Sharing some thoughts

Today in the gospel reading that we have just heard we have Luke’s account (11: 1-13) of Jesus teaching his disciples what we know as the Lords Prayer. For many, perhaps all of us, prayer is a very spiritual sort of thing at times. It is an attempt to get closer to God, to communicate our needs and the needs of others, and our thanks. It’s grounded in a hope which is sometimes a little bit distant. We are assured that prayer is always answered but we are not always told how or when. But one of the main things that strikes me about the Lords Prayer is its relevance here and now. It doesn’t matter that the words were spoken by Jesus 2000 years ago, they apply to a vision which we must hold now. This week there was a huge headline on the back page of the South Wales Echo announcing that ‘God is now a City star.’ It seems that God, not surprisingly I might add, has indeed come to Cardiff. Of course the God that was referred to in the Echo is Robbie Fowler who has signed for Cardiff Cit...

Today of course we celebrate the Feast Day of St Mary Magdalene, and this morning we celebrated with the Church in Mawdlam their Patronal Festival. But this evening I want to look forward just a few days to Wednesday, when we celebrate the Patronal Festival here with the Feast Day of St James. James was the Galilean Fisherman who, along with his brother John, was one of those called by Jesus to give up everything and follow him. He seems to have enjoyed a privileged position in the group as one of Jesus’ inner circle. He was one of the disciples chosen to be with Jesus at the Transfiguration, at the healing of Jairus’ daughter and also then at the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus awaited his arrest. It is believed that James was eventually put to death in the year 44AD on the instructions of Herod Agrippa who believed that by killing off the Christian leaders, he could kill off the spread of the Christian Faith. How foolish Herod was to think that a faith was just about the people. ...

As Mary Magdalene recognised the risen Jesus she did perhaps what any close friend would have done on seeing a loved one and gave him a great big hug. But Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me… but go and tell the others that I have risen.’ In this one encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene I think we get the full sense of the urgency with which Jesus encouraged people to share the good news that he was, and he is, alive. From the depression that must have covered the group of Jesus’ followers immediately after his death, the whole situation is turned around as Jesus appears again to them. The disciples, naturally, I think, must have wanted to just revel in the celebrations, and spend time with someone they thought had gone forever. They must surely have just wanted to spend time alone with him, and not share him with others, but Jesus had other plans. He was to be with them only for a short time, and none of that time could be wasted. And so Mary Magdalene was called upon...

In this evenings gospel reading (Mark 7:1-23) Jesus is having a go at the Pharisees and the scribes. Some of the disciples had been criticised for not washing their hands before eating. This may not be the most hygienic thing today, but at that time it was considered even more important. For the Jews, failure to wash hands before the meal meant that their hands were spiritually unclean, and that all that entered into their mouths would also be unclean. Washing hands was something that was probably started for good and logical reasons of hygiene, but it had become the law ! People had to do it ! Any failure to do it meant condemnation from the religious authorities. Jesus reacted badly ! He criticised their traditions in no uncertain terms – telling the people that they were more concerned with minor traditions than with upholding any sort of moral code, and even worse than that, they were allowing their traditions to get in the way of any sort of relationship with God. Now, man...

At The beginning of 2006 in New York, a man named Wesley Autrey was standing on a platform for the underground with his two young daughters, waiting for a train. Suddenly another man on the platform, apparently suffering from some kind of a seizure, stumbled and fell off the platform down onto the track. Just at that moment the headlights of a rapidly approaching train appeared in the tunnel. With no thought for himself, Wesley Autrey jumped down onto the track to rescue the man by dragging him out of the way of the train. But he immediately realised that the train was coming too fast and there wasn't time to pull the man off the tracks. So Wesley pressed the man into the hollow space between the rails and spread his own body over him to protect him as the train passed over the two of them. The train cleared Wesley by mere inches, coming close enough to leave grease marks on his clothes. When the train came to a halt, Wesley called up to the frightened onlookers on the platfo...

St Paul is often thought of as a rather blunt, maybe even not particularly pleasant sort of character in some of his letters. Certainly he was fairly ruthless in terms of trying to maintain a discipline in the Church, and he was passionate about sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. But tonight we heard part of the letter of James (1:19-27), and hear we find some even more blunt comments – James argued that whilst good works wouldn’t save a person, good works are certainly the marks of a Christian person. In the eyes of James, talk without action was meaningless. ‘Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’, wrote James. This remains one of the great challenges to the Church today – in Bible study over the past couple of weeks we have thought about the Church, and about some of the things we do in the Church, and actually many of these things, that have become an important part of our worship and tradition, are man-made things. Some are very u...

The author, Eugene Brice, in one of his books ( Books That Bring Life (Net Press, 1987)), tells of a controversy that took up a lot of time in the United States Senate many years ago. It was around whether or not to allow the newly elected senator from Utah, a man called Reed Smoot, to take his seat. At that time, the Mormon church (to which Smoot belonged) still allowed the practice of polygamy. And although Smoot had only one wife, some of the more difficult members of the Senate argued that he should not be allowed to take his seat, given the beliefs of his church. But the issue was settled when another Senator came forward and looked directly at some of his colleagues who, though married, were known to "womanize" quite a bit. He stated strongly, "I would prefer to have seated beside me in the Senate a polygamist who doesn’t polyg than a monogamist who doesn’t monog." I spent quite a lot of time looking at this mornings readings, and thinking about what ...

Outside the United Nations building in New York is a statue of St George and the Dragon. It was presented by the former Soviet Union, and is made up of parts of rockets used by the former communist state and the United States as delivery systems for their nuclear missiles during the cold war. It’s intended as a dramatic symbol of reconciliation coming at the end of the last century in which over 100 million people perished in wars and civil conflicts. Apparently inside the Building there is a brightly lit mosaic with the words, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ Delivered in such a grand setting the words seem to have little relevance to most individuals – they are in the arena of national politics to be interpreted and put into practice by international statesmen and women. But these words relate very much to each one of us as individuals, just in the same way as the words of Paul in his letter to the Romans (12:6-18) that we have just heard, concern each one of ...

This year marks the 30 th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley and it seems that an increasingly popular hobby is Elvis impersonating ! Porthcawl has been one of the areas responsible for encouraging this phenomenon in recent times, and one of the most startling facts that I have read recently suggests that if the rate of growth of Elvis impersonators continues at its current level, then by 2025, 1 in 4 of the worlds population will be an Elvis impersonator ! You can imagine there are huge opportunities for businesses to grow up making and selling huge sideburns and glittery white suits, and training companies practising the various qualities that Elvis is remembered for ! And impersonation acts are nothing new – many people have made a good living out of impersonating people. One who was not so successful at it was Charlie Chaplin who, when on holiday one year, entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition and only managed to finish 3 rd ! But anyway to impersonate a pe...