From the Minister

(Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:7

Well this February is an exciting month as many of us look forward to the church weekend. My prayer is it will be a time of spiritual refreshment, a time of growth as disciples of Jesus, and lots of fun on our journey through the weekend.

This month we will start a new series that will help us journey towards Easter as we reflect on the passages in the book of Mark when Jesus predicts his death, challenges attitudes and shows us how to persevere with love.

The more passionately we love and persevere through life, the more intensively we experience the joy of life. The more passionately we love and persevere through life, the more we also experience the pain of life.

As Jesus journeys towards the Cross we see a passionate love that perseveres through experiences of joy as palms are waved, with the knowledge that his mission would only be achieved by pain, anguish and toil found in the Cross.

Jesus’ life is not full of gratuitous whinging but of openness and honesty with his disciples. We often keep our struggles and our difficulties to ourselves; we imagine in keeping the difficulties hidden we protect ourselves from people that will not understand. The truth is for many of us that being honest and open may help us persevere through those hard times with love and support from God through others.

Jesus shows us how to persevere with love by being open and honest in our relationships, discipleship, attitudes, service, and praise.

As we move through this time traditionally known as Lent, I hope together we will examine, explore, and experience Jesus’ transformative love that challenges us to be like Jesus in our struggles, difficulties and in our joys.

Blessings,
Stuart

In this double-issue we have a busy two months ahead with the excitement of Advent that prepares us for Christmas.

This year through Advent we are going to journey through the themes of hope, peace, joy, love, and light. I hope amidst the rush to buy and decorate the tree, prepare the food, go to the parties, and wrap the presents that these themes will remind us that at the heart of Christmas is the amazing truth that God came into the world (incarnation), entered time, showed what it was to love, live for others, and became the greatest gift to humanity.

As we engage in these themes and journey towards Christmas it is good to remember in the hustle and bustle that the reality of the origins of Christmas can so easily get lost. The origins of Santa Claus are complex, but they in part lie in the figure of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was the bishop of the Mediterranean city of Myra. He was born to rich parents in Patara in about 270 AD. His parents died when he was young and he was left a fortune. As a young man, Nicholas heard about a family starving. Under the cover of night, Nicholas threw a bag of gold coins through the window of their humble dwelling. Nicholas became a minister, leading churches during the worst times of Christian persecution.

In 303 AD, Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered a brutal attack on Christians. Those suspected of being followers of Jesus were ordered to sacrifice to the pagan gods. Nicholas refused, so was dragged to prison and tortured. Believers were executed in horrible ways. Yet persecution did not triumph. Christians who survived this time were known as confessors. Finally the bishop came home, freed from prison; he returned to serve in Myra for thirty years. Through his ministry many found salvation and healing. Nicholas died in 343 AD.

Santa Claus has echoes of the saint. The colour of his outfit would have been the red robes of the bishop. Gifts secretly left, bought on Christmas Eve, remind us of his generosity to the poor.

This Christmas I hope our Christmas will be like the original Santa Claus as we will give generously, take the opportunity to share the greatest gift, and place the love of God at the centre of Christmas; not the love of over-indulgence.

As we move through Advent I hope that we will spend time searching and seeking God's vision by prayer, reflection, and then filling out our questionnaires so that together we might move to being even better disciples in the work place, home life, and our church life in 2010.

As we move into early 2010 we will look again at some of the key themes that come through King David's life, we’ll support Ania as she leaves for six months in Namibia and we have Churches Together week of prayer. I hope that as we move beyond Easter this year, the themes of discipleship that have emerged in the questionnaire will help to shape our approach to being Jesus in our community in 2010.

Blessings,
Stuart

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant... he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:6-8

This Scripture, found in Philippians 2:6-8, reminds us of Jesus’ core identity: Jesus’ self-emptying and humiliation are part of God's true nature. God became as we are and was willing to lay down his life that is not a temporary interruption of his Divine existence. Rather, in the emptied and humbled servant who even washes his disciples’ feet as a slave would, we encounter God's nature to serve and we see who God really is.

One day, while wandering through the forest, a teacher stumbled upon a precious stone. He picked it up, dusted it off and put it into his bag. Some days later he met a traveller and, in conversation with him, opened his bag and showed him the stone. When the traveller saw the jewel, he demanded that the teacher hand it over to him. The teacher smiled and did so readily and cheerfully. The traveller departed in a hurry, overjoyed with the unexpected gift of the precious stone that was enough to give him wealth and security for the rest of his life.

However a few days later he returned in search of the teacher and, finding him, gave him back the stone, saying, “Now I want you to give me something much more precious that this stone. Give me whatever it was that enabled you to give me the stone in the first place.” At the heart of this story is a movement to be generous, to be giving, to be gracious (not looking for reward) and to find fulfilment not in what we own but in how we learn to serve and use what we have to serve one another.

In Melbourn Baptist at the end of the month we have the opportunity to serve one another through an Auction of Promises. As we auction our talents this gives us an opportunity to grow deeper in community as we offer our time, our energy, and our skills to serve one another. "Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life's blood. Everyone has something to give. Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others."

As we conduct an Auction of Promises this is a great opportunity to reveal God's giving, generous and gracious nature as funds are raised for street children in poverty and also to support Ania Holcombe to go on mission with Christ's Hope International meeting the needs of orphans in Africa.

As we move through November with the remembering that occurs through the poppy, the remembering of the blazing colours and sounds of fireworks, the remembering of the promises we make at auction, and the remembering that occurs through the start of Advent, I hope that we will remember above all the humble nature of our Generous, Giving, and Gracious God that brings fulfilment not in what we own, but in how we learn to serve one another with what we have.

Blessings,
Stuart