St Mark s Church Parish News Trinity 7 Ordinary 18 4 August 2019 · 2019-09-03 · 6-7pm Supple Strength Yoga Rod Fewings 07718390188 Amanda Alcock 07769747393 ... 7.45 -10.45pm Bedford

Thank you The flowers this week have been given by Irene McKenzie in memory of my dearly beloved husband Eddie. We are always pleased when people make donations towards flowers perhaps to celebrate a special occasion such as an anniversary or in memory of a loved one. Please contact Miss Marion Prior 303254 or add your name to the rota in the Foyer.

The Reverend Dr. Sam Cappleman Assistant Rural Dean of Bedford

107 Dover Crescent, Bedford MK41 Tel: 266952 [email protected]

The Reverend Canon Charles Royden The Vicarage, Calder Rise. MK41 7UY

309175 Mobile 07973 113861 [email protected]

Reader: Mrs Wendy Waters Pastoral Support Team Co-Ordinator 342613 [email protected]

St. Mark’s Church Centre www.stmarkschurch.com

Open Monday - Friday 9am - 5.00pm Tel/fax: 342613 [email protected] Centre Manager: Miss Wendy Rider 342613 Church Wardens Mr Mike Cooper & Mr Jim Williams Treasurer: Mr Ian Farthing 210892 [email protected] Gift Aid Administrator: Mr Jim Williams 360605 Churchyard Administrator: Mrs Avril Williams 342613 [email protected] Music Copyright CCL1501 Charity No 1164416

St Mark’s Contact Information

Church Services

4 August - Trinity 7 Ordinary 18 8.30am Holy Communion 9.30am Morning Family Worship Preacher - The Reverend Ross Royden Leadership - Mr Jim Williams Intercessions - Young people Organist - Mr Bill Fudge Lectionary Readings Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14, Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21

11 August - Trinity 8 Ordinary 19 8.30am Holy Communion 9.30am Morning Family Worship Preacher - The Reverend Canon Charles Royden Leadership - Mrs Laura Farthing Intercessions - Mr Ian farthing Organist - Mr Clive Simmonds Lectionary Readings Genesis 15:1-6, Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16, Lk 12:32-40 Footprints walk today, see inside for details Midweek Services Wednesday Communion 10.00am in the Chapel Please join us for a service followed by coffee First Monday of every month. Holy Communion at 10.00am at Sir William Harpur House

St Mark’s Church Parish News

Trinity 7 - Ordinary 18 4 August 2019

Church Leadership Team Mr Mike Cooper, Mr Jim Williams, Mrs Laura Farthing,

Mrs Liz Jackson, Mrs Janet Warren, The Reverend Alan Kirk

Please inform us if you know of anyone who is ill, bereaved, housebound, requires a visit, home communion or counselling services. Please also ask us if you would like a home visit for any reason.

Prayer for Today

Lord God, your Son left the riches of heaven and became poor for our sake: when we prosper save us from pride, when we are needy save us from despair, that we may trust in you alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Monday 7.30am-6.00pm Pre-school Mon-Fri St Mark’s Manager Mrs. Helen Harpin 312634 (See website) for more details www.thisispreschool.com) 10.00am Bakers Barn Art Group. Mrs M. Berry 211955 10.00am U3A Play reading Rod Fewings 07718390188 9.45am - 10.45am &11.00am-12noon Pilates Liz Mason 07816522200 2-4pm U3A Meditation & Wellbeing Rod Fewings 07718390188 2-3.15pm U3A Recorder Group Rod Fewings 07718390188 6.00pm Brownies Mrs C Mathew 826190 7.00 to 10.00 p.m. Whist Drive third Monday each month or fifth if there are five. Judith Stanton 01234 823313. 7.30pm Sugarcraft Guild (1st week in month) Heather Buckley 824503 7.00-8.00pm Laughter Club on 2nd week each month Cheryl Green 07729187399 7-9pm Rangers. Nikki Lake 07584028653 Indoor Games. Rod Fewings 07718390188 7-8.5pm Happy Body Project Julie Holl 0780873965 7.30pm Whist Drive Third Monday in the month and fifth if there are five Contact Judith Stanton 823313

Tuesday 9.30am-11.15. Chat & Make A term time group for Parents, Carers and toddlers 0– 5. For more details ring Church Office 342613 or Janine 01234 297481 9.30am -12.30 & 4-9pm Slimming World 9.30, 11.30, 3.30, 5.30, 7.30. Lorrie Pearson 340473 1.15pm U3A Cinema Group. Rod Fewings 07718390188 1.30pm U3A Choir. Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 2.00pm U3A Book Group 1 (3rd Week in month) Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 2.00pm U3A Book Group 2 (2nd Week in month) Contact Rod Fewings 077183901882 2.00pm U3A Photography Group 3 (1st Week in month) Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 2.30pm Knit & Natter Group (Fortnightly) Wool and knitting needles provided. Mrs Maureen Watling 262225 2.00-3.30pm Tuesday Afternoon Housegroup. Fortnightly Social and Bible Study Mrs Jean Bank 355698 6-7pm Supple Strength Yoga Amanda Alcock 07769747393 7.30-9pm Faith Community Church Audua Ogilvie 01234 308644 8.00pm Hearts in Beds Committee (4th week in month) Mrs N Aspey 309816 8.20-9.20pm Restoration Pilates Johanna Debnam 07753418170

Wednesday

10.00-2pm Open House For those with learning disabilities, friends, family, carers etc 342613 10.00am U3A Gardening Group 3 Rod Fewings 07718390188 10.00am Holy Communion. St.Mark’s Chapel. 10am U3A Card Making. Rod Fewings 07718390188 10-4pm Sewing Group 4th week of the month Contact Sue Sewell 07979797747 1.15 Social Bridge Club. Mr Barnes 261811 2 4pm. U3A Craft 1st week in the month Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 3.45– 5.30pm Messy Church Bible stories, crafts, singing and a meal. For children primary school age and their carers. Meeting dates 24/4,15/5,19/6,18/9,16/10,20/11 &1/12. Wendy Waters 401834

6.00pm Brownies Mrs. C Warden 219731 7.00pm Bunyan Bridge Peter Cullum 07545508185 8.00pm Tudor Reeds Folk Dance Club (1st,3rd and 5th Wednesday of the month. Except August). Everyone welcome. All dances called. Call Rosemary 405594 or Graham 406359 for more details. £2 including refreshments. Next meeting Wednesday 17 July 8.00pm Bedford Wine and Social Club (1st week in the month) Jill Cooper 357960

Thursday

9.30-11.25am Chat & Play. A term time group for Parents, Carers & toddlers 0-5. Church office or Janine 297481 12pm Storybox. For the under 5’s and their carers between 12 noon and 1pm. Sandwich lunch and a Bible based story and singing. Contact Jaana Swaaby 3422613. 2-4pm. U3A Indoor Games. Rod Fewings 07718390188 2.30 - 4.30pm Bedford Art Society Jean Patterson 307210 2.30pm - 4.30pm Putnoe Art Group (PAG) Contact Bob Wardale 406094 Mob:07914451198 6-7pm Supple Strength Yoga Amanda Alcock 07769747393 7-9pm Bedford Community Gospel Choir Weekly meeting . Contact 07554148540 7.00pm U3A Singing for Fun (1st & 3rd week in month) Rod Fewings 07718390188 7.00pm Bedford Embroiderers’ Guild (3rd week in month). Carol Plant 01832710504 7.30pm Magpies. Meet on 2nd & 4 Thursday Call Rosemary 405594 for details. Next meeting July 25 for a Strawberry themed social evening. No meetings in August and we start again on September 12 with our Annual Charity Bring and Buy produce sale. 8.00pm Bedford Writers Circle. (1st week in month). John Broadhouse 01525 404014

Friday 10am -12.00 U3A Photography (4th week in month) Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 10.45am - 12 U3A Poetry & Literature Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 2.00-4.00 pm U3A Whist (2nd week in month) Contact Rod Fewings 07718390188 7.45 - 10.45pm Bedford Astrology Club. (2nd week in month )Carol Brown 01438 233385 6.30 –7.30pm Pakua Martial Arts John Waugh 07802755914 7-9pm Mindfulness Meditation Bhante Samitha 07983466105

Saturday

9.00am Faith Community Church (1st week in month) Audua Ogilvie 01234 308644 10.00am-1pm Theatretrain Dancing acting, singing. Kate Howard 01234 782414 10am-1pm Sugarcraft Guild Cygnets (2nd week in month) Margaret Baldry 07919404906

Sunday

9.30 - 10.30 Church and Sunday School at St Mark’s with crèche for under 3’s 10 - 5.30pm Bedford Stamp Fayre at St. Mark’s. P Harris 01623 621143 1st wk Dec/Feb/Apr/Jun/Aug/Oct. 7-8pm Yogabellies. Classes for women during the prenatal period. Contact Symmone Clark 07931094052.

Regular Weekly Activities - St Mark’s Church

Trinity 7 Ordinary 18 Opening Sentence Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Collect Prayer Generous God, you give us gifts and make them grow: though our faith is small as mustard seed, make it grow to your glory and the flourishing of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. First Reading Ecclesiastes 1: 2, 12-14, 2: 18-23 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me – and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labours under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity. (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God) Second Reading Second Reading Colossians Chapter 3:1-11 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things – anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God) Gospel Reading Luke Chapter 12:13-21 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to the crowd, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.‘” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’ (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God)

Post Communion Prayer Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life, ever giving himself that the world may live: may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. CW Hymns 1. All people that on earth do dwell (Tune Old 100th) HP 1 2. Here is love vast as the ocean, (Dim ond Iesu) MP 987 (with instruments) 3. All creatures of our God and King (Lasst uns erfreuen) HP 329 4. Virgin-born, we bow before thee: (Tune Quem Pastores) 5. Sing we of the blessed Mother (Tune: Abbot’s Leigh) Thought for the day - Anne Frank by Ross Royden Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929. She had a sister Margot who was three years older. This was when Hitler and the Nazi party were rising to power in Germany after the first world war. Central to Nazi ideology, as expounded by Hitler, was a deep hatred of the Jews. Anne and her family were Jews. Seeing events, Otto and Edith Frank, Anne’s parents, moved to Amsterdam and Otto founded a company. They settled into life in Amsterdam and were doing reasonably well, and then on September 1, 1939, World War 2 broke out. On May 10, 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and five days later the Dutch surrendered. Slowly at first, but surely, the Nazis introduced anti-Jewish measures as they did everywhere they went. Anne’s father lost his business. Jews had to wear the ‘Star of David’ to mark them out as Jews. In the Spring of 1942, Anne’s father, realizing what was coming, started preparing a hiding place for his family. This was in the annexe of his business premises. Otto was fortunate in receiving help from former colleagues. When the time came for them to use the hiding place, they were joined by 4 more people. On her 13th birthday, just before the family went into hiding, Anne was given a diary. During her time in the annexe, she wrote about her life there, describing her thoughts and feelings. Those in the annexe kept in touch with what was going on in the outside world through those who were helping them and by listening to the radio. One day, Anne heard the Dutch Minister of Education, who had escaped to England, appealing to people to keep hold of any diaries or documents they had for use after the war. Anne was inspired to go over her diary and rewrite it into one running story of her life in captivity, hoping it would be read when the war was over. Before Anne had completed her rewriting, however, on this day, August 4 in 1944, Anne and her family were discovered in a police raid on the building. To this day we do not know what led the police to raid the building. It is possible that someone informed on them. We don’t know. What we do know is that Anne was taken to prison and then transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camp. Otto was sent to the camp for men. Anne, Margot, and her mother to the labour camp for women. In 1944, Anne and Margot were deported to the Bergen-Belsen camp where they died. Anne’s writings were discovered and looked after by those helping the Franks. Her father, who alone survived, published an edited version of her diary after the war. It was an immediate success. Later a fuller version was also published. The diary has made Anne famous and the place where they went into hiding is now a major tourist attraction. A quote from Anne’s diary is well-known: ‘I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.’ This positive outlook in the face of adversity appeals to us and Anne’s story has been made into a general story of youthful optimism and the triumph of the human spirit. This, however, will not do. We like to think of Anne in the annexe full of life and hope. But hers is not a story of any girl, it is a story of a Jewish girl who suffered like millions of other Jews for no other reason than that they were Jews. Her final diary entry reads: ‘if only there were no other people in the world.’ But there were. And many of them were anything but ‘good at heart’. We pass over the awfulness of Anne’s death in our desire to read of her life, but as we read in her diary of her life, we need also to remember how it ended. This is a description from an eye-witness at the Concentration camp:

Anne Frank Aged 13

‘I saw Anne and her sister Margot again in the barracks … It was winter and you didn’t have any clothes. So all of the ingredients for illness were present. They were in bad shape. Day by day they got weaker … You could see that they were very sick. The Frank girls were so emaciated. They looked terrible. They had little squabbles, caused by their illness, because it was clear that they had typhus … They had those hollowed-out faces, skin over bone. They were terribly cold. They had the least desirable places in the barracks, below, near the door, which was constantly opened and closed. You heard them constantly screaming, “Close the door, close the door,” and the voices became weaker every day. You could really see both of them dying …’ Anne and Margot may have died of typhus, but it was antisemitism that killed them. As we see antisemitism on the rise again in our world, we need to read these words, heart-breaking though they are, and make a simple promise: Never again. Meditation Saints Anne and Joachim In the Church’s calendar, we have recently celebrated the Feast Day of Saints Anne and Joachim. Many Christians will ask, 'Who are Anne and Joachim?'! These are the names that, traditionally, have been given to the mother and father of the Blessed Virgin Mary - in other words to the grandparents of our Lord. Now, we have no way of knowing if these were their names. Probably they weren't. But Jesus would certainly have had grandparents, so these are as good names as any for them. It also reminds us that Jesus 'shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home' and shared it for many years. Nazareth was small Jewish village in which family life would have been an important and central feature. We forget that Mary, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her, would have been living with her family - with 'Anne and Joachim' - to use their traditional names. How did they react to the news that their young daughter was pregnant outside of wedlock, I wonder? That Mary and Joseph went back to Nazareth and settled there suggests that, whatever their original reaction, they were supportive. It is also a reminder to us that Jesus did not just appear on the scene. The incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, meant that our Lord really did become one of us and grew up in the way we grow up with all that means - good and bad. He would have known and experienced both the joys and sorrows of family life. Joseph, it seems, died when Jesus was still young, leaving him, as the eldest son, to care for his mother and family. Remembering 'Anne and Joachim' is to remember the importance of family life. This is how God wants children to be brought up. In remembering them, we pray for all families that they may be places where children can be brought up in the 'fear and nurture of the Lord'. For our greatest responsibility as parents is not to make sure that our children pass tests and exams, but that they have every opportunity to know God in their lives and be able to serve him. The main responsibility for this falls, inevitably, on a child's mother and father, but it also falls on all of us who part of the child's wider family. Grandparents often get forgotten in all this, but in an age when both parents often have no choice but to work, grandparents are frequently involved in the day to day care and rearing of children. Ánne and Joachim’ remind us both of the importance of grandparents and of the need to pray for them. Ross Royden Prayers for Sunday and the Week Ahead Let us bring our prayers to God trusting in his steadfast love and in his willingness always to hear us when we call on his name. We pray for God’s church in the world that she may remain faithful to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and proclaim that Gospel to people of all nations. We pray for our own daily living out of our faith that we may be faithful witnesses to our faith ion Jesus Christ. We pray for God’s world with all its needs and hurts and for ourselves that we may respond to those needs with compassion and generosity. We pray for all God’s children in our community. We pray that God’s steadfast love may be made known to them by the way in which we live and in the way in which we serve them. We pray that this summer may be a time of refreshments and enjoyment when they might know the love of friends and family. We pray for all who are in need of God’s healing and peace that they may know God’s presence surrounding them in their pain and distress. We pray for the bereaved that they might know God’s peace. Lord God, our heavenly Father, we offer these prayers to you now. We ask that through them and the prayers of all your people your will may be done in the church, throughout the world, in our lives and in the lives of all for whom we have prayed. We ask this in the name of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

September Church Mission 14 & 15 September

Tickets are available for the weekend Harvest mission in September. These tickets are free but they are numbered so that we know how many people to cater for. Please take them and bring along friends. However if for any reason you are subsequently unable to come then please give them back!

St Mark’s Harvest Saturday Family Celebration Saturday 14 September 5.00pm - 8.00pm

Barbeque & Bouncy Castle Followed by Cheese and Wine

Guest speakers Phil and Diane Stone

St Mark’s Harvest Sunday Sunday 15 September Church, Coffee, Lunch

Guest speakers Phil and Diane Stone

Celebrating Scotland. A special Scottish Evening with a Scottish Themed quiz and dancing on 5 October - fun for everybody, please diarise ! Summer Holidays Junior Church will finish for the summer holidays on Sunday the 14 July and will return on 8 September. Chat and Make will finish for the holidays on 25 June and Chat and Play on the 27 June There will be three Chat and Plays during August on 1, 15 and 29. Story Box finishes on Thursday July 11 and restarts on Thursday September 5.

Next Footprints walk. August 4 Meet at Bletsoe Village Hall, Memorial Lane (turning at war memorial in the village) at 2.30 pm for easy stroll around the village and surrounding fields. Further details from Sue Allen. New Rota September—December The new rota is available this Sunday in a very earlt draft ! Please do make changes and let Charlie know if you have been missed off, put back on or anything else ! We can then make changes. Marilyn Bailey and all the family would like to thank everyone at St. Marks for their prayers and support over the past months of Tony's illness and death. We were thankful to see so many at the funeral, and the love, practical help and many caring messages we have received have given us comfort in dark days. St Mark’s Church Bereavement Support First Wednesday every month at 11.00am Tea, coffee and chat Our next meeting is this coming Wednesday 7 August in the Chapel at St Mark’s There is no need to book - just turn up. Posters are available to advertise this new group. If you can take them for libraries, shops etc please collect from the church office.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words Over 500 years after it was first drawn this is still one of the most famous drawings of all time. It is housed at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria. Due to the fragility and age of the original sketch, only a copy is displayed for the public. It was once thought by art historians that this was just a preparatory drawing for the Heller altarpiece which was destroyed by fire in 1729. However many experts including Christof Metzger, the chief curator of Vienna's Albertina, now believe that the time taken to draw such a work means that it was intended to be a showpiece in its own right. This seems obvious, why would Dürer spend so much time on something which would eventually be scaled down so that the detail of this sketch was no longer necessary? The drawing depicts the hands of a man who is praying with the hands drawn together in what has become the universal posture of prayer. However you do not see the man's body in the picture, all that you have apart from the hands are the folded sleeves. The hands are almost suspended in space, they have a floating quality and perhaps that helps bring across the notion of prayer as something beyond the normal laws and expectations of the natural order, if we saw his face our attention would be drawn to that instead. As Christoff Metzger noted, the detail in the sketch is overwhelming, hence it took Dürer over a year to complete. Yet the sketch itself would perhaps not have gathered the overwhelming reputation which it has were it not for its simplicity. Dürer does not draw idealised hands, the model’s fingers are not manicured, they are quite bony, these are honest working hands. Though the model for the piece is not known, a popular belief is that the painting was meant to be a commemoration of Dürer’s brother, who himself desired to become an artist. The story goes that he forfeited this endeavour to instead work the mines and financially support Dürer’s apprenticeship. His hands became afflicted by arthritis from years of wear, making him unfit to become an artist. In actual fact it is more likely that the hands are those of the artist himself. What a pity it would have made such a good story for a family service.

Betende Hände (Praying Hands) by Albrecht Dürer 1508 Pen and ink drawing on blue paper created by Dürer (11.5″ x 7.8″)

Parish News is available online at www.stmarkschurch.com You can also sign up online to receive each edition by email

Forthcoming Funerals

The funeral of Allan Cyril Groom

will take place at Bedford Crematorium

on Monday 5 August 2019 at 10.45 am

All funerals at Bedford Crematorium can be found @ www.bedford.gov.uk/obituaries

Rest In Peace

On the Sunday following a funeral service we remember in church those who have died.

We light a candle to symbolise the light of Christ which eternally shines and

brings hope. If you would like a person remembered in our service when the candle is

lit, perhaps on an anniversary or birthday, please inform the ministers, or telephone the

church office.

Tony Bailey Aphrodite Hubbard

May the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace

and rise in glory . Amen.

Commentary We know how amazing modern consumerism is with the ability to buy all kinds of things and have them delivered direct to our door. It is little surprise that our High Streets can never again be supported by shopping when we pur-chase 24/7 from all around the world. Yet of course hu-man desire has always been the same and Jesus identi-fied it as a problem 2,000 years ago. He cautioned that ownership of things does not produce the security or hap-piness for which human beings strive. We are encouraged to recognise that we are not just physical beings with ma-terial needs, we are spiritual people, created to experi-ence the love of God. If our hearts and minds are set only on things which we can see and touch and buy, then we will be dissatisfied. The key to real fulfillment is to recognise that our true value is not measured in what we possess. People often called upon rabbis to settle disputes. Today in our reading a man asks Jesus to help settle an issue where a brother had failed to divide an inheritance. The eldest son would always receive double what the other sons would receive. The proportion was therefore fixed and the man has a reasonable ex-pectation that the brother should give him his fair share. Jesus uses the opportunity to issue words which deal not with the fairness of the distribution but a harsh warning against possessions. In Sepphoris, one of the largest Jewish cities in Galilee, archaeologists have found large grain silos on farms where wealthy absentee landowners lived. Jesus uses the image of one of these huge barns, which his listeners would have marvelled at, to make an important comment on wealth. Just like other times throughout history and indeed today there were some people who had extraordinary wealth. At the time it was about 1% of the population. These rich and famous people have always provoked envy and desire. Jesus makes the point that it really doesn’t matter how rich these folks are now, shrouds do not have pockets, and one day we will all have to give an account to God of how we used our earthly material re-sources. So the man came to Jesus because he was concerned about his material wealth, he wanted money out of the will. Jesus said he should be concerned about rather about his spiritual health. We care for our souls when instead of gathering for ourselves we learn to give. Instead of spending time on our leisure we learn to serve others. God needs neither our good works nor our wealth, but our neighbour does. We live in times which are full of fear and increasingly we need to care for each other and our neighbour. Living to-gether is not easy it means getting on with people we find difficult or who have perhaps hurt us, which is why forgiveness lies at the heart of our faith. Nevertheless it is God’s will that we care for and share with others and this is the message which the rich farmer never understood. Charles Royden