Sharing some thoughts

Most people at some time hear some really astounding news – news that is absolutely life changing. On Friday morning as I was eating my breakfast and watching the episode of Neighbours that I’d recorded from the day before I received such news – up on the screen flashed the words, ‘Happy Christmas from everyone at Neighbours’ – very nice I thought, but then the really life changing news, the next caption read, ‘Neighbours will be back on 5th January’… This wasn’t supposed to happen with Channel 5 – there were to be no more Wimbledon interruptions, no more Royal Ascot interruptions, but now we have this ! Breakfast will not be the same ! Of course, life changing though this may be for me – it’s not quite as life changing as the news Mary received in the gospel reading today (Luke 1:26-38) – still really a young girl, not married, a virgin, but the angel had visited and told her she was to have a child. Mary’s acceptance was incredible – she could have panicked, she could have simply ref...

The readings from Isaiah (40:1-11) and Mark (1:1-8) today are my favourite for the advent period. The prophet Isaiah writing, ‘In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill will be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain…’ And then John the Baptist, hundreds of years later echoes that cry as he prepares the way for Jesus. And those words must surely be our advent call as well. Today Churches, here and everywhere, are given some very simple commands by Jesus – love one another, love God, and share the good news of a salvation won for all by Jesus. They’re not complicated commands, and advent is a good time to reflect on how well we are achieving those things. This week a group of us from the Parish met the Archbishop in what was called an advent conversation – amongst the questions discussed were whether Wales today was actually looking fo...

You probably all know what the Christingle means by now – the different things all represent something – the orange of course represents the world, the red ribbon reminds us of the blood of Jesus, who loves us enough that he was prepared to die for us, before rising to life again. The 4 sticks represent the 4 corners of the earth as well as the 4 seasons of the year – Spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the sweets or nuts on the ends of the sticks represent the fruits of the earth – all of the good things we have. And then there is of course the candle representing Jesus, who died for us, but who rose from the dead, and who is a light shining even into the darkest moments of our lives. But today I want to focus on the world (represented by ??? the orange). If we look around the world today, we see all kinds of different people, people of different personalities, different faiths, different colours of skin, different abilities, and so on. We live as a unique part of God’s creation – ...

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. Our 3 year reading pattern moves today from Year A to year B, and we begin to look forward again to the celebration of the birth of Jesus. 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 nightmare 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 crisis many people are hoping that they’...

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 can do, or ...

It’s apparently a correct fact that 97% of the world adult population has heard of coca-cola, 72% of the world has seen a can of coca-cola and 51% of the world has tasted a can of coca-cola. Bearing in mind that the drink has only been around for less than 100 years, I wonder if God had given the task of world evangelization to the Coke company it would all be done by now. It is a remarkable success story, but it has taken a lot of planning, a lot of money, a lot of jobs, and no doubt had to overcome many problems. Tonight’s reading from the Gospel of Luke (9:1-6) is a short account of Jesus sending out his 12 disciples, giving them power an authority to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. This was mission 2000 years ago – go, take nothing for the journey, but rely on the hospitality of those you visit. If you don’t find hospitality, move on to somewhere else. It’s not a very well planned mission we might think. Today, we would probably phone ahead and find accommodation, get in t...

A married couple trying to live up to a lifestyle that was, to be honest, a little bit beyond them, went to a dinner party. The conversation at the party turned to Mozart. ‘Absolutely brilliant ! Magnificent, a genius !’ The woman wanting to join in the conversation, remarked casually, ‘Ah Mozart, you’re so right about him. I love him. Only this morning I saw him getting on the number 5 bus to Chelsea.’ There was a sudden hush, and everyone looked at her. Her husband was mortified. He pulled her away and whispered, ‘We’re leaving right now. Get your coat, and let’s get out of here.’ As they drove home, he kept muttering to himself. Finally his wife turned to him, ‘You seem angry about something ?’ ‘Oh really ! You noticed ! I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life ! You saw Mozart take the number 5 bus to Chelsea ? You idiot ! Don’t you know the number 5 bus doesn’t go anywhere near Chelsea ?’ I think this wonderful example of missing the point is one that as a Church we can often rat...

On Monday I got back from a 10 day study tour in the Holy Land looking at the theme of Reconciliation and conflict, with a particular emphasis being placed on that region. I will no doubt bore you incessantly many times in the coming days, weeks and perhaps even months with details of the trip, but today, on this Remembrance Sunday, seemed a particularly appropriate day to think about some of the things I saw and heard while I was away. Today we remember those who have died in conflicts – we give thanks for those who have lost their lives to try and maintain the peace and comfort that we enjoy so much today. It is a day of tribute to those people, but our greatest tribute must surely be to look at the world around us today and see peace… and that is far from what we do see ! And so I want to think very briefly of 3 different experiences as we remember and we try to offer our tributes to those who have been killed in conflict. I promise you, at other times I will talk in more detail on ...

In the film ‘Oh God’ which came out in the late 1970’s, the idea was mentioned that the reason God gave Adam and Eve no clothes to wear was because God knew that once they had clothes, they would want pockets, and once they had pockets, they would want money ! Talk about money is always a little bit controversial in Churches – some people think it should never be mentioned, that it’s somehow a dirty subject, however Jesus taught more about money than any other subject. Twenty-seven of Jesus' 43 parables, have to do with money and possessions. One of every ten verses in the gospels deals with money in some way. The Bible includes 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 on faith, but more than 2000 on money. Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 22:15-22) is one of those passages that deals with money and more precisely taxes. There’s a story about a little boy who wanted £100 desperately. He prayed for one week but nothing happened. Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the £100. ...

The 1st letter of John is a remarkable piece of work. It was written by the apostle John, the man known as the beloved disciple – by the time he wrote this book he was probably the only apostle still alive, and as an eye witness of the work on earth of Jesus his writing claims a particular authority. John, by this time in his life, was probably eighty or ninety years old. Nearly sixty years had passed since Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead. For sixty years, John had been thinking deeply and profoundly about Jesus, and he then wrote this book. After sixty yeas of contemplation, he writes the incredible words, “By this we know love.” (1 John 3:16) And that is what so many people in life search for. We want to know love. We want to know what love is because we sense that all meaning and happiness and goodness in life comes from knowing love. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from our jobs. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not from mone...

Before I begin I have a bit of a confession to make. In school last week in an assembly I confessed to watching neighbours on tv – I actually record it each day so I make sure that I don’t miss it, but that is nothing compared to the next confession. I enjoy politics and I enjoy economics ! They may not be the coolest things around but I enjoy listening to the news at the moment with the various discussions of economists and politicians – of course what is not so good is the very real pain being felt by many people closely affected by the current economic problems around most of the world. I find it interesting that the polls being taken at the moment seem to be showing an increase in popularity for the Prime Minister – the Prime Minster that for the past decade has been telling us, in his role as Chancellor, that the age of boom and bust economies has gone ! Now, I am not for one moment blaming Gordon Brown for the economic turmoil in the world today, but his idea of boom and bust eco...

J D Rockefeller, at the time one of the worlds richest men, wrote 3 ways to get rich – 1) Go to work early, 2) Stay at work late and 3) Find oil… If we choose then we can probably do the first 2 of these, but the third is rather more problematic ! Not many of us get really rich in our lives. We hope to have enough to be comfortable and we generally settle for that, and from the gospel reading tonight we have the suggestion that actually that position may be far better for us. The rich young man approaches Jesus (Mark 10:17-31) and asks him what he can do to inherit eternal life. Jesus runs through the commandments with him, and the young man says he’s kept them but then Jesus moves the goalposts slightly and turns to the question of the man’s wealth – ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you have and give money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me.’ And this was too much for the young man. On a very basic level we can think this is about money, about...

A while ago my brother received an invitation to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party. Obviously there’s a lot of people there, and you’re very fortunate to get anywhere near any of the Royal family who may be present on that particular day. But it’s a great occasion, something that you don’t do very often, and not too many people reject the invitations when they come. A lot of people like a good party, and in the gospel reading today (Matt.22:1-14) we hear about a big party – a party thrown by the king as a wedding banquet for his son. Surely lots of people would want to come. There would probably be great food and lots of it, plenty to drink, wonderful entertainment, and of course the chance to mingle with royalty. There would surely be no shortage of people wanting to come – but there was ! The slaves were sent out to give the invitations to all those that the king wanted to come, but people ignored them… And so the king, furious and keen not to lose face, sent them out again, this t...

Going out of a service some time ago a lady who was visiting this Church said to me, ‘At the end of Guide me O thou great redeemer, we sang the words, “Feed me till I want no more”. We’re not allowed to sing that in our Church’. I could have been a little bit thrown by this comment except for the fact that I actually understood it – the difference comes from some versions of the hymn ending with the words, ‘Feed me now and evermore’, and others with ‘Feed me till I want no more’. Some take exception to that second version simply because we can never be fed enough, and God with all his abundance of gifts never stops feeding us. That is one of the great things we celebrate at Harvest ! In the reading that we heard from the Book of Exodus we are given the account of the manna from heaven – the literal bread from heaven which God provided as the Israelites primary source of food for the whole 40 years they were in the desert. At harvest time, we are giving thanks for the food we have – we ...

A vicar had just arrived in his new Parish and the people were looking forward to hearing him preach his first sermon. He got up in the pulpit and said, “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went to preach what they all agreed afterwards was a good sermon. The following week they looked up expectantly as he climbed into the pulpit, so they were a bit taken aback when he began with precisely the same introduction: “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went on to preach exactly the same sermon as the week before – word for word. After the service, there was a bit of muttering, but people agreed that he’d only just moved in and he must have been busy unpacking and sorting himself out,...