Welcome to The Weobley & Staunton Benefice

Sunday 23rd August                                                                                                              13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?"                                                                                                        14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."                                                                                                                           15“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?"                                                     16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." God.”   17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Matthew 16. 13-20, NIV   

Sunday 30th August        21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.                                   22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!"                                                                                                                                             23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”           24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is  going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.               28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”     Matthew 16.21-end. NIV

Sunday 6th September  15 "If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.                        18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18.15-20, NIV

I love our traditional annual services of Harvest Thanksgiving – when we gather in church to thank God for the beauty and bounty of Creation. But in these days in which humanity is facing unprecedented disaster caused directly by our carelessness towards God’s Creation, we surely, alongside that thanksgiving, have to take due account of what’s going on around us and to think about what our attitude as Christians should be towards the alarming new realities our world is facing today. Of course, that takes a bit of doing because there isn’t really anywhere in the Bible where God says to his people in so many words.

“Thou shalt look after the lovely world I made for thee and thou shalt not make a total mess of it.”

But there are certain principles in the Scriptures that we can, and, I believe, should, bring to bear on our Harvest thoughts…

In the Creation Story in Genesis 1, we find a God who is not only supremely  creative by nature, but who also delights in every aspect of creation. We are made in God’s image, we have the       divine creative spark within us, we share God’s delight in the created order. We should be using that God-like creativity not to destroy our world but to help conserve it. We should be giving      expression to the delight in the created order we share with our Creator by looking after it, caring for it, valuing it, protecting it.

In the Old Testament book Deuteronomy, Moses commands his people to give thanks to God for the bounty of their harvest and to offer back to him the first fruits as a heartfelt expression of their gratitude. We are to offer the very best back to God - not whatever’s left when we’ve done our worst to our fields and forests and oceans. Besides, how genuine can our gratitude be if we abuse, misuse, waste, neglect and carelessly damage the most precious gift our God has given us? Surely, if you’re truly grateful for a gift, you don’t wreck it, you treasure it.

And in Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool he warns a successful but selfish farmer against greed,   certainly, but also against complacency – against taking it for granted that he will be able to      continue enjoying the fruits of his harvest tomorrow, next month, next year – against taking wealth, comfort, security and, above all, life, for granted. Complacency in the matter of how we treat our good earth and how much we depend upon it is a luxury we can’t afford.

At Harvest Time, it’s so important that as we thank God for our Harvest, we prove our gratitude by caring more for our world – in word and in sometimes costly action… and stop taking our world – its beauty, its bounty, its wonder – for granted – believing that it will somehow always be there for us no matter how badly we treat it.

 Stephen