Sharing some thoughts

Oliver Wendell Holmes was a member of the United States Supreme Court for 30 years. At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained he may have chosen a different career but said: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." Now, I like advent a lot – it’s a chance to be really solemn before Christmas, a chance to suggest to people that they shouldn’t be partying and enjoying themselves so much, but should in fact being spending time thinking about their eternal destiny and how God is viewing their lives – this sometimes leads to accusations that I’m a bit of a Scrooge – these accusations often come from very close to home as well !! However the readings and the meaning of the season of advent generally back me up on this one – it is not a time of partying and festivities.., that is until today ! Today is often known as ‘Gaudette Sunday’, in other words, ‘Rejoicing Sunday’, and in the readings we notice ...

This week I had a rather strange experience. On Tuesday I went to do some hospital visiting and as I arrived in the foyer, there were some dignitaries there obviously ready to perform some sort of ceremony. Also within this group was the Hospital Chaplain who I needed to speak to and so, as they were only just getting things ready, I thought I would pop over and talk to him. Whilst talking to him, I heard my name being given to the reporter that was there as one of the people that was attending this ceremony. That was fine, except I didn’t even know what it was all about ! By this stage the photographer had begun to ask us to get into our places for the photo, and you can imagine it was now pretty difficult to get away, and so I squeezed in next to a couple of nurses and smiled for my photo. If it appears in the Gazette and you see it, you will know that I was an imposter ! However it did lead me to find out more about what was going on and it turned out that this was the launch of an ...

There’s a book about the World's Worst Predictions and it lists some of history's all-time prophetic disasters, such as the fact that King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution, or an official of the White Star Line, famously speaking of the firm's newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable. Or, in 1939 The New York Times said that the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn't have time for it… Many people have come up with great prophecies and looked very silly when the moment passed and the prophecy was not fulfilled. The Book of Isaiah is one of the best known of the Old Testament books – and it’s not surprising as the book contains 121 prophecies which all came true in the life of Jesus. Added to that it is, apart from the Book of Psalms, the most quoted Old Testament Book in the New Testament. And when we think...

There’s a car sticker I’ve seen which I thought was quite amusing – it read, ‘Look busy, Jesus is coming back’… But of course, amusing though it may be, there is an element of truth here. Jesus has promised that he will return to earth one day, and at that time the world as we know it will end and the kingdom of God will be completed. None of us know the day or hour, although you can usually find someone with a banner telling you on most main City streets !! But, none of us actually know, and it is a waste of time to try and work it out, because God never intended us to know ! Advent is one of the most misunderstood seasons of the Church calendar – looking forward to Christmas we often confuse it with secular preparations and lots of festivities, and that’s probably inevitable, but in the Church calendar it is a solemn time of anticipation, both of the celebration of the birth of Christ, and of his coming again. The colours in the Church change to purple, the only other season that is ...

Desmond Tutu tells the story of a light bulb that shone brightly and proudly. He says how it began to strut about arrogantly, quite unmindful of how . . . it could shine so brilliantly, and thinking that it was all due to its own merit and skill." One day the light bulb was taken out of the socket and placed on a table. "Try as hard as it could, the light bulb could give no light and brilliance. . .” Each one of us has the opportunity to shine as lights in the world. Each one of us can do good, can begin in small ways to make a difference in the world – a difference for good. Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who wrote a diary whilst hiding from the Germans in Amsterdam in the war, wrote, ‘How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world’. We all have a challenge of building a better world, and each of us are given gifts to help us do that. It may be through our giving in money or time, it may be in prayer, it may be in action, mo...

There’s a rather nice true story about a volunteer tutor was asked to visit a nine-year-old in a large hospital. She took the boy's name and room number and was told by the boy's teacher that they were studying nouns and adverbs in class. It wasn't until the tutor got to the boy's room that she realised the boy was a patient in the hospital's burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a nine-year-old so horribly burned and in such great pain. Though she wanted to, she felt she couldn't just turn and leave, so she gathered her courage and entered the room. "Hi, I'm the hospital teacher," she stammered. "Your teacher asked me to help you with nouns and adverbs." And, clumsily, she launched into the lesson. The next morning a nurse called the tutor. "What did you do to that boy?" The tutor immediately began a tearful apology, but the nurse interrupted her."No, no, no. You don't understand. We've been very worried about...

A newly married sailor was informed by the navy that he was going to be stationed for a year a long way from home on a remote island in the Pacific. A few days after he got there he really began to miss his new wife, so he wrote a letter. ‘My love’ he wrote, ‘we are going to be apart for a very long time. Already I am missing you and there’s not much to do here in the evenings. Besides that, I have to tell you that we’re constantly surrounded by young attractive native girls. Do you think I should get a hobby of some kind so I will not be tempted?’ So his wife sent him back a harmonica saying, ‘That’s a good idea, to avoid any possibility of you straying, I think you should learn to play this’... Eventually his tour of duty came to an end and he rushed back to his wife. ‘Darling’ he said, ‘I can’t wait to see you for a cuddle !’ Before allowing him a cuddle or certainly a kiss, she said, ‘First show me whether you learnt the harmonica !’ Waiting around for something can be really diffi...

This week again we have heard of more casualties in the war in Afghanistan – Iraq also seems far from stable and throughout the world many other conflicts are raging. Today we offer thoughts and prayers for those involved in conflict today as well as those in the past… There are a number of purposes of Remembrance Sunday with the primary one obviously being to remember – to remember those who have lost their lives in war, and those who have suffered terribly whether because of an injury or illness sustained themselves, or because of the loss of a loved one. Remembering is one of the most powerful emotions we have – often we forget things we want to remember and remember things we would rather not ! Sometimes memory is selective – for example I remember the score when Cardiff Blues beat the Ospreys recently, but don’t remember the score against Leinster from last week !! But today, more seriously, remembering is important. Today we think of the sacrifices made by so many people in confl...

I don’t know if any of you have ever run a marathon ?? In case you’re wondering I haven’t and what’s more I don’t particularly want to ! However last week I did sponsor someone who was running the Snowdon Marathon – it was her third marathon of the year and she’s already signed up to do the next London marathon. I sponsored her for a number of reasons – firstly I think she’s rather brave, if not a little stupid, for doing it; secondly she’s running for a really good cause and thirdly because sponsoring her is far easier than actually doing a marathon myself !! We all have a choice whether or not we run in a marathon, and most of us choose not to. However in many ways the whole of our lives can be seen as a marathon – and a marathon in which we are participants rather than spectators. We don’t actually have a choice over whether to take part in life’s marathon. For all of the good things we hopefully enjoy in our lives, for the wonderful blessings we regularly receive, there will inevit...

Today as we celebrate All Saints Day our readings naturally concentrate on God’s love, his grace, on the many blessings that he gives to us every day, and ultimately upon the victory which he has already won – the victory over everything that is wrong in the world and in our lives today. In the reading from Isaiah (25:6-9) we are given a picture of an incredible feast – good food, good wine, no worries about anything, tears removed forever… And there’s a similar feeling in the reading from the Book of Revelation (21:1-5). The reading tells of the new Jerusalem, a city fit for God to live in, a city where mourning and crying and pain are no more. And then in the gospel of John (11:32-44) we have the account of Jesus weeping as he hears of the death of his friend Lazarus, but then performing the miracle of raising him from the dead. These three readings are useful tools as we think of All Saints Day, because I think there are 3 elements to the day – the first is a look back at the past, ...

I had a lecturer in college who is now one of my friends on facebook. He often writes rather bizarre and difficult to understand comments – one this week was in a similar mode. However it did have one very simple to understand sentence which said that the ‘greatest gift we can ever learn is humility.’ It’s been said that humility is a chocolate biscuit lying with the plain side up ! This evening I wanted to think about what Christian humility really is. It’s a quality which many would suggest as being essential for a Christian, and for the Church, and yet failings in this area over the centuries have often led to conflict and to misunderstanding. In the gospel reading (Luke 18:9-14) we heard the account of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector praying. The Pharisee thanks God that he is not like other men, that he’s better than them, he almost reminds God of all the good things he does – his fasting, his giving of a tenth of his income – as if God may need some reminding ! On the other ha...

Most of you will know of Helen Keller, the deaf and blind American woman who, in spite of her disabilities became an author, a political activist and lecturer. When asked once if there was anything worse than being blind she replied, "Yes, to have no vision" Today in the gospel we heard a very simple story about healing – Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, approached Jesus and begged him for mercy – Jesus responded by giving Bartimaeus his sight. By itself, it’s an incredible miraculous story, but the story also tells us much more about the character of Jesus himself. Near Jericho Jesus knew there would be a large crowd and he was right but, in spite of this crowd, Jesus heard one man, Bartimaeus, shouting – others amongst Jesus’ followers tried to get him to keep quiet but, just like often happens when you try to keep a child quiet, Bartimaeus just shouted louder. And Jesus heard him – that’s an incredibly important point in this story – Jesus heard a beggar sitting at the side of ...

Once again this week, as politicans have returned to Westminster following the summer break, we had a return to Prime Ministers Question Time – this week it began in sombre fashion with a list of those people who had been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the Commons Summer Break. Gordon Brown read it – I think it was 37 names added to an ever growing list. Also this week the Prime Minister made a statement about putting more troops out in Afghanistan – another 500 were promised in order to help protect the lives of those already there. It all sounded reasonable and sensible until that became dependant on other things – one of which was whether other NATO countries were prepared to do the same. Whatever spin is put on this, and I have no doubt there will be something, it seemed that whether we send out more troops to help protect the lives of others has to wait until others agree to do the same. Whether this is a just war, a sensible war even, isn’t particularly relevant to this...

There’s a quote which says "Jesus said to the people : 'Who do you say that I am?'. And they replied : 'You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our interpersonal relationship.' And Jesus said : 'What???'" I’ve used this quote before I know because I think it’s one which wonderfully explains how well we, and people through the centuries, have complicated the Christian faith, and perhaps in doing that have often lost the radical and very personal message of Jesus. Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 22:34-40) calls us to some sort of normality or reality – Jesus is asked which commandment is the greatest and he quotes from the Jewish scriptures, the Book of Deuteronomy (6:4-9), which we have also heard this evening, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’, and he extends this as he offers a second commandment, ‘You sh...

A little boy was shouting for his mother because he’d got his hand stuck in a small jar – as his mother arrived to help him he asked her, ‘Would it be easier if I unclenched my fist and let go of the money I’m holding ?’ Of course a clenched hand was needed to hold on to the money but it was also the very thing that was stopping the boy from getting his hand out of the jar – releasing the money meant his hand was free. And today’s gospel reading (Mark 10:17-31) is a call to let go of things that we are holding that are preventing us from enjoying real freedom. There are many accounts of people with lots of money who fail to find happiness – money is nice, it helps quite often, but it is never the key to being happy. Today the rich young ruler approaches Jesus – in fact only Mark’s gospel suggests he is rich, Matthew’s is the only one who says he is young, and Luke’s is the only one who calls him a ruler – but anyway the rich young ruler approaches Jesus and asks what he has to do to in...

Those who know my views on many of the Victorian legacies in our Churches may be a bit surprised to find that actually I rather enjoy one of them ! And that is the Harvest Festival – For centuries Christians have celebrated and given thanks for the Harvest, but it was as recent as 1843 when the Revd R S Hawker put up a notice on his Church in Cornwall saying that there would a special Sunday of thanksgiving, and that the old custom of making eucharistic bread from the first corn would be revived. It read: "Let us gather together in the chancel of our church, and there receive, in the bread of the new corn, that blessed sacrament which was ordained to strengthen and refresh our souls." Since then the harvest festival has become an important part of the Church calendar – it is obviously a day when we give thanks to God for the harvest, but I think that is only part of our celebration. The first part is our recognition of God’s gifts. All around us we see evidence of the goodnes...