Dear friends,

Firstly, I am aware that new regulations were announced last night, I am awaiting clearer guidelines both from the government and Connexion on whether worshipping in Church is permitted, as soon as i know - you will too.

I am setting up a fortnightly Zoom Autumn Bible study, starting on Wednesday 23rd September at 2pm. I have attached more details. But for now, enjoy your day....

Whilst on leave I visited a friend I hadn’t seen for a while, and as I walked through her hallway, I watched in horror as the vase that my handbag brushed against teetered on the shelf for a moment, and, with my heart in my mouth, I then watched it, almost in slow motion, fall to the ground and smash into pieces. I was mortified! ‘I’m so sorry!’ I blurted out. ‘What can I say?’. But before I could go any further, my friend whom I was visiting held up her hand with a smile and calmly reassured me. ‘Don’t worry’, she soothed, ‘it doesn’t matter at all, it’s only an ornament’. And, of course she was absolutely right. It may have looked attractive, it might have been conceivably expensive (thankfully – it wasn’t!), it might even have had sentimental value (again, thankfully – it wasn’t!), but when all was said and done it was there simply for show, looking well enough but serving no real purpose.

That can be true, sometimes, of us Christians. We may look the part but in reality, be more ornament than use; our faith having little if any impact on the people we are deep inside. That’s preciously the sort of religion Jesus condemned in the scribes and Pharisees. Though they scrupulously observed religious rituals and the letter of the law, they failed to grasp their true meaning; their faith had become a matter of doing and saying the right thing.

“Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23: 27-28

It’s possible equally, as the epistle of James warns, to become so focused on the importance of faith that we forget about our works, our supposed commitment failing to manifest itself in the way we live.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works. James 2: 18

True discipleship is not about outward appearances but about inner reality, about a faith that shapes every aspect of who and what we are. Let us not settle for less. What difference does your faith make to the way you live, to the person you are? Do we show it in action?

Loving God, we focus too much sometimes on the externals of religion – believing the right things, saying the right thing, performing the right actions – to the point that faith comes perilously close to be being nothing more than outward show, an empty routine we dutifully perform. Yet we can also make the opposite mistake, turning it into a cosy, comfortable relationship between you and ourselves that turns its back on the world and fails to show itself in action at all. Deepen our commitment so that it truly shapes who and what we are. Give us a faith that makes a difference to us, to you and to others. Amen

God bless, Tanya