may see Christ in us, because of our status as people of God, because of our relationship with God. We have our part to play in the ever-extending family of God, in helping people to see that they too can be people of God, they too can find eternal life through Jesus. Let us be encouraged and awed as we contemplate some of the tremendous implications that come from a living faith in Christ.Risen Christ, through that stone, those cloths, that garden, those wounds, that meal, you made real your resurrection. Make real your resurrection in us, and may we live that resurrection now and always. AmenPauline Cummins
Thought for the day 29th April- Memories, MemoriesSt Cuthbert’s Way.I would imagine that most of us have watched more TV programs these last few weeks than we were normally accustomed to doing. Only the other day I was deciding what to watch and came across an episode of Tony Robinson’s walks through history and I was so glad that I did. In this episode Tony was following the St Cuthbert’s Way linking Melrose with Holy Island. St Cuthbert was first based at Melrose in an early Christian community having been trained in the island of Iona in the early Celtic Christian tradition. Along the way Tony recounted the story of how St Cuthbert and a young companion were walking between centres and the young man complained of being hungry. St Cuthbert assured him that God would provide and sure enough an eagle came down and caught a salmon and the dropped it at their feet. St Cuthbert drew out his knife and cut the fish in two and gave one half back to the eagle. Tony was informed that it could well have been an osprey and indeed that brought back my first memory. Some fifty years ago I was on holiday in Northumberland and was driving on a road alongside the River North Tyne when suddenly a bird came flying towards me carrying a big fish. It was my first osprey and it also reminded me of our Church outing to Rutland Water where we saw many ospreys and were fortunate to see one catching and then carrying a fish away.Further on Tony walked past the Eildon Hills near the Scottish/ English borders and then crossed into England into the College Valley. Some ten years back I went to stay in the College Valley to see some old friends, Martin and Eildon Scott. Yes Eildon a very unusual name but I gather her parents were locals and must have named her after those hills. While I was with them for just one night I told them that I had been to the College Valley many years before to try and find the Hen Hole. This is a remarkable feature and is in fact a very deep cleft in the hills, so deep in fact that the winter’s snow can sometimes still linger at the bottom until mid-summer. Martin kindly offered to show me exactly where it was and we bounced down a private road on the estate and finally took to the moor. I was sure we would get bogged down but he knew his country very well and took me to within a stone’s throw of the Hen Hole and at long last my search was ended. As Tony Robinson walked on he came to St Cuthbert’s Cave, where a large group of us went during our pilgrimage to Holy Island a couple of year’s ago. I immediately recognised the cave as having been on one episode of Vera but the real reason we were there was to commemorate the travels of St Cuthbert’s body after the monks fled Holy Island following the Viking raids. When the island became to dangerous for them to stay any longer they decided to leave but not without the body of St Cuthbert who had become so venerated that they could not contemplate leaving his body behind. We were due to take communion at the cave but then a difficulty arose because the wafers had been left behind. I think St Cuthbert must have been watching over us because I had brought a very nice bread roll from breakfast and this made a very satisfactory substitute and in my view a worthy tribute to St Cuthbert.Moving on Tony eventually crossed the sands at low tide and reached Holy Island, another place that is very special to me. The sense of history and spiritual intensity is almost tangible. The ruins that we see today are not the old Abbey that St Cuthbert would have known but a later priory. However, excavations are now underway to reveal the foundations of the old Abbey and no doubt many interesting artefacts will eventually come to light.Tony was told of the great debate between the Celtic (or more properly a sub-set of the Celtic Church the Ionian church) and Roman churches and how this was eventually settled at the Council of Whitby in favour of the Roman Church. Some of the Ionian monks departed from Northumbria at this point but Cuthbert fully accepted the decision and was a great mediator and stayed on Lindisfarne (Holy Island) to continue to build and strengthen the church from this wonderful base.So Tony Robinson’s journey was nearly at an end but he did make one further expedition to go to the Farne Islands where St Cuthbert went to retreat from the world. He established a little cell on the Inner Farne and it was there that he died in 687 AD. I have been a bird watcher for many years and when I went to the Farnes for the first and only time at the age of 18 I was amazed at the number of sea-birds. These days the only human residents are wardens from the National Trust who look after the Islands. The warden on the program told Tony that they had cleared a cellar there they found a fresh water spring. This was the only one on the island and in his opinion this was likely the same spring that Cuthbert had used during his stay on the island.What a fascinating program and one that brought back so many memories including my visit with the Church not so long ago.Don Peacock
