Thought for the Weekend

17th/18th August

Waiting for results

It comes around each year for different student cohorts – waiting for results! Students sat their exams in May / June and the exams have long since been marked. There is nothing more to do, no changes to affect and everything is poised and set; but students and families still have to wait. 

Waiting can be stressful, but waiting can be a gift, if we would only surrender to its discomfort and connect with others and with God on a deeper level. Waiting is often prayer.

The waiting before A-level results day yesterday allowed time for people and processes to be put in place for the flurry of excitement and disappointments. Teachers and UCAS advisors were in place to help students and counsel them in a supportive way.

The waiting before a big life event, say a wedding, or even a funeral, allows us to connect deeply with others going through the same experience. To rush things would be to miss out on the joy of planning or shared compassion as we grieve; waiting allows us to collaborate vulnerably with other people and open our hearts to God’s comfort.

As we live our lives trusting in Jesus, there are times of going and of doing, but also times of intentional waiting. These times can be precious as we discern where God is in that liminal space. I find when I’m waiting for a new thing to start, after the old thing has finished, I can’t do much other than recentre myself in God’s love for me and my dependence on him. This is a sanctifying place of relearning trust in God as Father, who loves us and provides us with all we need.

Let’s pray for our students next Thursday as they await their GCSEs. Let’s pray that young people are strengthened by the love of their family as they wait; knowing that no more can be done, but they are so much more than a set of grades. Let’s pray for all people who are going through a time of enforced waiting – that they will be vulnerable and connect in meaningful ways with God and with one another.

10th/11th August

The power of a meal

Much has been written condemning the recent violent acts of racism by far-right groups across our country. I agree with the voice of truth that says we hold no place for racism, no place for violence and no place for hate. Instead, we hold out hope that love and kindness will always prevail. 

It is awful how people in desperate need, refugees, have again been frightened and put in danger. It has been sad to watch how violence divides communities, drawing up lines of offence, and how misinformation has quickly spread, resulting in fighting from behind phony barricades. It has been distressing to see how quickly disorder can spill over from ugly acts of hatred and violence.

In amongst the mess, there have been many examples of love overcoming hate. I was moved on Monday by the small act of kindness from a mosque in Liverpool. When the violent demonstration outside had calmed down, they chose to risk being vulnerable; they cooked burgers and chips and then took them out to the protestors who were still outside their place of worship. As they talked and ate with the people, they found a common place of humility – people meeting people – and they invited folk into the mosque. Isn’t it wonderful how being vulnerable and transparent with one another breaks down barriers and we recognise in one another our shared humanity and worth.

Jesus was a man of peace. Jesus sees our worth. Jesus shared many meals with rich and poor alike, but they were always spaces where the poor and outcast were invited to belong. Dinner guests who ate with Jesus were enveloped in his mission of flipping the world upside down, not through violence but through the power of God’s love, that heals and makes us whole and gives us life. 

In churches up and down the country we share a weekly meal together around the communion table. It is a place of love and belonging that is open to all. Midweek we often meet together to pray and read the Bible, savouring in a different way God’s word of life and love to us and recognising how God calls us to be peacemakers in this world.

3rd/4th August 2024

What in the world

I saw a post this week that simply said: I wouldn’t change my children for the world, but I wish I could change the world for my children. I totally get it. I remember our son was born only two months old before the Twin Tower terrorist attack and as I watched things unfold, I just held him extra close and wondered at the state of the world into which he had been born. This week’s traumatic news from Southport is shocking and very sad, as are the war- torn countries where families live in fear and danger. So often we ask, where is God in all this?

Jesus knew what it was to suffer and to be frightened and he shows us a way of navigating the disorientation of pain and danger. Before choosing to go to the cross, Jesus sought the comfort of a familiar place called the Garden of Gethsemane. He took his friends for support, although they fell asleep! and he lamented what was to happen with honest, raw prayers to his Father. After he had purposefully set aside this time, Jesus left Gethsemane with a renewed purpose and a sense that God was with him as he travelled on to Jerusalem.

After a tragic event, people naturally congregate in meaningful places to grieve, reflect and regroup. In Southport they gathered in the town square, a space that represents community and the hub of all that is good in that town. In Southport thousands of people gathered, and the cards, flowers and teddies are all markers of the compassionate love and support that people have for those bereaved, hurt and the wider community that is suffering. Southport held a vigil with prayers, both spoken and silent, and this was a place of bringing their despair to God in tears and reflection. Their vigil was moving and hopefully it will help the community of Southport repurpose and gently move forward.

We hope for a world where children can play out and go to groups without fear of attack, and young people can belong to groups without the horror of knives. We live however in an imperfect world, the now and not yet of God's kingdom, but one in which followers of Jesus draw strength because Jesus died and God raised him to life again. This gives us hope to choose life in the midst of awful suffering and to pray for more of God’s kingdom to be seen on earth, as in heaven. Trusting in Jesus gives us peace. Jesus told his disciples ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’