Good Afternoon My Friends,

Have you missed me? No, I am sure you haven’t but I have missed sending these letters and videos out for a little while. I had a break from it just because there was so much going on and everything was a bit overwhelming, and I didn’t want you lovely people to feel you had to plough through yet more nonsense from me.

When I started these in March, I thought we would only be going for a few weeks, and here we are half way through January, and wondering what will happen next.

So, I shall endeavour to produce a letter and a video each week at least, and maybe more as the Spirit moves me. (If it is too much or too little please let me know.)

Anyway, down to the good stuff.

On Sunday we heard of Jesus calling his first disciples. Andrew, who went on to immediately bring Simon Peter happened just before our Gospel reading started. John the Baptist had pointed out Jesus as The Lamb of God, so Andrew plus one followed him. Jesus had turned and said ‘What do you want?’ They had no idea, so made up an answer ‘We want to know where you live?’ So Jesus said ‘Come and see.’ One of the greatest lines in scripture.

The next day, (Where Sunday’s Gospel started) Jesus calls Philip to follow him….

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’

Again this is brilliant. Philip had been so excited by his encounter with Jesus that he couldn’t wait to bring Nathanael along, but Nathanael’s response was unexpected. Rude, prejudiced, arrogant, judgemental, showing a mind not open at all! 
I am not sure how I would have felt. Angry and defensive probably.  But Philip didn’t argue, or get defensive, and that was so cool.

It reminds us that we cannot argue folk into faith, or get all grumpy when people don’t get where we are coming from. It never works. It is no surprise that many dinner parties have an unwritten rule not to talk about Religion or politics or Brexit, and that is because we are not good at talking about such things to folk who have different opinions. We get angry and defensive.
But Philip knew best, and rather than argue he said those classic words ‘Come and see’.

What better way to convey something of what our faith is about than to try and encourage folk to Come and see. If they witness us in relationship with Jesus, how great is that!
Throughout scriptures people who have an encounter with Christ are moved and changed by it, and he never argues them in to submission.

My favourite theologian Matthew Fox uses the phrase Transformation by delight. We get people to open their minds by offering them something more delightful. Not by bashing them with anything negative.

Jesus and Philip both invited people to Come and see, and in so doing those who came had an encounter with Jesus and it so enriched their lives.

You and I are called to invite folk to Come and see, but things are very difficult at the moment.

We are not having social gatherings, when we show our joy and humanity at its best. We are not even having coffee after church, and some people are wary of coming to church anyway because of Covid, so how do we ask folk to Come and see?

Well one of the things that has grown during the pandemic is people’s thirst for religious or spiritual content online. At the same time churches have embraced things like streaming services, Youtube and the airways like never before. So at the moment our best Come and see, could easily be an invitation to a friend to either one of these letters, or the videos on our site. 
Some of Fr Rodney and Robin’s services have been viewed over 1000 times, and the prayers on our website get over 2000 hits a week. We have plenty of copy out there, and some people are absolutely ready to hear some Good News. We even have a blog page, and a number of Facebook pages
So, my Dear Friends, invite those who you love to Come and See.

These may help.

www.costablanca-anglicanchaplaincy.org    Our Website address where you can get info about our churches, the blog posts and facebook.

Youtube pages  
Blanca Anglican Chaplaincy 2020  for videos from Fr Marcus

Costa Blanca Anglican Chaplaincy 2 for services from Fr Rodney and Fr Robin

www.puregold.fm  for Great music on a Sunday night from 6-8pm, with a nugget of spirituality around 7pm. But great at any time.

Or folk could email me, marcusronchetti@yahoo.co.uk and I could add them to my mailing list for letters and videos.

I can’t be doing with arguing and being grumpy, but I love the idea of just saying Come and see.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you

As ever,

Fr Marcus