www.scarthomethodists.net Contact us at scarthospirit@hotmail.co.uk

December

2016

Rev. Susan Chambers Tel: 01472 696113

The Spirit of Scartho

Photograph: courtesy of Grimsby Evening Telegraph.

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The Mayor of Grimsby opened the Samaritans Christmas purse, operation

Christmas Child on the 31st October, 2016.

Many of the eagle eyed among you will have spotted Valerie Tatum and

Sue Burton were among the dedicated volunteers who helped throughout

the year to produce the shoe boxes that will be able to be given out to de-

prived children. 29,372 were collected last year and they are hoping for a

similar target this year to. Thanks to all that complete this great cause!

The Challenges of Christmas

Christmas is a great time of year, but it’s not without its chal-lenges! One household had 250,000 Christmas lights, but could

not boil a kettle for fear of blowing the system!

The challenge of over-indulging We all remember the episode of the Vicar of Dibley, where she had

to consume four Christmas dinners! Christmas is a time when we usually eat and drink far too much, the average person gaining 6 pounds in weight. But Christmas is not simply about gaining

weight, but losing what weighs us down. ‘Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.’ (1 Peter 5:7). Whatever your concerns or worries this Christmas, bring them to God.

The challenge of overspending

In the rush to buy Christmas cards, a woman bought a pack of 50 identical cards. Without reading the verse, she hastily signed and sent them off, but for one. A few days later she read the message:

‘This card is just to say a little gift is on the way.’ Christmas is not about getting into debt, but God getting us out of debt. He spent exactly what was needed on the first Christmas night: ‘You are to

give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.’ (Matthew 1:21).

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The challenge of over too quickly Christmas doesn’t last very long, yet the effect of the first Christ-mas is long-lasting. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His

one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16). Jesus has come to bring us life in all its fullness, both for now and all eternity.

How do we face the challenges of Christmas? ‘Yet what I can, I give Him - give my heart’. Rev Paul Hardingham.

Children and their mistaken carols Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly

We three kings of porridge and tar On the first day of Christmas my tulip gave to me Later on we'll perspire, as we dream by the fire.

He's makin a list, chicken and rice. Noel, Noel, Barney's the king of Israel.

With the jelly toast proclaim

Olive, the other reindeer Frosty the Snowman is a ferret elf, I say

Sleep in heavenly peas

In the meadow we can build a snowman, Then pretend that he is sparse and brown

You'll go down in listerine …

Oh, what fun it is to ride with one horse, soap and hay O come, froggy faithful.

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What Does Your Tv License Cover?

Imagine something unlikely! There is one television programme

the whole family enjoy, but everyone sees differently. So - you are resting upstairs and watching it on the portable set in the bed-room. Your partner is still at work and watching it on a laptop in

the office. Your son is at university and watching it on his com-puter live. Your daughter who lives with you is on the train coming

home from a short holiday loaded with dirty clothes and using her mobile phone to see the programme. Your neighbour does not have a television and listens to highlights on the radio. A happy

typical family scene! You are covered if you have a television licence as it includes the

whole house. If you have let out a part of your house on a sepa-rate tenancy the tenant needs a licence.

Your student son must have his own TV Licence if he watches or records programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer.

If he shares a house, then one licence is sufficient for the house. Your partner needs a separate TV Licence for the office if he

watches live on an office phone, tablet or computer. Staff or cus-tomers do not need a licence if they watch live TV at the business address using their own device, if it is not plugged into the mains,

and there is a TV Licence at their home address. Your daughter is covered by your home licence. The neighbour

does not need a licence to listen to the radio. The law changed at the beginning of September. You must have a

TV Licence to download or watch BBC pro-grammes on iPlayer – live, catch up or on de-mand. If you already have a TV Licence, you are

already covered. As always this is a guide and if in doubt get ad-

vice. The TV Licensing website has some very clear and helpful advice and a set of FAQs. http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/

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Editor: Tim Lenton hums along to a favourite tune…

40 Years at the Hotel California

The album Hotel California, by the rock band The Eagles, was released 40 years ago on 8th

December 1976. It became their best-selling studio album – selling more than 32 million

copies – and its title track is widely regarded as one of the best rock songs ever written.

As such, its brilliant lyrics, by Don Henley, have been widely and often wildly misinterpreted, especially by

some Christian groups in America who insist that it’s about Satan-

ism. But the theory that it’s about drugs is more widely believed.

Neither is true. Henley himself says that it’s about the excesses of

American culture, or “a journey from innocence to experience”, and this rings true, as does the more moderate Christian idea that

it’s about the subtle, confusing power of temptation.

The music, as crucial to the song as the lyrics, was in fact written

first, and none of the band members involved in the composition of

the song came from California. They were generally middle-class and from the Mid-West.

Although the opening chords are almost universally recognised by rock music lovers, it is the lyrics that stay with you, particularly the last two lines: “you can check out any time you like, but you

can never leave”.

The band seemed determined to prove this true, but in March this

year, following the death of Glenn Frey, they gave a “final” tribute performance. In an interview three months later, Henley confirmed

the band’s dissolution.

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On what sort of dog a clergyman should own

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FOR ALL THE SAINTS

For all the saints, who lived long ago;

Peter and Paul—Names that we know.

Christian Folk, they took you call;

Lived out their faith to one and all.

Aren’t we all saints? Here in the pew?

Each has a rule, things we can do.

No need for fame, doing your word

Behind the scenes we will be heard.

Tim Mickleburgh

All Welcome! Mince Pies

&

Mulled Wine

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Lives changed in a war zone

(from an article in “voice”, the magazine of FEBA)

In the war torn Middle East, hope seems in short supply. But Jesus is still powerfully

present, healing, changing lives and building his church. A few months ago, our partner in

this region got a call from a young boy, telling this story:

“I am twelve years old and I have had problems with my stomach. I was not able to eat

normal food because of these problems and no one could help me. I heard you on the radio

talking about “healing in the name of Jesus for stomach pains” and saying that, “Jesus will

send you a fire to your stomach.” While I listened I was praying and felt a fire coming into

my stomach. God healed me, but I couldn’t tell my parents because they didn’t like that I

contacted a Christian radio station. So I told my blind grandma who is 80 years old. She

told me to pray for her eyes. I did that and now she can see again after more than ten years

of blindness!”

The caller said that both he and his grandma are now following Jesus. There are other

extraordinary things happening in this region. Our partner reports that the local church is

gaining at least one new contact every week through its media work, and a new believer

every week asking to be baptised.

Patrick Mickleburgh.

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Mary’s Christmas

As the baby’s mother, Mary plays a crucial part in the Christmas story. It all begins with the visit of Gabriel to Mary: ‘Do not be

afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.’ (Luke

1:30,31). This conversation between Gabriel and Mary takes us straight to

the heart of what Christmas is all about. God was doing something unique, that had never been done before! ‘God was beginning, at this divine and human point, the New Creation of all things. The

whole soiled and weary universe quivered at this direct injection of essential life.’ (CS Lewis).

This Child joins heaven and earth in a new way: the eternal enters time and space and pure spirit takes on flesh and blood. God becomes a human being in the baby Jesus. It reminds one of the

sci-fi film in which a team of surgeons are shrunk to the size of blood cells and injected into the veins of a patient to perform lifesaving surgery. The Christmas message affirms that God has

entered the bloodstream of humanity to put things right with Him. God chose an unknown, frightened teenage girl to bring about this

new beginning for all of us. Her response is the pattern for us, as we welcome God’s special gift into our lives this Christmas: “I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be

fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38). Mary gave an unqualified Yes to all that God wanted to do in her

life. It was a costly decision, which risked both shame and scandal. Yet she was ready to obey God and trust His plans for her life, despite her many questions. Is the same true for us this

Christmas?

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26th December— On the Feast of Stephen

Everyone knows that it was on the feast of Stephen that ‘good king Wenceslas looked on’, writes David Winter. After all, it’s in a

Christmas carol - but why? There’s nothing about Christmas in it: a splendid young page who rustled up some flesh, wine and logs,

an old man out in the snow (’deep and crisp and even’) and a

kindly monarch. But Christmas?

The clue is in ‘the feast of Stephen’, which falls on 26th December,

or ‘Boxing Day’, as we know it. That, too, has nothing to do with Christmas, beyond the fact that in the past people put a contribu-

tion in tradesmen’s boxes as a kind of Christmas present for their services during the year.

The Stephen whose feast day falls on the day after Christmas was the first Christian martyr. (You can read his story in the book of Acts). He was a member of the church in Jerusalem in its very

early days, and found himself involved with six others in adminis-tering the allocation of food to those in need. The apostles, who were the leaders of the church, felt that it wasn’t appropriate for

them to abandon preaching and ‘serve tables’, so they selected these seven to do the job for them. Stephen, however, quickly re-

vealed hidden gifts as an eloquent spokesman for the Christian

cause.

The Temple authorities, who had already had trouble with the

apostles, were soon alerted to this new and hitherto unknown evangelist. They decided to make an example of him, thus firing a warning shot, as it were, across the bows of the apostles them-

selves. So they arrested Stephen and accused him of speaking against the two central elements of their religion - the ‘holy place’

(the Temple) and ‘the customs Moses handed down to us’ (the

Law). It’s always dangerous to criticise a monument or a custom!

Given the right to defend himself, Stephen instead launched into

an eloquent and at times biting account of Jewish history, culmi-nating in the accusation that they had committed the worst possi-ble sin by killing the Messiah. Inflamed by his words, his hearers

abandoned any pretence of legal impartiality, rushing towards him

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and dragging him out of the city to a place where they began to stone him to death. Stephen, the rank and file Christian, died un-

der a hail of rocks for claiming that Mary’s Son was the promised Messiah. That, I suspect, is the reason why the first martyr is honoured on

the day after we celebrate the birth of the Saviour It’s a bit like the myrrh in the gifts of the Wise Men - a reminder, as we celebrate, that the bitter shadow of a cross is never far away from this story.

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We would like to welcome you to Scartho Methodist Church if

you are a visitor or newcomer. Below is some information

which might prove helpful.

HOUSEGROUPS We have a range of housegroups meeting during the week.

Please feel free to contact the person responsible for any

group for more details of venue etc. You are welcome to try

any group, or move if you choose to

Monday 2pm contact Kathy Lancaster tel 591095

Tuesday 10.00am contact Sue Burton tel 245632

8.00pm contact Gill Thomas tel 276972 Wednesday 10.00am contact Patrick Mickleburgh tel 870769 Wednesday 8.00pm contact Richard Melling tel 07889862458

Richard.melling@hotmail.co.uk

Thursday 10.00am contact Heather Corry tel 872658

Sunday 7.30pm contact Inga Greet tel 475536

Prayer meeting in Church 2nd Tuesday 6:45-7:45pm also 1st &

3rd Saturday Morning 9—10am

Christian Meditation Meeting—2nd Friday of the month 10-11am

(in crèche)

December Services: See you there! 4th December 1030am Mr Ian Knights

11th December 9am Communion—Rev Susan Chambers

1030am Mrs Dian Patrick

17th December 11am—Scartho Churches Together—Carol Service at Scartho Village

18th December 1030am All age worship—led by Andrew Hornsby

6pm Carol Service—led by Andrew Hornsby

24th December 1130pm Midnight service—Rev Susan Chambers

25th December 10am Mrs Elizabeth Norman