Stoke Holy Cross Church
Stoke Holy Cross Church meets every week (in 2 different places), but there is loads happening throughout the village all through the week, as we try to follow Jesus together with all of our lives. You can find out more about our different services and groups for people of all ages in other sections of the website, but we would love to either have you come and visit us on a Sunday or at a midweek group, or contact us if you would like us to come and visit you instead! There are some contact details for key people in this church on the left of this page - otherwise you can click on the Who's Who section at the top of this website...
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Rob's message for February
Posted: Sat, 1 Feb, 2025 (3 weeks ago) by Rob
Have you moved around a lot? One of the things that you quickly notice when you move to Norfolk is that quite a lot of people haven’t. If you’re someone who’s not moved around a lot, then I expect that this place feels very like home.
I am by nature a bit restless. In my office I have on the wall a wooden tent peg which reminds me that although I might stay in one place, in a way as I follow Jesus I am always on the move. I wonder if you feel anything like the same restlessness sometimes. Are you looking for home?
Perhaps like you, as a family we went and watched Paddington in Peru during the holidays. Like the other Paddington films, it explores very important questions about home. It continues the adventures of our friend from Darkest Peru, who has been sent to London by his Aunt Lucy, armed only with the clothes he is inexplicably wearing, a suitcase full of marmalade, and a label reading, “Please look after this bear.” And the Brown family adopt him, name him after the station where they find him, and give him a home.
As this third film begins, Paddington finds himself heading back to Peru, and by the time that it ends, he is back where it all started. He’s in the perfect orange garden that he fell from as a cub; he’s surrounded by all the bears and all the perfect fruit he could ever want. And the decision he has to make is about what he does next; does he stay there in the garden, or return to London with the Browns?
That one was for the writers of Paddington to decide, and for you to find out when you see it, but when God inspired the authors of the bible story, he made the garden the final destination. The last chapters of the bible picture a tree full of life, constantly bearing fruit for the healing of the nations. It’s a place where God’s people will dwell with him, in his presence, always, and there will only be good.
If we believe in Jesus, we can lose sight of this amazing promise. Sometimes this world with all of its marmalade sandwiches and other attractions can be quite a distraction. But whether or not we believe in Jesus, surely the picture is so inviting?
Think how now, you and I can feel so dry and thirsty, when one day God’s Spirit will run through the land like a river.
Think how now, we long for the world to be sorted out, and for people we know and love to be healed, and one day the healing will just be hanging on the trees, and we will be free just to reach out and take hold of it.
Think how now, God can feel far away, and one day he will be there in the city and we will see his face.
Think how now, even with Jesus, it can feel like it is dark, and one day we will not even need the light of the sun, because the light of God will be so much greater even than the sun.
Jesus has brought us so far, though we are not there yet. But one day we will be. Whatever you think happens at the end of Paddington in Peru, that’s how our story is going to end.
