Sharing some thoughts

One of my favourite Biblical images is the contrast between light and darkness as representing good and evil, or life with or without God, and also the concept of God being a light shining in the darkness, and calling us to be a light for others shining in the world today. It’s an image that is used quite a lot and one that we heard again in our reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:1-18) this evening. In the letter to the Philippians Paul is writing to a Church that has been a great blessing to him. Although he was writing the letter from prison, it is a letter of joy – in just 4 chapters, he uses the concept of joy or rejoicing 16 times. But even in that Church it seems that there were some problems and Paul addresses these problems by calling people to focus on Jesus as their example for Godly living. He calls for unity and he calls for humility and abstention from selfish ambition or conceit. And he goes on to describe the character of Jesus himself, who came to earth, n...

At this time of the swine flu pandemic and the suspension of distributing wine at communion it seems particularly appropriate that we should have 2 readings which concentrate solely on bread ! (Exodus 16:2-4,9-15 and John 6:24-35) In the Old Testament we have the account of the bread coming down from heaven to feed the Israelites as God had promised. This was something that satisfied a physical hunger but which pointed far more to a greater message that God will provide for his people. And then in the gospel we have Jesus being followed by many people, and they are following him because they have seen or heard about his miraculous feeding of the 5,000. And Jesus knows that’s why they are there ! They haven’t come to be spiritually fed, to hear Jesus teaching, but they have come because Jesus has become associated with drama, or even with throwing a good party with plenty of food for everyone ! Groucho Marx once said on leaving a dinner party, ‘I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening… b...

Tonight’s Old Testament reading from the 1st Book of Kings (3:1-15) gives us a wonderful picture of Solomon. Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba and when David died, Solomon became the King of Israel. The name ‘Solomon’ is believed to come from the Hebrew word for peace – and this was particularly appropriate, considering that Israel did indeed enjoy relatively high security and prosperity during his reign. He was born approximately 1030 B.C., the tenth son of King David, and the second son of his mother Bathsheba. Solomon was the first king of Israel born to a reigning king. He turned out to be the third (after David and Saul) and last king of the united kingdom of Israel - the ruler of all 12 tribes. David chose Solomon as his successor over all of his older sons and his reign of 40 years was generally a great success. On his deathbed, David gave parting instructions and encouragements to his son (1 Kings 2:1-9, 1 Chronicles 22:7-16). It certainly seemed to help - Solomon, wit...

Today we celebrate the Patronal Festival of St James’ Church – earlier this week a similar festival was celebrated in St Mary Magdalene Church. At any such celebrations, as with any birthdays, it’s natural to reflect on what has happened in years gone by – and a recollection of such events even from people gathered here today could, I’m sure, fill up many hours with memories. In the reading from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (4:7-15) we heard of how Paul wrote to the Church there about the troubles they were experiencing as they grew as a Christian community. He wrote of the need to persist, to never give up, just as God would never abandon them, and he reminds the community that the reason they continued with their work through suffering and adversity was because they believed in God – ‘I believed in God, and so I speak’, wrote Paul. It’s one very short sentence, but a tremendously important motivation for our actions. As we reflect on our Churches in years gone by, one of t...

I always have mixed feelings about celebrating Saints Days, or even making a big deal about Patronal Festivals of Churches – on the one hand, it’s wonderful to celebrate the years that God has blessed the Church, the work done and the people who have passed through the Church, on another I think as Churches we really do need to celebrate more as we seek to share the love of Jesus, but on yet another (and it’s really confusing because you need to have 3 hands really for this !), it is not a single day, or number of days that is important in our Christian lives – it is the way we live and the relationship we enjoy with Jesus that is the most important thing of all, and it is far more important to see a Church consistently filled with people through the year than to have one that is empty all year, but can turn in a good crowd for really special occasions. Special occasions come and go, but the love of Jesus and our response to that love must be ongoing. There’s a famous saying, ‘How the ...

This week the sports news has begun to focus on the new football season. Who will move where ? And, at what price ? Its seems that a small number of clubs have no limit on the amount of money that they can spend and the owners are very happy to oblige. Also this week one of my favourite television programmes, and this isn’t Neighbours, begins a summer break, and it’s a pretty good break as well, 13 weeks in fact. It is of course the weekly prime ministers question time. Week after week people stand to knock, question, appeal to, or in some cases even praise the Prime Minister. It seems that there is a huge confusion in society if we look at things like the news over what really is important. In football terms individuals can be viewed almost as a much awaited Messiah. In the past we will know that many have disappointed. In the political world we will find a number of people who seem to believe that they really are the Messiah, but again all too often we have witnessed evidence to ...

Today we have rather a strange gospel reading (Mark 6:3-34, 53-56), not because of what’s in it, but because of what’s not – you will notice in the verses that a big chunk from verses 35-52 are left out, and they’re pretty important verses too – they include an account of the feeding of the 5,000 and of Jesus walking on water. But what we have is also important – and it draws us closer to the character and appeal of Jesus. And there a number of qualities to focus on. The first is his popularity with his followers. The disciples had been sent out on a mission teaching, healing and listening and now they had returned, and they returned excited to tell Jesus all that they had been doing. One of the great joys of watching some of the end of term concerts and productions in school is watching the children proudly having the chance to show their parents what they have done and what they’ve learnt, and you can almost sense the disciples feeling exactly the same way as that ! And it’s then tha...

A man was quite deaf but although he couldn’t hear the sermon in Church on Sunday, or much of anything else that went on, he continued to go to Church every Sunday. ‘Why do you go to Church when you can’t hear what’s going on ?’ asked one of his grandchildren one day. The grandfather paused for a moment and then replied, ‘I want everyone to know whose side I’m on.’ It’s a great sentiment which reminds us that, in spite of our frailties, whatever they may be, we can be on God’s side, and we can still show that fact to others, and from the readings chosen for the service this afternoon (Titus 3 and Romans 12:6-18), an emphasis is placed on being on nobody’s side but God’s. However, whilst it’s important to be part of the Church and a fellowship of Christians, we are also reminded from these readings that showing ourselves to be on God’s side means a lot more than just attending Church. The readings offer us a challenge to ask ourselves if we are just interested in the holy things of Chur...

The story of the beheading of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29) is a particularly unpleasant one. It is a biblical account which is backed up by historians of the time and this reminds us of the influence that John had. John as we know went about preaching to people about their need to repent – a Saviour was coming into the world and they needed to be ready to meet him. John rightly became a symbol of a moral and a holy man, a reputation he held even with King Herod himself. Herod was fascinated by him, but Herodias was not. She tried to think of any ways in which she could get rid of John, and eventually tricked Herod into having John killed. John became a martyr for a cause that he didn’t even fully understand, but he became a martyr willingly because he knew that his commitment to what was good would be rewarded not in the fleeting passing of this life but in the everlasting life which Jesus would win for him. Many of the great biblical characters died for their faith, but sadly marty...

In the Old Testament reading this evening (1 Samuel 16:1-13) we had an introduction to David, someone who would go on to play a crucial part in the history of Israel even to the present day. Few people have had such influence. Looking to preach about David, I spoke to Helen – newly ordained, just having finished her studies, I expected some great wisdom when I asked what she knew about David – she replied, ‘he suffered from constipation !’ When I enquired further she said, ‘He must have suffered from constipation because he sat on the throne for so long !’ When we think of David, one of the things we think about was that he was a king. We may also think of him as a shepherd, a poet who wrote so many of the Psalms, a killer of the giant, Goliath, and of course an ancestor of Jesus. But alongside that stands another man – a betrayer, a liar, an adulterer and murderer. David was a complex character, a man of many different characteristics, both good and bad, and in that knowledge we recog...

I was reading recently a book I have got, called ‘Gumpisms’. It’s a book of sayings from Forrest Gump. For those who don’t know, Forrest was a young man considered a little backward by most people, but who managed to make a tremendous success of everything that he tried. In this book Forrest is quoted as saying, ‘Some people like me are born idiots, but many more become stupider as they go along’. I was thinking about this statement and I think there may well be an element of truth in it ! Many of us for example end up doing things or failing to do things which we may have done in the past even though those things were actually a reasonable enough thing to do ! Children, for example, will often say and do things which we would love to say, very honest things, but we sometimes wouldn’t say them out of politeness. Sometimes of course this is very wise, but there are times when our failure to say things leads to a bigger problem, times when a bit of straight honesty might actually be help...