Half term has started and some of you will be away enjoying a well-deserved and much needed break. Wherever you are, have a great time – we’ll be thinking of you. But if you’re around, do come and join us at either St Mary’s or St Swithun’s this coming Sunday. When we make the effort and join together it’s always an encouragement to all of us and I’m always pleased to see you!
And here’s the good news: the clocks go back in the early hours of Sunday morning, so you’ll get an extra hour in bed! That, as any hobbit (the mythical creature from Lord of the Rings) will tell you, will leave plenty of time for a second breakfast! At St Mary’s, breakfast will be available from 9.40am as you arrive. At St Swithun’s, the service of Holy Communion will start at 10.00am. And if you forget to change the clock, very few people will know and you’ll get the choice of best seat in the house!
At Breakfast Church we’ll be continuing with our theme of Women in the Bible and looking at some unsung heroes that just have a verse or a line of a verse written about them in the Bible. We often hear or come across stories of ‘unsung heroes’ in society – ordinary people who step into situations and make a lasting and meaningful difference. Here’s a lovely modern example I came across in the news this week.
Liam Howard has worked as an attendant at the NCP car park on London Street in Southport for nearly fourteen years. It’s not a glamorous job nor one that usually makes headlines. But last month, while he was out litter-picking, he noticed a 67-year-old woman being sworn at and approached by a group of five young men, simply because she had politely asked them to bin their rubbish rather than throw it on the ground. Liam walked over and stood beside her. No shouting, no heroics, just calm, firm words. The young men apologised, and Liam pointed out that it was her they owed the apology to, not him. She told the Liverpool ECHO (who reported the story this week) it felt as if a knight had turned up at exactly the moment she needed one.
It turns out it wasn’t the first time Liam had been an unsung hero. Last October, Liam gave first aid to a grandfather taken ill in his parked car and stayed with him until the paramedics arrived; the man made a full recovery. On another occasion he stopped to ask a woman eating her lunch alone in her car whether she was having a nice day. That ten-minute chat, she later said, changed everything for her at a painful time. This spring he received a Grand Pride of Sefton Award. Asked about it all, Liam said he just couldn’t walk past: “I saw someone who was frightened and needed help.”
Slipped into Luke 8.1–3 is a short list of women who travelled with Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Joanna (whose husband Chuza was steward of Herod’s household), Susanna, “and many others”, who provided for Jesus and his disciples out of their own resources.
Susanna gets exactly one mention in the whole Bible. Yet without these women, Jesus’ ministry would never have stayed on the road, and Luke makes sure their names are written down. They are unsung heroes!
But on Easter morning it is Mary Magdalene, Joanna and the other women who go to the tomb in the dark (Luke 24 v 10). These behind-the-scenes people become the very first witnesses of the resurrection.
Most of us will never make the front page. But God’s kingdom has always moved forward through people like Liam, Joanna and Susanna: people who notice, who stop, who stand beside someone frightened, and who quietly give what they have. We have folk like that here in the Worthy and especially in our church family – which is great and such a blessing. Thank you, every one of you.
So this half term, keep your eyes open. Who could do with someone standing beside them this week? You might just be someone’s unsung hero.
Enjoy that extra hour, and I hope to see you on Sunday morning!
Revd Paul