Sharing some thoughts

Apparently, back in 2003, a funeral company in Brazil released an advert on local TV containing the strapline : “Our clients have never come back to complain”!!   Today’s readings are about confounding the idea that death is the end of things. They’re about new life, new possibilities, new chances… In the gospel (John 11:1-45) we heard part of the account of Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, who had died…  It’s a complicated account - Jesus is told that his friend is sick and responds by saying that the sickness will not end in death…  But he doesn’t go quickly to see Lazarus - he waits. And when he eventually goes there, Lazarus has died… Martha, Lazarus’ sister had rushed out to meet Jesus and said, ‘Lord if you’d been here he wouldn’t have died.’  Jesus says he will rise again and Martha accepts that he will rise in the future but what about now? And Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die, will live….’ Ma...

  A long time ago I read a true story which I’ve often thought about. It was about a 12 year old boy who was born without an immune system. Eventually, he underwent a bone marrow transplant in order to correct the problem, but up until that point he had spent his entire life in a plastic bubble in order to prevent exposure to common germs, bacteria, and viruses that could kill him. In his plastic bubble, he lived without ever knowing human contact.   When asked before his operation what he'd like to do if and when released from his protective bubble, he replied, "I want to walk barefoot on grass, and touch my mother's hand." What can easily seem small things to many of us can mean such a lot to others – and I think today’s readings remind us of how important the care is that we give to others. In the news we all too often hear of bad things happening, of people being unkind, aggressive, committing crimes, making wars – it’s a reality of humanity, but if we look arou...

  I was at a meeting quite a while back and we were asked to describe what people thought of the Church in Wales. The answers included some positive remarks such as ‘a lifeline for some people’ but also some more challenging answers such as ‘dependable’, ‘people know where we are when they need us’ along with ‘irrelevant’ from someone…. Our readings this morning though really challenge us and some of those negative comments - We heard in the reading from Exodus (17:1-7) of God bringing water from a rock and if that God exists then that God is someone people need to know…   And later we heard from the letter to the Romans (5:1-11) and Paul had met that God powerfully in his own life and his life had been completely transformed and in that reading from Romans we heard a passage full of praise as he celebrates the power and love of God… And then we come to the gospel reading (John 4:5-42) and we have this incredible meeting between Jesus and the woman at the well…...

One of the readings that we seem to have quite a lot in the Church is the account of the Transfiguration that we have heard today (Matt.17:1-9). It’s a remarkable account, but as with so many other accounts we have from the Bible we can only really appreciate it best when we allow ourselves to be immersed in the story – and to put ourselves in the positions of the main characters. When Jesus took Peter, James, and John along on a trip up the mountain (Matt 17:1-9), they probably felt very honoured. They must have felt that they were the chosen among the chosen. Or perhaps not, maybe they thought: "what does he want us to do now? Do I always have to do the work? Why couldn't he pick Andrew or Judas, or someone else ?" But whatever they thought, I wonder what they really expected… Some kind of special meeting, a picnic or a prayer meeting perhaps… We don’t really know. But one thing that they almost certainly didn’t expect though was what actually happened. Jesus was transf...

  Today in the Church in Wales is designated as Creation Sunday – and whilst many people will hold different views about creation and about how it all happened, today we are called to celebrate the wonder of creation and our place within it….  The long creation reading (Gen.1:1-2:3) reminds us of the wonderful gifts that God has prepared for us all in his creation. A world of beauty, a world of challenges certainly, but a world crammed full of resources and gifts to be used by all his people. It is a world where men and women are created equally in God’s own image – where every man and every woman has a right to enjoy the resources we are given. In a world where it seems more and more opinions are being expressed about looking after ourselves first, or at least people who look like us or act like us, this is a call to get back to God – to recognise we are made in his image… With all of our differences, we are created in God’s image…  And when God...

 I’m not sure who to credit for the photo but thank you !  Our readings today are very much a call to look at ourselves, a kind of pre-lent preparation, and whenever we might identify a fault in ourselves we hope that both we and others will deal with it gently!  But it was a concept that people such as St Paul, and even Jesus himself would not have understood well. When they saw an issue that needed dealing with they went straight in and did something about it. And the readings today from Isaiah (58:1-9), Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians (2:1-12) and the gospel of Matthew (5:13-20) contain some pretty straight talking. In the gospel Jesus said to the crowds, ‘You are the light of the world…’ (Matthew 5 : 13-20) And he went on just a little bit later, ‘let your lights shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.’ This theme of light and darkness is one to which the Bible...