He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Five stories.
The first story begins with a train crash - not a metaphor. The 1988 Clapham Rail Crash. Paddy woke with a start to find bodies all around him. As Paddy staggered alive from the train he began to question why he had survived when so many hadn’t. What was the purpose behind it all? Questioning that led… slowly by slowly … to Jesus.
A couple of years later there was a crisis with one their daughters that led his wife carol to reappraise her life. As She put it “These events turned our world upside down… that’s how I came to know Jesus, because it was the only way I could go. The only place of dependence.
As Paddy put it ,” we left the army, stepped off this ladder of success, and everyone said we were completely nuts.” They went with the Christian Charity Tearfund workers to Armenia just following an earthquake there. They lived in the slums with the emerging church with whom they were working. As Paddy put it “We saw massive Christian persecution and were involved in feeding 100,000 people. We never wanted to go back to our old way of life.” and as Carol says “ There was so much fear and danger that we just had to trust God. It was total dependence.”
Paddy’s dad’s church in Scotland sent money to buy pigs so an orphanage Paddy and Carol worked with could be self-sustaining – they saw how little bits of money could be life changing. The journey went on - a spell in Bulgaria on a project feeding street kids and the elderly. Carol’s mum Betty Trussell died and left money that they were able to put into a trust for the project .
They decided to return on our own to their home town of Salisbury to raise the money needed, and it was reported in the local paper.
And then in 2001 God sent them a message they could not ignore. As Paddy says “A lady phoned me and said: “You’re feeding overseas when my kids are going hungry tonight.” It was like a knife in our hearts.”
So inspired by their Christian faith, using the principle that small gifts could make a big difference, and funded by Carol’s mum’s Betty Trussell’s legacy, they set up the Salisbury “food bank”, where those in poverty could be given food.
18 years later the Trussell Trust runs 1200 food banks across the nation. Forty thousand volunteers have joined Carol and Paddy in this vision, and last year 1.3 million emergency food parcels were handed out. (1)
……………………………………………………………………………………………...
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Five stories.
One story down, four stories to go.
Our second story begins in a small C of E church - 50 on a good Sunday, 30 on a bad Sunday. One of the mums - lets call her Jane - goes on the diocesan training course on evangelism. Jane is told she has to do a project. She asks a number of vicars she knows what she could do- and gets no help.
So she decides to run a Christians Against Poverty money course. Now I think many people would put a poster up on the outside of their church building and see who comes. Jane decides to do something different. Jane goes into the nursery (completely secular nursery) that hires the church hall and that her daughter (we’ll call her Grace) goes to. And she talks to the nursery leader who is very enthusiastic about it. And she talks to the mums. And a lot of them are struggling with money and are very keen to come.
The CAP money course isn’t excessively Christian, but it is threaded through with bits of the bible and with an occasional undercurrent about the difference Jesus can make.
Upto 8 mums come to the course - All Hindu or Muslim apart from one east European who is married to a Muslim. For all the mums it is about opening their eyes to a new way of seeing money and about release from the captivity of debt. Particularly for the last mum it is part of a major reconnecting with Jesus.
The story moves on. Jane and Grace are a few years later going to an equally small (and even more tradition) different parish. There Jane starts a bi-monthly messy church. The session is advertised as “Open to people of all faiths and none. Crafts. Songs. Telling a story from the bible and eating a meal together”. Each session twenty kids and ten adults turn up. It is not entirely clear whether they have been recruited by Jane at the school gate or by Grace talking to her school friends. A few are from nominal Christian backgrounds, but almost all are from Muslim or Hindu backgrounds. One is one of the mums from the CAP course. All coming to bring their kids to hear stories about Jesus and even to say “amen” to prayers. Some of the mums start coming regularly to messy churches across the area wherever they are on. One Hindu mum starts coming every year to church at Christmas. Several of the families turn up on Ash Wednesday to the (Book of Common Prayer) Ash Wednesday service. A load of the mums join a lent group that Jane asks the vicar to run in her living room.
All this going on in a church of 30-50 people aged 70 plus where Grace is the only child on a Sunday morning and Jane the only mum.
……………………………………………………………………………………………...
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Five stories
Two stories down, three to go.
Our third story begins with Tony losing his job. He is no longer a bright young thing in his twenties, and the council decide to let this 50 something go.
Tony decides to see the silver lining and gets stuck in his local church of Holy Trinity. What might God be saying?
The Church Council start talking about doing some sort of fun day. Holy Trinity church is a bit hidden away, but there is a park between the church and the high street which many people cut through to get to the High Street. Lets do a Fun Day there. All sorts of ideas come up. Bouncy castles. A prayer tent. Inflatable sumo wrestling. A Christian puppeteer. Music both from churches and from community youth bands. Everything free. But it is going to cost so much money. Perhaps we should do it next year.
Next year comes - and the project is still just as exciting - and just as daunting. Let’s play safe. Can we really afford this? Perhaps next year? But Tony pushes. Against the reluctance of the Church Council (including the vicar) Tony pushes them to trust God.
And they trust God. Other local churches are got on board. Money - surprisingly - is donated by the local council as well as by the diocese.
Tony can be a bit flaky. The Vicar (himself not the most detailed oriented person) has chase Tony to make sure all the risk assessments and paperwork is done.
But on the day - As “Fun in the Park” begins, the park is full of attractions. Seven Thousand people come through the park that day. Enjoying the music. Watching the Puppets. Joining in games. Getting face painted. Many parents comment how wonderful it is to be going to an event where they are not bankrupted by the cost of the rides. One family starts coming to church - and that’s only to Tony’s church - who knows how many families start coming to the other churches who have got involved. Lots of people ask for prayer. The church’s profile is lifted in the local community. There is a jubilee feel. It feels like good news. It feels like a year of the Lord’s favour.
For five years, until health stops him, Tony runs fun in the park. Each time with between five and seven thousand punters coming through.
And all this initiated by a sacked middle aged bloke at a CofE church of only 120 people.
……………………………………………………………………………………………...
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Five stories
Three stories down, two to go.
Our fourth story starts with a gift. In March 2008 Business man David Marshall was given a gift - a box with a chocolate egg inside. Nothing surprising about David getting that present - it was Easter. It read: ‘Easter is the festival of chocolate and loveliness’. David said “It made me smile. But then I began to wonder – was it right for the manufacturer of an Easter egg to change the meaning of a religious festival in this way? Imagine the outcry if this had been done to Christmas. I began the search for an Easter egg which mentioned the Christian story of Easter. It became clear that out of the 80 million eggs on sale there was not a single manufacturer who was willing to mention the religious aspects of the festival.”
Surely there had to be a place for one Easter egg which mentioned Jesus? So David felt the Spirit of the Lord on him to set up a company that would “bring good news”, that in the midst of chocolate would “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”.
It was to be a commercial company but it had to be “good news to the poor” so it had to be fair trade chocolate that was used, where the small farmers in Africa and elsewhere were paid a fair price for their work. Each egg would come with a picture book telling the Easter Story. And a suitable percentage of the price of each egg would go to charity.
So a very ordinary business man who happened to be a Christian started a new company. And people were enthused. Christian grandparents whose children didn’t go to church bought them for the grandchildren. People bought them for their neighbours. Church Toddler Groups bought them for the parents who came. Individual church goers bought them for the children of their neighbours.
And ten years on, over a million of the Real Easter Egg have been sold. They are stoked even in some branches of Waitrose, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda. £250,000 has been donated to good causes.
And to all children to whom this special chocolate egg has been given, the message is sent out that Christianity isn’t a list of rules saying “thou shalt not” but is good news, come to bring “life in all it’s fulness” and the year of the Lord’s favour. (2)
……………………………………………………………………………………………...
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Four stories down, one to go.
And that story is your story. Because the Jesus who sat down in the synagogue and proclaims he has been “anointed to bring good news to the poor” is the one who says to us “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19)
The stories I have shared are all real stories. Two are of people who’s names you won’t know but who’s projects have hit the newspapers. Two are of ordinary people I have come across in my own life. I could have told fifty more stories. God loves those stories. And God is waiting to hear your story.
What are you going to do to bring good news and particularly good news to the poor?
What are you going to do to proclaim release to the captives?
What are you going to do to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind?
What are you going to do to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour?
Where does your story begin?
(1) Story of Trussell Trust and Paddy and Carol https://www.reform-magazine.co.uk/2014/04/at-home-with-charity/
(2) https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/939233/meaningful-chocolate-company-easter-egg-chocolate-david-marshall
