Covid-19 

Dear Friends
I hope you are all keeping safe and well and managing to keep busy and able to remain in virtual contact with family and friends. Again this week the national situation continues to improve and the second wave of the Coronavirus seems to be slowly ending. If we all continue to follow the guidance then hopefully in the near future we will be able to again see our friends and family initially outdoors. Later in the year we may be able to join together with our Church friends for worship. This week the weather has been reasonable and it is pleasing to note the days are becoming longer. Next Sunday we will see the official move to British Summer Time and brighter days as we move to the Spring and Summer seasons. I am sure many of you are now starting to get outside in the garden where you will be noting the signs of new life in plants and foliage and you are able to recognise the start of Spring. This new life provides us with hope and encouragement and is also the basis for our reading this week.
This week I am pleased to report that Lyndsey and David Slingsby are proud grandparents, following the birth of baby Joseph to their daughter Elizabeth and her husband Daniel. Mum and baby are at home and doing well. I am sure you will hold them all in our love and prayers.
Our reading this week is from John Chapter 12 v 20-33 and is the appointed reading for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. The reading is sometimes referred to as the secret of life, but one that can trouble the soul so we often turn away from the importance of the message. In the reading we hear about some Greeks coming to ask Philip to see Jesus. Philip speaks with Andrew and he relays the message to Jesus. The reply from Jesus is “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (v24) I suspect this was not the reply they were expecting, and then as now the subject of death would have been difficult and a conversation often avoided.
It is likely the Greeks wanted to see Jesus as they had seen or heard of the many miracles he had performed. They perhaps wanted to see Jesus to confirm the stories and to experience Jesus in person – a desire to make their encounter real. They might have wanted to see Jesus on their terms or wanted something from him, rather than wanting Jesus himself. We are sometimes guilty of this when we pray. We can become consumers of God’s life rather than participants in it. Christianity and being a follower of Jesus means participating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and we recognise this can be challenging and painful.
The message focuses on the pattern of loss and renewal that runs throughout our lives and our world. In life we often make sacrifices and change things in order to move onto something new. The same pattern is in nature where we see the changing of seasons, falling leaves and new blooms, and the setting and rising of the sun. Our reading is set in the context of the Passover feast which is a celebration of the Israelites liberation from bondage in Egypt. The feast itself is about freedom and new life. It’s about letting go, leaving behind, and moving into a new life.
Sometimes in life we can be impatient. We need to recognise that when we plant a seed it takes time to grow, Growth can be slow and the fruit of new life takes time, usually longer than we want it to. Yet, even when unseen, unbelieved or unrecognised, the power and life of God are present at work in the depths of our life, in the dark and hidden places. When we are down hearted and facing difficulties if we let it, the seed grows and the love of God helps us to grow.
This is an important message for our Christian faith. It is a pattern of loss and renewal, dying and rising, letting go and getting back, leaving and return. It is the core of our baptism and familiar words in our Holy Communion – Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. This pattern of loss and renewal, will be unveiled everyday throughout Holy Week and perhaps that is why we focus on the reading today to help prepare us for what is to come.  We often want to skip over the death of Jesus and move to the power of the resurrection. This reading reminds us that Death is real and is for Christians the gateway to new life. The unspoken fear and avoidance of death often underlies our “what if” questions. These questions sometimes separate and isolate us from others, from ourselves and from God. This stops us bearing fruit and although we survive life we are not really alive.
Jesus did not ask to be saved from death. He knew that in God’s world strength is found in weakness, victory looks like defeat and life is born of death. His love and faith in God allowed him to ride into Jerusalem to a city that would condemn and kill him. The same love and faith in God allows us to ride triumphantly through life. It does not mean we get our own way or that we avoid death but is does mean that death is a gateway and the beginning and not the end. The reading tells us that even with his faith and certainty, Jesus too was troubled, worried and anxious about death even though he was obedient to the will of God. Jesus like us struggled in the face of death and this reminds us that we too can sometimes struggle and be fearful. In the reading Jesus is helping to prepare his disciples and the Greeks for more than death. More importantly he is preparing them for something much harder to understand, the truth of his resurrection and the comfort of his ascension. As we make our final Lent journey and approach Holy Week, may we with hope and faith walk with Jesus and remember that despite the challenges, pain and ultimately his undignified death, on Easter Day we experience the empty tomb, the dawn of a new day, the renewal of life. The single grain has indeed become the Bread of Life.
 
You can join with friends from the Church and Circuit by joining the weekly Zoom Service at 11.30am each Sunday morning (by either computer or telephone) using the links below.
Topic: Sunday Service 11.30am – Our Service this week will be led by Rev Pam Roberts
Time: This is a recurring meeting
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4775422768
or just click here.
Meeting ID: 477 542 2768 (No password is required)
Dial by your location
0203 481 5237
0203 481 5240
0203 901 7895
0131 460 1196
0203 051 2874
Meeting ID: 477 542 2768
We also have a telephone service each week using WhyPay at 10.00am on Sunday morning.
If you wish to join this the number is 0333 0110 946 and the Room Number is 47927697# and the Pin is 1145#
Please do continue if you are able to pray at 6.00pm each evening and join with others from our Church so that we can unite in the power of prayer. Please also pray for those on our prayer list: 
Ashley, Debbie and family
Stuart and Sylvia
Frank
Ralph
Pat
Kevin and family
Robert & Jocelyn
Roy, Thelma and family
Beryl
Karen
Ken and Pat
Chris and Dianne
Malcolm, Anne and family
Arthur
Eileen and Carl
Rev Alex
Don
Margaret B
Alan
Doreen
Jean
Beaulah
Alan and Heather
Linda and family
Carol, Dave and Logan
Janet, Steve and family
Les, Olga and family
Charles
 You can find reflections and biblical stories on our Circuit YouTube channel including new material added weekly from Rev Linda, Rev Jeff and others at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBhbVptj0forVkUfmmsvd_w
or just click here.
Please continue to stay safe and know that you are surrounded by the love and prayers of your Church family.
With every blessing
Ian