Author: Nikki

April – Now the green blade riseth

Now the green blade riseth

As I write this mid-March, it is snowing again. What a winter we have had, and it has been very difficult for many people. Now April has arrived, and we are appreciating the spring flowers and the increased warmth. We have also celebrated Easter, and the move from darkness to life with the resurrection.

We have continued our Easter tradition at Liberton Kirk of decorating the bare Christmas crosses with beautiful yellow daffodils – transforming the whole space into one of light, energy and new growth. I was just listening to an item on the radio this morning about a chemical in daffodils which can help dementia sufferers – what an amazing thought, and such a wonderful gift from our loving creative God.

Easter is always seen as a time of new beginnings. There is a favourite hymn of our family, which became especially meaningful to my mother-in- law, following the death of her husband 17 years ago at this time of year.

“Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain,
love lives again that with the dead has been,
love is come again,
like wheat that springeth green
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to kife again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been,
Love is come again
Like wheat that springeth green”
(John Macleod Campbell Crum)

This April, let us embrace this idea of new beginnings, and rededicate ourselves to this Jesus, who loves us so much more than we love ourselves.

Much love,
John

The Year of Young People

Last May, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland designated 2018 as ‘The Year of Young People’ (YoYP). Throughout Scotland churches are being challenged to engage with a number of pressing issues which are effecting us all, such as how to encourage young people to engage more with their faith, and how to make sure that they know they are an important part of the church.

Here at Liberton we have been trying to address these questions for a number of years now, particularly with our Forward Together campaign in 2001 to raise money for the appointment of our first full time youth worker, and, more recently, in the various ways we have been trying to include and involve younger people in our worship and in our communion services.

There is one important area, however, in which we still have some way to go. In March 2017, I wrote of the image in the Bible of church as the ‘Family of God’ and the need for us to be more ‘intergenerational’. I had been challenged by the words of Andy Chittick, spoken two years before, who had said…
Statistics show that, unless each one of our young people feel known, loved and accepted by at least five other church members who are not in their
immediate family, then, when they grow older, they will be unlikely to want to remain part of our church.

A year has now passed since I wrote this article, but the challenge still remains, and so, to make it more real, here is an exercise for us all to do. Please write the names of five school-age children known to you personally, who you are not directly related to, and who are part of our church family here at Liberton.

Much love
John

February – Focus Day Feedback

I’ve just got back from our congregational ‘Focus Day’ (morning, actually, and finishing with a lovely bread and soup lunch), when we spent some time together reflecting on this year’s theme – “We have this treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4.7).

Our guest speaker was Rev Maggie Lane, who, in the early ‘noughties’ spent six months with us as she explored her own calling to ministry. This was something she eventually and reluctantly accepted, and for a number of years now she has been the leader of one of the churches at Kirkliston.

Maggie talked of her own feelings of inadequacy before taking on the role of minister, and this led us all to reflect on how God uses even us, broken as we are, to help others know that there is hope in Jesus, and that a new life is possible. While we need to acknowledge that there may well be suffering along the way, it is often when we go through hard times that we can look back and see how Jesus has helped us, and we can then support others going through similar struggles.

Maggie also spoke of the need for honesty and humility in our relationship with God, and especially in our prayer life. She centred on the need for God’s transforming presence in the life of our church, quoting the well-known promise he gives us in 2 Chronicles 7.14 –
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Towards the end of the morning we spent some time sharing what we felt God had been saying to us as a church. The main themes that emerged in common were
• the importance of meeting together in prayer
• our need for humility in the presence of God
• our need to accept our brokenness before God’s light can shine through

Much love
John

February Magazine

Wanting the news, updates and activities for February check out the Kirk Magazine which is online now. You can read it online or download a copy of it for later.

This months letter from the Minister is “Persistence pays”, there’s a great article about the 20th anniversary celebration of John Young at Liberton Kirk and did you know that in the centre of the magazine you can get the full months daily devotions.

Go to the magazine page now to get your copy.