Grace for Little Ones (Mark 10.13-16)

Introduction

Children come out with amazing things sometimes. One of the things we never did, but wish we had done, is to write down in a notebook all the funny things our children said when they were small. There were so many cute words and expressions they invented! Some of them we do remember though and they’ve become part of our family vocabulary.

Someone asked a class of seven year-olds recently to write prayers and here are some examples that I thought were quite good:

Dear God, thank you for the baby brother but what I asked for is a puppy.

Dear God, I always look both ways before I cross the road. So you don’t have to worry about me.

Dear God, did you mean for giraffes to look like that, or was it an accident?

Dear God, I read the Bible. What does “begat” mean? No one will tell me.

Let Them Come to Me

In Mark chapter 10, there’s the account of Jesus meeting some children. In those days and in that culture, children counted for very little. They were not valued at all. Until they had their Bar Mizvah at the age of about 12 they were to be seen and not heard. They were irrelevant.

In the literature of that time what you find is that that people didn’t take children seriously. They were written off as silly, easily-led, unstable, naive and immature.

Children were not important in that society. No self-respecting rabbi would waste his time with them. They had much more important matters to attend to.

But such was Jesus’ exceptional charisma and magnetic personality, people brought their children to him so he would at least bless them before sending them away. This is the one who healed the sick, who cast out darkness and shadows from tormented souls, who lifted the mood of the oppressed, who gave hope to the crushed. Everyone wanted a bit of him. Everyone wanted to be near him and just see him or be around his captivating presence.

So it says “people were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them but the disciples rebuked them.”

These guys are like bouncers on the door. “Get these kids away from here. Can’t you see the Master is busy? What do you think this is, Santa’s Grotto? Go on, off with you, Jesus has got important matters to attend to.” That’s basically what they were saying.

Have you ever noticed that Jesus always seemed to be getting panned for spending time with the wrong people?

“Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they asked. “Why is he letting that loose woman anywhere near him? If he was really a prophet he wouldn’t let her touch him” they said.

Some people, including his own disciples, thought he should be spending associating more with the rich, with celebrities, with the great and the good – not the riffraff and certainly not with the hyperactive regulars from the local kindergarten.

But the Bible says that when Jesus saw that they were shooing the kids away, “he was indignant.” It means, literally, that he was moved with irritation. It annoyed him. It ticked him off. It exasperated him. It wound him up to the point of snapping.

When he saw what was going on he said, “No! They’re staying. Let these little children come here to me. Don’t you dare prevent them.”

Jesus is once again smashing the conventions of his day to pieces. He’s saying to his minders here, “You’ve got it all wrong. You think that Christianity is only for sophisticated grown-ups. What do you think you’re doing, sending the kids away? Let them in. Bring them here. I want to see them and I want them to see me because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like this.”

Here’s the point: “You are trying to tell me that children can’t grasp anything spiritual until they become like us adults. That’s completely the wrong way round! It’s the exact opposite. We adults will never grasp anything spiritual until we become like children.”

Our ideas are wrong headed. We imagine that we’ve got to be all sophisticated. We think if it’s really simple and straightforward it can’t be right. Jesus doesn’t agree with that at all. Jesus gets annoyed by holy hot air. It might sound impressive and clever but it’s pious claptrap and he hates it.

No wonder the religious elite couldn’t stand him. And no wonder the Bible says that ordinary people heard him gladly and that he was a friend to people with messed up lives. Children loved him.

What was it about little ones that Jesus said was so important to imitate? Was he saying we should be innocent like them? Was he talking about their simple trust? Was it that they don’t complicate things?

I don’t think he meant that they were innocent. We have four children and, from a fairly young age, they knew how be unkind and disobedient when the mood took them.

Whenever something got broken in my house when I was young, my dad would ask my brother and me, “Now who did this?” And we used to say in exact unison “he did it!”

When my brother was about one and I was three, I once decided, in the middle of the night to try something out. I crept into the kitchen, filled a jug with water, went back into the bedroom and tipped the lot all over him as he slept. I have no idea why I did that. I can only say that it seemed a good idea at the time.

Anyway, he shrieked and pulled himself up on the bars of his cot, blinking water out of his little brown eyes. Then I heard my mum and dad’s footsteps so I hid under the cot. They came in to the bedroom, saw the jug, noticed my feet sticking out from under the cot and pulled me out. “What is all this about?” they said. I looked at my brother. And I looked at them. And all I could think of saying was “he wet himself.”

I could talk about the time I tipped a pack of sugar out of the window, the time I brought a dead mouse in after my mum warned me not to, put a drawing pin on my sister’s chair… children aren’t as innocent as all that!

So what did Jesus mean when he said “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”? I think there are three things that you will find in every child. And without these three things you can’t get into the kingdom of God.

1. An Open Mind

Firstly, every child has an open mind. Children are ready to believe you and trust you. They have big imaginations. I used to think my dad knew everything because he said he did. If he had told me he could fly I would have just agreed with him. Children have open minds, and although they do accept things that are not true, they’re ready to receive things that are true. That’s why they have amazing faith.

One of our most treasured memories is when our daughter Anna was about 3 years old. She was buckled up in the back of our old Citroen 2CV one damp, misty morning. I tried several times to start the car, but to no avail. I suppose I must have tried for about 10 minutes but, though the engine turned, it wouldn’t fire. I got out and looked under the bonnet – but there was nothing obvious.

I tried again, failed again, and sighed, feeling helpless. Then, from the back seat, a little voice squeaked “Come on Jesus, start the car!”

I felt sad that Anna’s simple faith would be shattered by our useless, unreliable old banger stubbornly refusing to start yet again. But resigned to the inevitable disappointment, I put the key back in the ignition. I turned the key. It started perfectly.

As we get older, we close our minds, we shut off our imagination, we argue and say, “I can’t believe that.” But children’s minds are open to believe.

Now, I have a bar of chocolate here. And it’s free to anyone who comes up here and asks me for it...

2. An Open Hand

Secondly, every child has an open hand. I mean by that that they are ready to ask and willing to receive. The Bible says, “You do not have because you do not… ask.” Jesus said “God gives good gifts to those who ask.” If I want to receive anything from God, I have to take it, open handed like a child. There is no other way.

I find that the older we more reluctant we become to hold out our hand and ask for more or accept a free gift. We feel awkward, we want to give something back for it. Even if it’s just a Christmas card. “Oh no. They’ve sent me a card and I didn’t send them one.” Children don’t think that way.

As adults, we become more and more proud. We even refuse assistance when we know we need it. We sniff at the idea of someone helping us. “Oh, I’ll be all right!”

No child I know will ever say, “Thanks for the offer but I won’t take those sweets, I don’t need your charity.” But adults do! Children are willing to take what you offer them and that is a must in the kingdom of heaven.

3. An Open Heart

And thirdly, every child has an open heart. If you love children, they will love you in return.

When you show love to an adult, you sometimes get the response “So what’s the agenda? What’s he after? What’s the catch?” The experience of life changes us and as we get older, the heart closes up. We get used to people letting us down so we learn to stop trusting them. We become cynical and wonder if people are trying to use us. Children don’t think that way. They have open hearts.

Here’s a true story - a man was flying from Atlanta to Dallas and it just so happened that in the seat next to him was a little girl with Down’s Syndrome. After a while she turned to him and said “Do you smoke?”

He was a little uncomfortable, but he told her that he didn't.

She said, “Good, because smoking will make you die.” She nudged him, pointed to the guy across the aisle and said, “Ask him if he smokes.” And so, good-naturedly, he did, and the man said that he didn't smoke either.

Then she said, “Mister, do you love Jesus?” He smiled and said, “Well, yes, I do.” The little girl smiled and said, “Good, everyone should love Jesus.”

Then she nudged him once again and said, “Ask him if he loves Jesus. Ask him!”

He thought “Oh no,” but he swallowed hard and turned to the guy again and said, “Now she wants to know if you love Jesus.”

His expression became serious. He said, “You know, in all honesty, I can't say that I do. I've wanted to be a person of faith all my life, but I haven't ever taken that step. And now I've come to a time in my life when I know I should.”

And so Milton Cunningham, who was a preacher on his way to Dallas, led that businessman to faith in Christ on that airplane all thanks to one little girl’s open heart and readiness to ask that simple question “Do you love Jesus?”

Ending

As I end, I want to make it possible for anyone here who wants to open their mind, their hand and their heart to God – to do so. Remember Jesus said, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of heaven like a child will never enter it.”

Please don't feel under any pressure to do anything you don’t feel ready for. But there may be somebody here who says “Well, I want to go ahead right now.”

I’m going to finish with a simple prayer. It’s a prayer saying sorry to God for the past, turning away from everything that’s wrong, thanking Jesus for dying on the cross, and asking him to come and fill you with his presence.

Heavenly Father, I am sorry for the things that I have done wrong in my like (maybe there’s something in particular that your conscience brings to mind). I now turn from everything I know is wrong. Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I can be forgiven and start all over again. Thank you for the gift of your Spirit. I now receive that gift like a child. Please come into my life to be with me forever. Thank You. Amen. 

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 18th October 2015

Thanks to David Pawson for the three headings

Grace Changes Everything (Genesis 37.17b-28, 50.15-21 and Mark 11.22-26)

We are starting a nine-week sermon series today on God’s amazing grace.

Grace is the overarching, grand narrative of the Bible. Grace makes the foulest clean. Grace is amazing. Grace is a rags to riches story; from the filthy rags of our sin to the riches of being adopted as a child of God. Grace is getting the best prize when you were the one who least deserved it.

In the 19th Century, nobody went anywhere near the poor and wretched and exploited in the rat-infested alleys of London. All the churches were rich. You had to be respectable and well-dressed to walk into one.

But outside, little children died hungry, women wept as their men went in and out of prison for trifling offences, people got smashed on cheap gin to deaden the pain of existence, the streets were full of poor lost girls to be preyed upon.

So God, in grace, raised up William Booth and the Salvation Army. He said, “Where there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight to the very end.” Tens of thousands came to Christ and were delivered from addictions and filthy lifestyles. That’s grace.

There’s a Christian drug rehabilitation mission near Madrid called Betel. It has given birth to a church of several hundred young men and their families and friends. They are a church full of former drug addicts, dealers, prostitutes, and even murderers. But through Betel, they met Jesus Christ, found forgiveness of sin, freedom from addiction, a family to belong to and a future to live for.

When they worship, they shout loudly and dance passionately. A man called Raul was one of the first to be delivered from heroin addiction. He became a pastor there. Someone asked him once why people celebrate in worship so enthusiastically there; he just said “We dance because we cannot fly.” That’s grace!

The Manhattan-based church leader and author Tim Keller once gave the perfect one-sentence definition of the Gospel: He said, “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, and at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” That’s the gospel – it’s the gospel of grace.

I wanted to use that quote because it gives you both sides of the gospel coin. If I give you a £1 coin and on one side it has the Queen’s head but on the other side it is blank it is not legal tender. The coin needs to be minted on both sides for it to have value.

It’s the same with the gospel – the gospel is bad news before it’s good news. If our gospel is just “Christ died for us” we have only preached half of it. The full gospel is this: “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

It’s precisely when we were alienated from God, entrenched in our own rebellion against his ways, spiritually empty, disinterested and apathetic about anything to do with God, eternally lost, up the creek without a paddle that Jesus loved us and died in our place.

If our message is just “you are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than you ever dared hope” we have only told people a half truth.

Diamonds sparkle finest when they’re set against a black, velvet background. You see the full majesty of the stars only when you are away from light pollution in town – you have to go to the country where it’s pitch black to really see them.

The glory and the majesty and the sheer exquisiteness of grace is only really fully visible when we realise how spiritually bankrupt, how deeply lost, we are without Jesus.

In the film Trains, Planes and Automobiles Steve Martin and John Candy play a couple of guys trying by any means possible to get home in time for Thanksgiving. In one scene, one of them accidentally sets a car on fire with a cigarette while he’s driving along the freeway. The car becomes a smoking ruin, but miraculously it’s still able to cough its way forward. Anyway, the highway patrol pulls them over, and a cop leans over this smouldering wreck and says, “Do you feel this vehicle is safe for highway travel?” And the driver says “Yes sir, I do. It’s not pretty, but it’ll get you to where you want to go.”

It’s a funny and off the wall scene but that is how many people feel about their limited religious achievements or moral successes – yeah, it’s not perfect but hopefully it’s just about good enough. God says, “Do you think that’ll get you to heaven?” People say, “Yes, I really do.”

We delude ourselves about our own moral goodness. “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, and at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

The thing is, the Bible is full of characters who were deeply sinful or flawed in themselves before God got hold of them. 

You may have heard this before but Methuselah was ancient, Noah got drunk, Sara was impatient, Jacob was a con man, Moses had a bad stammer, Miriam was a gossip, Gideon was insecure, David had an affair, Elijah was depressive, Jonah ran away from God, Peter denied Jesus, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Mary Magdalene had three demons, Nathaniel was a cynic, Zaccheus was short, Paul was a murderer, Timothy was sickly and Lazarus was dead.... these are the heroes of the Bible.

Because grace changes everything.

But the character I want to speak about this morning is not one who was obviously flawed or in any way disabled. On the contrary; the Bible presents Joseph as a man of great integrity and extraordinary ability. The thing about Joseph is it’s hard to think of anyone (apart from Jesus) who was so good, so upright, so virtuous, so talented – and yet so mistreated.

The story of Joseph is found in Genesis 37-50. It’s one of the Bible’s great stories. It’s enthralling. It’s heart-breaking. It’s moving. It’s nail-biting. Read it when you get home.

But for now, let me try and give you a brief outline, condensing 14 chapters of scripture into about 4 minutes.

Joseph is the 11th of 12 brothers. He is a bit precocious and has a remarkable gift for interpreting dreams. As a result of being his dad’s favourite, he attracts the jealousy of his brothers, who decide one day to sell him as a slave to a passing caravan of travellers. They fake his death and tell his father he was killed by wild beasts.

Meanwhile, he is taken down to Egypt and sold in the slave market to a high-up official called Potiphar who soon sees how exceptionally gifted and reliable he is and puts him in charge of his entire estate. One day, Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him but Joseph refuses to sleep with her and, humiliated by this rejection, she frames him for attempted rape.

So Joseph gets set down for something he didn’t do. But such is the favour of God on his life that the Prison Manager ends up trusting Joseph with running the entire prison.

While in prison, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and chief baker, both locked up for some misdemeanour, each have a dream. Joseph interprets them both and asks the cupbearer to remember him to Pharaoh. He says “I’ve done nothing wrong to be in here, please help me when you get out” - but the cupbearer forgets about him as soon as he’s free.

Years go by. Then one day, Pharaoh has a puzzling dream. No one knows what it means but the cupbearer says “I know a Hebrew in prison who can interpret it for you.” They send for Joseph, clean him up and present him to Pharaoh. Joseph tells Pharaoh what the dream means. There will be seven years of bumper harvests followed by seven years of drought.

He advises Pharaoh to store up grain ahead of the famine. Pharaoh is so impressed that he promotes Joseph, on the spot, to be his right-hand man and run the country for him. So Joseph oversees the construction of vast grain silos and arranges for the harvests to be stored there before the years of famine come.

When they do come, all the neighbouring countries, including Israel, come to Egypt to buy grain to avoid starvation. One day, Joseph sees his brothers queuing up to get supplies for their families. Joseph is dressed as a high Egyptian official and speaks the local language so they have no idea who he is. Finally, after a bit of intrigue, he cannot hold it in any longer and takes them into a side room and says to them in their own language, “I am Joseph!”

They are terrified; this is their brother they beat up and sold into slavery, now the second-most powerful man in the world. But Joseph bursts into tears and embraces them all. So their families come down to Egypt to live like royalty and the story ends in chapter 50 with Joseph saying “Don’t be afraid. You intended to harm me…, but God intended it for good.”

Grace changes everything.

It changes everything for people who are badly treated. Joseph was:

·         hated by his jealous brothers

·         rejected by his unscrupulous captors

·         falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife

·         wrongly imprisoned by his indignant master

·         and he was forgotten and left to rot by the ungrateful cupbearer

That’s a pretty bad run of luck isn’t it? Thirteen years elapsed between his brothers selling him into slavery and his elevation by Pharaoh. Thirteen years of constant mistreatment, rough justice, abuse and exploitation. And he did nothing to deserve any of it. How would you feel if all that happened to you?

But grace changes everything. I read about a church the other week where instead of a creed they recite a kind of statement of faith claiming amongst other things “cheques in the post.” Listen, when Jesus died without a shirt on his back, his body broken and spattered in blood, he was not doing it to make us wealthy. He died to make us holy and fit for heaven. God didn’t show grace to us in Christ to make us super-healthy or mega-rich. He died to save us from sin, and spiritual death, and a lost eternity in hell.

As an aside, I want you to notice something very important here; Joseph’s attitude during the years of loss, during the years of personal misery, the years that seemed utterly wasted and futile… his attitude in this season of misfortune will actually shape his anointing in the season of blessing to come.

In years of pastoral ministry I have met many people who had difficult experiences in life but who allowed those experiences to frame their personality afterwards. Sometimes people just can’t move on. Sometimes they don’t seem to want to. Whatever it was that happened to them came to define them. They keep coming back to it and they talk about how so and so did such and such to them.

Joseph in Genesis never does. He talks about his innocence, and the injustice, and he feels the pain of it - but he never speaks ill of his wicked brothers who sold him, or the heartless traders who trafficked him, or Potiphar’s evil wife who framed him.

Joseph makes the decision to not be a victim. He decides that he’s going to let it go. He chooses to not bear a grudge.

Think about this for a minute. The Prison Governor gets fired if a prisoner dies unlawfully on his watch. If a prisoner escapes on his watch it’s over for him. And yet he hands over the running of the entire jail to this nobody, this Hebrew slave. He gives Joseph the keys. He puts him in charge of the whole operation. He doesn’t feel he needs to check what Joseph is doing.

Either this man is a complete lunatic or he has seen that Joseph has got something that is absolutely outstanding in character and ability – and it’s the latter. What he sees in Joseph is the anointing of God that is on those who have learned to forgive from the heart. He sees the presence of God in him. He sees an innocent man who says, “Even in this prison, I’m going to give my absolute best and not become embittered.”

In our Gospel reading (Mark 11.22-25) Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” But he doesn’t end it there. Look what he says next about that prayer of faith. “And” he says, “when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Jesus makes it clear that authority and anointing and favour in prayer flow only from a heart that holds nothing against anyone.

How can I get to that place of being able to let it go? There is a grace to forgive. The Lord has the power to heal and he imparts the grace to forgive.

Grace changes everything. It enables us to see that even in times of hardship and mistreatment, when evil seems to be on top, God’s purposes are higher still.

The end of the story of Joseph says this: “His brothers came and threw themselves down before him. ‘We are your slaves,’ they said. But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish … the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’ And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”

God, in his greatness and foreknowledge and sovereignty is able to weave those dark threads into the great tapestry of his glory. He takes the flats and minors and off notes and blends them with other notes into the magnificent song of his greatness. Grace changes everything.

Let me finish by sharing a modern day story of this grace. Some of you might have seen this on the BBC news website earlier this year. It was a news feature called “My 25 Years as a Prostitute.”

It was an article about Brenda Myers-Powell who was just a child when she became a prostitute in the early 1970s.

She grew up in Chicago. Her 16 year-old mother died when Brenda was six months old. Her grandmother, who drank heavily, took care of her. She would bring drinking partners home from the bar and after she got intoxicated and passed out these men would do unspeakable things to Brenda as a little girl. It started when she was just four or five years old and it became a regular occurrence.

“These were not relationships,” she said, “no-one's bringing me any flowers here, trust me on that - they're using my body like a toilet.” By the time she was 14, she'd had two baby girls.

Over 25 years, she was manipulated, raped, locked in a closet, trafficked, shot 5 times, stabbed 13 times, but couldn't go to the police because if she did she wouldn't be taken seriously.

When she was nearly 40 years old, a customer threw her out of his car. Her dress got caught in the door and she was dragged six blocks along the ground, tearing the skin off her face and the side of her body.

She went to hospital and they immediately took her to the emergency room. A police officer looked her over and said: "Oh I know her. She's just a hooker. She probably beat some guy and took his money and got what she deserved."

They pushed her out into the waiting room as if she was worth nothing. And it was at that moment, while she was waiting for the next shift to start and for someone to attend to her injuries, that she looked up and said to God, "These people don't care about me. Could you please help me?"

And this is her testimony: “God worked real fast. A doctor came and took care of me and she asked me to go and see social services in the hospital. They admitted me to a place called Genesis House. It was a safe house, [run by the Catholic Church]. They told me to take my time and stay as long as I needed - and I stayed almost two years. My face healed, my soul healed.”

She started to do some volunteering with sex workers and helped a university researcher with her fieldwork. She told the girls, "That's who I was, that's where I was. This is who I am now. You can change too, you can heal too." So far, 13 girls are now in University or have got full scholarships. At 11, 12, 13 years old, they were totally damaged. And now they're reaching for the stars.

After three years, she met an man who wooed her and loved her and married her. She says, “He didn't judge me for any of the things that had happened before we met. When he looked at me he didn't even see those things - he says all he saw was a girl with a pretty smile that he wanted to be a part of his life. We celebrated 10 years of marriage last year.”

Three years ago, she became the first woman in the state of Illinois to have her convictions for prostitution wiped from her record.

Her two daughters, who were raised by her aunt, grew up to be, in her words, “awesome young ladies.” One is a doctor and one works in criminal justice.

“So” she says, “I am here to tell you - there is life after so much damage, there is life after so much trauma. There is life after people have told you that you are nothing, that you are worthless and that you will never amount to anything. There is life - and I'm not just talking about a little bit of life. There is a lot of life.”

Grace changes everything.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All saints' Preston on Tees, 4th October 2015

A is for Alpha

Writing this piece one week before the Alpha Course starts at All Saints’ I am beginning to get excited about it.

In my last church, one of my roles was to run Alpha courses in both English and French. I never kept a record of how many courses I led but thinking about it now it must have been about twenty. I love Alpha and have so many great memories of people gradually or suddenly coming to faith in Jesus Christ or encountering the presence and power of the Holy Spirit on the away day.

In case you’ve been on a desert island over the last 25 years and don’t know, Alpha is a ten week series of interactive sessions - with food - covering the essential elements of Christianity. It was originally designed to help young Christians integrate as church members but it soon also grew exponentially as a faith discovery course for people with no faith at all. Furthermore, some Christians who had been church members for years found their faith rejuvenated by completing the course.

According to Alpha’s website it is estimated that the course is running in 169 countries and 112 languages, with over 27 million people having completed the course since it first started. Courses are run in churches of every major Christian denomination, in people’s homes, workplaces, bars, coffee shops, prisons, universities and schools.

I’ve seen many beautiful things happen at Alpha courses over the years. I wish I’d kept a diary of them. But I have seen the most sceptical people imaginable bow the knee to Jesus. I have seen people turn up off the streets feeling strangely compelled to come in not knowing what Alpha was and then getting converted. I have seen people come to faith after the course because they failed to find the warmth of friendship they had enjoyed at Alpha anywhere else. I have seen a breaking marriage repaired and restored. I have seen not one but two women who had been told they would never conceive become pregnant at the first attempt after the Holy Spirit day. Both gave birth to baby boys the following summer. I have seen a man receive, and subsequently regularly use, a remarkable healing gift of the Spirit. I have witnessed a request for prayer at Alpha for a man who had been told he had advanced liver cancer and a few months to live and who was still alive seven years later, the last time I asked about him.

Of course, it isn’t Alpha that does this. Let’s be clear; it’s Jesus. He is the one who is good news to the poor, binds up the broken-hearted, proclaims freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. The Alpha Course, however anointed it may be, is just an instrument God is using in our day; he can put it down and use something else in a different way as and when he pleases. So we need to be clear that we are disciples of Jesus, and don’t become ‘Alphaholics’.

But please pray with me that our course at All Saints’ from 1 October to 10 December will be effective in helping people meet with Jesus and grow in faith. Pray for the catering team, the leaders and helpers, the speakers and above all the guests. May there be many changed lives through wonderful encounters with the living God this autumn.