Over at All Saints' - Today is a day of food!

This Harvest festival we're having hotpot (with veggie option) after our 11am service and Hot Cross Buns during our 4pm, Closer service! Make sure you get yourself down to one or the other, everyone is welcome

This week's sermon:

Don’t be afraid… that’s easily said isn’t it. But it’s so hard, especially when there’s so much that could go wrong. A lot of us here would be scared about how we’re going to pay the bills, what’s going to happen with the cost of living crisis, climate change perhaps, our health. It’s really tempting to try and save things up and prepare ourselves so that we don’t have to worry about the things ahead. But actually, we’re told that trust and faith need to be a part of how we deal with being afraid.

Harvest has always been the time when people get ready for winter, a time for a lot of people to be anxious as well as celebrate.

We’re awful, aren’t we? For assuming that unless we know what’s coming next it’s all going to be horrible, but that’s not how we’re told to live with God. We’re told to put our trust in him. If even the birds and animals don’t store much away then why should we? We should live our lives as lives of faith and trust.

There was a time in my life when I really didn’t know what was coming next. I’d left my old job working at BT because I was fed up of being asked to overcharge little old ladies, but we’d just moved into our first flat together, and if I didn’t get a new job within the next two weeks, we’d end up losing the flat. So all I could do was pray. It was scary, it had taken me about two or three months to find the last job but for some reason, despite it being scary it just sort of felt right. It was right to leave. And literally the second I walked in the door and me and Becca exchanged a frightened look, my phone started buzzing. And a man was on the other end of the line and he said “hi, we’ve just found your resume and after interviewing the first time round none of them were right so we’d like to interview you, can you come in now?” So I went to the interview and pretty much got the job there and then.

We can all be afraid of what’s ahead, and in years gone by harvest was a time when people would be worried about how much food they’d get in for winter, but also, we have God. Our worries and concerns are not necessarily for the things of this world, we put them in God’s hands. We put our faith in him and lift our eyes up.

So this harvest time, maybe there’s something you’re worried about. Maybe that’s finances and your own financial situation. Maybe it’s a relationship problem, or a difficult conversation you’ve got to have, or maybe it’s about what’s coming next, after school or college.

Well hand your worries over to Jesus. He can sort it. Don’t worry. Be like the birds in the trees and rest on him. Have faith, your daily bread will be provided. I can’t promise everything will be easy, but I promise that faith is the strongest enemy of fear.

So when you go home, think of how you can be more generous. How you can step out of fear and into faith as we move through this harvest season, and remember those who do have less. Around the world, in places of famine and war, and let us remember that as we spread the kingdom of God, we are called to care for those without, around the world. But today, do not be afraid, trust in him!

Amen.

And over at St Georges, Dear friends,

We had a great time celebrating Harvest with our uniformed organisations.

To read the reflection go here: https://stgeorgechorley.co.uk/news/news_inner/344

To read the notice sheet click here: https://stgeorgechorley.co.uk/brochure/theway.pdf

One of the songs from today’s service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZugvUQ4m90U&list=RDVeTdh-oHJak&index=3

God bless,

Fr Mike