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This Great StoryA

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I was helping my son with some English homework recently on how to craft a good

story. We were learning together what elements you need to write a novel or a film script that will be a hit.

A brilliant story that keeps us hooked always involves these four things:

1. a Provoking action: an event that gets the story going, to grab attention and draw us in.

2. a Protagonist: every good story needs a hero! Someone we grow to care about and who carries the reader or viewer through the story.

3. conflict: tension increases suspense and a good story needs a quest or a challenge to overcome.

4. Resolution: and, of course, you need the satisfaction of things being resolved at the end. Whether it’s a happy or a sad ending it has to end appropriately, and make sense to us.

My first novel is coming out soon (ha, not really).

At Easter, Christians celebrate a story from the Bible that involves all these things. Jesus, bursting onto the human scene as a baby, grew to live and teach the ways of his heavenly Father. A hero to many, but also hated by the religious

leaders, he was crucified on Good Friday and the story seemed finished. But the unexpected resolution of his resurrection from the dead is a story that goes on being retold around the world at Easter by millions of people.

It’s a great and gripping tale but this story is different because it’s not a work of fiction but an account that claims to be true.

Could the Easter story not just be a good story but a true story?

Millions of Christians this Easter will celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection as true events. And for many of us the story of Jesus has become our personal story and has changed our lives for the better.

It’s because his story has impacted our story that we want to be a positive influence in and around our community of Parklands. It’s why we’re running the Noise Project again this year and it’s why we run community building events like Walk and Talk.

It’s why we hold services every Sunday and special Easter celebration services. We’d love to see you this Easter to celebrate this great story with us.Ellen Wild

love, really?

C O N T A C T

I don’t know how easy you find it to forgive. Maybe you have a

certain amount of patience with small offences, but eventually you decide to draw the line. On one occasion¹, Peter asks Jesus where the limit should be: “Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother? Up to seven times?” But Jesus raises the bar in his response: “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” This might seem like we need to note down every time someone wrongs us, so that we can know when it’s ok to stop forgiving. But the Bible tells us that love keeps no record of wrongs², so what is Jesus getting at here? Jesus continues by telling a story about a servant who, after begging for more time, is

easter is Decisiveat the time of writing, the 2018/19 Premier league title appears to be a three horse race, with liverpool, Manchester city, and tottenham hotspur all in the hunt. some years ago now, arsenal’s manager arsène Wenger said of the 2002/03 title challenge, “liverpool are not out of the championship race. it would be premature to say that. christmas is important, but not decisive. if it was easter, then maybe i’d have to say ‘yes’. but christmas? no.”taken out of context, Wenger’s words provide food for thought. christmas is important, but not decisive. if it was easter, then maybe i’d have to say ‘yes’.of course, christmas is more than important. Without christmas, there is no easter.

but without easter, christmas loses its impact. yes, it was a wonderful thing for Jesus to come to earth, to teach in the incredible way that he did, and to do the things that he did and live the way that he lived – all of this is of great value. but it would not have been enough. Jesus’ death and resurrection solved in a decisive

manner the problem of the barrier between us and God – the barrier erected by our own selfishness and pride. how he did that is explained in the new testament, although at the end of the day we must leave room for mystery and faith – faith in a God that “so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”1.

1 John 3:16, the bible

Jesus spoke a lot about love, but putting his words into practice is no easy matter

to his fellow-servant. Through this parable, Jesus challenges Peter and us to forgive others just as God forgives us. So why, like the servant, do we find this so hard? When someone wrongs you, the pain they caused might resurface every time you see them, so that it gets in the way of forgiving them. So how does God really expect us to let them off the hook? In the story we’ve been looking at, Jesus invites us to forgive those who’ve hurt us, by remembering how God has forgiven us for the times we’ve hurt others. On another occasion³, Jesus challenges Simon by pointing him to a woman he has deemed a ‘sinner’ and showing how knowing immense forgiveness leads her to love extravagantly. In the same way, the first story invites us to stand in awe of the unlimited forgiveness God offers us and to let the love he shows through it overflow into the way we forgive others. sophie hawkerThese stories are told in The Bible: 1 Matthew 18; 2 1 Corinthians 13; ³ Luke 7

freed from immense debt by his master. However, this same man later ignores a fellow-servant’s almost identical plea for patience concerning a much smaller debt he owes. This angers the master, who questions why the servant didn’t show the same mercy he received

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 9

Not everyone finds a church building or a church service the

most helpful context for exploring or celebrating faith. Many of us are wired to encounter God more readily in the context of nature, which is why once a month a small group get on the move outside.

Walk & Talk is for anyone who likes walking and talking in the great outdoors. “If I had to sum up Walk & Talk in four words,” says group leader Tom, “it would be friendly, countryside, chat and cake!” Tom is alluding to the stop part way round, where the group enjoy a drink and the delights of some homemade

On any given Sunday morning, in addition to meeting in the church building for a service, members and friends of CBC meet in other ways. Here we focus on

Spotlight

baking. This is also the point at which one of the group will share a brief reflection on some aspect of the Christian faith.Walks are generally easy, circular walks of 2 to 3 miles, and take place in the woods, on the coast, or up on the Downs. “We chat as we go around, and that’s one of the beauties of walking,” Tom comments. “You can walk with the same people all the way round or different people at different parts of the walk. It’s up to you.”You don’t need to ‘book’ – you can just turn up on the day. One Parklands resident saw the group gathering outside the shops and just walked up to them and asked them who they were and what they were up to! She subsequently joined Walk & Talk, and it helped her get out of the house and plug in to other friends and groups inside and outside the church.Another Parklands resident heard of Walk & Talk through the annual

Noise project*. He found it an ideal way to make new friends and feel part of something. When some health problems meant he

couldn’t go on the walks anymore, he was visited by the Heart 4 Parklands group instead.Tom hopes that they will increasingly be joined by people who don’t come to church regularly, or at all, and “that something on our walks – whether it be experiencing God’s creation, something they hear or chat about as they go round, whatever – would give them a glimpse of the wonderful God we believe in and whet their appetite to find out more. If that happens for just one person, that would be great. And in the meantime we have the cake!”Walk & Talk meets outside Parklands shops on the first Sunday of the month. The group departs at 10am, normally car sharing to get to their starting point somewhere local, and aim to return by 12.30pm. You would be made very welcome. Dogs are welcome too!

* See back cover

tom

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that you don’t have to be perfect.

I have always enjoyed cooking, and even though I was never properly trained to do it, and had no

lessons at school, I earned a reputation as someone who could cook.

When I married and we started entertaining, I had this belief that you should provide complicated and clever meals that would impress people, and I enjoyed dipping into my cordon bleu books and serving up the recipes. But over the years I have come to realise that I don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen to entertain well – preparing simple food and spending time with people is what is appreciated the most.

I still love a day in the kitchen, but there is rarely time for a banquet nowadays. Someone might pop in, or ring up the night before, or we might spontaneously invite some friends over to have supper with us, and bangers and mash or spaghetti bolognaise can be perfectly adequate.It’s long been my belief that it’s no coincidence that during his last days on earth Jesus spent precious time with his disciples eating with them, and instructing them to carry on a tradition of eating with each other. Something special happens when you eat together – something much more important than time spent in the kitchen!Sue Pyke

One thing

Chichester Baptist Church, Sherborne Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 3AW.

T: 01243 782582 E: info@chichesterbaptist.org.uk

www.chichesterbaptist.org.uk

sunday services10am Morning service with

children’s and youth groups and crèche.

Please join us for tea or coffee and a chat after this service.

6.30pm Evening service

The noiseThe Noise Project team will, once again, be venturing

out into the streets of Parklands estate this year to collect domestic and garden rubbish and provide a ‘Fun Day on the Green’ on Sherborne Road to serve the Parklands community.

Volunteers from both the Baptist church and St Wilfrid’s church will be donning the fashion-icon-style(!) red t-shirts to facilitate rubbish collections and provide a wide range of entertainments and BBQ – all totally free to residents. The dates to note are:

Rubbish collections■ Wednesday 29th May (pm only) to be confirmed■ Thursday 30th May■ Friday 31st May

Fun Day on the GReen■ Saturday 1st June

If you would like to book a visit for rubbish collection, then the line will be open from 1st May. The number to ring is 07522 857001.Look out for the next Contact edition (which should hit your doormats in late May) and the local noticeboards around the estate for confirmed dates/times of the rubbish collections and more information about the entertainments on the Fun Day!

Join us for a reflective

Good Fridayservice at 10am on 19th april,

or for one of oureaster morningservices on 21st april at 8am or 10am.

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him …On the first day of the week … they found the stone rolled away from the tomb… two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them… “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”