Simple Gifts

Dear friends

“Simplicity is the only thing that can sufficiently reorient our lives so that possessions can genuinely be enjoyed without destroying us.” So wrote Richard Foster in the 1970’s. Outside my window the blue tits come close and flutter noisily, sometimes bashing the pane with their wings. They want me to notice that the fat balls have all gone, and fly pointedly back to the feeder to show me the problem. “Can you finish the peanuts first, please?” I say. If they could talk a little more clearly I expect they’d be wanting to politely point out that the magpie found a way to get round the cage on the fat balls, and took more than his share.

The daffodils are glorious right now, the yellow ones in the front enjoying their moment, the later, whiter, “April wedding” varieties in the rear only just fattening their buds. The main crop gooseberry bushes have their first leaves, the dessert varieties leave it until mid April before they start to fully show green. Ladybirds enjoy patrolling their thorny branches, munching away any pests. Little new strawberry leaves appear from their knarly crowns, reminding me that there’s a compost bin to be dug out, and goodness spread abroad.

Thank you to everyone who contributed music, flowers and simnel cake for us to share at the Mothering Sunday service. Beautiful, generous, fragrant, delicious! It was a special celebration of the love we find in our families, and in our churches, reminding me that collaboration and sharing produces wonder, and grace. Christ was not to be found with the mighty armies, despot Kings and omnipotent Emperors of the first century, but at weddings, funerals, with children, among the sick, at the synagogue, on the lake, at prayer, sharing a picnic. In the face of sometimes overwhelming world news, (what next?) it is helpful to remember the Saviour himself was revealed not among the ones who “do things” but, for the most part, was among those who “have things done to them.” His good news, to these and to us is “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they?…..But seek first Gods kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours aswell.” (Mt 6:25..33)

Worship Services for Sunday 22nd March

9.30am Holy Communion at St John’s Stoke Row with Revd Kevin Davies

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Revd Kevin Davies.

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Lent and Easter