Sharing some thoughts

Tonight in the New Testament reading from the gospel of John (10:1-19) we have the account of Jesus describing himself as the Good Shepherd. Shepherds in the time of Jesus were tremendously important – they had the care of flocks of sheep, and they were expected to care for them in whatever way was necessary – even to the point of risking their lives for the sheep. It was a poor occupation, and shepherds were often made to pay for any sheep that went astray, and this was well known at the time – for Jesus to describe himself as a shepherd he was describing himself as someone who was willing to give up everything for his flock, and someone who was expecting very little in the way of reward. There was a preacher once who preached on this passage and talked of sheep as being cuddly and rather cute – then going on to say how comforting it was that these cuddly and cute creatures should be so well cared for by a shepherd – they would be safe and warm in his care. After the service someone a...

Numbers can be tremendously powerful things – this week in the election campaign we heard of lots of different tax and national insurance equations once again, we heard lots of talk of deficits and even the occasional surplus – we heard the Conservative Party claim that 102 promises from the last Labour manifesto had been broken – perhaps the most astounding fact of all is that someone counted ! Because numbers, whilst sometimes being tremendously powerful can also be a little boring at times – I’m sure it’s not true but accountants who of course deal with numbers most of the time have some rather mean jokes about them – for example, An accountant visited the Natural History museum. While standing near the dinosaur he said to his neighbour: "This dinosaur is two billion years and ten months old". "Where did you get this exact information?" "I was here ten months ago, and the guide told me that the dinosaur is two billion years old." Or perhaps, A patient w...

Tonight we have heard the somewhat mysterious account of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus – there they met Jesus, but we are told they were prevented from knowing who he was. But there was something about this stranger that they walked with – something they couldn’t quite put their finger on – a kind of heartburn ! There is a well known joke, that is always worth hearing which I think makes the point of what an encounter with Jesus can do to us. A burglar was stalking around the living-room of the house he's just broken into. He jumped with fright when he suddenly heard a voice behind him saying "Beware, Jesus is watching you" He turned around, swung the beam of his flashlight in to the direction the voice came from and saw what had spoken - a parrot. The bird repeated "Beware, Jesus is watching you" The burglar walked up to the cage and asked "And what may your name be? The parrot answered "Coco"? The burglar sniggered and said "I've ...

Last week we thought briefly about the quote from Martin Luther King who said, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase’ and today in our gospel reading (John 20:19-31), we have one of the most famous doubters in the Bible – Thomas. It’s hard to believe that anybody could fail to have some sympathy for Thomas – Jesus had risen from the dead and had appeared to the disciples – but Thomas wasn’t with them, and when they told him, he simply thought they’d gone mad or perhaps were just trying to play some sort of mean trick on him. Perhaps in these circumstances we might all think the same. They had seen Jesus, but he hadn’t… There may be many reasons for Thomas’ doubts but this morning I want to think of 3 – and each of them are potential problems for us as well… Firstly perhaps Thomas had gone a little bit cold in his faith. He had been with Jesus and watched many incredible things happen… he had witnessed miracles, listened to teaching and preachin...

There’s a joke which asks ‘How many Easter eggs can you put in an empty basket? The answer is only one because, after that, it’s not empty any more! Today we celebrate something that is empty – an empty tomb as Jesus has risen… and throughout the world shouts of ‘Alleluia’ ring out. St Augustine wrote, ‘We are an Easter people – and our song is ‘alleluia’. Being an Easter people is seeing in the Resurrection more than an astounding event of long ago – a dead man rising in the dust of Palestine in the first century. This rising means that Jesus is out and about in our communities today. He lives for ever – Alleluia! And that word keeps reoccurring at Easter time – Alleluia – literally ‘Praise the Lord’. It is used in the bible in the Book of Psalms – but elsewhere it only occurs in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha and in the Book of Revelation and in these books it isn’t a song for human tongues at all – it is the chant of the saints and angels of heaven. It is the heavenly song of th...

Good Friday is a day that always leaves a sense of confusion. On its most basic level how can something such as the events which we remember today be termed Good ? We know that the reason it is good is because these events marked salvation for us. This afternoon we journey to the cross and as we journey we think of the events of 2000 years ago, and just for a brief time try to put ourselves in the middle of those events. In this address I’d like to think of some prominent people in that crucifixion scene and that is the soldiers. They, of course, came into the scene the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus was arrested. The sound of the soldiers would have brought confusion and concern to the disciples who were with Jesus at the time. The disciples who heard the noise and had no idea what was going on. These men who had followed Jesus were following someone who they had worshipped - They were following someone in whom they had put all their trust. Hearing the noise of the ...

The following words were found written on a wall in the Warsaw Ghetto – they were believed to be written by a Jew in about 1942, shortly before the ghetto was cleared and many of it’s residents were taken away to die in concentration camps : The words said : I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine. I believe in love, even if I do not feel it. I believe in God, even if I do not see him. Standing at the foot of the cross – how many people could have spoken those words – I’m not sure… Because on that first Good Friday, bright days seemed a distant memory, love seemed to be dying on the cross and God, if there was a God at all, didn’t seem very interested… The cross, as the Bible tells us, makes no sense to those who don’t know what comes next. The cross speaks of pain and torture, of finality, of defeat… but on the cross Jesus was getting closer to victory. On this Good Friday we rightly remember the incidents that led Jesus to the cross – we can look at the jealousy and perhaps f...

One of the key players in the Holy Week story is Judas Iscariot – tonight in the gospel (John 12:1-11) he is involved in the account of Mary washing the feet of Jesus with expensive perfume – Mary carries out the anointing as an act of huge devotion, but Judas is horrified – this expensive perfume could have been used to help the poor – why was it being wasted away ? John tells us in the gospel that Judas isn’t concerned about the poor, but is in fact a thief, only interested in stealing money from the common purse… Judas is a really complicated character to think about – very often he is simply condemned as the betrayer of Jesus – the word ‘Judas’ has entered into our language as a word to describe somebody who has let someone down… there is nothing good said about him. And maybe that’s right – he was guilty of betraying a man who he knew was innocent – he was guilty of betraying a man with whom he had spent loads of time – whose miracles he had watched, who had shared food with him, ...

We are now entering Holy Week – Palm Sunday represents the beginning of the week when we remember the terrible incidents leading to the cross – this morning Palm Crosses were held as we remembered the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but tonight the Palms, as they were 2000 years ago, have been put away – just as the crowds who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, we have moved on… The late priest Henri Nouwen wrote about this last stretch of Lent with a wonderful prayer, that you may see yourself in. It begins “O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also great expectations. I hoped for a great break-through, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul…” We will all have entered Lent differently – some with ideas of things to give up or take up, some with no thoughts at all ! Like Nouwen time may well have passed on with none of our hopes an...