Monthly Message (July 2009) - Refreshment

Dear Friends,

By the time you receive this Month’s Newsletter I will be away, in Cambridge, on a five day Refresher Course for Ministers. And today, at the time of writing, I have to admit that I am looking forward to it! The United Reformed Church invites its ministers to take part in one of these courses every seven years. The programme has on it some interesting sounding lecture sessions - “What shall we say to Dawkins?” “What kind of world do we live in?” and “‘Incivilities’: the challenge of anti-social behaviour.”- being among them. It is, too, a programme with spaces in it ... for relaxation, reflection and worship.

I have to admit that the offer of ‘refreshment’ sounds very appealing.

Considering this opportunity ... I am reminded refreshment is something we all need ... something we often long for as we come to the summer months when many people holiday ... and something that often gets squeezed out of the pattern of our lives in the ever busy world we live in. Its a 24/7 age, we often hear .... on the go 24 hours a day seven days a week .... so that even in the times when we can take some rest and search out some refreshment, we have to try and tune out the hum of the continuing business around us. We often laughingly say to one another - ‘ Yes, I’ll do that in my spare time!’ - communicating the message that spare time, time in which there is space for creative choices, new adventures or reflection, is rare. And how often do we assume that something is impossible simply because everyone is so busy or under pressure. (I often have people say to me - ‘I didn’t like to ask you because you are so busy.’)

Refreshment .......
All those years ago when our ancestors in the faith pondered this world, their lives within it and the God who had given the gift of life .... when they wrote the stories of creation .... they recognised that rest, refreshment, a little space for just being alive, recognising the fruits of life and repairing the worked self, were of vital importance to human wellbeing. Even God, who made us in God’s image to reflect God’s life, took rest, a day of refreshment, a pause to appreciate.

Time off can look like a luxury or even an unwelcome gift in these recession shaped days when many people are dealing with the realities of unemployment. But there are many voices who are using these unstable times to raise the questions of how we value people in ways other than their work and whether our over investment in wealth creation as a culture has made us more or less healthy human beings. Is it too idealistic to hope that hard times can have within them the opportunities to repair our over-worked culture and renew the things that money can’t buy?

Now many will answer ‘yes’ to that question! It is too idealistic to hope ..... these things at this time! We are too wise to human nature to hope such things!

But ... we are too, a community of faith. And as such we are challenged to trust and bear the image of the God who brings renewal and life out of the seemingly broken and dead - health to the deeply wounded - refreshment to the weary and those who have lost their way.

‘Church’ ... can feel like just one more thing to fit in to the busyness ... it can also feel like a place that doesn’t understand when things go wrong! ... but is this what it is meant to be?

Consider this ... a church should be a place to find, and a people who together give and receive, refreshment ... where life is cared about for its God given value, where people are precious and the difficult times are met with a love that reflects the God who renews.

Refreshment ... for the person, and for the world we create together.

Yours,

Tracey.