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ABOUT Vicar’s Blog
Each year Malmesbury Abbey welcomes about 65,000 visitors. That doesn’t include those who come for services, concerts, festivals or major events like the BBC History Weekend in October. Our stewards count each body through the door with a clicker. I’ve checked, they don’t count me going in and out or our visitor numbers would be in six figures. What is particularly encouraging is to welcome visitors, pilgrims maybe, who come and join with us in worship on a Sunday across July and August. If that’s you, welcome; Christians have been worshipping on this site for 1,300 years. We hope your time with us is a positive experience, that we successfully hide all our flaws, and that you leave thinking we are the perfect church. You can buy a £2 guide to describe the history of the Abbey or download the guided tour app. But I just want to
tell you a little about the stones, the living stones, that make up this place. We are a 21st century church meeting in 12th century beauty. You will struggle to find somebody who loves our utility or repair bills, but we love the challenge of creating 21st century Christian community in the midst of all this ancient beauty. We’ve adopted three core values that spring out of the Benedictine tradition that goes before us on this site: hospitality, stability and creativity. If you wanted to broaden these to reflect on the nature of God, you might consider the unquenchable love of our heavenly Father who welcomes us all, the Son whose death and resurrection are the rock on which our faith is built, and the Spirit whose breathes life into our imaginations and gives us the vision for skate parks, arts festivals and healing prayer in the street.
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A B B E Y D I A RY Sunday July 26th 9am BCP Communion 10.30am Holy Communion 4pm All-age Café Church & Holy Communion
You won’t be here, or maybe you will, but this autumn our teaching series will be attempting to answer the question ‘what is the Spirit doing amongst us, right now.’ We’ll be looking at developing leaders, the Abbey Kitchen & hospitality, ministry to the elderly and isolated in the community, Lighthouse and our work with the emerging generations, our partnership with Tearfund’s work in Kigezi, Uganda, Abbey Arts, and the Community of St Aldhelm – reinventing a monastic discipline of prayer and community for the 21st century. God built this place. God is building this place. We’re glad you’re here.
Sunday August 2nd 9am BCP Communion 10.30am Holy Communion 4pm Informal Worship with provision for children
Sunday August 9th 9am BCP Communion 10.30am Holy Communion 4pm Informal Worship with provision for children 6.30pm NO Choral Evensong
Normal Weekdays EACH DAY 9am Morning Prayer Wed 10.30am Communion Sep 12th Sep 13th Sep 22nd Oct 8th Nov 4th
Rosie Archer concert Deanery Evensong, with Bishop Lee Glory! Music for Autism Confirmation
RUTH 1:1-22 July 26th In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. 6
When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’ Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’ 11 But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me – even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons – 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!’ 14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 ‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’ 16 But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ 18 When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. 19
So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’ 20 ‘Don’t call me Naomi,’ she told them. ‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’ 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Additional Reading: Matthew 1:1-6
DISCIPLESHIP 1. Read Ruth 1 together. Explore the tragic and difficult things that Naomi had to face. 2. What impression is the author leaving us with at the end of this chapter? 3. Why was it such a courageous act for Ruth to say what she said in verses 16 & 17? 4. Out of utter desolation, there are glimmers of hope in this chapter. What are they? 5. How does the book of Ruth end? Can you summarize it? 6. The word 'redeemer' is used 23 times in Ruth. What does this word mean, and do we really believe that we have a redeemer when we face difficult times? 7. Share a tough situation or difficulty you are facing and pray that God would redeem it.
D A I LY R E A D I N G S Monday Psalm 30 Jeremiah 31:23-37 James 2:1-13 Tuesday Psalm 36 Jeremiah 32:1-15 James 2:14-end Wednesday Psalm 34 Jeremiah 33:1-13 James 3 Thursday Psalm 37 Jeremiah 33:14-end James 4:1-12 Friday Psalm 31 Jeremiah 35 James 4:13-5:6
REGULAR GIVING If you would like to give regularly to the mission and ministry of the Abbey as part of your discipleship, please e-mail alan@malmesburyabbey.com. m
1 SAMUEL 17:32-50 August 2nd 32
David said to Saul, ‘Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.’ 33 Saul replied, ‘You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ 34 But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.’ Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you.’ 38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armour on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. ‘I cannot go in these,’ he said to Saul, ‘because I am not used to them.’ So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 41
Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield-bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 ‘Come here,’ he said, ‘and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!’ 45 David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.’ 42
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As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
Additional Reading: Matthew 21:12-17
DISCIPLESHIP 1. Share together what you learnt or experienced during our worship together last Sunday.
D A I LY R E A D I N G S
2. Why was David at this stand off with the Philistines in the first place?
Monday Psalm 44 Jeremiah 36:19-end Mark 1:1-13
3. How does David say God has prepared him for the fight with Goliath? What has God been preparing you for?
Tuesday Psalm 48 Jeremiah 37 Mark 1:14-20
4. v46. Why would David want to cut off another human being’s head? Aren’t we to be peacemakers?
Wednesday Psalm 119:57-80 Jeremiah 38:1-13 Mark 1:21-28
5. How would the persecuted church understand verse 47? 6. What lessons can we learn from verses 48-50 that can inform our own spiritual journey?
Thursday (Transfiguration) Psalm 97 2 Peter 1:16-19 Luke 9:28-36 Friday Psalm 51 Jeremiah 39 Mark 2:1-12
REGULAR GIVING If you would like to give regularly to the mission and ministry of the Abbey as part of your discipleship, please e-mail alan@malmesburyabbey.com. m
FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS July 5 July 12 July 19 July 26 Aug 2 Aug 9 Aug 16 Aug 23 Aug 30
Abraham (Genesis 22) Moses (Exodus 3) Joshua (Joshua 1) Ruth (Ruth 1) David (1 Samuel 17) Solomon (1 Kings 3) Elijah (1 Kings 18) Daniel (Daniel 6) Esther (Esther 4)
This day, this moment, your life, lived with God, matters.