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le and over time it also helped me appreciate a form of service i d hardly paid attention to before i recently saw this beautiful video about a man who came to christ and to his horror was asked to help make coffee at church i hope you ll watch it it s a beautiful picture of how god can use our service not just to help others but to form us as his people stephen foster tells the story of how god used coffee to change his heart and his perception of the church oxford coffee christiantiktok andrew comment june 20 2024 june 17 2024 andrew pastoral notes walking in a wide place i will walk about in freedom for i have sought out your precepts psalm 119 45 the combination of ideas in this sentence from psalm 119 is at first glance a little jarring why would seeking out god s precepts that is his instructions and commands about how to live produce freedom the unexpected combination invites us to reflect more deeply upon freedom there are different ways of being free one kind of freedom comes from being freed from some external constraints someone who is released from prison will be mobile and able to make choices in a thousand ways they had not been prior to that less dramatically on a holiday when you have no meetings booked no messages to answer no jobs to finish you might be free from these constraints to do what you choose though there will still be limits if you ve gone on a beach holiday you won t be free to go skiing but external constraints are not the only kind of constraints we experience there are also what we could call internal constraints there are ways in which we are limited simply by the kinds of people we are i for example am not free to do a slam dunk in basketball because of my height and leg muscles some of these internal constraints have less to do with our bodies and more to do with our minds and spirits and some of them are deeply painful some people know they cannot trust themselves to drink alcohol in moderation others deeply wish they could control their temper better others are constantly frustrated by the way they react in certain situations in all sorts of ways we experience ourselves as constrained by our personalities and passions i think this can help us get closer to what the psalmist is talking about when he says i will walk about in freedom the hebrew phrase translated freedom there is literally in a wide place the psalmist speaks of this sense that god s word opens up space for him his commandments lead him into a wide place elsewhere in the psalm he speaks of his heart being widened v29 in john 8 31 32 jesus says if you hold to my teaching the truth will set you free it s the same idea as we see in the psalm the freedom we need and long for most the freedom to live as we were made to and would love to comes from the word of the lord which beckons us into a wide place comment january 17 2024 january 15 2024 andrew pastoral notes waiting waiting can be tedious or it can sometimes be delicious it is tedious when we are waiting for something not particularly welcome like a dentist appointment or something simply necessary like a bus or when we start to wonder if the thing we are waiting for will ever come anyone who spends time with small children will know how acutely the anguish of waiting can be felt five minutes that s ages but sometimes waiting can also be delicious it is delicious when the thing for which we are waiting is something wonderful and when we have every confidence that it will come in such cases the wait itself can become something thrilling shot through with a kind of electricity of expectation that makes us glad and excited a fantastic ride can lighten the gloom of a wait in a queue the promise of a wonderful concert or sporting match can fill tiresome hours of travel before it with cheerfulness the promise of christmas for some at least can fill the whole of december with excitement the bible is full of waiting and in the season of advent this waiting comes into focus we recall how the promises of god to the people of israel through the prophets put a fixed point into the future so that it now lay before god s people not simply as an unknown land but as a place they knew something of something that could give them hope in the midst of much trouble a messiah was coming we see both the agony and excitement of this waiting the creeping despair that nothing would happen after all that these promises were empty as well as the thrill of people like simeon and anna who have waited patiently and now see their hopes fulfilled luke 2 25 38 this disciplined focus on waiting in advent can be a great help to us because if we want to be christians we have to learn to wait in hope we were saved writes the apostle paul and then goes on now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what is seen but if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it with patience romans 8 24 25 the christian life like the life of israel after the prophets is a life of hope of waiting patiently for the coming of god s promises advent can teach us why this waiting need not be dreary it reminds us how the promises in the past were fulfilled the messiah came and with him the beginning of the kingdom of god our waiting does not need to be the tedious doubting impatience of those who don t really know whether they got the time right it can be the excited waiting of those who know that something wonderful is almost upon them it can be thrilled with the electric anticipation of those who have seen the flash of lightning and now wait for the thunderclap which must must come soon comment december 1 2023 andrew pastoral notes endless power i pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being ephesians 3 16 twice in the space of a few verses as the apostle paul begins to pray for the church at ephesus he speaks of god as rich in verse 8 he speaks of the boundless riches of christ and now here he prays that god will strengthen the church out of his glorious riches or perhaps better out of the riches of his glory that last phrase helps us remember that god s riches are not simply like ours god is not a great lord sitting on enormous piles of treasure like smaug the dragon in the hobbit his riches are in fact his own life itself the riches of his glory the riches that are his glory god s glorious riches are the inexhaustible beauty and preciousness of his own triune life this is why what paul prays will come out of god s glorious riches is not just money but power power through his spirit in your inner being paul prays that the abundant magnitude of god s life will flow into the church through the spirit of god in the inner being there is in god an infinite wealth of energy that is a striking idea i think in our world in which energy is a deeply fraught issue and in which we often feel tired and worry that there s not enough steam in the tank there are no such worries in god let us not forget the endless reserve of power beyond what we can ask or imagine as paul says just a moment later verse 20 that is behind and for the church in the infinite perfect dynamism of the father s love of the son in the holy spirit comment november 24 2023 november 21 2023 andrew pastoral notes no darkness this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you god is light in him there is no darkness at all 1 john 1 5 these are the words that we often begin morning prayer with on tuesday mornings i ve been dwelling on them this week it s a dark time the world is full of horrors and new evils both far away and close to home and this week we had halloween which for many in our community is simply an opportunity to draw close to things that are deeply dark and nasty but overall the last weeks have been full of reminders that this world is full of darkness sometimes it feels inescapable it intrudes in all sorts of ways into our vision our homes our imaginations some of us i think feel oppressed by it but this is the message says john god is light in him there is no darkness at all this says john is the truth that has become utterly inescapable in jesus christ for jesus christ is the light of god that has shone in the darkness and has not been overcome he is the proof that this the final reality of god and so of all things is light and not darkness perfect complete light without the faintest shadow what a good message we have to hear and to share in the midst of all the darkness let yourself be reminded of it rest in it and share it with joy comment november 3 2023 november 2 2023 andrew pastoral notes thinking of glory they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads rev 22 4 during my recent holiday i read a really great old book grace and glory by eric mascall it had sat on my shelf for some years since i picked it out of a box of throw aways at the library of the college in which i used to teach it turned out to be a book about christian hope structured around a sentence from saint augustine we shall rest and we shall see we shall see and we shall love we shall love and we shall praise behold what shall be in the end and shall not end the book thinks through each of these aspects of christian hope in turn rest sight love and praise people sometimes say that talk of such things is not good because it takes our eyes off the present instead of facing the world s real problems we escape them and turn to a fantasy as i ve gotten older i ve become less and less convinced by this line this simply isn t the way that action works to engage in the present and face its challenges we need energy and when we face problems we are not in a position to solve or when what we can do is but little above all we need hope to contemplate the promise of final perfect peace in the knowledge of god does not in the end take us out of the present moment it enables us to occupy it in a new way and with new energy my suspicion is not that we think too much of glory but too little what difference would it make to you to take a moment or two to remember and dwell upon the fact that one day through jesus we will see his face and his name will be on our foreheads andrew comment october 13 2023 october 12 2023 andrew pastoral notes making room make room for us in your hearts 2 cor 7 2 these words of the apostle paul come out in the midst of an ongoing difficult relationship with the christians at corinth i think they are striking both for their vulnerability and their insight on the one hand they make the apostle vulnerable he expresses a desire to be let into the corinthians heart he doesn t just want their support their money their respect he wants them he wants to matter to them he is putting himself out there as we say on the other hand they are insightful words because they see that what is needed is not just something on the surface like better communication but a movement in the corinthians hearts make room for us in your hearts he implores don t be closed to us don t shut us out make room making room for another person in the heart is sometimes hard because it means someone else starting to matter to you it means an expansion of our care and concern and sometimes it can feel like there is no room left in our hearts sometimes it can feel like our hearts are full like a hotel that s overbooked and has people standing in the lobby there are so many things to pay attention to so many people to worry about but i think the heart is not actually like a hotel i think the heart is not simply finite with a certain number of rooms a maximum capacity that can be known in advance i think the heart grows as our love grows in knowledge as paul puts it elsewhere philippians 1 9 the heart can make room for others unexpectedly finding ways to expand and take in new occupants and in this way the human heart reflects the hospitality of god which is infinite in my father s house are many rooms said jesus john 14 2 teaching us to remember that god has already made abundant room in his heart for us i suspect the alternative to making room in the heart is not for our hearts to stay the same size but for them to shrink if we zealously guard the boundaries of our concern perhaps we will over time find some rooms vacated others dilapidated i suspect the christian life is meant to involve a continual expanding of the heart as we make room for others a continual stretching out in hospitality so next time we feel someone else asking you to make room for them perhaps not with words but there under the surface let s see it not as a threat to our capacity but as an opportunity for our hearts to grow i don t find that an easy thought myself but i think it is a good one for me to think andrew comment august 25 2023 august 24 2023 andrew pastoral notes walking among us then the man and his wife heard the sound of the lord god as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day gen 3 8 this reference in genesis 3 to god walking in the garden is mysterious although it comes in the story of the fall it is a hint of the relationship adam and eve have now lost a time when the lord would walk in the garden with them when they would be with him and know him with ease and intimacy it is not surprising then though it is interesting that this idea is picked up in israel s law to describe the blessings that would come to israel through god s gracious covenant if you follow my decrees the lord tells the israelites i will walk among you and be your god and you will be my people lev 26 12 in the tabernacle god walked among the israelites once again deut 23 14 2 sam 7 6 7 but the tabernacle was only a promise of a richer renewal of this relationship we see in the garden in jesus christ god dwelt and walked among us in the flesh the presence of god in the life of a fellow human being through jesus christ the intimacy of god with us that we glimpse in the garden has been restored and perfected i noticed this week the way this image is also used of jesus in the book of revelation at the beginning of the book in the letters to the various churches jesus is described as him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands rev 2 1 although the imagery is dramatic it is not hard to understand as it is explained in the preceding verses 1 19 20 the lampstands represent the churches and the stars represent the angels of the churches this is an image then of jesus walking among the churches what a striking thing that the lord jesus who walked among people in the land of galilee and judea two thousand years ago also walks among the churches now our life and worship together is done in his presence under his judgment and also his blessing like he does in the book of revelation he calls his churches to repent when they stray but he also speaks incredible words of promise to the one who is victorious i will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of god rev 2 7 andrew comme...