Sharing some thoughts

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...