Worship & Prayer
A LETTER to ZOE aged 18 years LONDON June 2026 - Rev Julia Monaghan
08/06/08
Dear ZoëNow that you are 18, I was pleased to hear about your decision to enter into officer training in the Girls’ Brigade. Having progressed through the ranks I am sure that you will have much to contribute. I hear good reports of Andrew Wassall as BB Captain. I am sure that the training he received as a steward has stood him in good stead and helped to make him a good judge of character.
I can’t begin to imagine the joy that your father and Ben are experiencing now that “The Blues” are top of the Premiership for the 2nd year running. It just shows what sound investment and good management can do.
I know that Lyndon continues to flourish and is known for its continued outreach into the community and of course its ‘flashy toilets’, refurbished in August 2008 and standing the test of time. What a positive investment that was and we still continue to thank God for the people that contributed so generously to the funding.
Of course much has changed since that piece of building work including the refurbishment of the interior of the church. I am pleased that they maintained the pews but what a clever decision to have them turned round so that they symbolically face the door, highlighting that the Gospel message of Jesus’ unconditional love and forgiveness is for the world outside, not a holy huddle inside.
Still, back on 8th June 2008 you weren’t bothered about building work or football championships, you were just surrounded by all the people that love you most as you came to be baptised. There were so many in the building I wondered how we would seat them all and if we would meet our fire regulations. I shall always remember your baptism as you were the first baby that I baptised. I recall that you wore a pretty white dress, that you had just begun to crawl and most of all you responded with a ready smile to your brother Ben’s friendship and interaction. You were highly sociable and loved to babble away embracing with enthusiasm the initial process of learning to talk.
I hope that you have grown up enjoying stories, that people have read them to you and that you have learnt to love to read them for yourself. Jesus loved telling stories and we heard a simple but profound story at your baptism that seeks to explore the very heart of our relationship with God, a relationship where we are given the freedom to choose, but one where God is seeking all the time to be in relationship with us. Let me be clear about what I mean.
Within the context of Jesus’ talking about how much God values children he tells the story of the caring shepherd, who notices that one of his sheep has gone missing from the flock of one hundred. He responds by leaving them behind to go searching for the lost one, bringing it safely home. Such is God’s care and commitment to the individual.
At your baptism you could be likened to a lamb enjoying your parents’ ever-vigilant care and we the church initiated you into being a member of the flock through water, prayer and the mark of the cross.
As you have grown older and at 18 will want to seek your own path, you have been given, quite rightly, a greater degree of freedom, your parents having given you roots and wings. But as you grow to independence remember, Zoë, the promises from the story told at your baptism.
Firstly, your parents will always want to run after you and want to help sort things out for you however much to you in later years this may seem interfering.
Secondly, we, the church, the flock, are always here providing a place to belong where faith can be sustained and the rumour of God’s unconditional love in Christ is kept alive. A place where you have been prayed into being.
And finally and most importantly, Jesus, likened in the story to the “Good Shepherd” will always be seeking after you, journeying with you into the deep places of our humanity where life’s wisdom is to be learned and our prayer is that you turn and embrace that companion for the journey and let God walk with you.
So Zoë I must finish this letter now. Sam and I are well, Sam, having worked a further 18 years for Barnardo’s followed by Save the Children, is now about to retire. Even though he will soon be a pensioner he says that he will continue to wear his shorts, which all goes to show that some things, like the unconditional love of God, never change!
Amen
His/her whole person taught!
“Jesus finished saying these things and the crowds were amazed at the way that he taught. He wasn’t like their teachers of the law; instead he taught with authority.” Matt 7: 28-29
I thought that the scariest thing was to have children. I was wrong, The scariest thing is to let them go! Take Thursday afternoon for example, Andrew who is 17 and I got in the car. Nothing unusual in that we often get in the car together, only this time he was in the driving seat and I was in the passenger seat for the first time.
He took the keys and said “This is good isn’t it.” To which I replied with a winning smile “Yes great!” He reversed out of the drive with skill and we proceeded round the block. As we went, he told me that he hadn’t learnt parking yet but that he was good at emergency stops. I felt reassured by this and aside from an altercation with a bollard in Clay Lane, which we found sprang back into shape after he reversed, he drove proficiently and safely.
We returned home having decided not to tackle the A45 on this occasion and he returned to his revision and I went to write this sermon. As we went into the house he noted that he had driven as I had asked not how I necessarily drive and he critiqued my 1 hand on the wheel approach and my suspect signalling work.
As I contemplated the text for Sunday, in the light of the driving lesson, I realised that Andrew had provided me with a valuable insight into how Jesus taught.
The text comes at the end of the “Sermon on the Mount,” the block of teaching from Jesus, where he provides the guidelines for Christian living.
- Love your enemies
- Do not judge or you too will be judged
- Do unto others as you would have them do to you
- Do not worry but trust in God who you can address as “Our Father, who is in heaven…”
The crowd were amazed as Jesus taught which unlike my driving instruction, was totally supported by how he lived his life. Everything he said I realised rang true because it was constantly being reaffirmed and proclaimed in his demeanour and manner with people. His actions never cancelled out but added authenticity to his words. It was like his whole person taught.
At the heart of who he was came his relationship with God, one of intimacy, love and trust. From this relationship came the motivation to live a life of service. He taught it seemed to me, from an authority of love and we can do the same.
We love God because he first loved us. We are caught up by God’s love. We are convinced of his love for us because we have seen the work of his son, Jesus Christ. Paul in our reading from Romans makes it clear that the cross of Christ is the radical, far reaching expression of the Father’s love for us all. We are so taken up by this divine love that our whole life is turned around for service. We can as a response live in gratitude - not judging others; trusting and not worrying so much.
All of which leads me to my final sermon illustration of the morning…..
Today we come to say our thank yous and formal goodbye to Chris Parker our pastoral worker. She has over the past 3 years supported members of this church and built up the life of this community particularly through her contact with Women’s Fellowship; Friday Luncheon Club; Midweek Communion Service; Lyndon Croft; Lyndon House; Supporting the Stewarding Team; Orchestrating Alpha and assisting me in laying good foundations in pastoral care.
That she has “done a lot” on the hours that she has been given, is not disputed – no wonder she is in a position to take 2 months “Time off in Lieu,” but the way she has carried out her tasks has demonstrated that authority that commands great respect.
Her work has been motivated by her love of God in Christ, and her love of people. All of which has made her care authentic and her timing sensitive and perceptive.
When she is speaking to you, she is not distracted but gives you her complete attention. Her capacity to retain details of your life puts you immediately at ease and the conversation flows.
Sometimes church can fail to live up to what it preaches but not in Chris and as we say good bye and thank you to her we will endeavour to seek to maintain our love in Christ, to carry on the “good works” that she has begun – conscious not only of what we do but the generous way in which we do it. Amen.