Activities | History | Nurture

May 2025 magazine

stjohnstmarkchurchburyMonday, April 28, 2025

Please find a link here to our May 2025 magazine, paper copies of which are available in our two churches:

Inside this edition we have all the usual updates from our groups and organisations plus news about forthcoming events. There are also prayers and reflections and a report about an Iftar meal.

In addition, the May 2025 magazine has this letter from Margery…

A God of second chances

A warning to all preachers – be careful what you say in a sermon. A few weeks ago, I used the phrase ”the God of second chances” and commented that it would make a good title for a magazine article. So here I am sitting at my computer with a title, having to make my statement a reality – and not much idea where to start.

I have often been told that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. It was said when I was attending an interview for a job or giving a talk to a group of people I had never met before. I think that is true and even though first impressions can be misleading, they can stick. Yes, I wish after an interview I had been able to go back and say the things that had slipped my mind and often after giving a talk to a church group I could find the answers to questions which had evaded me during the event. But no second chance.

Athletes, especially sprinters, used to be able to have one false start if they jumped the starting gun. Then the rules were changed, one false start and you were out of the event. In the first international meeting after the introduction of this rule even the great Usain Bolt fell short and in last year’s Olympics the highly favoured Welsh athlete Jeremiah Azu was dismissed after one false start. All that training, effort, expectation in vain. What a shock, what a disappointment, what a waste.

Parables

In the parable of the fig tree, the owner of the vineyard wants to cut down the tree after it failed to produce fruit after three years but the man who tended it asked if he could nurture it and see if it produced fruit in the next year. It is thought that the tree represented the Israelites who had long ignored the words of the prophets and that God had had enough of their behaviour but Jesus interceded and they were given the second chance.

In another parable the forgiving father welcomes his wayward, prodigal son back into the fold, offering a second chance of family life.

But it isn’t only in parables that we see people receiving second chances. Peter denied Jesus three times, yet Jesus made him the rock on which the church was built. Paul as Saul, persecuted Christians with fervour but on the road to Damascus he was brought to his knees and given a second chance. And how he used that opportunity, taking the gospel to faraway lands spreading the good news of Jesus despite the hardships he encountered.

What of us?

And what of us? God expects us to produce fruit in his kingdom, he expects us to love our neighbour, to show compassion and to spread the joy of the gospel.

I am sure we all try to do this but sometimes we fail. I know that I often do. But we know that we have a God who is forgiving and will give us a second chance, even more than one if we are truly sorry and work hard to change our ways.

How blessed we are to have a God of Second Chances. Let us make the most of them.

Yours in Christ, Margery