Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends
Recently, on annual leave, I decided to worship on Sunday via YouTube and the service provided by Newcastle West Methodist Circuit. I made myself a cup of coffee, sat in a comfortable chair and pondered that that was not the position I usually adopt when I am in Sunday worship; being the leader of worship, I stand up most of the time and water is my only beverage! However, I felt truly blessed by that service, based upon some words of Jesus to His disciples from Mark 6: 30-32,
“The apostles came back to Jesus. They told him all they had done and taught. Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.' Many people were coming and going. They could not even eat. So, they went away in a boat to a lonely place by themselves.”
Prior to this, Jesus had sent out the twelve disciples in mission, then we hear that John the Baptist had been beheaded and then the disciples gathered around Jesus, no doubt telling Him about their successful mission but also, they knew about John’s brutal death. Mark has told us that so many people were coming and going they did not even have time to eat and, I am sure we have all been in that kind of place! So busy we cannot find time to eat, let alone rest. Yet is that really what God wants for us?
As I joined in that Sunday service on YouTube, the minister extended Jesus’ invitation to all who were taking part: “Let us go to a quiet place and rest for a while.” God does not intend us to be so busy that we cannot find time to eat, or time to rest. The Greek word for “rest” here occurs in only one other place in Mark’s Gospel - in Gethsemane, when Jesus finds the disciples asleep and rebukes them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?” And the moral or lesson is clear! The disciples were so busy for so much of the time that, when Jesus really needed them to keep Him company in prayer, they fell asleep and failed Him. Ironically, on that Sunday, I was beginning a ten-day period of self-isolation when, having visited my Dad, he later tested positive for Covid. “Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.” I pondered that despite having to cancel a holiday to the Lake District, I was indeed in a “quiet place” and some of the time, I did “rest for a while.”
August is traditionally a quieter month in the life of most churches when all those midweek groups take a rest for the summer. This year after months of living through a pandemic and keeping ourselves “safe” and away from other people, for the most part, those activities have not yet resumed to be able to take a summer break. We look forward to when they will but, after hearing the minister preach on those words from Mark, amidst all that is going on in the world and within the lives of people I know and love, I can still hear Jesus saying to me, “Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.”
Christians can still change the world, but the challenge to me (and us) was that that work does not begin with being so busy we cannot eat or rest. It begins by recognizing our individual need for stillness, our need to be restored in body, mind, and spirit - our need for rest and prayer. We must make time to BE and DO! So, will you join me by making some time each day to discern the way ahead God has prepared for us as we each respond to Jesus’ invitation: “Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.”
Please remember the Circuit service “in person” at Felling Methodist Church on Sunday 1st August at 4.00pm as we bid Farewell to Rev Neil Maynard as he and Alison move from the Bede Circuit to the next phase of their ministry. We are still asking people to wear face coverings.
Circuit Prayers continue on Zoom each Wednesday at 10am
There are still Sunday service sheets for use at home.
With good wishes and prayers
Revd Deborah Wainwright, on behalf of the Bede Circuit staff team.