Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends
My husband Peter loved poetry and therefore loved hymns; those of Charles Wesley being some of his favourites. Once, when I was preparing a Harvest service, he asked if we were having “some decent hymns”! I gently reminded him that our relationship did not mean he could influence my choice of hymns! Then he said “Well, you must have “We plough the fields and scatter”. To which I replied “But, we don’t! Farmers do it for us! WE go along to Tesco’s to get everything we need”. Our manse in Batley overlooked a huge Tesco 24!
The next day he emailed me this verse he had written, set to the tune of “We plough the fields and scatter”:
“We go along to Tesco’s to purchase all we need. This means that we don’t have to dig or sow or weed. God’s bounty is before us, with gifts His world anoints, but all that we can think of are Double Clubcard Points.”
(Peter Wainwright 2010)
As we celebrate the harvest, we must remember ALL involved in producing it. If you are gardener, you will have produced a harvest of your own – fruit, vegetables, and flowers. Recently, somebody kindly gave me some apples from a tree in her garden, so I decided to make some chutney. The recipe included apples, sugar, raisins, onions, ground ginger, a little salt, mustard seeds, and cider vinegar. Then I peeled, cored, and chopped the apples and onions before putting everything into a large heavy saucepan, bringing it to the boil until thick and pulpy and then put it into clean jars. That range of ingredients and flavours have produced a very tasty batch of chutney!
Apply the principle of making chutney to people and we too have a diversity of “ingredients” in every community, country and across the world. Some people are like apples; others like onions and maybe will even make our eyes water, sometimes! Some are like salt and some like sugar. Raisins, vinegar, ginger, and mustard seeds. We are all different and yet, just like chutney ingredients, ALL are needed. We can even apply the same principle to churches where we each come as we are, and we are all mixed up together. Except… we must not forget that if there is no heat applied to that saucepan of ingredients then it will never become chutney; rather it will remain a saucepan full of separate ingredients. Unless we all get into the “saucepan” together, it will never work but it is also important that we are each responsive to God’s “heat”; the Holy Spirit who will warm us up, moulding us together so that we become one in Jesus. So, even as “we go along to Tesco’s” (or whichever supermarket you use) let us celebrate the gifts of the harvest and remember we all have a part to play in God’s world in bringing His Harvest. Let us also give thanks for all whose work ensures our daily food as we pray for:
“People who have worked hard, sweated, hurt their backs and endured all weathers to get our food to us: honest toil and sometimes exploited labour… packers, shippers, refiners, warehousemen, lorry-drivers, shop assistants – all who have passed on God’s good gifts to our tables…”
(Used and adapted from “The Intercessions Handbook” by John Pritchard).
Zoom Bible studies will continue this week Mondays at 7.00pm & Thursdays at 10.30am. We will begin a new series of study based upon a book called “Holy Habits”, considering in turn 10 “habits” of being Christian based upon Acts chapter 2.
Zoom Sunday worship at 10.30am and Zoom Wednesday Morning prayer at 10am will also continue. There are other services on Why Pay Telephone Conference (Please contact the Senior Church Steward (Brenda Wallace) for more details: wesleymemchurch.pr@gmail.com) and please do use the Sunday service sheet as we continue (for now) to worship at home.
Please continue to keep in touch and pray for each other. Do keep safe and well.
With every blessing, on behalf of the Bede Circuit staff team.
Revd Deborah Wainwright