Margot Spencer

This will be a weekend to remember*.

 On Saturday, many people who have been bereaved, either recently or long ago, will gather in Busbridge church to sing well-known hymns, hear words of hope and remember their loved ones by name. The church will be ablaze (we hope not literally!) with candles, symbolising the light of Christ, which brings hope on dark days.

 On Sunday, we shall join with the rest of the nation in remembering those who gave their lives in two world wars and many conflicts since. The Royal British Legion is encouraging us to re-think Remembrance, in the light of the fact that many so-called war veterans these days are not old men, but young men and women in their twenties and thirties. People who have lost limbs, independence and sometimes peace of mind, in wars fought far from home. Remembering is important. Whenever the Jews celebrate Passover, they remember their ancestors’ escape from Egypt. They remember significant people, places and events, as we should.  They also remember God’s goodness and faithfulness, as we should. 

In times of remembrance, these words from Lamentations 3:21-23 offer them - and us - hope:

Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

*A weekend to remember.  As the children would say, “Do you get it?”

Frances Shaw

Dreams can be of the ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ kind; or maybe of the ‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas’ kind; or perhaps of the ‘I can’t remember where I parked my car’ nightmare kind. Some dreams in the Bible seem to be more like what we might call a vision, a picture, where God communicates with people at what often turn out to be significant moments.

In Jacob’s dream he saw a ladder, with angels on it going up and down, symbolically suggesting a movement from heaven to earth, and earth to heaven. When Jacob woke up, he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place!’ (Gen 28.17). This sense of awe or fear is often mentioned in connection with a dream or a vision from God, and this is one of the ways in which we can know that the dream is from God and not our own wishful thinking.

Jesus (in John 1:51) sees himself as a ladder, again with angels ascending and descending. As Son of Man he himself forms a permanent ladder between heaven and earth.

In 1866 Busbridge Church may well have been covered in ladders, well on the way to the completion of the building, which was consecrated on 1 March 1867. We are blessed with two beautiful church buildings, built to the glory of God. And God has now sent the gift of his Spirit, who enables us to dream, not our dreams, but his.

Jeannie Postill

Have your shopping habits changed?

Take bread.   There is a shift towards the artisan baker and his product which is made from natural ingredients, with more flavour – authentic – the real thing. Yet the raw ingredients look so basic – flour (various), water, yeast...yet in the hands of a Master Baker they are transformed.

What has this to do with today’s Bible Reading?

An inadequate offering of lunch from a boy was transformed into a feast for 5000 – in the hands of the Master.

However inadequate you consider yourself or your talents, in the hands of Jesus the Master, they can accomplish much.

Try it.   You will be surprised.

Gertrud Sollars

A few years ago I read Richard Rohr’s Falling Upwards; the subtitle is ‘A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life’. In it, Rohr argues that, in the first half of life, we learn to obey rules; in the second half, we learn which ones we can break (you may want to hide this from your kids).

If today’s reading is anything to go by, Jesus agreed with the view that rules are not absolute. The particular rule in question in John 5 is not working on the Sabbath – one of the 10 commandments, no less. When Jesus is criticised for healing on the Sabbath and telling the lame man to carry his mat, he does not defend himself by saying that this isn’t work, he says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

Which day of the week is it in God’s calendar? Genesis counts as far as day 7, the Sabbath, on which God rested. Is he still resting? Jesus tells us here that a new week has begun in heaven; God is back at work with a new creation (hence the start of the gospel ‘In the beginning …’), and Jesus is the power through whom this new creation is brought about.

Heavenly rules and earthly rules do not always coincide; our earthly calendar may be out of sync with the heavenly calendar. How can we make sure that we are in step with Jesus?

Mark Williams

On Monday of this week our PCC voted unanimously to bring about the first phase of our long-imagined project to provide new facilities for ministry. A team of amazing people have prepared a detailed scheme to complete the purchase of the existing Busbridge Rectory and convert it for church use. The plan has drawn on feedback from various groups and sought to prioritise delivery of spaces and facilities that meet immediate needs whilst listening carefully to those who have expressed concerns.

Bishop Michael Baughen shared with us an image of walking around a mountain path: we can only see to the next bend in the path and although we know there may be an end goal further beyond, we believe God is calling us to focus on that which is before us.

You as worshippers at Busbridge and Hambledon churches have contributed the funds to make this possible. Thank you! There will be plenty of opportunities to get involved practically over the next few months.  Prayer, planning and fund raising will continue to be important. Do please keep praying!

This is a truly exciting moment: in the race before us and after much preparation, we are out of the starting blocks and aiming to have new facilities ready as part of our 150th celebrations next year.  Hallelujah!

James Ellin

In the Garden, God with us
In the desert, God with us
In the tent, God with us
In the battle, God with us
In exile, God with us
In fear, God with us
In praise, God with us
In the silence, God with us
In the waiting, God with us
In Jesus, God with us
at Pentecost …God in us!

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be,
world without end.

Amen.