Sharing some thoughts

Not that its really a laughing matter, but apparently last week the wife and the mistress of one of those trapped Chilean miners awaiting rescue met each other this week at a vigil for the men. Mrs. Yonni Barrios says she heard the other woman calling her husband's name as families gathered to pray for the workers. I suspect that miner may be rather glad he is in the hole at the moment where his wife can’t get at him… And there are perhaps some of the disciples of Jesus who thought they too may like to be in a hole in the ground when Jesus started speaking to them about faith, and the need to have more of it ! Faith is one of those incredible things which we talk about a lot and rarely have a huge opportunity to test – and it is at times of testing that we often find how strong a faith actually is – there are many stories of people who, in the darkest of times have turned to God and found strength… Sadly there are other stories of people who found their faith wasn’t enough through ...

Last week you may have heard on the news that the world’s largest wind farm opened off the Kent Coast – The campaign group Friends of the Earth, who are huge supporters of the need for more wind farms, were quoted on the news as saying that the British record on renewable energy was ‘dismal’. Actually they did say a little more than that but the quote the news picked up was the negative comment and sadly that is so often the case – and in many ways all of us are almost tuned in to look at negatives rather than positives – it is perhaps a sad thing but how many of us look for the catch in every prize we are offered; and how many of us wonder what will go wrong when things seem to be going so well and so on… Perhaps instead of looking for negatives and disadvantages, we should instead be looking at advantages and gifts and how we can use those things to make life better, both for ourselves and for everyone around us. At harvest time we celebrate God’s goodness – it is a time of thanksgiv...

Asked whether we would want to be rich or poor most of us would probably choose rich but today’s gospel reading (Luke 16:19-31) offers us another biblical warning about the dangers of being rich in material terms but poor in terms of our concern for others… We’re told “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.” It’s a hugely unpleasant contrast - I think we’d all agree, we’d rather be the rich man in this story. This man had the best clothes, he ate the best food and he lived in a place of luxury. He lived in a “gated community.” The gate served its purpose of keeping out the less desirable elements of society. And there are one of those less desirables lying there right at his gate. That’s the poor man in the story, and the rich man doesn’t want to...

There’s a true story about a burglar in Antwerp in Belgium who was disturbed during a robbery in a house. Keen to get away quickly he managed to clamber over a 9 foot wall – dropping down the other side, he found he was in the city prison ! I suspect that we could all feel a certain amount of satisfaction in that situation that justice had been done. However this may not be quite so clear from our gospel reading this evening (Matthew (20:1-16). Here Jesus tells a story about a landowner who went out and hired labourers for his vineyard early in the morning – he agreed with them a wage for their work. Later he went out about 9 o’clock and hired some more, and he did the same thing at 12 o’clock and at 3 o’clock. When, at 5 o’clock he went out and saw some workers still waiting around having not been hired for the day, he told them to come and do some work for him as well. At the end of the day those who began work at 5 o’clock were paid first and received the usual daily wage – this pro...

Both of our New Testament readings today (Hebrews 13:1-8/ Luke 14:1,7-14) are about caring for people – about showing hospitality. In the letter to the Hebrews we have what I think is a wonderful verse, ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.’ And in the gospel reading we heard Jesus telling a story about inviting people to a great banquet, but making sure to invite not friends or relatives or rich neighbours, but instead invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Now this wasn’t suggesting anything against having dinner with those people, but it was a reminder about motives for doing things and about looking out for those who sometimes can’t care for themselves… And this takes us to the very heart of the gospel – a gospel which turns upside down worldly values of wealth and power and fame and success, and honours those who are prepared to admit that they have little to offer other than themselves…...

A preacher told a story of meeting a man one day in a restaurant. ‘Are you a preacher?’ the man asked. Somewhat embarrassed, the preacher said, ‘Yes.’ The man pulled a chair up to the table. ‘Preacher, I’ll tell you a story about myself… Life was tough because my mum had me but she had never been married. Do you know how a small Tennessee town treats people like that? Do you know the words they use to name kids that don’t have a father? Well, we never went to church, nobody asked us. But for some reason or other, we went to church one night when they were having a revival. They had a big, tall preacher, visiting to do to the revival and he was all dressed in black. He had a thunderous voice that shook the little church. We sat toward the back. Well, that preacher got to preaching, about what I don’t know, stalking up and down the aisle of that little church preaching. It was something. After the service, we were slipping out the back door when I felt that big preacher’s hand on my shou...

There’s a saying that goes, ‘If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Saviour.’ Forgiveness is one of the key things that we accept as Christians – and it is one of the key qualities that is so often needed in a world which so often lives by the rule of the Old Testament – ‘An eye for an eye…’ This is not the rule of Jesus who came into the world to show that every sin could be washed away, not by merit, not by good works or thoughts, but by saying sorry and promising to try and live as Jesus wants us to live… In the gospel this evening (Matt. 18:15-end) as Jesus begins to teach about forgiveness, Peter asks him how many times he should forgive someone if they sin ag...

Talking to somebody recently we discussed Americans ! It’s a fairly wide ranging and random sort of topic, but to generalise incredibly, we decided that a quality that many of them displayed was optimism about life – and optimism is a wonderful quality… Of course, on the reverse side of that, some people see that optimism as arrogance ! But today I want to focus more on optimism and particularly optimism about life… And this sort of optimism was something wonderfully displayed in our gospel reading this morning (Luke 1:46-55) as Mary praised God in the words we have come to know as the Magnificat – My soul magnifies the Lord, and my Spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour… and she goes on to recognise the wonderful blessings he has given her, and others – particularly the poor, the weak, those in need of mercy… If we weigh up how Mary may have felt when she heard she was to give birth to a child, not fathered by her intended husband, we would have thought her response may well not have b...

The French king Louis XI was deeply impressed when an astrologer correctly foretold that a lady of the court would die in eight days' time. But even though he was impressed he was worried about a man who seemed to have so much authority over what would happen in the future, and he decided that he would have to have him killed. Louis summoned the man to his apartments, having first told his servants to throw the visitor out of the window when he gave the signal. "You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others," the king said to the man, "so tell me at once what your fate will be and how long you have to live." "I shall die just three days before Your Majesty," answered the astrologer. The shaken king cancelled his plans! Predictions of death are often treated either with complete fear or with scepticism – and things were no different as Jesus predicted his journey to Jerusalem, his suffering and ultimately his death. (Matthew 16:21-26)...

A man was talking to his friend one day and asked him if he had ever achieved any of his childhood hopes. The friend replied, ‘Yes. When my mother used to comb my hair, I used to wish I didn’t have any !’ Tonight’s gospel reading (Luke 12:32-40) is part of a long section of teaching by Jesus – teaching about the need to get our priorities right in life – he talks to his listeners about the rich man who stores up lots of property but who dies before he gets the chance to enjoy it. He talks about not worrying, but placing our troubles and fears before him… And after the section we heard this evening he went on to talk about the unfaithful slave – the person not using the opportunities put before them… He was talking to a group of people who would need to call on this teaching in days and months and years to come when faced with huge dangers simply because they called themselves Christians – the dangers certainly would involve a lack of possessions or wealth, but they would, far more impo...

There are certain phrases that seem to be the opposite of what they say. For example, “don’t worry this will not hurt one bit,” usually means that someone is about to thrust a needle in your arm, and it will hurt ! Or there’s also, “it’s good for you, and it tastes nice,” usually means “it is healthy, but it tastes disgusting” Or there’s another phrase which really gets confusing at times and this is, “expect the unexpected.” How on earth are you meant to expect something when you don’t know what to expect !! But with Jesus this phrase is not far from the truth… A couple of weeks ago my sister was having visitors to the house but unfortunately had to work late, and had done none of the tidying she was intending to do, and so she sent a text to my nephew who was at home and asked him to clear the kitchen and make sure the lounge was tidy. A while later he texted back saying that he was exhausted but that the house was now clean, clean enough in fact for Jesus himself to visit ! My siste...

Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me - for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." As comforting words go, these are amongst the most popular in the Bible – Jesus promising to take away any burdens from us… This evening I want to think about them in two parts :- The first part is the words "Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." At some time or another, perhaps far too often, we will all be weighed down by burdens – perhaps those burdens will be work related, perhaps family or health related, perhaps financial or social – burdens come in lots of different shapes and sizes ! But Jesus says, ‘Come to me and I will give you rest…’ Now, far be it from me to share useless information with you but apparently in the early days of cars, it was comm...

Today we live in a frighteningly materialistic society – all of us know it, and most of us will occasionally criticise it, but most of us also still manage to get a little bit caught up in it !! Someone once rather shrewdly said that one reason why it’s hard to earn money is that our neighbours are always buying something we can’t afford ! This morning’s gospel reading (Luke 12:13-21), urges us to think about what really is important, and Jesus uses a rather frightening illustration to get our attention. In the story he tells a parable about a rich man, whose land produced abundant crops – so many that he didn’t have need for them, and he decided to build bigger barns in which to store them and his possessions, storing them up for the future – to relax, eat, drink and be merry at some future date ! But then Jesus says that that very night the man’s life ends – and it ends with barns full of goods and crops being of little use to anyone, particularly the man whose life has ended ! It’s ...

Today we celebrate the Patronal Festival of this Church – the birthday of the Church ! And in the gospel reading this evening (Mark 5:21-end), we can see something of the power and compassion that inspired people to build this Church, and maintain it over the past 540 years or so… In that time there will have been an enormous amount of celebrations – baptisms, weddings, confirmations, anniversaries and other special occasions, but there will also have been many sad occasions, and the contrast reminds us of the need for the Church to be there – but also of the fact that God is there all the time… he is waiting to be called and in the gospel this evening we hear of 2 people who called on Jesus… In many ways both did it at a time when they felt they had nowhere else to turn – they were desperate… First was the well known story of the woman who had suffered from chronic bleeding for 12 years, and then there was Jairus’ daughter. Both the woman and Jairus had run out of human ideas to solve...

Today we celebrate the Patronal Festival of this Church, as we celebrate the life of the one of the very first disciples of Jesus, James the great. James was one of two brothers whose name always seems to be coupled with John. They were the first to be called by Jesus, the sons of Zebedee, who had a pushy mother who wanted to check whether her sons would be the most important in the Kingdom of Heaven. I thought it would be fun to find some extra information on James and so I looked him up on the internet, and have found that his name brings up some interesting results ! For example there is an annual feast in a place called Thurning in England which has been happening since the middle ages. At this feast there is a bar with real English ales, a hog roast, games and nothing which seems to come directly from the Biblical description of St.James the elder. Then there is St.James hotel and golf club near Piccadilly, and there anyone who is named James can have free champagne today! I decid...

One year a man made the rather disastrous mistake of forgetting his wife’s birthday – When she challenged him about it, he reacted quickly and said, ‘how do you expect me to remember your birthday when you never look a day older…’ Today we celebrate the Patronal Festival of this Church, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. It is, in effect, the birthday of the Church, and a birthday seems a good time to reflect upon what the Church means to us, and this evening I want to think briefly of 3 things which are an important feature of any Church. The first is that we are to be the Body of Christ on earth. We are to be Jesus in our communities and in the world today. We are to try to be like him in all that we think, all that we do and all that we say. As the Church this means trying to mirror the actions of Christ in a way that is visible to everyone. And this need to be as Christ must be something that overrides any other concerns we as a Church must ever have – So often we get distracted by th...

In 1884 a young man died, and after the funeral his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to him. With that in mind they met with Charles Eliot, the president of Harvard University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked what he could do. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial, Eliot said, "Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship." "We were thinking of something more substantial than that...perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this couple had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial known today as Stanford University – one of the great rivals to Harvard… Judging others is not an easy thing to do – we all know the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but sometimes we do anyway ! But this evening’s gospel reading (Matthew 7) offers some fairly basic advice about judg...