EXCHANGE YOUR COLD PRICKLIES FOR WARM FUZZIES!

AN ALL AGE SERVICE WITH TWO BAPTISMS

Today, as well as being the last Sunday in the Church’s year, and as well as being Ciara & Isabelle’s baptism, is also the Sunday when we remember and celebrate Christ the Universal King. Now in some respects Jesus is a very odd King...

Usually Kings are born in palaces, they have fine homes, they wear the most splendid clothes, they want for nothing and they boss people around.

But Jesus was born in a shed outside a pub, he had no home and spent three years as a homeless wanderer; when he was crucified the only clothes he had were the ones he was wearing; Jesus had no possessions and instead of bossing people around he washed people’s feet & told us to love one another.

What an odd king!

I’d like to tell you a story about a king and some villagers in a small village not very far from here.

In this village lived some people not unlike you and me. They did the same sort of things, they were a mixture of good and bad, of clever and silly, they had the same sort of hopes and dreams.

Whenever a baby was born in that land the King would send out his messengers to give that child a very special gift. Each child was given a small bag of WARM FUZZIES. Now when the villagers in that village would go out and about on their daily business and they met one another they would stop, say hello and exchange a WARM FUZZY.

As you might expect a WARM FUZZY does what it says on the tin: it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. So people used to enjoy meeting each other and passing the time of day, and chatting and exchanging WARM FUZZIES. The villagers were very generous in exchanging WARM FUZZIES, and there was much laughter and happiness.

All went well in this village and people were happy and content. Until one day a Shifty Stranger arrived. He wore dark glasses and had a large collection of enormous bags. These bags contained COLD PRICKLIES.

The Shifty Stranger persuaded some of the more gullible villagers to exchange their small bags of WARM FUZZIES for enormous bags of COLD PRICKLIES, because he said to them “You want to be carefully: you only have a small bag of WARM FUZZIES... and if you carry on giving them away you’ll soon run out... so why don’t you give me your small bag and I’ll give you an enormous bag of COLD PRICKLIES and you’ll never run out...”

The villagers soon agreed with the Shifty Stranger and exchanged their bags. Now when they met each other they exchanged not WARM FUZZIES, but COLD PRICKLIES.

Now a COLD PRICKLY also does what it says on the tin: it makes you feel cold and prickly... which is not so good... So people began to avoid each other. They stayed in doors and watched from behind their curtains. People got suspicious and they stopped talking. And when people did meet up it was COLD PRICKLIES that they swapped, and it really wasn’t so good...

One day the King was passing through the village and he couldn’t help but notice how the usually friendly and cheerful village was cold and silent. Even the birds avoids each other! And when he asked the reason the King was told about the Shifty Stranger with the dark glasses and the COLD PRICKLIES.

“Why you silly villagers!” the King said “don’t you realise that if you EXCHANGE your WARM FUZZIES, you’ll always have the same number - you’ll never run out...!”

The King agreed to take away the large bags of COLD PRICKLIES and replace them with small bags of WARM FUZZIES when the people realised how silly they’d been. So the villagers came and said sorry to the King for being silly.

But not all the villagers thought it was such a good idea - some of them preferred to keep a big bag of COLD PRICKLIES rather than run the risk of swapping it for a small bag of WARM FUZZIES. So in the village there was a bit of a dilemma... what should the people do? Should they risk giving out WARM FUZZIES, not knowing whether they would get COLD PRICKLIES in return? Did the King have an inexhaustible supply of WARM FUZZIES? Would he renew the small bags if they did run out? What should the people do...?

Well to be honest the struggle spread all over the land and is probably still going on right where you live, and maybe it’s a struggle that you’ve experienced. Should you trust the King and a small bag of WARM FUZZIES, or should you trust the Shifty Stranger and the big bag of COLD PRICKLIES?

I hope that you’ll do what Ciara and Isabelle and their families are doing today on this feast of Christ the King. They are throwing in their lot with the King of Love. They are trading in their bags of COLD PRICKLIES for bags of WARM FUZZIES, they are going to follow Jesus the very different King and live lives as his subjects, giving and asking for WARM FUZZIES as they make their way through life.

Will you join them?

Fr Andrew Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea