TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE GOD KNOWN
Wednesday Reflections 3
The third page of reflections from the booklet 'Walking with God' by Chester Cathedral. Various people were asked to choose a Bible passage and explain its significance to them. Here is the first page and the second page
Wednesday 25th November 2020
Jen Stratford - Cathedral Education Officer
Chosen reference:
Luke Chapter 18 Verses 16-17
But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”.
How this verse has helped me in my life
Children are like spinning tops they don’t stay in the same place for very long. They have the potential to get very excited very quickly and move very fast but they can sit and play very still and quietly.
In all the churches I have been part of I have encouraged a welcoming of children. Children and their parents need to see a space especially for them, which is safe but also bright with interesting things to do. The space needs to be there even if we are not expecting children.
Children are the future of the church. Churches that make children fully welcome are able to see things through children’s eyes. They can experience the wonder of seeing things for the first time.
Sometimes we lose that excitement and enthusiasm and with day to day worries and stresses, watching a child experience something new for the first time helps me remember the wonder of our world and how amazing it is. Sometimes we need to be that child and see things with their eyes.
Wednesday 18th November 2020
Liz Hardman - Chair of Chester Cathedral Flower Guild
Chosen reference:
Luke Chapter 10 Verses 30-35
A Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, ‘Look after him’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any expense you may have’.
How this verse has helped me in my life
The Samaritan in Luke 10:33-35 is the caring nature that I adhered to when fulfilling my nursing career of 25 years. I also keep the verse in mind while carrying out my volunteering at the Cathedral, overseeing the Flower Guild Volunteers. I need to be a coordinator and listener for problems that may occur in some of their lives beyond the Cathedral, especially as many of them are now elderly. Attending the Christian Acorn listening course some years ago, has helped me to listen to others and so have happy teams.
wednesday 11th November 2020
Stewart Pain - Volunteer Fundraiser, LEGO® builder, gardener, and Sunday School Leader
Chosen reference: Luke Chapter 6 Verse 48
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was foundedon rock.
How this verse has helped me in my life
As an engineer, I try to ensure that things are made so they will work, do what people need them to do, and that they will last. That means working out the design based on well-established principles. That could be good foundations, like in this story, or using the right materials, or thinking about how the item is put together.
Our Cathedral has stood for hundreds of years, built on both the foundations of faith and the unseen stone in the ground that holds our great building in place.
I also found that the same works for how we work with one another. While many organisations have many detailed rules about lots of things, I’ve often found it’s better to go back to some simple principles that underpin our faith, such as asking ‘how I’d like to be treated under the same circumstances’ before deciding what to do.
wednesday 4th November 2020
George J. Brooke - Cathedral Lent Bible Talks Coordinator
Chosen reference:Mark Chapter 10 Verses 36 and 51
What do you want me to do for you?
How this verse has helped me in my life
The author of the Gospel according to Mark likes saying things twice so that
readers get the point. In Mark Chapter 10 at the end of the story of Jesus’s
ministry before he goes to Jerusalem, Mark includes just such a doublet.
Though I am not inclined to take scriptural verses out of context and apply
them immediately to myself, Jesus’s responses in the form of a questions have
challenged me directly for very many years. In the first story James and John
approach Jesus for a favour and he asks them, “What is it you want me to do
for you?” Their request for privileged places when Jesus enters into glory is
clearly the wrong answer. In the second story blind Bartimaeus approaches
Jesus who asks him a similarly-worded question, “What do you want me to do
for you?” Asking for sight is evidently a right answer. But how should I answer
Jesus’s question? I know I am still on a journey because I cannot yet give an
answer that I find satisfactory, but I have a sense that the love of God and all
that is to be trusted in the universe is contained in that question
Photo: Gareth Rainsforth
wednesday 21st october 2020
Mary Sawyer - Place of Welcome volunteer; Mission Group fundraising volunteer; Sunday am coffee rota
Chosen reference: Matthew Chapter 25 Verse 35-40
For when I was hungry, you gave me food; when thirsty, you gave me drink;
when I was a stranger you took me into your home, when naked, you clothed
me, when I was ill you came to my help, when in prison you visited me.
Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did
not do it to me.
How this verse has helped me in my life
The verses in Matthew which I heard regularly as a child have consciously or unconsciously underpinned many decisions in my life. They helped form my political attitudes, and in the churches I attended as I became an adult I recognised them in action. At St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London I volunteered with the social work project, getting to know homeless and lonely individuals I should otherwise not have met or, maybe, should even have avoided.
The values I imbibed from Matthew influenced my career, leading me to teach in schools in poorer parts of London and to work in adult education in Merseyside. I spent my early retirement years very much involved with Asylum Link Liverpool, a centre offering practical help and friendship to asylum seekers. I made friends with people in desperate circumstances from all over the world and tried to offer the best of me.
Although, disappointed with attitudes I found in some churches, regular church attendance disappeared from my life for almost forty years, the New Testament, and especially these verses in Matthew, still gave me a moral foundation to life. Now that I have discovered at Chester Cathedral a community sharing my values my life has come together.