Thoughts

As I write this article, we have just had Mental Health Awareness Week. It has been interesting to see that mental health issues affect so many people, even the people that we perceive as very successful. The statistic that is often used is that one in four people will struggle with mental health. It is therefore very likely that we will know someone who suffers with their mental health. Historically, mental health was not an issue that people would discuss, sadly people were either sent away or hidden away. It was an embarrassment or source of shame. I can not think of any illness that has such a poor understanding and acceptance. Thankfully those days are behind us and people are now willing to discuss and talk about their mental health. I still think there is a long way to go. It may seem that mental health issues are growing and increasing. It is now more likely to be something that people are willing to talk about and it is now more evident. It seems slightly ironic that one of the most important treatments revolves around talking therapy, yet often people are unwilling to talk about or even admit to the problem.

It has always been very important to be able to talk and learn from each other. We rarely are on our own and often have people around us who are willing to support and help us. It seems almost impossible to be out of touch with people in these days of modern technology, although it is portrayed as a disaster if the internet or mobile signal is lost! Yet, we seem to have lost that direct contact of talking to someone face to face. The great skill is of course in listening, without being heard and responded to appropriately there is no conversation. It is a two-way process of giving and taking, not a monologue where we try to offload all of our problems. There is good evidence to suggest that loneliness is becoming a bigger problem. People are becoming isolated and left behind. It is increasingly a problem of older people yet it can affect people of all ages.

One of the aspects of God’s love we learn from Jesus’ teaching is the compassion God has for the lost, marginalised and the outcast. Jesus’ parables speak of finding the lost, for example the lost sheep, the lost coin and lost a son. Jesus tells us that there is more rejoicing in heaven over finding the one lost person than ninety-nine righteous persons. As we learn how God views each and every one of us with great value and importance. We should do likewise and value the people around us. It may be we have to reconnect with people we have lost touch with or make the time to stop and listen and help someone who feels isolated or lonely. We can all make a difference if we try to help others.

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

It feels that we are moving quickly throughthis year. We are now past the halfway point and journeying into the last half of the year. There is also a strong sense of people moving through life. We recognise the benefits of both reaching our destination and the process of getting there. They both have a profound effect on who we are. Hopefully, it is a positive process, although the same is also true in reverse. We can see how we ended up in a worse place through a series of bad choices. There is nothing new in this wisdom; historically people have travelled to discover new worlds, set off on an expedition to increase their knowledge or made a pilgrimage to a holy place. Universally, it is not always the destination that is important but rather how we adapt to the task in hand. This brings many positive benefits and is a trusted and acknowledged way of change. It is no wonder that it keeps recurring like a common theme throughout our history. If we need any proof of this there are several television shows that are called ‘a pilgrimage’ in which a celebrity or celebrities journey to significant destinations. Added to that there are television shows that have the same theme of people travelling to a destination and we get to watch them navigate both the joys and the trials that involves. A clue to this is the word journey or a mode of transport in the title for example ‘great railway journeys of the world’. It is not all about where you go but how you get there. As I watch probably the most watched programme where people who really cannot dance discover they had talent that they had not realised, they use the word ‘journey’ so many times it is referred to as the J word!

Driving a car is an important example. As we drive, the windscreen is large to give the clearest view of the road ahead. We need to be able to navigate and avoid danger to keep travelling safely. But there are also mirrors to see both behind and beside. By contrast, these are small lenses that look back to where we have come from. If we concentrate on what lies behind we will more than likely miss something obvious in front of us. If we ignore what is behind and concentrate on what is ahead we run the risk of missing something coming quickly to overtake or overrun us. We need to focus on both in the right amounts, that is what is so difficult, getting the right balance.

We find that God is present in both the past and in the future. We can draw confidence that God travels with us. We can learn to use past experience to give confidence, equally we can draw a line in our past and find both forgiveness and guidance into a new future. The challenge is to accept we are on a journey and how best we navigate that journey. I find God a faithful companion who both helps and encourages us.

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

The month of June sees us at the halfway point in the year. It also marks the middle of summer and has the longest day of the year. It is full of hope for long, warm and bright sunny days. Yet, for many students and children it also marks the beginning of the exam period. It could be important milestone exams or just end of term exams. I seem to remember grudgingly doing the exams when the weather was at its finest. I was never very good at exams and was easily distracted by what was going on outside and what I was missing out on. It always seemed very unfair to be stuck in usually a hot unventilated gym or hall at the hottest time of the year. I wanted to be outside playing games and having adventures.

There is sometimes a conflict between the different phases in life. Although we are halfway through the year, we are also coming to the end of the school or academic year. It also means that the long holiday over the summer is also just around the corner and about to begin. For students, teachers and parents there is a sense of longing for a change of pace and a new rhythm of life over the holidays. It is interesting to remember the long summer holiday comes from families needing to earn a living picking crops and harvesting. They would take the whole family including children to work on the land. It was hardly a holiday but rather strenuous, hot and backbreaking work which was all hard manual work. The long summer academic holidays are often a source of envy for people who get only four to six weeks off during the whole year not just over the summer period. 

We are often drawn to make a comparison between our lot in life and how we perceive others are faring. It is interesting to me that I often seem to notice that people are doing better than me or having an easier time than me. I seldom think to myself that I am very lucky with what I have, and have to do. To my shame, I easily forget that there are so many people around the world just or only just existing, whilst I live a very comfortable, easy and safe life.

This year the end of the Easter season, Pentecost, slips into the second week of June. It is almost halfway through the year. It is more mid-summer rather than the end of spring and the beginning of summer. It changes the feel of this year, particularly as we had a hot Easter Sunday with record high temperatures. You might be mistaken in thinking Easter was a summer event! Yet regardless where Easter sits, early or late, warm, hot or cold it is surely a reminder that God is working for us without us asking for help. It is often the case when we acknowledge that we need help that then we can really change. Our world is changing all the time and we still need God’s help to change us and others.

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

May is blessed with two bank holidays, early and late spring bank holidays. It gives many people a few days off work. This can lead to a holiday week being taken. Holidays are important in breaking our usual routine. This allows us to set what we want to do at a time of our choosing. For me not looking at the diary and clock, worrying what and where I should be is important to me. Holidays were originally connected to religious festivals. As you may be very aware, Easter was celebrated much later than usual this year. This means that Ascension Day is also very late this year, Thursday 30th May. It only just makes it into the month of May and sits at a time when you might expect Whitsun. You will have to wait a couple of weeks for Whitsun. If you can wait till 2038 Easter will be at its latest date. Then both Ascension Day and Whitsun will both slide into June.

Ascension Day is a mixed blessing. Having thought that Jesus was dead he suddenly returns from the dead on Easter Day. It was a moment of great joy and celebration although there was still plenty of confusion and doubt. Then for him to leave again forty days later and not return again, you might think that people would be really upset again, it might feel like a second bereavement. Yet what is recorded in the Bible, is quite the opposite. We are told that the disciples are going to the temple praising God each day. We need to ask what has changed for the disciples from being completely lost and dejected. You have to believe that the big change was what Jesus did to restore the disciples. The most obvious thing to realise is that Jesus meets the disciples in their greatest point of need. It is often the same experience for people when they have almost nowhere else to go they find they can find strength and support from God. After Jesus’ death, it seems that people wanted to go back to their old life. Jesus finds them and brings them back together. He is not critical of them for lack of faith and understanding. It is very clear that he told them many times what would happen to him. Yet the disciples chose not to listen or not to believe. You might think that this would be held against them and exclude them. Jesus offers restoration and new hope. This is not often our experience as we are often easily condemned and rarely feel forgiven. Jesus also gives the disciples a purpose, to go and tell people about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

We sometimes lose direction and feel alone and forgotten. Jesus reminds us that God never gives up on any of us. God can help restore and redirect us to where and what we should be doing. The hardest part is to admit we need help and ask for it.

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

The month of April encompasses the second half of the season of Lent, from after Mothering Sunday to Easter day on 21^stApril. It is almost twenty days as the Sundays of Lent are not part of the Lenten observance or fast. The midpoint of a journey is always important because you start to get nearer to your goal rather than your starting point. After the midpoint, it is usually quicker to go on than to turn back. Easter and Holy Week suddenly draw closer.

As the name Holy Week suggests, it is a religious observance which lasts a week. The idea is to follow the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. It starts off with Palm Sunday (14^thApril) which remembers the people welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem with great joy. There is a sudden change of mood as the clouds gather around Jesus as the plot against him thickens. On Maundy Thursday (18^thApril) we remember Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples and Judas Iscariot betraying him to the Jewish authorities. Good Friday (19^thApril) remembers Jesus wrongly accused and found guilty by the Roman governor. He was executed by crucifixion on a cross. He was hastily buried in a borrowed tomb. On Easter day (Sunday 21^stApril) the tomb was found empty and Jesus was seen alive. 

The journey through Holy Week is often a harrowing time. The events of Jesus’ last earthly week echo some of the events of our lives. We can become isolated and challenged for sticking to our values and beliefs in the face of popular opposition. There are times in our lives where people conspire against us, usually to make our lives more difficult. We try to explain to our closest friends our concerns and worries and they fail to grasp the full significance. We are wrongly accused of things we have not done and are sometimes wrongly found guilty. It is very easy to put ourselves in the position of the victim, but it is much more difficult to place ourselves in the position of the perpetrator. We easily forget that these are the things we have done to others consciously or unwittingly. It is these dark parts of our lives which we are called to bring to God for forgiveness. The events leading up to and including Good Friday speak to us of all that is wrong in us, and the world that we live in. There is no denying that we need salvation!

Easter Sunday presents us with two gifts, that of hope and new life through the resurrection. The hope has always been part of the promise of a relationship with God. The new life through resurrection is a change in the way we view our lives and heaven. Jesus gives both proof of this new life and the grace to receive it. Yet, this is frequently outside of our own experience and this makes this new order so much more difficult to believe. It requires faith rather than proof; this is quite a stumbling block for many.

March seems to bring new energy to our year. It often feels that January is still in the shadow of Christmas or perhaps even paying for Christmas! February feels like glimmers of hope and changes. But in March it really starts to change, in terms of light and day length. As we move past the 20^thMarch the days become longer than the nights and it should, in theory, start to warm up as we approach summer.  As it warms up, the trees and plants spring back into life.  In the early calendars, March and spring signified the beginning of a new year.  There is a sense of the movement from the death of winter into the new life of spring.  You can see why people regarded spring as a new beginning.

From a Christian perspective, March sees the beginning of Lent. It starts on Ash Wednesday on 6th March. The ash in Ash Wednesday refers to the sign of the cross made in ash on the forehead of a person wanting to show a turning away from wrongdoing and coming back to God. Where does this originate from?  In the Old Testament, several characters like Job and in the story of Jonah, the King of Nineveh wear sackcloth and ashes as a visible sign of turning back to God. The use of ashes is only recorded in the 10^thand 11^thcentury for admitting the penitent in readiness for baptism or for readmittance into the church at Easter.  By the middle ages,the Season of Lent was seen not about getting ready to join the church but as a focus on Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins and our renewed commitment to living the Christian life.  It was at this time that the whole church, not just new or returning disciples, used Lent as a time to prepare for Easter. 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. 

This year Mothering Sunday and British Summer Time coincide on the last day of March. This has two significant consequences, firstly it marks approximately the midpoint of Lent, so you still have three weeks of your Lenten observance, keep going you will be just over half way to Easter. Secondly, if you are making breakfast in bed for Mum, you will have to remember to change your alarm clock and get up an hour early! It is sometimes all about the sacrifices we make for someone else that we love that is really important. Jesus leads the way in self-sacrifice and he points us back to God’s love for us.

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