This Palm Sunday, we again live through a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Initially I struggled to relate the familiar Palm Sunday story to our situation because everything seemed so distant from our everyday experience at the moment. All this talk of crowds…….- when were you last in a crowd? These days a few families in the park seems like a big gathering! And the very special crowd on Palm Sunday gathers because a very special visitor is passing by. When did we last have a special visitor? Or any visitor at all……..? And when did we last physically gather as Christians to sing and shout praises to Jesus…apart from a brief carol service outdoors, it must be over a year ago now!! So, it is hard to relate to the experience of the disciples that first Palm Sunday. Nevertheless I still believe that we are part of the worldwide Christian ‘crowd’ of believers that gather ,when we can, to praise God. This morning, those of us able to access worship, by whatever means online, TV, radio, phone, youtube….and so on have praised God in different ways during these challenging times. This seemed like a relevant sermon theme worth expanding. However my focus changed on Thursday 25th March. Why? On Thursday I joined a Diocese retreat day led by Bishop Martyn with about 200 Leicester leaders for prayer, discussion and learning from God’s word. We focussed on how God is alongside us in suffering and how this helps cultivate humility in our lives. It was a good day , but a little weird having a retreat at your own dining table without going anywhere! Nothing especially new for me, but a refreshing day with helpful reminders of God’s presence with us. On Friday morning I came back to our Palm Sunday reading with new eyes! The thing that stood out to me so clearly in the reading from Mark 11 was God’s abundant provision. For our churches today this resonates so well with our Hope@Easter project. As we follow Jesus here in our villages we are seeing God provide provision and hope for many at Easter time. 400 Easter eggs delivered last week. 16 huge hampers with Co-op vouchers and just under 70 flower/card gifts ready to be delivered to our villages tomorrow. A last minute addition was to send 55 bunches of daffodils to all the school staff to say thank you for their amazing efforts this term. By divine providence these were given out on Tuesday 23rd, which turned out to be the national day of reflection - marking a year since lockdown one. I’ve already had an email addressed to myself and Rev Tim Woolley, Methodist church minister: Hi Mick and Tim, All the staff at Sharnford C E Primary School would like to send their thanks to the Churches of Sapcote and Sharnford for the bunches of daffodils and card. We all really appreciate you thinking of us. Have a good Easter. Best wishes Sharnford school staff. So how does our Bible reading from Mark 11 encourage us in this kind of ministry? Vv2-6 Miraculous provision by Jesus. A kind of first century new car! Jesus needs transport for his journey into Jerusalem. Jesus tells the disciples how to find the donkey and uses it for his purposes. For us, it seems that Jesus is guiding us to partnerships with other churches, the schools, the Co-op, the parish councils, garden centres, the Hinckley Foodbank to use these resources for Jesus purposes. Vv7-8 Abundant provision for Jesus. Not just a colt/donkey. We see here so many extras! Cloaks for a saddle, a red carpet of cloaks and branches for the special visitor. All important preparations in anticipation of, and imminent arrival of Jesus , this very special visitor. In our situation it has been amazing to see how a simple idea of hampers at Christmas expanded to so much provision this easter- Easter eggs for 400 school children , food provision and vouchers for families in need, card and flowers for those on their own or struggling, daffodils for school staff. So much beyond the original idea because God’s provision is abundant. v9&10 The result. Shouts and chants to Jesus. Praising God. Often crowds have a life of their own. Some in the crowd are praising Jesus for all the good things. Some maybe praising Jesus even though they know Jesus may soon suffer. Some just swept along by the crowd as others shout out the praises. The result-? An excitement, noise, a carnival atmosphere as Jesus rides into the city. I hope that we too can praise Jesus because of the wonderful ways God provided on that Palm Sunday and because we are getting some glimpses of wonderful ways in which God provides today. I’ve spotted a couple of other examples of God’s provision recently. First, if you would like a palm cross, you can pick up one outside Sapcote Methodist Church. We have a couple on display in the Rectory. Second, young people in our online congregation raised over £1200 for Tearfund’s work in Yemen. Looking at our 2020 accounts for both churches God has provided for all our needs - including provision for a £30,000 building project at All Saints church building last Summer. However, we must also remember that Jesus had to undergo great suffering in Jerusalem and that his journey was heading towards death on a cross. We know, as Christians, that praising God is important in the hard times as well as the good times. Ultimately, we praise Jesus because Jesus is worthy to be praised. Whether we are experiencing miraculous provision, or a bad hair day- we are still called to worship Jesus. Job is an example of someone who experienced great hardship and great happiness. He was able to praise God in the midst of both. St Paul also knew how to praise God in need and in plenty. We too are called to praise God in the best of times and in the worst of times. In three weeks time we will be opening up our buildings for physical worship together. We will try to Zoom our 11am worship from All Saints. So, there will be a choice of joining worship in the building (without singing initially), joining at home and sing—-or neither. As we open up again let us also try to encourage one another and others to keep worshipping God, one way or another. We are very likely to be losing some people who were with us at the start of 2020-so let’s all make an effort in encouraging one another to return to Sunday worship. Let’s all continue to resolve to praise God in the good times and the bad times. Today, we can all be very grateful for God’s special provision, and especially for Hope @Easter. Let us praise God in the best way that we are able to this Palm Sunday and this Holy Week.
Sermon by Rev Mick Norman 21st February 2021 <div>Mark 1:9-15 Lent 2021: A season for Lament This morning I recognise that this is the first Sunday in Lent, and I am asking the question: What is the most appropriate way to spend Lent 2021? In particular it seems to me that God is inviting the church to have a season of lament. Three times recently I have heard the word lament used when I can scarcely recall it being mentioned by the church in the 40 years that I have been a Christian. I have always thought that we need more songs/words that help us to express our sad or difficult feelings in worship. At this point it’s useful to give a definition of lament…… according to the dictionary , lament is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow”, or according to the Bishop of Leicester in a recent video: lament is “expressing our grief or our sense of loss, or indeed expressing our anger or frustration” to God. I mentioned recently that I attended a Webinar (online seminar) with 370 church leaders. It started by asking the question “How do we lead differently in Lockdown 3.0?” The first suggestion was: Combine praise …with lament. At that point I was quick to put in an online question asking other church leaders for any contemporary songs of lament they knew- I’ll share their replies at the end of my sermon. Already I have referred to a short video I watched recently by the Bishop of Leicester that spoke to me. Bishop Martyn gave his video the title “the gift of a new language” and I was wondering which language this could possibly be. He said that he was learning the language of lament. In it he points out that 40% of the Psalms (60 out of 150) are psalms of lament. Typically the Psalmist rails against God, or others, for much of the psalm, and then returns to affirm trust in God at the end. So how does this link to Lent 2021? A recent message from Launde Abbey captures our situation beautifully: “The life of a monk” writes St.Benedict, “ought to be a continuous Lent.” But these last 12 months have been a continuous Lent for all of us, whether monk or not. : So don’t worry, Rev Mick won’t be inviting us to give up something this Lent- we have all given up so much this past year! So what can we do?, what do we do? when we are in the desert place, the place of wilderness? What do we do when we are without our usual landmarks and sense of navigation. What do we do when we have lost family get togethers, special celebrations such as weddings and baptisms, when we are missing the sporting events, shows, outings, holidays that usually punctuate our year and we feel lost. What do we do when we wake up wondering what day, month or year it is? Surely this is a wilderness or desert experience. What can we do when we are without so much? We turn today to Jesus and the words of the Mark’s gospel chapter 1 for guidance and help. In particular we focus on Jesus in the wilderness. For Jesus, the time in the wilderness is a time of testing and training before he begins His ministry. He has been baptised v10, he has heard again those wonderful words of affirmation from his Father v11 “You are my Son, my cherished one, and my greatest delight is in you” and then the Spirit , v12, leads Jesus into an uninhabited desert region. Our situation is different to that of Jesus, but it has some similarities. We are not in a desert, but we find ourselves in a situation where we have little connection with other human beings- maybe the few that we live with if we’re blessed, but we are still feeling something of being lost in the wilderness. .We may not be in danger of wild animals, but the coronavirus is out there and has been active in our local villages, bringing illness and a few deaths over the last few weeks. .On the positive side we may not have had literal angels ministering to our needs, but surely we can sense the 2021 angels in the form of hospital intensive care workers, and others on the frontline, bringing help where they can. Tantalisingly, Mark does not tell us much about the forty days. We hear that Jesus "endured the ordeals of Satan’s tests” or “was tempted by Satan” but that is all we have to go on. It’s hard to base a structure for our Lent (forty days plus Sundays) on this minimal guidance. However, according to Luke chapter 4 “Jesus ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry” and then we are given a more detailed description of Satan’s tests and how Jesus overcame them using the word of God. (a similar account can be found in Matthew chapter 4:1-11). According to Luke and Matthew, Jesus knew the Old Testament scriptures and quoted from them. Jesus also knew the Psalms and would have spoken them, or sung them, during his forty day ordeal. It is Jesus use of God’s word in the wilderness that stands out to me. So this Lent , in our 2021 wilderness, I will be exploring this theme of lament and I invite you to join me. Whether or not you are doing anything else this Lent, consider joining me in learning something of the language of lament. So how? If you like listening to music or singing songs, a couple of ideas. How about listening to some contemporary Christian songs of lament. Remember that question I asked to 370 church leaders? Here are answers that came back on the chat (by the way I will circulate this sermon text so don’t worry if you miss something!): “When tears fall” from the album “When silence falls”(Tim Hughes), We have sung our songs of victory(how long) -on today’s song sheet, “Weep with me” (Rend Collective), Tumbling sky- Psalms for weary souls (Matt Searles), Hold on (St Aldates) , I will wait for you - Psalm 130 (Shane & Shane). A number of these are based on psalms of lament and can be found on Youtube if you can access it. Or How about writing your own song? I’m going to have a go later in Lent! In addition, or alternatively, how about reading the Psalms of lament. The following are designated as Psalms of communal lament: 44,60,74,79,80,85,86 & 90.Often these psalms have the pattern of expressing grief, loss, anger, frustration, waiting, etc to God and only then do they end with renewed trust in God. We too are having to go through hard times before we too can get renewed hope and trust afresh in God. It’s resurrection, but it must be preceded by crucifixion. A similar pattern in our reading from Mark- Jesus was tested first and then went on to bring good news: ”Turn your lives back to God and put your trust in the hope-filled gospel.”(Mark 1v15 Passion Bible) Let me end with an example of lament from Psalm 13. (New International Version): How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?……… But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.</div>
Three weeks ago I preached a sermon about identity matters. It focussed on our individual identity, how God’s love was instrumental in forming Jesus identity, and how God’s love builds our sense of identity.Last week I prepared a sermon for joint worship involving people from different local churches including Burbage Methodist Church, Sapcote Methodist Church, Sharnford Methodist Church, StHelens Church in Sharnford or All Saints Church in Sapcote. Last Sunday morning our internet connection went down and I am very grateful to Di Harrold for reading my sermon with ten minute’s notice! The sermon focussed on the importance of belonging; especially belonging to the local Christian community. It ended with suggestions of how we can continue to stay connected during the challenges of the current lockdown restrictions whilst praying for better times ahead. This morning I am focussing on how we recognise peoples’ identity and how we can recognise Jesus correctly. So, how do we recognise other people? It could be by seeing their face, hearing their voice or in some other way. Maybe you have recognised people on Zoom this morning- maybe there are some new names and faces? I mentioned last week that I joined a gym about 15 years ago. Whilst I was a new member people looked at me and saw a new face. Imagine my surprise when a very tall man walked into the changing room and I instantly recognised him as England rugby world Cup winning captain Martin Johnson. Not a total surprise to see him in a gym. It’s harder to recognise people out of context. A few years back Denise and I were on a train to London. As we approached Euston station a woman walked past us in the aisle. Other people looked at her as she went by. Denise said “That’s Laura Kuenssberg from the BBC news team” I doubted her at first but when I looked again I could clearly see that it was indeed her. Most of us grow up developing good skills in facial recognition. Sometimes we recognise people by their voice- when I phone members of our congregation, people don’t ask me for ID, I introduce myself, they recognise my voice and they know it’s me. How does this relate to our reading from John chapter 1? John is introducing Jesus as the ultimate revelation of God - the true light of the world, the living Word. How many of the human race will recognise Him correctly? The first people to see Jesus would have had questions about His divine nature. This is because the accepted view at the time, formed by the Old Testament teachings, was that a person cannot see God and live. Therefore, could Jesus possibly be divine? Let me illustrate this. Let us think about sunlight. Plenty of bright sunlight has many benefits- It helps us to see what we are doing, it helps build vitamin D immunity in our bodies, it helps us to sleep well at night, it lifts our mood, it helps plants to grow (photosynthesis). and many many other benefits you can think of I’m sure…… We are not able to look directly at the sun but we may be able to recognise some of its benefits. In the same way, we may not be able to look at God directly. However, we may be able to recognise Jesus correctly- the revelation of God with us. And yet many people did not recognise Jesus correctly, according to those interesting words from John chapter 1 verses 10 and 11: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” What John is saying here is that although all human beings have developed powers of recognition, not everyone is able to recognise Jesus correctly. Why is that? A huge question!! A mystery perhaps, which makes it hard for me to answer. However it is there in black and white in John’s gospel! Perhaps you know the saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” I’m not sure why, but it has a ring of truth about it. So too with faith in Jesus. As Christians (on our own or together) we witness to others (whether we realise it or not) but we cannot make others believe- this is the action of the Spirit of God, and up to people to make their own faith decision. In chapter 1 of his gospel, John is also introducing the structure of his whole gospel by summarising the response to Jesus, the true light, in two ways. The people who fail to recognise Jesus feature mainly in the first half of his gospel and those who recognise Jesus correctly feature mainly in the second half of his gospel. This seems to be the central argument to John’s gospel. It is more than a biography of Jesus; it shows a video of how different people respond in different ways to the powerful light that shines from the person of Jesus Christ. For us as Christians there is a wonderful promise of encouragement Verse 12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” John is saying here that we recognise Jesus by the eye of faith: We believe and trust in Jesus as Son of God who shines His light and love into our lives. What a wonderful privilege it is to recognise the light of Jesus correctly and to belong to God’s family. There is always more to learn and always more space for the light of Jesus in our lives. But we are members of God’s family through accepting Jesus and believing in Him today. I draw to a close now with some examples of recognising Jesus among us today. Being a small part of God’s family we are able to recognise and celebrate family achievements. We rejoice whenever we see God at work in the world today. An example. This year our local churches have been praying a lot for our local schools in Sapcote and Sharnford. The staff have the extremely challenging task of teaching about a quarter of pupils in school and the rest at home - at the same time! Yet God’s hand is with them and it is going very well, although staff are tired. It is going so well that some are saying it would be a great time for Ofsted to visit! We recognise that this is Jesus at work among us. Being a small part of God’s worldwide family we are also able to recognise when Jesus is speaking to us. Over the years we get to know Jesus voice- remember John 10 when Jesus says I am the good shepherd- the sheep know my voice.( A bit like hearing a familiar voice on the phone). Recently Jesus has been speaking to us through our online worship about staying connected to the local Christian community, spending time with Jesus “under the fig tree” and being dearly loved by God. We recognise that Jesus is speaking to us and helping to build our identity as Christians. This security in our identity helps us through the current rollercoaster of life. Together let’s continue to recognise Jesus at work in our midst, to hear Jesus voice together and most of all continue to correctly recognise Jesus for who Jesus is with the eye of faith. Recognising Jesus as God leads us to worship, adore and bow before the Son of God.
