Sharing some thoughts

Idols today come in many shapes and sizes – they may come in the form of sports stars, actors and actresses, pop stars, or they may come in terms of the material possessions that we often strive after… This week I read a review of the Lambeth Conference by one of the Bishops present there, and I was a little surprised to find that the thing with which he introduced his report was the standard of the accommodation and the institutional food as he called it. Thinking that a Bishop should perhaps have a little more humility I was a little bit disappointed. But I wonder if I should be surprised, because I suspect that we’re all pretty good at enjoying the comforts that we, in this country, have grown accustomed to. It is easy to be self righteous, and I quite enjoy doing that (!!!) but it’s even easier to fall into a feeling where the norm for us is just the way we like things. In this evening’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (17:15-end) Paul is in Athens, one of the great cultu...

You may have noticed that I haven’t preached for the last 2 weeks in the morning services and so as I went to prepare for this morning I thought I’d have to come up with something really good. Feeling suitably inspired I had a look at the readings – St. Bartholomew’s Day. Now I think it’s generally a good thing to celebrate Saints Days as they can give a nice bit of human interest in the examination of their lives… However, there are some about whom we know so little that preaching about them is not very easy !! St Bartholomew falls into that category. Although he’s mentioned in the gospels as one of the 12 disciples, we know very little else about him at all. Suddenly my inspiration seemed to be disappearing a little !! That was until I realised that St Bartholomew is actually a perfect representation of most of us. We’re there as part of a Church, part of a family, chosen by God to represent him, supported and sustained by the Holy Spirit, but leading sometimes unremarkable liv...

A local preacher was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Billy Graham, the famous American evangelist, was to speak the next night. Billy Graham had arrived a day early and so he came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd to listen to the local preacher. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no one recognised him. Directly in front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening intently to the presentation. When the preacher invited people to come forward as an open sign of commitment, Billy decided to do a little personal evangelism. He tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, "Would you like to accept Christ? I'll be glad to walk down with you if you want to." The old man looked him up and down, thought it over for a moment, and then said, "No, I think I'll just wait till the big gun comes tomorrow night." Unfortunately this story underlines how, in the minds of many people, evangelism i...

This evening our Gospel reading was the account of the TRANSFIGURATION of CHRIST, which must remain one of the most spectacular accounts in the Bible. Three of the apostles, Peter, James and John, were witnessing a glorious sight whilst on the mountain praying. They had witnessed Christ being transfigured – literally changed as the appearance of his face had become a dazzling white. They had seen their forefathers, Moses and Elijah as plain as day. And finally, God was talking to them. He was talking to them from a cloud. For those disciples present it must have been one of the moments where any doubts or worries they might have had, and all those little things that didn’t add up, were all squashed as the irrefutable evidence of God’s glory was presented. Perhaps, the disciples could see their place in the order of creation, and just perhaps they could see the answers to the difficult questions. As they stood there beholding the Glory of God, did they understand what it is al...

Once when the comedian Bob Hope received a major award he responded, "I don't deserve this, but then I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either." The problem of suffering is one which has affected people throughout the course of history. Much of it is man-made; some is more difficult to account for. One thing is certain though and that is that Christians are in no way exempt from this suffering. At the Nicene Council meeting in the 4th century A.D., at which the Nicene Creed which we use today in the communion service was agreed, of the 318 delegates attending, only 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith. They of course were following in the footsteps of so many of the early Christians, persecuted for their faith. In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles (14:8-20) we heard of Paul, first of all being involved in the healing of a man, but then stoned, stoned until his torturers thought he ...

I’d like to begin with 2 short stories about baptism. One day a father was in church with three of his young children, including his five year old daughter. As was customary, he sat in the very front row so that the children could properly witness the service. During this particular service, the minister was performing the baptism of a tiny baby. The five year old girl was very interested in this, observing that the minister was saying something and pouring water over the baby’s head. With a quizzical look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked: "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that baby??" And there’s another story. Before performing a baptism, the priest approached the young father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step. Are you prepared for it?" "I think so," the man replied. "My wife has made appetizers and we have a caterer coming to provide plenty of food for all of our guests." "I don`t mean that,...

Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 14:13-21) is often described as the parable of the loaves and fishes, and on that basis it is one of the best known parables in the Bible. However it is not actually written as a parable at all. A parable has been described as “a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle.” And while this story certainly illustrates both a moral attitude and a religious principle, it is presented by the author of the Gospel of Matthew as an actual event from the ministry of Jesus. In fact, one reason it may be so well known is that the miracle actually occurred twice. These two incidents are cited in John chapter 6, Luke chapter 9, Matthew chapters 14 and 15, and Mark chapters 6 and 8. One of the truly amazing things about the Bible is that it is a living document. This week I watched some of the antiques programme that’s on at lunchtime where the teams buy certain goods which are then auctioned off – the winner is the o...