Sharing some thoughts

Martin Luther once wrote that "there are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, the conversion of the mind, and the conversion of the purse ." Of these three, it may well be that we find the conversion of the purse to be the most difficult. Charles Spurgeon writes, "With some Christians the last part of their nature that ever gets sanctified is their pockets." There’s the old story about a church that was undertaking a huge building project, where the minister stood up one Sunday and said to the congregation, "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the church has all the money it needs to complete this project. The bad news is that it's still in your wallets." Last week at evensong I spoke about giving. The reading suggested we must be generous and cheerful givers financially, practically and spiritually. When I looked at the reading tonight from Paul’s 2 nd letter to the Corinthians (Ch.9), he’s a...

Today’s gospel reading (Luke 10:13-17) is a marvellous example of how people can sometimes get things wrong. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, when he saw a lady come in who was bent over and completely unable to stand up straight. She had been this way for 18 years. And as Jesus looked at her, and recognised I’m sure her faith in keeping coming back to the Synagogue, he commanded that she should be healed. And she was… Incredibly after 18 years her suffering was over. The woman, recognising the miracle that had taken place immediately began praising God. This week I saw a courier van and written on the back was ‘Call’ and then there was a telephone number, and then underneath ‘For GOD’. It certainly drew my attention, but in smaller letters underneath the word ‘GOD’ was ‘guaranteed overnight delivery.’ In this gospel passage we notice that God can work much faster than overnight in some cases – the transformation of this woman was incredible and yet, the leader of the synagogue d...

A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a £5 note and a £1 coin for church "Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself," she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. "Well," said the little girl, "I was going to give the £5 note, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I'd be a lot more cheerful if I gave the £1 coin, so I did." Tonight’s New Testament Reading (2 Cor.8:1-9) covers another of those subjects which we’re not often very keen to discuss. However the subject has come up quite a bit in readings recently, and in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus is recorded talking about this subject an average of once every 6 verses. The subject of course is money and giving. More than with any other subject people cringe as the preache...

Sometimes in the Bible we look for comfort and for peace. We look for words of hope and inspiration, even for words of joy, and within the Bible there are plenty of places to find such words, but today our gospel reading (Luke 12:49-56) offers us something very different. Here we see Jesus talking about bringing fire to the earth, and about bringing division between families. It’s not the pleasant picture we often like to think of when we’re thinking about Jesus. And to be honest it seems very different from most of the messages that he offers. As a result some have speculated that it wasn’t even his words, but the words of Luke interpreting some thoughts of Jesus. But I’m not really sure that it matters too much whether Jesus actually spoke these words or not, because the sentiments that he was expressing were very real to Jesus. They were not really about breaking up families but about firstly the need for commitment, and secondly the acceptance that sometimes following the way...

A couple of weeks back, Russia planted a flag under the North Pole to symbolise the Kremlin's claim to the Arctic. In an unprecedented mission, a veteran Arctic explorer went down 14,000 feet in a kind of submarine and dropped a Russian titanium pole onto the seabed. Somebody said, ‘They can have it; it is after all just one big chunk of ice.’ But of course it’s not actually just one big chunk of ice at all – what the Russians are interested in, and other countries will become interested in fairly soon, is the likelihood of finding a huge amount of oil under the ice. As oil supplies run down through the world this is an area so far untapped, with huge potential for oil, and with it, the profit and the power that will inevitably follow. This mission is all about vision – planning something not for today or even tomorrow, but for sometime in the future… This evening both of our readings (Rev.21:1-5a and Mark 8:31-34) have observations to make about vision. In the reading from the...

One of the most controversial discussions that can ever take place involves the question of what is true and false religion. Whilst people often use the argument that religion is the cause of most of the wars throughout history, it is actually man’s interpretation of that religion that is usually at fault. In the epistle of James the writer goes some way towards providing some sort of guidance on this question. He wrote (James 1:22-27), ‘Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.’ In the gospel reading that we heard (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus then warns of the perils of being self righteous in our worship. The message is very much centred around doing rather than just talking, and being rather than pretending to be. Some of you may have heard of the story of Babette’s Feast. It was set in a poor small fishing village in Denmark. In a very grim setting the film which w...

There’s 2 well known stories about faith. The first is about a man who got the idea of walking on a tight-rope over Niagara Falls. Other people had done it, but this man had a new twist. He was going to do the walk whilst pushing a man in a wheelbarrow. He began at once to prepare for the event, even though he hadn't yet found anyone willing to ride in the wheelbarrow. He set up a tight-rope near the Falls and every day he could be seen pushing and balancing the wheel barrow filled with stones. One day, a young man came up to him to wish him well. "Good luck," he said. "I've watched you practicing and I have confidence in you. I know you can do it." The tight-rope walker answered. "Do you believe I can do this?" And the young man replied, "Yes, of course!" Again, he said, "But do you really believe I can do this?" "Yes, of course," the young man repeated. "Then you're my man. Get in the wheel barrow!"...

In Bible study on Thursday there was a lot of discussion about our need to forgive other people who ask for our forgiveness. Every one of us there recognised how difficult that task of forgiveness can sometimes be. This evening our readings (Gen.50:15-21, 1 Cor.4:1-5) remind us again that we are called to forgive and accept people, but also that it is only God who can ultimately judge a person. In effect we are being called to take people at face value….. It’s not easy – all of us I’m sure from time to time make up our minds about what we think of a person very quickly, and sometimes whatever they say at a later date will do very little to change our opinions ! So this calling to forgive is one that is never going to be easy to accept. Many years ago in the Times there was a section titled, ‘What is wrong with the world today?’ The shortest reply came from G K Chesterton, who wrote, ‘Dear Sir, I am’. Now there are a lot of problems in the world, and a lot of people who we would...

One morning back in 1888, Alfred Nobel was quite surprised, as you would be, to read his own obituary in a French newspaper. Obviously, it was a journalistic mistake. One of his brothers had died, and a careless reporter had used a prewritten obituary of the wrong man. But as he read, Nobel was shocked and deeply disturbed to learn what the world really thought of him. He was seen simply as the dynamite king, the merchant of death, who had amassed a great fortune out of explosives. Nobel himself had hoped his inventions would be useful to people and to nations. From the moment of reading that obituary, Alfred Nobel resolved to show the world the true purpose of his life. He revised his will so that his fortune would be dedicated to the recognition of great creative achievements, with the highest award going to those who had done the most for world peace. Today, of course we still associate him with the Nobel Peace Prize. Today’s gospel reading (Luke 12:13-21) challenges e...