4th July, 2021

​My dear friends,

I found myself talking to an archivist from a county record office last week. She said something that was terribly obvious when one thought about it afterwards. We were speaking of the Church of England and she said: ‘Most people understand that in big organisations such as the Church of England, things go wrong, mistakes are made, some people get hurt, and other people don’t get thanked when they ought to be.’

Well, that certainly has been my experience – though it hasn’t put me off Christianity!
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I discovered, purely by chance, that today, Sunday 4th July, has been named ‘Thank You Day’ – an opportunity for people to express their thanks and appreciation of others. There is a lovely article about ‘Thank You Day’ on St John Connect.

As your County Chaplain and Hospitaller, may I take this opportunity to express my own thanks and appreciation to everyone from St John in Essex. Things have not always been easy over the past eighteen months because of the Coronavirus pandemic, but the members of St John in our county have risen to the challenge in the most splendid manner and shown devotion to duty, adaptability, sticking power, and if I may say so, practical love and compassion towards the sick and suffering.

I know from my conversations that some St John folk have had bad experiences over the past eighteen months. I want you to know you have my every sympathy and that I remember you in my prayers. I am at the end of the telephone if ever you need me.

I am also sure that many of you have not been thanked properly – as you deserve to be – for all your hard work in this difficult time.

Let me begin to rectify that omission right now. I and the other members of your County Priory Group have heard some truly wonderful stories of the work of members of St John around Essex. We are deeply grateful and appreciative of all that you have done and continue to do. I would add that on both occasions when I had my Covid-19 jabs there were members of St John present, and I heard from the NHS staff how pleased they were to have your support.

So, do please know that you are wanted and appreciated – and enjoy 4th July, ‘Thank You Day.
With my continued prayers and all good wishes,

​                                             The Rev. Dr  ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
TRINITY 5 – 4th JULY 2021.
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Gospel: St Mark, chapter 6, verses 1-13
As you will have realised, having listened to my sermons over many years, I still find Jesus Christ and Christianity hugely exciting. But I would be the first person to admit that following Jesus can sometimes be tough and demanding. Perhaps, when we encounter difficulties and problems on our Christian pilgrimage, we might remind ourselves that it was exactly the same for Jesus.
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            We find one instance of this at the start of today’s Gospel. Jesus grew up in the town of Nazareth and trained as a carpenter like his step-father St Joseph. At some point St Joseph died and Jesus carried on the carpentry business. He would have been well-known to the townsfolk of Nazareth. They would have known his family. Jesus would have perhaps helped to build some of their houses, repair their doors, made their furniture.

            Then, one day when he was aged 30, Jesus shut up the carpenter’s shop, was baptised by St John the Baptist in the river Jordan, and began his three years of public ministry which we read about in the Gospels.

When Jesus returned to Nazareth a year or so later, his visit was unsuccessful. On the Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue. Elsewhere, he had attracted large crowds, but here in Nazareth, the widespread response might be paraphrased as: “Who does he think he is?!” St Mark writes in today’s Gospel:
 
Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, are not his brothers and sisters here with us? And they took offence at him.
 
First century Palestinian society was very hierarchical: everyone knew their place and mostly stayed in it. Jesus stepped outside this. He had been brought up as a carpenter – a worker – but he became a preacher, which many people would have seen as the preserve of men educated at the Jewish rabbinic schools. “Who does he think he is?”

Jesus didn’t conform to the expectations of the Nazarenes. Their attitude meant that Jesus could do very little in Nazareth, except lay his hands on a few sick people. St Mark tells us that ‘he was amazed at their unbelief.’

There’s a message here that we need to beware, lest we end up like the Nazarenes. They had low and narrow expectations. They expected God only to behave in a certain sort of way and only to use a certain sort of person. When God did something different, they were unable or perhaps unwilling to recognize that the hand of God lay behind it – and think what they missed!

The second point to today’s Gospel is the recognition that it is not always easy to share our Christian faith with our nearest and dearest. A few years ago, a devout Christian layman whom I knew very slightly asked if he could speak with me. He explained that he was shortly to be married. He hoped that he and his wife would have children. His question to me was: How could he bring up his children to be Christians, like him?

 We have to recognize that we cannot nudge, force or manipulate anyone to share the Christian faith – all we can do is commend Christianity to them, say our prayers, and leave the rest up to God.

I suggested that he should have his children Baptised as soon as possible, for Baptism is the foundation of everything in the Christian life.

I also remember suggesting to the man that loving his children and giving them a good personal example was very important. If his children saw that Jesus Christ meant a great deal to Daddy, this would have an impact upon them. He shouldn’t try to force Christianity down their necks at every opportunity – but, if he prayed with his children and read them simple Bible stories, if he took his children to church on Sundays, said grace before meals, if his children saw him saying his prayers, reading his Bible, and going to Holy Communion, then there was a chance that something would rub off on them.

I also pointed out that children are very good at sniffing out double-standards, and would soon realise if Daddy said one thing in church on Sunday, but did something quite different afterwards.
Now, children often go through a rebellious phase as they grow up, and they sometimes say that churchgoing is just for little kids and old ladies. Perhaps they may get their legs pulled for going to Church from their peer groups at school. To be a Christian today means  going against the flow and turning our backs on much that most people in northern Europe think matters. This takes courage and imagination.

And yet, G.K. Chesterton, in one of his Father Brown novels, spoke of the unseen hook and invisible line linking every Baptised Christian to God: it is long enough to let the Christian wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread. My hope is that if one can give children a good grounding in Christianity, introduce them to the person of Jesus Christ, and let them see a few cheerful and normal adult churchgoers, then, one may have planted some seeds of Christian belief deep within their hearts. If they wander away, there is every chance that they will return to the Faith later on in their lives.

Fortunately, after Jesus’ disappointing experience in Nazareth, things got a whole lot better. Jesus left Nazareth, and shortly afterwards he sent out his disciples in pairs. They passed around the locality, preaching and healing, and had astounding success. ‘So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and cured them.’ There is a sense of excitement in these words: men, led by God, are doing great things. None of them had previously dreamt that they would be preaching, casting out demons, and healing the sick: all signs of the advent of the Messiah. The message is to trust God, and to allow Him to lead us into the unfamiliar.

Being a Christian, as I said at the start, is not always easy. And yet, being a Christian is nonetheless deeply wonderful. In Jesus Christ, the Carpenter from Nazareth, we encounter God face to face. Jesus shows us what matters, and he offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Just like the man who asked me about sharing the Christian faith with his children, we too need to commend the Christian religion to those around us by providing an example. This means nurturing our own daily relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps we might make a fresh start by looking for God in unexpected people and in unexpected places.