News and Views

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This Week

Sunday January 11, 10:30 AM Worship at Marden
followed by Daniel's travel presentation and slide show.

Tuesday Jan 13, 7:30 PM, Leadership Meeting

For future plans see the >> Meetings << page.

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The Foyer

Jeremiah

Jeremiah lived in troubled times. Big power countries next door were exerting control over their little nation. Babylon and Egypt who were taking turns moving in on Judah kept the people on edge. Jeremiah tried to warn the people who thought they were protected by their “chosen people” status. They thought they'd be OK while they lived there in the safe shadow of the temple and kept up with their responiblities to the law of Moses. But no: the invaders prevailed and marched hundreds of the community leaders, eventually even theit king as prisoners to Babylon.

Meanwhile Jeremiah continued his voice of doom, telling the people it was all their fault because they had broken their covenant with God whom they had counted on as their protactor.

The scripture for the first Sunday of 2026 sounded weirdly like the news we're hearing every day. Our speaker struggled to find “Hope” in Jeremiah's words. We all sympathized with his efforts. Jermiah's nickname of “Prophet of Doom and Hope” was a hard one. Nebuchednezzer and Trump seem to be using the same playlist. Where is the hope?

But we stay with Jeremiah. We identify with his instructions about how to live in exile. Hope comes from action. From his own exile in Egypt Jeremiah writes to those iin Babylon and urges them to “plant gardens” and move into their neighbourhoods there. They should NOT keep themselves remote but unite their families and learn their needs. Only in making a place with the people and growing in their faith will they find the hope they are seeking.

This is what we have found here in our present search for hope in our own troubled times. Whenever we have moved out in action we have found others doing the same. We will continue to join our neighbours with a mission to serve the community. Sharing this way is the only way out of despair and into the pathway to HOPE. We resolve to continue in this way in 2026.

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