Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Mon, February 22, 2010 12:41:43Pre-lent celebrations.
On Shrove Tuesday, at Muffins and More, the group made delicious pancakes together and this has become a great British tradition. In Latin America the pre-lent celebrations are called carnivals were people dress up in wonderful and exotic costumes and dance for together on the streets for around 5 days. Perhaps you are thinking how there can be any
link between a Carnival with Samba and lots of other dancing and pancakes. As most of you may know, we have pancakes on
Shrove Tuesday as this is the last opportunity to use up all the ingredients,
such as eggs, lard and meat, in the fridge and cupboards which might go off
before the end of Lent.
In Latin cultures the pre-lent
celebration is called a Carnival. The
largest and longest Carnival takes place in Brazil in a city called Rio de
Janerio. This is a huge party that takes
place on the street with beautifully dressed dancers, carnival floats,
fireworks and wonderful food. I am sure
that many of the people who take part in the celebrations do not have any idea
that the Carnival is linked to a Church religious festival and Lent. In fact the word Carnival means ‘farewell to
meat’ or ‘farewell to flesh’ and it was seen as the last opportunity to eat
lots of food, have a party and celebration and really enjoy yourself before
Lent and extended time of serious and pious prayer and fasting.
The reason for this is that in
the past and hopefully some people still use the period of lent as a time of
fasting (e.g. giving something up), refreshing themselves spiritually by
renewing their relationship with God and preparing for the great Easter
festival. This coincides with the bible
readings in Church during this period that remind us that Jesus spent forty
days fasting, being tempted and preparing himself for his future ministry. Therefore after all the excesses of pre-lent
celebrations and stuffing ourselves with pancakes we now have the opportunity
to reflect upon and renew our relationship with God. It is a time for taking stock and thinking
about our future ministry and how God is calling us to serve him. There are many opportunities to serve God
both in our community and in our Church and I am challenging you over this
period of Lent to ask yourself and God; whether you are obeying God’s will and
serving God or whether you are sitting back and letting others Get on with the
God stuff. This is an opportunity for a
fresh start and a renewal in your life, why not give it try?
Blessings
Gary
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Mon, February 22, 2010 12:36:13
At Larkfield Methodist Church we have already
begun our series of small groups based around the book The Purpose Driven Life,
by Rick Warren, and we will begin to study the book at Tonbridge Road as part
of the Take Away House Group. It is
fantastic to see people’s lives are already being challenged and changed by the
word of God. It is also fantastic that
people are enjoying using the book as a daily devotional and they are enjoying
having a disciplined time with God every day.
One of the first comments in ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ observes that the purpose of your life
is far greater than your own personal fulfilment, your peace of mind, or even
your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest
dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet,
you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his
purpose.
This is a strong
statement that Warren makes and if we take it seriously; what would be the
implications for our life and our Church?
It is all too easy to put our own needs first. Perhaps we are too busy, too tired, or think
we have too many problems of our own to actually take time and think of
others. Other people might prefer the status
quo and wonder why things in the church and society are changing and feel upset
and hurt that things are not they way they remember them or hoped they would
be. My hope is that we renew our commitment
to God and realise that our first and primary purpose in life is to serve God
and to do his will and purpose in church and in society. It is my prayer and
hope that we will become a church that;
Is energized by faith;
Is outward-looking;
Seeks to find out what God
wants;
Faces the cost of change
and growth;
Operates as a community;
Makes room for all; and
Does a few things and does
them well.
Therefore, as we approach Easter and let us remember the sacrifice that God made for us. God put us first and gave everything that was precious to him so that we could have a relationship with him. As the hymn lyrics by Matt Redman state, You deserve my every breath for You've paid the great cost; Giving up Your life to death, even death on a cross you took all my shame away, there defeated my sin opened up the gates of heaven and have beckoned me in. God is calling you to serve him, take time to listen to God this Easter. Yours in Christ Gary
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Sun, February 15, 2009 16:46:20A
shepherd was tending his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee appeared
out of a dust cloud, advanced towards him and stopped. The driver, a young man in his twenties
wearing a Hugo Boss suit, Gucci shoes, ray ban sun glasses and YSL tie, leaned
out of the window and asked the shepherd, “if I can tell you exactly how many
sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”
The
Shepherd looked at the guy, then at his peacefully graxing flock, and calmly
answered “sure”.
The
young man parked his car, whipped out his notebook computer, connexted it to a
cell phone, surfed the internet onto a NASA page where he called up a GPS
satellite navigation system, scanned the area, then opened up a data base and
some excel spreadsheets with complex formulas.
He
finally printed out a 150 page report on his high tech miniaturised printer, turned around and to
our shepherd and said, “you have exactly 1,586 sheep!”
Amazing!
That’s correct! Like I agreed, you can take one of my sheep.
The
shepherd watched the man make his selection and bundle it into his jeep. When he was finished the sheepherder said,
“if I can tell you exactly what your political persuasion is, where your from
and who you work for, will you give me my sheep back?”
Okay,
why not, answered the young man.
You’re
obviously new labour and a former investment banker from London, who broke the
economy through reckless investments and now your working for Gordon Brown as a
consultant in the treasury.
Wow
that’s correct, said the young man. How
did you ever guess?
Easy
answered the shepherd! Nobody called you, but you showed up here anyway. You want to be paid for providing a solution
I already knew the answer to. And you
clearly don’t know squat about what your doing.
Now can I have my dog back!!!!
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Thu, January 29, 2009 22:17:38Jonah probably preached the shortest
sermon in history, Jonah cries to the people of Nineveh, forty days more and
Nineveh shall be overthrown!” It is a message of doom and gloom but also a
message which offers hope if the people of Nineveh repent.
It seems today in our world that the
TV and the press are also preaching a message of gloom and doom.
Britain has entered into a recession
The financial system and the banks are
collapsing like dominoes. Between them
the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Barclays have liabilities of £4.5
trillion which is forty times government borrowing.
American investment guru Jim Rogers
has advised his client not to invest any money in the UK and to sell any
sterling they have because he believes that the pound is finished as a
currency. This caused the pound to slump
almost 4 percent in one day.
Hundreds of thousands of people are
losing their Jobs and millions of job loses are expected to follow. We have lost household names such as
Woolworths over recent months and it was distressing to see how the shop was
quickly stripped bare by ravenous consumers seeking a bargain.
People today all over the western
world find themselves in a hopeless situation, many people have rejected a
belief in God for the God’s of the ‘isms’ rationalism, consumerism,
materialism, secularism. People have put
their trust in money to the point in which riches and fame are regarded as an
object of worship and are greedily pursued.
In Britain today we have become people who value money too highly.
As a church
we are called to be ambassadors and messengers for God. Is it possible that we
have become comfortable and inward looking?
Have we forgotten our divine purpose as a church to be fishers of
people? Are we willing to cast down our nets and follow Jesus proclaiming the
Kingdom of God to all who will hear us?
Are we willing to live a life, which proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near? Are we willing to cry out to our nation
repent, and believe in the good news”.
There has never
been a time when the Church has had an opportunity to challenge the nations of
the earth. The world needs a church and
faithful Christians who are willing to stand up be counted. Our nations need to know that materialism and
consumerism and the love of money have led us into a situation which the
foundation of society is shaking and threatening to collapse.
Yet,
there are glimmers of hope, Barak Obama has become the first African American
president of the United States and the
words of Rev. Lowery's benediction at the inauguration of President
Obama were heard by 2 billion people. They offered a prophetic challenge to the
Church and the world and recognised that “while we have sown the seeds of greed
— the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social
and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity
and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to
make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on
each other. And as we leave this
mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of
our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our
churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.” Let us take
up that challenge and take the values of the kingdom of God into our homes,
workplaces and circle of friends and as a Church challenge the people of this world with an alternative vision an
alternative way of life.
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Wed, January 14, 2009 22:05:07The circuit covenant service was a fantastic start to the year it was wonderful to worship together as a whole circuit and completely fill up Tonbridge Road Methodist Church with a 175 people attending.
I also managed to get the circuit website up and running again it is very basic but it will hopefully improve over the next few weeks.
blessings
Gary
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Sat, December 06, 2008 23:42:58Hi this is my pastoral letter to Larkfield Methodist Church and Tonbridge Road Methodist Church. Time is passing so quickly I can't believe it is almost Christmas.
Dear Friends
In the days
of the circuit riders a minister was out riding one afternoon and came upon a Man
out working in his field. "Fine day isn't it?" the minister called
out. "Its fine for you", the man replied, "All you have to do is
ride around on that horse thinking about God all day long, while I have to
sweat here in this field and then walk home afterward. I don't think its right
you should have things so easy while I have to work so hard."
"On the
contrary", the minister answered, "thinking about God is one of the
most difficult things you can do. And to prove it, I’ll give you this horse if
you can think about God and nothing else for one minute."
"You're
on,” said the man and immediately he sat down in silence. Thirty seconds later
he looked up at the minister, and said, "Does that include the
saddle‘?"
As we enter
into Advent and approach Christmas I am sure that the minds of lots of people
will be focused on many different things such as shopping, more shopping and
even more shopping. Yet, even as our country heads for (or already is in)
recession you would think that most people would be tightening up their belts
and saving for a rainy day. Yet the best
solution, according to the government, is to spend more money and get into
greater and greater dept in the hope that the economy will turn around. In a consumer society, like the United
Kingdom, I am sure that it will not be difficult to encourage people to spend
money on gifts, electronics, food and drink as they celebrate Christmas. I am sure that the last thing on people’s
minds is God and the gift of Jesus Christ coming into our world bringing the
Good News of salvation and that we can once again be friends with God.
Like the farmer we might think that it easy to
focus on God even for just one minute but it is getting harder and harder each
year to get people to think about God and the story of Christmas. The Royal Mail has broken with
tradition, this year, to feature both religious and secular images in its 2008
Christmas stamp collection. It will offer a 1st class stamp with The
Madonna of Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio and a 2nd class stamp with
William Dyce's Madonna and Child. The
secular stamps will feature performers in costume from Cinderella, Peter Pan,
Aladdin and Snow White. However if you want a religious stamp you will
need to ask for one or you will end up with Peter Pan on your stamp. Advent
reminds us not only of the first coming of Jesus in the world as a helpless
baby born in a stable but that Jesus will return again in glory to renew and
recreate our world into the kingdom of God.
We don’t have to wait until Jesus returns to start working towards God’s
kingdom we can start now by sharing the true story of Christmas to our family,
friends and neighbours. We can challenge
the secular Christmas and the attitudes of consumerism in our society by using
it as time to reflect on God and do something different from everyone
else. The Methodist
Relief and Development Fund offers alternative Christmas gifts you can give a
wood-saving stove for a family in El Salvador, a piglet for breeding in Malawi,
a doctor's salary in Togo. It’s a great
opportunity if someone asks you “what you got for Christmas” and you can reply
“I got a piglet” or perhaps say “I got a wood-stove” but best of all you can
say you shared the gift of faith this Christmas and brought God’s kingdom a
little bit closer. Have a blessed
Christmas and a happy New Year.
Blessings
Gary
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Thu, July 31, 2008 19:33:55I have been trying to set up a new website here are the links.
http://www.larkfieldchurch.co.ukhttp://www.tonbridgeroadchurch.orgGary
Gary's BlogPosted by revd. Gary Watt Thu, July 31, 2008 19:26:24Hi all, I have set up website for tonbridge road church it is
http://www.tonbridgeroadchurch.org
If you have any suggestions about content and ideas for any of the website get in touch.
Gary
