Sharing some thoughts

  Some of you may have heard before about a book called ‘Run Baby Run’. It is the story of a man called Nicky Cruz who, in the late 50’s and early 60’s became a gang leader in New York. He tells of the time when he first arrived in the City from Puerto Rico – alone and with very little money.  He wrote ‘Moving on down the street I stopped in front of a Church. A heavy iron gate had been pulled across the front doors and it was fastened with a chain and padlock. I stood in front of the grey building, looking up at the steeple which pointed towards the heavens. The cold stone walls and dark stained glass windows huddled for protection behind the iron fence. The statue of a man with a kind face and sad eyes peered through the locked gate. His arms were outstretched and covered with snow. But he was locked in, and I was locked out…’  For some people there is a feeling that God is someone or something, unreachable, unapproachable…  But Christmas offers us an incredible reminder that God is

  Today in our Church calendar we move into the season  of advent – The first Sunday in advent is  traditionally new years’ day in the life of the Church.  Like any new year, advent is a time of reflection – it’s a time of looking back, but advent is primarily about looking forward, perhaps to the dread of Christmas shopping, if you haven’t already done it, perhaps to the joys of spending time with family, the Christmas parties… perhaps even to new year, Christmas being over, and the chance to start again – to make and try and keep those resolutions once again ! But the looking forward in advent could be much longer term than any of those things, because in advent we look forward to the promised return of Jesus, and on this first Sunday in advent one of the themes of the day is ‘Hope’. In the current economic climate, many people are facing times of uncertainty, some are just hoping that they’ll keep their jobs, many are hoping for more price cuts in shops or on houses or on cars…  All

  I think some of the readings that we have for this time of year in the Church calendar are wonderful ! Not wonderful because of their enjoyment value but because of their discomfort value. That may seem a little bit strange but I think all of us at times as Christians need to feel a little uncomfortable.   So often we over-complicate things in our lives, and we can easily reach the point where we’re so good at it that we can justify to ourselves and perhaps even to others that we’re doing all we can to do the right thing, that we’re living a good life…  I attend Church every Sunday and pray every day… I read my Bible regularly… I send money to help charities… I help my neighbour with the shopping… The list can go on and on – we’ve probably all, either consciously or sub consciously thought such things, and there’s no doubt that every one of those things is good to do, and we mustn’t stop.  But the point of discomfort has to be reached as well, as we examine perhaps what more we

  The kingdom season in the church calendar, which we’re now in, has never been a favourite of mine – I don’t think it’s a season that is particularly useful as I think our focus must every day of every week be on Christ as the king – the king of our lives, the king of our hopes and aspirations, the king of possibilities for the world and indeed the king of the whole world, so that’s a little hobby horse of mine out of the way!!  Having said that, the readings do offer us a focus upon which to reflect on these things in a bit more depth… Our gospel reading (Matt 25:14-30) is the story known as the parable of the talents – it’s often been portrayed as a parable about how well we use our gifts, in other words it’s about us, but whilst that may be part of it, I don’t think that’s the biggest part.  The biggest part comes in the first paragraph of what we heard. The master is going on a journey and he distributes his property to his servants to look after. To one he gives 5 talents, to ano