Beckenham Baptist Church

Dear Friends, Today is Palm Sunday, and we once again begin the events of Holy Week as we remember Jesus’ final journey that leads to the Crucifixion on Good Friday, the silence of Easter Saturday, and then the celebration of Easter Day when Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death forever. Tucked into the gospel of John and chapter 13 we read the account of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. We remember this event on Maundy Thursday together with the Lord’s Supper, as Jesus directed his followers to ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ as we share in bread and wine. The act of Jesus washing his friends’ feet was an act of humility, and he says, ‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet’ (John 13:14). He gives this instruction for us to follow, and he models servanthood in a most memorable and dramatic way, showing his servant attitude to his disciples and meaning that even if God in the flesh is willing to serve in this way...

Dear Friends, This week in the Release International Prayer Diary we were encouraged to use Psalm 133 to pray for unity and harmony among Sudanese churches and their leaders. ‘ How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore. ’ (Psalm 133, NRSV). The Open Doors 2024 World Watch List has Sudan at Number 8 in the list of countries where Christians count the highest cost for following Jesus. It reads, ‘A few years ago, Sudan was a good news story on the World Watch List. Apostasy was no longer illegal, and more leniency around freedom of religion was brought in by the transitional government – there was still a long way to go, but there were signs of hope.’ In April 2023 though conflict broke out and man...

Dear Friends,  Today is the Fourth Sunday of Lent, and it is Mothering Sunday, the day when we give thanks for our mums and those who carry out any kind of ‘mothering’ role in our lives. It is an opportunity to show our gratitude by sending cards and presents, the most popular of which are flowers, chocolates and jewellery, and shoppers are estimated to spend £1.7 billion on the celebration this year in the UK. But today is also know by some in the church as ‘Refreshment Sunday’ because historically those taking part in the Lenten fast were allowed to relax on this day from the rigours of fasting and abstinence. Yet another name for the fourth Sunday in the Lenten season is Laetare Sunday, Laetare being the Latin for ‘Rejoice’ and coming from the first few words of the traditional Latin entrance verse for the church service, ‘Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her…’ (Isaiah 66:10), and a little later we read of this image, the Lord says, ‘As a mother co...

Dear Friends,  The season of Len t encourages us to wait and in the Watch and Pray – Wisdom and Hope for Lent and Life booklet produced by the Church of England, we are invited to wait expectantly for God to meet us and sustain us. Drawing on the wisdom of Black Spirituality and particularly the practice of ‘tarrying’ (waiting), we are encouraged to draw closer to Jesus and to each other. One of the ways in our Christian faith we draw closer to Jesus and others is as we gather around the Table of the Lord at Communion, and where we hear the words, ‘For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes’ (1 Corinthians 11:26). Writing in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2024 Lent Book, Tarry Awhile , Selina Stone says, ‘To be invited around the Lord’s table is a privilege that none of us deserve. As we gather around the table that is not our own, at which we are guests, we are reminded… of the reconciling work of Christ even while we tarr...

Dear Friends,  From this month’s Open Doors prayer diary we have been asked to ‘pray for the persecutors’ and we heard the remarkable story from Central Asia which said, ‘A policeman arrived at an underground pastor’s home to arrest him, but he wasn’t in. His 10-year-old daughter invited him to wait. She made him dinner and, saying grace, thanked God for the food and this ‘good man’. Overwhelmed by her love, he became a Christian and is now helping protect the church’. We are asked to read the stories and testimonies of those who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, and to pray for these courageous believers. ‘Be ready to be inspired by them and rejoice with them, because God is honouring them’ Open Doors reminds us. We read of the apostle Paul’s request for prayer from the believers in Thessalonica, that the gospel message would continue to spread and that he and his fellow missionaries would be ‘delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith...

Dear Friends,  A childhood memory that perhaps we can all associate with (and which may persist into later life) is holidaying at the beach and taking off our shoes and socks and running in the sand and sea barefoot, which always to me seemed to express a freedom and enjoyment that life not on holiday never quite gave. During Lent this year I’m using a book called Barefoot Prayers – a meditation a day for Lent and Easter by Stephen Cherry who is the Dean of Kings College, Cambridge. He says that ‘prayer is what happens when humility meets grace, or rather, when humility is met by grace. People today shy away from the virtue of humility for fear that to get close to it will make them weak in the face of hostile others, or in the fear that thinking themselves humble, they might slip into pride. Yet humility is the least negotiable of the Christian virtues. It is the basis of spirituality, wisdom and ministry’. The gospel of Matthew tells us of the story when Jesus’ disciples came ...

Dear Friends,  This week sees the beginning of the season of Lent in the church calendar as Ash Wednesday marks the 40-day period of prayer, fasting, repentance, moderation, self-denial and spiritual discipline. The purpose of the Lenten season is to set aside some time for reflection on Jesus Christ and to consider his suffering and sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. Why a 40-day period you may ask? It is based on two episodes of spiritual testing found in the Bible, the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness by the Israelites after the Exodus, and the time of Jesus’ temptations by the Devil in the desert after his baptism. The account of Jesus’ testing in the wilderness reminds us that he fasted forty days and nights, and that he was hungry. That sense of hunger is what we seek over the period of Lent as we seek to come closer to God, to learn more about our own relationship with him, and to discover more about who Jesus is as we slow down and take our time. ...