More Loitering Within Lent - This time as a poem

Reasonably Upmarket Gastro-pub , lunchtime in March

There may be music but

the sounds are people together. 

The food is just an excuse; 

allowing time together.

A noisier corner, an older woman,

younger women and one man,

A early Mother’s Day duty?

There’s lots of bottles of wine.

In the centre two women 

sharing work, families.

They laugh and listen.

They listen and talk.  

Another corner, quieter, 

two young serious women,

sometimes they come closer

and voices are sad, subdued.

Around us two waitress 

efficiently attend. They bring 

and check and clear and wipe

and aim to be forgettable.

No smiles, no contact,

instructions are to leave

personalities on the doorstep. 

They’re paid to do not to be. 

Loitering within Lent - McDonalds, Kidderminster, Evening

Hi, if you don't know about Loitering with Lent, do look at my earlier posts.

Where was God in McDonalds? Where was Jesus' Spirit?

Certainly, there were two groups of people who were enjoying each others' company, laughing, eating and sharing good companionship. Where people eat together and share food, Jesus is there. McDonalds encourages the sharing of food as there's no plates and people can put their food in the middle of the table and share what they have.

But I did notice, whilst sitting there on my own without my phone to play on, is how people keep their eyes to themselves. There might as well have been barriers between the people there. There was no contact between the people eating there. No smiles, no nods of the head.

Like myself, on my own, there were other people, all men, who were also on their own. I did watch one man come in and order food. No-one including the person serving and the person cleaning, spoke except to take the order. There was no 'welcome' as we say in our churches. I felt this was sad. There was no human contact for those men eating on their own and playing on their phones.

Perhaps they wanted anonymity and to be left alone. If that was correct, they were in the right place.

God says you are welcome. You are what you are and you are welcome as you are. Just come.

If you want to be welcomed, you know you are valued and to be part of a community, can I say you won't get better than coming to church.

'Loitering within Lent' - the Hospital Restaurant

If you've not heard of 'Loitering within Lent' please read my previous post.

1. Hospital Restaurant...

I spent 45 minutes sitting and not playing on my phone but eating a sandwich, having a cup of tea and wondering - where is Jesus' Spirit here? I saw two acts of kindness.

The first was an elderly man who was very deaf and insisting he wanted bacon, sausage, beans and egg for his lunch. The person taking the order was explaining they didn't do breakfasts after 11.30am (it was 1pm), the explanation was repeated slowly but not in a patronising way until he did hear - he was very apologetic.

The second was an elderly women who was struggling to stand back up after sitting for her meal. The people sitting on the tables either side (though not with her) saw her struggling and helped her up. This was done with minimum fuss and with a 'it's no trouble' attitude.

‘Loitering Within Lent’

Lent - an idea

Last year we at St John’s were encouraged to read the whole of St John’s Gospel and to think about certain words or phrases which ‘leaped out’ at us or which we thought were important.

That was last year. We had a quiet, reflective, prayerful Lent

This year I’m encouraging us at St John’s to ‘go into the wilderness’ and see what happens. I’m calling it ‘Loitering Within Lent’ 

(To loiter: Stand or wait around without apparent purpose) 

If you know your 1824 Vagrancy Act you will spot the pun. That Act made it an offence to ‘loiter with intent’ - by which was meant to stand or hang-about with the intention of committing an offence.

As Jesus went into an unknown place for 40 days and there he was challenged by the devil so let’s go into an unknown place and loiter and see where God is - where is the love, joy, kindness, truth in this place? If it’s not there, why? 

For my ‘Loitering within Lent’, I’m going to have a meal in places I haven’t been to on my own and just eat and watch and loiter and listen. And think ‘where is God here?’ I’m having a meal at McDonalds late at night, the hospital restaurant, a ‘posh’ restaurant as yet not decided - help needed here, I don’t know any, Glades cafe, and breakfast at the Penny Black. 

I’ve inviting you to go somewhere you’ve never been or at a time you haven’t been and loiter and think about ‘where is God here?’ You may be challenged as Jesus was. You might be pleasantly surprised. 

Want ideas? You could visit 5 different town centres and wander around without buying anything; you could have coffee in 5 different places. You could take a camera and take photos of places around Wolverley you haven’t been before. Spend time and think and watch and listen. 

If you want, you can send me what you’re doing and how it’s going and I’ll put them on this website. Write and tell me on the contact form on this website. Let's share with each other what will we find. 

Loitering within Lent for me is both scary and exciting. 

Christmas Services at Wolverley Church

Sunday 20th December at 6.30pm- Traditional Carols by Candlelight

Christmas Eve at 5.30pm - Crib Service (the wearing of funny hats is encouraged)
Christmas Eve at 11.30pm - Midnight Mass, quiet yet celebratory

Christmas Day at 10am - Carols and Communion - all ages welcome

No service on Sunday 27th December

Epiphany Sunday, 3rd January at 11am Communion for Epiphany

Waiting in Advent

Sometimes I preach from a full text. Sometimes I have notes like this - see below. Here's the bones of my sermon. I'll leave it with you to put the flesh on. Jan - Revd Jan Ashton

The value in Waiting

Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting for Christmas. Waiting for Jesus to come a second time so that God’s kingdom will come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Waiting. Are you waiting for anything? Waiting for an appointment. Waiting for a interview. What are you waiting for?

We live in a time of action, in 2015 it is doing which is important. Now is important. Not waiting. Have it now. Do it now. Waiting is rubbish. We see no value at all in waiting.

Because the trouble with waiting is that it is often not in our control. We can’t make the hospital give us an appointment - we can’t make the interview come quicker. When we wait we have given up to some extent our control and we wait in someone else’s time. 

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane waited. He waited to be arrested and once arrested he then had no power of his own. He waited for the next thing to happen.

We only wait if it’s important. Otherwise we wouldn’t bother. We wouldn’t bother waiting when we go to the hospital. We’d walk out.

Waiting is a sign that it is important. And while we wait we often have to think about what’s happening. 

We are waiting for Jesus to come again. His kingdom is here now but it’s not finished. We are waiting for pain and suffering and evil to be got rid of. We wait and in waiting we are saying this is important.

During advent we are encouraged to practise waiting. In prayer to think of waiting for Jesus to come back and make everything right. To finish what he started. And we sit perhaps for 5 minutes and wait and perhaps say thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as in heaven slowly over and over again. Sit and wait.  

Waiting has value. It shows us what is important and worth waiting for and what’s not important and hence not worth waiting for. 

Wait for the Lord whose day is near. Wait for the Lord, keep watch take heart.

Remembrance Sunday Sermon

The Bible Reading is from St Matthew chapter 5

Love for Enemies

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,[o] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Today we are honouring all those who died fighting for our country. But I also want to honour, as well, those who didn’t fight but who were still affected. Last year I based my talk on the 1st world war. Today I’m talking about the 2nd world war. And in particular what happened to one family. I hope itt will help us think about why we need to honour both the military and civilians involved.

Also I’m basing my talk on what Jesus said about enemies. You’ve heard it already.  ‘But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

In the second world war men who were Christian thought long and hard about this verse. Should they fight or not. After thinking about how to love their enemies, they came to different conclusions. Some decided that Jesus was telling them not to fight but to love your enemies. These men refused to fight and were called conscientious objectors. But today I’m not going to talk about these. 

So let’s introduce the four people. 

Last week I did the funeral Edna Lowe who died aged 97 and has lived in Kidderminster all her life. For the past 5 years since she became frail I’ve taken her Holy Communion and we’ve talked. She told me often about her dead husband Sam. He was a good Christian man - he prayed and read his Bible.

In 1939 Sam thought about this loving your enemies and to pray for those who persecuted and decided that as Germany was invading other countries this was not fair and by stopping Hitler and his government  by going to war and fighting them, he was indeed loving his enemies. You always try to stop people you love doing bad things even when if it means hurting them. Loving people means you want the best for them. Grabbing hard a child who is about to put their finger in an electric socket is loving them. 

Sam decided to join up and he persuaded his two brothers, Sid and Jim, to go with him to the recruiting office to enlist so that he could go and fight against Germany. 

Once he and his brothers had filled in the forms, Sam was invited into another office and his two brothers left where they were. He presumed for some reason Sid and Jim weren’t going to be able to join the army and he could. 

However, it was the other way around. He was told because he was a metal beater he was in a reserved occupation and therefore was needed in this country. He was sent to a factory in Birmingham making spitfire aeroplanes. For the whole war he did just that. He worked nights and travelled from Kidderminster to Birmingham. 

By half way through the 2nd world war Edna and Sam got married at St Mary’s here in Kidderminster. She told me about her early married life.

From Kidderminster at night you could see on the horizon the fires in Birmingham after the bombs had been dropped. And of course the target for the bombs was the factory Sam was working in. There were no phones, no mobiles. Every night Edna waited to hear the knock on the door saying that a bomb had landed Sam’s factory and he was dead. Those were long nights as Edna waited for the knock on the door with the bad news.

At first, Sam envied his two brothers who could fight for Britain. 

Jim joined the army and went to France and was killed on the D-Day landing. He was killed by an explosive device. It was said there wasn’t a mark on him. The air was just sucked out of him and he died. 

Sid was sent to Burma and worked on the Burma Sian railway. At the end of the war he was setting off home on a Japanese Military Transport ship the British were using. However, the ship was still flying the Japanese flag and the Americans bombed the ship killing everyone including Sid Lowe.

If you go to Kidderminster’s war memorial outside St Mary’s church you will see their names. 

Sam came back to work in Kidderminster and lived a long life; he died just before their 60th wedding anniversary. But Sam was scarred by the memory of his two dead brothers and the fact he was still alive and he’d persuaded them to join up. He’d gone as a Christian following his conscience but this wasn’t the outcome he’d expected. 

Edna too never really recovered from Sam’s brother’s deaths. She was still talking about it 69 years later. 

Today let’s honour those who died fighting for our country but let’s also honour those who like Sam and Edna suffered too because of what war did to their family. 

And still today for us Christian Jesus calls us to think through what he meant when we said  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. 

Do I pray for the people who are following the Wahabi sect and calling themselves Isis? How might we love Isis? Should we fight them? If Sam was here he might say yes fighting will stop them. They like the Nazis are caught up in an wrong doctrine and need rescuing from it like the child from the electric socket. Others might say no - by loving our enemies we must try other ways of stopping Isis - through putting pressure on them or through cutting off their funding. 

But we are called to think through Jesus’ words. And think and pray about your response to loving your enemies.