MINISTER WRITES 2023 - From OUR RECTOR, HANNAH JEFFERY
I’m sitting down to write this on a gloriously sunny day in June, the flowers are blooming, the vegetables in our garden are growing apace and if I walk just 5 minutes from the vicarage I can get to the fields filled with horses and their newly born foals. Everything in the natural world around me seems to be speaking of life and growth and abundance.
And that leads me to our current sermon series on the theme of Gladness and Generosity; last week I encouraged everyone to be noticing as they went through the day, things for which they could give thanks to God for and so for me today, those things might be the vivid pink of the rose blossoming outside my study window, the beauty of the new-born foal snuggling up to its mother, the sound of the birds at 5am this morning, as they greeted a new day with sounds of life! When we begin to notice things around us to give thanks for, we begin to appreciate more and more the gifts that God gives, but maybe more important than that I hope we also begin to believe that we worship a God of abundance. God doesn’t limit the number of times I’ll see a flower in bloom – year upon year he delights me with new gifts of blooming flowers, year on year I’m delighted by the wonder of new life happening all around me. God is the giver of good gifts and he just keeps giving from his abundance.
Two of the hallmarks of a disciple should be those of gladness and generosity, because those things are hallmarks of God! He delights in us; he delights in his creation (go back to the beginning of Genesis if you don’t believe me) and he gives and he gives and he gives even when we’re ‘undeserving’ of the gift.
If someone were to describe you, would they include the words joy (or gladness) and generous? By joy I don’t mean we’re always happy – there are times when we’re overcome by grief, I’m talking about joy in that deep seated place of delight in a God who even in the midst of our deepest pain just keeps giving. Are you able to keep praising him even whilst you lament? That can be really hard, but it’s a good discipline to have because as we begin to know deep in our being that we can rejoice in a God of abundance, that will help us to also nurture the habit of generosity, as we simply become more like Jesus. Which of course is what disciples are hopefully doing…becoming more like Jesus! So, one way of our working out if we are growing as disciples would be to ask – "am I becoming more and more generous as I become more and more trusting that I worship a God of abundance"?
I invite you during the course of this sermon series (it will be running up until the end of August) to put into practice the habit of gratitude and praise, as you intentionally look out for things to give thanks to God for and as you do that, I encourage you too, to do a generosity check! Am I holding back, or am I giving more. Giving more of myself, my time, my money….in the knowledge that we worship a God who is the one who models giving His all, that we might have life.
Blessings to you all
Hannah
And that leads me to our current sermon series on the theme of Gladness and Generosity; last week I encouraged everyone to be noticing as they went through the day, things for which they could give thanks to God for and so for me today, those things might be the vivid pink of the rose blossoming outside my study window, the beauty of the new-born foal snuggling up to its mother, the sound of the birds at 5am this morning, as they greeted a new day with sounds of life! When we begin to notice things around us to give thanks for, we begin to appreciate more and more the gifts that God gives, but maybe more important than that I hope we also begin to believe that we worship a God of abundance. God doesn’t limit the number of times I’ll see a flower in bloom – year upon year he delights me with new gifts of blooming flowers, year on year I’m delighted by the wonder of new life happening all around me. God is the giver of good gifts and he just keeps giving from his abundance.
Two of the hallmarks of a disciple should be those of gladness and generosity, because those things are hallmarks of God! He delights in us; he delights in his creation (go back to the beginning of Genesis if you don’t believe me) and he gives and he gives and he gives even when we’re ‘undeserving’ of the gift.
If someone were to describe you, would they include the words joy (or gladness) and generous? By joy I don’t mean we’re always happy – there are times when we’re overcome by grief, I’m talking about joy in that deep seated place of delight in a God who even in the midst of our deepest pain just keeps giving. Are you able to keep praising him even whilst you lament? That can be really hard, but it’s a good discipline to have because as we begin to know deep in our being that we can rejoice in a God of abundance, that will help us to also nurture the habit of generosity, as we simply become more like Jesus. Which of course is what disciples are hopefully doing…becoming more like Jesus! So, one way of our working out if we are growing as disciples would be to ask – "am I becoming more and more generous as I become more and more trusting that I worship a God of abundance"?
I invite you during the course of this sermon series (it will be running up until the end of August) to put into practice the habit of gratitude and praise, as you intentionally look out for things to give thanks to God for and as you do that, I encourage you too, to do a generosity check! Am I holding back, or am I giving more. Giving more of myself, my time, my money….in the knowledge that we worship a God who is the one who models giving His all, that we might have life.
Blessings to you all
Hannah
