Category: Sunday@thePub

Luke 15:20b-22

Now it is true we probably all like a good feast, there is nothing better than tucking in to your favourite meal and enjoying the chat and banter of those gathered around the table, and Christmas is exactly the time when we will do just that, or like our reading, maybe its the return of an estranged loved one that gathers us together for a feast, in other words feast are for those special occasions.

Although during these special gatherings we are also faced with an element of excess, notably during the Christmas period, when we are faced not only with food, but also with the amount of money that is spent on gift giving and of course parties! This is brought into stark contrast this year when many households will be burdened by the cost of living crises. There is a sense that many people will be feeling guilty as they aren’t able to do the kind of Christmas’ that they have done before, there will be others that will just go gun-ho and put it all on the credit card.

This advent I hope that we will take some time to ponder on our feasting and maybe not be as extravagant as we have done before, maybe you can afford to give just a wee bit more to charities that will be supporting the most vulnerable this time of year.

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by feast. Use the hashtag #woryem

feast
feast for celebration
feast for thinking of others
feast

There is a feast laid out for you
Stop for a moment
Where are those who will not feast?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
There is rest in this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Photo by Rumman Amin on Unsplash

Rob Wylie

Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team.  He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held.  He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.

Isaiah 40:27-31

As I write this I am currently recovering from a cold, before this it had been a mad few weeks of work and socialising, i’ve loved it, but I realised as the cold kicked in that I wasn’t used to it, the pandemic slowed me down, it slowed us all down. While I have been recovering, Karen also became ill, covid for her, and we were saying that it was actually nice to have a few days to stop and to hide from the world, something that we loved about the pandemic! No pressure to be anywhere really, and very few expectations.

Weariness I think kicks-in when we don’t take time out, to slow down, to recalibrate ourselves, either with our bodies or with our mental capacity. I think this is about knowing ourselves, knowing what we need, what we don’t need. I wonder sometimes how well we know ourselves at all, especially in the midst of our fast paced world, it’s easy to get swept along. I know i have been asking this of myself in recent weeks, I’ve been pondering on, get this… on having a retreat alone, without people… how do you think I will cope?!

It is also the case that weariness can come because you are just bored, that things are just not what they should be, the trudge through life is just a bit difficult. I love these verses from Isaiah, they are so hope filled, it offers us a challenge to do some inner work, I think that’s what it means to ‘hope in the Lord’. And so I wonder if you can recognise the signs of when you are getting weary? What could you put in place to help you? How do you feel about developing your inner self to help you?

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word weary. Use the hashtag #woryem

weary
weary from the pace of life
weary from the struggles within
weary

There is strength from the divine.
Stop for a moment
How can you lean into it today?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
We grow weary through this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Rob Wylie

Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team.  He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held.  He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.

Psalm 139:13-16

How do you feel about your body? Your humanness? The body is a peculiar thing isn’t it? We have the uniqueness of who we are written into our DNA, not to mention, our fingerprints, voice, teeth, as well as our walk, tongue, lips, eye and even our toes!! Who knew? We are incredible!

I suspect each of us looks at our own bodies and wishes something was different about us? I suspect many of us wish all kinds of things about our bodies. I am very much aware as I write this that our bodies don’t always behave themselves, My incredible wife Karen, lives with pain… all the time! It can dominate her life, and that is what is so tough about the body, it can cause us so much trouble.

When I was younger my experiences of having a stammer crippled me, I know I ride over it these days, I have strategies to help me, but from time to time it winds me up, it gets me frustrated. I’m also aware as I write this of the pain and anguish of watching friends and families bodies failing. We all have experience of watching the reality of this I’m sure! It is incredibly difficult.

So when I read these verses from the Psalms, and others like them it can be difficult to think that actually we are special, that we are loved, that we have the very stamp of the divine written within us? Advent and the Christmas season is a reminder to us all just how beautiful we are, may we begin this advent to know that for ourselves.

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word body. Use the hashtag #woryem

Body
Body positive
Body, negative
Body

There is a uniqueness about who you are
stop for moment
How does that make you feel?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
There is rest in this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Rob Wylie

Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team.  He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held.  He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.

Matthew 2:1-12

Where are you as you read these words? Sat at home, in a coffee shop, on a walk. Maybe you are in one of your favourite places or an unfamiliar one that feels a little strange.  In the story of Jesus’ birth we hear of numerous people having to move to new places or seek very specific ones.  Mary and Joseph leave their village to travel to Bethlehem for the census even with Mary due to give birth at any moment. The shepherd are sat in their fields but then get sent to find the new baby. Our verses today introduce the Magi who are looking for the place where a new king will be born.  They natural go to the palace of the current king to find this new child. But this isn’t the right place! The place they need is a much more humble one and not the usual setting for the arrival of a new born king.  These places that appear in the story have become special places for many people, with churches and shrines being built upon them.  That’s because the place where things happen, particularly significant events, hold special memories for people or feel like thin places (that is a place where the gap between us and God feels especially small).  These thin places are where we go when we need space to think or to seek a sense of peace or connectedness with who we are and where we have come from.   Maybe you are sat in your thin place right now!

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word place. Use the hashtag #woryem

Place
Place for being
Place for physicality
Place

There is a place for you in this season of advent
Stop for a moment
Where do you call home?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
We have a place in this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Photo by Tim Mossholder

David Wynd

Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014.   He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh.  Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.

www.anotherpath.co.uk

Isaiah 32:1-5 

Isaiah 32:15-18

I wonder where you consider your home to be? I wonder what comes to mind when you ponder on the word home, maybe it’s the house you grew up in, or the region, town, you now reside. It could even be the people that you associate with that make you feel at home. So It could cover a few things. 

What strikes me though is no matter where home actually is, its not just about the place that becomes important, it’s also the associated feelings that it brings. When I go back to Harrogate to see my mum, yes i have the history there, but i also feel comfortable, its a peaceful, restful place, there is something about familiarity that helps that sense of rest. 

It’s also interesting that I actually find ‘home’ in several places. Harrogate will always be home, but North Shields is home for me now, heading back to Estonia earlier in the year it again felt like ‘home’. Edinburgh is also a place I consider home, it was where Karen went to University and we have friends up there. 

When I think about advent, I think about Mary and Jospeh traveling back to Bethlehem for the census, i think about Jesus being born in a ‘stable’ – or whatever it was! it actually makes home to be not that nice, not safe, not altogether comfortable, and arduous! So maybe ‘home’ isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. I’m reminded now of a few classic Christmas movies, Home Alone, where we see Kevin being left alone to fend for himself. I’m reminded of Elf when Buddy goes to New York to find his real father. 

Home is tinted with all kinds of joys and sorrows, it’s important as we travel through this advent that we remember to be kind to each other, as we may be carrying some heavy burdens about what home actually means for us. But i also hope the words of the final verse of our reading will be your experience – May you live in peaceful dwellings and secure homes and may you have undisturbed rest. 

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by home. Use the hashtag #woryem

Home
Home to rest a while
Home to be a peace
Home

There is a place called home
Stop for a moment
Where is that for you?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
There is rest in this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Image by Paolo Trabattoni from Pixabay

Rob Wylie

Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team.  He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held.  He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.

John 1:1-5

The opening of the book of John is an echo of the opening words of the book of Genesis.  In the beginning! In the beginning there was nothing but God and then there was all things. The universe expanding into the mass of stars and planets, galaxies forming and solar systems falling into place. There was skies and seas , mountains and valleys. There was space as far as the eye could see.  I love the outdoors and I love places where I can see for miles. Sometimes that is up a mountain, sometimes staring at the horizon from the sea shore and sometimes looking at the vast blackness of space.  Stopping and staring at the space we inhabit can remind us that we are part of something much, much bigger than ourselves.  It broadens our horizons and fixes our eyes away from the things right in front of our noses that can sometimes take up all our vision.  Maybe that is why John links back to Genesis. Maybe he wants his readers to remember their place in the vastness of space and time. To remind them that this creation is about more than their place in it but the creator who made it all.

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word space. Use the hashtag #woryem

Space
Space for expanse
Space for the between
Space

There is time to find space in this season of advent
Stop for a moment
How can you find space to survive?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
We have found space in this season of adven
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Photo by Stephan Seeber

David Wynd

Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014.   He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh.  Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.

www.anotherpath.co.uk

Psalm 104:24-26

Today (7^th December 2022) is exactly 50 years since this photo – the Blue Marble – was taken from Apollo 17. At the time environmentalist had asked NASA to take a Hi-res image of the whole earth as they believed that when humans saw their planet in one frame it would change their attitude towards it. Previous lower resolution images had been taken from satellites and the famous Earth Rise photos from the moon. But this was the first time earth had been seen in such detail, as a whole, and its fragility, vulnerability, and isolation within the darkness of space.

I wonder how you feel seeing our planet like this today? Sci-fi movies and other images have, perhaps, dulled its power to move us. 

Psalm 104

²⁴ How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

Psalm 104 is the psalmist environmental song. It both sets God as the creator, and celebrates our earth. As the environmentalists say – there is no planet B – this is the one we have and whatever our theology of what happens next we need to look after it.

Spend some time today looking at the Blue Marble. If you have a marble then hold it in your hands. Then go to a place where you can sit, kneel or even lay down on the earth (that could be the beach or under the stars) and consider how part of this symbiotic relationship you are. 

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word earth. Use the hashtag #woryem

Earth
Earth our only home
Earth our place of hope
Earth

You are part of God’s created earth in this season of advent
Stop for a moment
How are you connect to this world today?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
We are here on earth, our home, in this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

John Cooper

I’ve been a member of BCFX for about 2 years. I love it. It’s home and hearth, welcome and challenge, ebb and flow.

Psalm 90:1-12

One of the most beautiful and yet hardest things about life right now is watching my incredible mum grow older, it’s hard to watch her not being so agile and being unsteady on her feet, don’t get me wrong for her age she does brilliantly, but it’s still tough to watch. One of the scariest moments is when we phone her and she doesn’t answer straight away, I don’t need to tell you what my brain does in those moments!! It’s in those moments I realise how fragile she is, but also how fragile I am!

At the end of the month, we will be talking about the fragility of a baby, and we know that a baby relies on its parents for everything, there are of course people who are reading this that know far more about that than I ever will. But it is a joy to watch even in the last few weeks, friends who are in the process of experiencing the joy and fragility of new life.

There are other areas though where we may use this term, we sometimes talk about it in relation to mental health, and right now the realities of this are all too obvious, particularly after the pandemic and frankly just life! We also talk about it when we discuss the environment. The term fragile is also used in relation to antiques, and parcels.

I am also reminded through our text about the occasion when we gather before lent, Ash Wednesday when we remember these words – “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” As we make our advent journey let us remember the fragility of life and the various scenes when you might use this phrase. It might also be a reminder to us that others are also experiencing areas of life that are fragile for them, so be generous in the way we live and the way we encounter others.

Photo Challenge: Take a picture of something inspired by the word fragile. Use the hashtag #woryem

Fragile
Fragile are all things
Fragile creating care
Fragile

There is time to be fragile in this season of advent
Stop for a moment
What is it you see?

We are a community of faith.
Strandlopers on a journey.
We have reflected on this season of advent
By God’s grace we go.
Amen

Photo by Stephane YAICH on Unsplash

Rob Wylie

Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team.  He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held.  He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.