Sharing some thoughts

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...

One Sunday a man sat through a church service and then on the way home he moaned about the sermon, he got angry about the traffic, he complained about the heat, and he made a big fuss about how late his lunch was served ! Then he bowed his head and prayed, giving God thanks for the food. His son was watching him all the way through this after-church experience and just as they were beginning to eat he said, “Daddy, did God hear you when we left the church and you started moaning about the sermon and about the traffic and about the heat?” The father replied rather embarrassed, “Well, yes, son, He heard me.” “Well, Daddy, did God hear you when you just prayed for this food right now?” And he says, “Well, yes, son, He …heard me.” “Well, Daddy, which one did God believe?” That little story shows a problem that afflicts lots of us at times ! Too often what we claim to be or even try to be, and what we really are, is quite a long way apart. It’s not hypocrisy as long as we know the problem -...

I don’t know if any of you have watched the comedy drama ‘Rev’ on the television recently… As the title suggests its about a Vicar working in the East End of London with a very small congregation – this week the episode had another Church coming in to use his building – the Church was packed and lots of money was collected in the offertory… But one of the existing congregation in the Church did something to upset one of the helpers in the new congregation and the Vicar of the new congregation insisted that that person be excluded from the Church – the Vicar refused and the Archdeacon agreed – they pointed out that nobody could be excluded from the Church… It is open to all – and that sometimes mean people who are very different from those we would choose to spend time with… Whilst this is a comedy programme there are all kinds of realistic incidents – and this week we saw some of them which relate particularly well to the parable of the Good Samaritan which we have heard today (Luke 10...

There are not many of us who like people who boast – but whether you are in Church or work or taking part in sport or anything else, you will inevitably find people who do ! One who had a bit of a reputation for this was the boxer Mohammed Ali, and the theologian Ravi Zacharias tells a story about him going on a plane – I know I’ve used the story before, but I like it ! Passengers on the plane were instructed to fasten their seatbelts immediately. Everyone complied but Ali. Noticing this, the flight attendant approached him and requested that he observe the captain’s order, only to hear Ali respond, “Superman doesn’t need no seatbelt.” The flight attendant did not miss a beat and replied, “Superman doesn’t need an aeroplane either.” The reality is that those who boast very often at some point will meet their match – and probably end up being put down a bit…. Today’s New Testament readings offer us some challenges about boasting – in Paul’s letter to the Galatians (6:7-16) he tells us n...

This evening we’ve come together to worship God and to celebrate with Helen her ordination to the Priesthood. Throughout the last few years she has received huge encouragement to move forward in ministry – indeed throughout her life things and events and people have shaped her into something like the person God wants her to be and into a person ready to fulfil his calling for her. But today as we celebrate with Helen we also celebrate a God who calls – a God who calls every one of us to be SOMEONE for him… And in our journeys of faith and discovery we need support, just as Helen has needed support, and what any new ministry should remind us is that we never minister alone. In all that we do we have God alongside us, and we also rely on relationships – people to encourage us, people to push us, people to calm our fears and doubts, people to irritate us, people to annoy us, people to frustrate us – all are part of our journey of life and faith. And whatever role we are called to fulfil i...