Thoughts

There is a real awareness that we are all under more pressure than we use to be. There is a sense that work is more demanding and there is little or no job security. The loss of a job can pose huge difficulties in the face of ongoing financial commitments like a mortgage, children or students needing financial support. There is a new pressure to be available to respond quickly or instantly through our mobile devices. So what might have been a time of peace away from pressure, could now add to our worries. I am most aware that our children are more exposed to that pressure to be constantly in contact. There is now a condition called the fear of missing out or FOMO. There is also more pressure on them to excel at their schoolwork and exams. I was happy to pass and any higher grades were a bonus. Now it is all about whether you get the highest grades in order to have any chance of succeeding. It is no wonder that people are worried or struggling with their mental health and wellbeing. Happily, there is much more awareness and help available but there is still a long way to go to really meeting the need.

I am reminded of a bible story of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings Chapter 19) set nearly three thousand years ago. Elijah has been on the run from the king, he was kept alive by God during a famine and drought. He has had probably his best day defeating the prophets of Baal, praying and getting rain to break the drought. He then gets a death threat from Queen Jezebel. Instead of trusting in God’s protection, he runs away to the wilderness and asks God to take his life away. We would now say he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or a nervous or mental breakdown. Despite his great success, he is still vulnerable and human. This is true for all of us whether we are very successful or having a series of unexpected stressful events we can all encounter a mental health issue. The statistics suggest one in four people will experience a mental health problem.  It is not a rare condition but one that often people rarely speak about.

Back to the Elijah story, we learn some helpful ideas. The first and most important idea is that God does not condemn Elijah for his failings. Instead, he offers support in the form of an angel that provides hot bread and (I assume cold) water. He meets Elijah’s physical needs. He allows Elijah to have two big periods of sleep to refresh and restore him. He provides strength and support. Lastly, Elijah waits on God who comes to him in the ‘sound of sheer silence’. He gives Elijah a new purpose and task. It is worth remembering the importance of rest, sleep and good fresh food that really nourishes us. When we are lost, we often have to have a purpose in order to find our way back to God and the people we love. These principles still work well today as they did many years ago.

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

This year February has quite a few memorable events. The most obvious being that it is a leap year making it a twenty-nine-day month. This will be especially helpful to all those people who have a birthday on that day. I particular like leap years as you avoid the mistake of putting February dates in your diary in March. Normally if you get the wrong month the date and day do not match up and you see your mistake immediately. It is not much fun being a month early or a month late for an appointment!

The second of February sees the end of the Christmas season, it is celebrated for forty days. This year helpfully it lands on a Sunday. The end of Christmas is marked by Candlemas, it remembers when Jesus was presented at the temple when he was forty days old. Simeon sees great promise in Jesus and warns Mary that it will be painful, ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too’. At Candlemas, candles were blest for the year. There is already a sense of the darkness of the cross being foreboding and the importance of the Christ light standing against it. I came across a weather prediction on the basis of Candlemas. 

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight.

If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, Winter is gone and won’t come again.

The end of February sees the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday 26^th February. We see that foreshadowing of the cross that Simeon saw in the baby Jesus being played out some thirty or thirty-one years later in Jesus’ life. Lent takes us through the forty days to Easter. We need to get ready and be prepared. Simeon told Mary that it would be painful and involve the worst day of her life. Yet, she had to walk forward in faith and trust that God would carry her through her darkest day. We often have to keep going and pray for God’s help. In Lent, we are told to prepare in many different ways. We are encouraged to prepare by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word. I would encourage us all to try and get realigned with God and use this time of getting ready to adjust our lives into God’s way. Focusing on reading and meditating on God’s word, the Lent course might help you do this. It is on a Wednesday night starting on 28^th February and runs for six weeks. It focuses on the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. Whatever you do for Lent try and make it help our world and the people around, then it should have a positive outcome!

Lastly, do not forget Shrove Tuesday on the 25^th February. Better known as pancake day to many people. It has its origins in using up the rich food before the start of Lent. A reminder from the past, over four hundred years ago, not to waste food but use it carefully.

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

January heralds a New Year and new decade. It also brings some unusual symmetry in the calendar, with 2020 it is a hundred and one years since 1919. It seems natural to look back and forward in this changeover of the decade. Looking back over the last ten years it has been quite confusing and difficult. It is slightly ironic that we do not know what to call the last ten years. Is it the tens or teens or tenties or even twenty-tens? It is fair to say there appear to be two dominant themes, austerity and Brexit. The austerity was a result of the financial crisis in 2008 which was sparked by the banking collapse. It was only in 2018 Teresa May said that austerity is over, although many people have yet to notice a real change. You can see how dominant it has been in this decade. I have heard it referred to as the decade of decay. Brexit is still to be resolved and agreement reached. It looks set to reach into the next decade. It is interesting how the negative comes easily to mind. Yet there have been real highlights too, the London Olympics 2012, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Royal Weddings and Births. How will you remember the last decade?

As we look forward to what I assume we will call the twenties, what do we hope for? I think given where we come from, we are hoping for new growth and some certainty. I think we will have to wait some more time for more clarity. The issues of climate change still need addressing and will need us to change how we currently use energy and how we generate it. There has been another terrorist attack in London and we hope for reconciliation between people so that we can all live in peace and harmony. The wish list seems to grow quickly together with hopes for some big changes. 

As we start a New Year and decade there are new hopes and expectations. What is important to remember is that God is always looking for new or second chances. With God, we are told that we are not beyond his reach. The only thing that gets in the way of that relationship is us and our shortcomings. If we are willing to acknowledge our faults and make a fresh start all kinds of new possibilities can start to change us and our outlook for the future. It does not need a big change in the calendar to start, so why not have fresh resolve to change and start again. It is worth remembering that often big changes are possible when many people make small changes, collectively that can change the outlook for the next decade. We all hope for the good things yet to come. Let us pray the next decade will be remembered for positive change.

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

Christmas has often been used as a timely deadline for various activities. Most hauntingly in the First World war when everyone believed that the war would be over and the troops would be home for Christmas. We have travelled again through 2014 to 2018 a hundred years later and I now realise how it must have felt to have had war over four successive Christmases when the soldiers were not home for Christmas. They were fighting and being killed on and around Christmas day. It was an unbelievably long time to wait for the safe return of family or a loved one. It makes the story of the football match on no man’s land on Christmas Day 1914 all the more remarkable during an informal truce. It is interesting to note that such a truce was against orders and viewed as deeply subversive!

I have always wanted to build my own house and have followed Grand Designs on television over the last twenty years. It has cured me of any aspiration to build my own house. Instead, I admire the courage and hard work of others, when things are going badly wrong and people are missing completion dates. They talk of finishing and being moved in time for Christmas. It never seems to come true, and is said more in hope than expectation.

I wonder how much Mary was looking forward to the first Christmas. It was her first child and she would have had no idea of what was to come. I do wonder if she thought that she had more time before that baby was born and so undertook the journey to Bethlehem. Perhaps she knew the baby was about to be born but she had no choice and had to go to be registered. The registration was ordered by the occupying Roman army who said everyone had to be registered. It was a census for taxation purposes and was extremely unpopular and inconvenient!

In many examples I have looked at, Christmas seems to often transcend our human toil and involves real struggles with success and failure. It finds a new level where new possibilities can be imagined and sometimes even realised. It can provide a place where people can reach out to help others whether they are family or even strangers. For me, it allows new possibilities or even healing of old wounds. It is no real coincidence that it has a lot of the hallmarks of how we might imagine God to work in our world.

It is always important to focus on what Christmas is about. For me, it is about a gift of love and what new possibilities that might afford. It is not about long lists, too much food and too much to drink. It is not about how many presents we receive or how much we spend on presents. It is about spending time with people we love and sharing joy. It is about love overspilling into our world and bringing hope to those who have become lost or isolated.

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

I think we are all used to viewing a year in a variety of ways. There is the calendar year or solar year, which runs January to December. There is the financial year, which runs April to March. There is the academic year, which runs September to July. Then we have the church year, which runs from the first Sunday of Advent to the Sunday before Advent. The last Sunday in the Church’s year is called Christ the King. This month of November marks the end of the church’s year on Sunday 24^th November.

The beginning of the next church year starts on Sunday 1st December, the First Sunday of Advent. Advent means coming to, we remember Christ’s first coming and his promise to come again. Advent marks the preparation time for Christmas and Christ’s return, it represents a time for watching and waiting. It is important to remember that Advent is not just a count down to Christmas, it also looks beyond Christmas. The promise of the return of Christ heralds a new and exciting relationship with God and all his people. So, let’s leave next year for the time being and focus on the end of this year.

The climax of the Church’s year is started by the celebration of All Saints Day on the 1st November. At this point we move into a season called ‘The Kingdom Season’ and our attention is drawn to God’s Kingdom which is often referred to as Heaven. We remember people who influenced our journey in life who have died and now are in heaven. We focus on Jesus Christ who by his death and resurrection gave us hope in life after death. It is through God’s grace and forgiveness that we are able to stand with the Saints in Heaven. However undeserving we may feel that we are, God is always willing to give us another chance to make amends and put our life back on track. It is for this reason that we proclaim that Jesus is victorious and is Christ the King. So before we all get absorbed in preparations for Advent and Christmas let us round off the Christian year with a celebration of Christ’s Kingship on Sunday 24^th November and the gift of life that he brings to the whole world.

As we look around us we see so many conflicts and divisions which appear almost impossible to solve. The Christian message is all about hope in the most improbable situations. An all-conquering powerful hero that overcomes all by might does not mark Christ’s Kingship. Rather Christ’s example of serving the needs of the lost and the lonely mark God’s rule. This rule requires reconciliation and forgiveness. How much more could the world benefit from this gift that Jesus Christ brings into being?

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

I guess most of us feel that our lives are busier and more complicated than they used to be. We realise that we are often doing more things, and have less available time. Partly as things become more efficient, the result is there is more time to do other things. On the face of it, that seems like a positive step forward. Yet there is also more pressure to keep things going. The picture of a person spinning plates on sticks comes to mind. The more plates that are spinning, the more time is required to keep the plates spinning. If the spin is not maintained the plates slow down, wobble, fall off and break. The biggest change for me has been the advances in technology which allow us to be in constant contact to talk, send and receive emails and access the Internet. On the face of it all positive and helpful. Yet, I read stories of people not being able to switch off or disconnect. They lose sleep and become fearful that they might miss something important. Equally, people become addicted to games or a particular media platform, it means they withdraw from the physical world and want to inhabit a virtual world. Technology in itself is neutral, it is neither good nor bad. It is how it is used that alters our perception of how useful or harmful it might be. 

I also believe most of us are getting a lot of information or requests that we do not want and have not asked for. There are people wanting our feedback, wanting us to take part in a survey and offering too good to be true deals. Or more worryingly people trying to profit from our vulnerability or weakness. There are stories of people being afraid to answer the phone because they know there will be someone trying to trick them out of their money. It seems ironic that in this instance people become cut off and isolated in the security of their homes.

There is now an awareness that is not about how much we do, but more importantly, the effectiveness of how we use our time. It is interesting that my notions of God do not revolve around how much I do, but how effective I work with people. It is an easy mistake to believe that we need to build up a balance of goodwill in God’s eyes. When we meet God, we can be proud of how much we have done. In many ways we are looking at this the wrong way around, what we do for others should be an acknowledgement of how much God has already done for us. We are not building up credit but sharing the many things that God has provided for us. We are also called to be calm, to be still and to listen. Only by listening might we hear what God wants us to do. Perhaps our business is stopping us from the really important relationships we need to nurture?

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com