Dear Friends
We are moving swiftly towards the year’s end, the days are growing shorter and colder. In November we have Bonfire Night with all the explosion of fireworks, the opportunity to burn old branches and leaves (even furniture!) and to eat a mix of concoctions guaranteed to make anyone sick. Toffee apples, treacle toffee, parkin, pork pie and mushy peas, brandy snaps, hot soup, sausages, marshmallows……
I think that whenever we celebrate any occasion one of the first things we think of is what food will we eat? On Tuesday mornings our very popular drop-in majors on bacon sandwiches and toasted teacakes. Come along if you’ve never been. Another occasion is the fortnightly afternoon tea with cakes and buns. Last month we had a wonderful harvest supper and all of this eating together helps to develop friendships and meaningful relationships.
Indeed Jesus Himself ate with people on many occasions – so much so that His detractors accused Him saying: Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 11:19). He attended weddings and banquets, hosted parties and fed great crowds on hillsides. But the most intimate meals He shared with His close disciples. Such a meal we now know as the Last Supper – because it was the final time He ate in this way before being crucified.
When we meet and share bread and wine in our Communion services we remember not only that Last Supper but all the times Jesus has communed or shared His life with His disciples and with all His followers down the centuries whereby all of this eating together has helped to develop a friendship and a meaningful relationship between Jesus and every single Christian believer.
Put your faith in Him and God will supply all your needs in 2019 and forever.
Stephen