Sharing some thoughts

Christmas now seems a long time ago – much has happened, normality has been resumed in so many ways… Even New Years festivities are completed for another year… This time of year is often referred to as the most depressing time of year – the time when winter gloom really sets in, the euphoria of Christmas has ended and people have to get back to living real life. Christmas is a wonderful interlude in our lives, but now it is very much time to get on with life… And this is kind of the sense of our gospel reading today (Luke 2:15-21). The angels had left, then the shepherds visited the new born Jesus and they went back to their fields glorifying God – and life went on… It was time for the Jesus to be circumcised to fit in with the Jewish traditions… One of my favourite Christmas verses says, "When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with the flocks, then the work of Christmas begins: to ...

This morning I read a news story about violence that had happened in various parts of the United States – I understand there was disorder in places as far apart as California and Georgia – in Seattle, Police used pepper spray on people causing trouble, elsewhere a policeman was punched, and in a number of places shops were broken into – the cause of this trouble though was not some deep grievance over poverty or anything like that – but because the people were desperate to get hold of a particular brand of training shoe ! ((Nike Air Jordan II Retro Concords) It would be easy to take this as the start of another Christmas message criticising the commercialism, even madness, of our modern Christmas – but actually tonight isn’t a night about negative things, but about stressing the positive message of a Saviour born for all people. And this message is often missed – or perhaps not even stressed enough by Christians… One of the most popular Christmas pop songs is Johnny Mathis singing ‘Whe...

A little girl wanted to become a great pianist, but all she could play on the piano was the tune, "Chopsticks." No matter how hard she tried, that was the best she could do, so her parents decided after some time to arrange for a great maestro to teach her to play properly. Of course, the little girl was delighted. When the little girl and her parents arrived at the maestro's mansion for the first lesson, they were escorted by the butler into the parlour, where they saw a beautiful concert grand piano. Immediately, the little girl dashed over to the piano and began playing "Chopsticks." Her embarrassed parents told her to stop, but as she played, the maestro entered the room and encouraged the little girl to continue. He then took a seat on the piano bench next to the little girl, listening to her play. After a moment he began to play along with her, adding different chords and so on. The little girl continued to play "Chopsticks." The parents couldn...

A young girl asked her Sunday school teacher, "What's a lert?""A what?" the teacher asked. "A lert?" she said again. "Why do you want to know?" asked the bewildered teacher. "Because the pastor said that we should 'be alert,' so I want to know what a lert is, so I can be one. Today we enter the season of advent, a time when we are told to be alert, to stay awake - to be ready to greet Our returning Saviour... 2000 years ago after Jesus ascended from the earth people took this seriously - people expected Jesus to be back soon, ready to collect his followers... People were ready to shout the words of Isaiah 'o that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence' (64:1) But some of them grew impatient - today in the eyes of many that impatience has turned into indifference - There is a little-known fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm entitled “Der Mond,” or in English, “The Moo...

This week I have been away on a course . On the course one of the things that was continually stressed was the need to proclaim Jesus in all that we do - to make sure that people are not missing out on good news - that we might know about -but which was intended for all people - the news that Jesus came and lived amongst us, died for us and rose again from the dead... But then perhaps I thought Remembrance Sunday wasn't the day to do that -it's a day of civic remembrance and so on... But after reflecting on that for a bit I realised that there is no day when good news isn’t worth sharing and perhaps on remembrance Sunday it is even more relevant than on most. Today we remember people who gave up their lives or who sacrificed their health or time to fight in wars - they did it often because they were told to, but they did it also with a burning desire to make life better for their family and friends at home - they did it because they wanted to make the world a better place... To...

I think some of the readings that we have for this time of year in the Church calendar are wonderful ! Not wonderful because of their enjoyment value but because of their discomfort value. That may seem a little bit strange but I think all of us at times as Christians need to feel a little uncomfortable. So often we over-complicate things in our lives, and we can easily reach the point where we’re so good at it that we can justify to ourselves and perhaps even to others that we’re doing all we can to do the right thing, that we’re living a good life… I attend Church every Sunday and pray every day… I read my Bible regularly… I send money to help charities… I help my neighbour with the shopping… The list can go on and on – we’ve probably all, either consciously or sub consciously thought such things, and there’s no doubt that every one of those things is good to do, and we mustn’t stop. But the point of discomfort has to be reached as well, as we examine perhaps what more we can do, or ...

Today's readings point us towards thoughts of heaven. Heaven has often been a subject of discussion and debate in the church - it has also been used as the great contrast to hell. But simply to judge in such a black and White way is to ignore the grace of God in calling his people to him. For years some preachers have earned their living out of frightening people about what hell might be like - heaven is not a wonderful gift but an alternative to the darkest and most painful experience imaginable. The American preacher Billy Graham once said, 'it is so easy to receive Christ that millions stumble over it's sheer simplicity.' Heaven is a gift and a gift isn't something that is earned but something that is freely given to give joy to the person receiving the gift. And so our thoughts should never be on the perils of hell but on the benefits and privileges of having a place in God's kingdom. Our thoughts should not be on how we or others may be punished but on what...

A heartbroken lady once wrote the following letter :- “Dearest Jimmy, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I've felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you'll take me back. No one could ever, ever, take your place in my heart, so please, please, forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie. P.S., Congratulations on winning the lottery.” The love of God for each one of us is unbreakable, it is not dependant on what we do or fail to do, and that is the love that Jesus asks, in fact demands, his followers to show to others. Paul begins the section of the letter to the Romans that we heard (13:8-14) with the words, ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law…’ In today’s society it is very unlikely that we will owe no one anything – the banks, the credit card, the mortgage, the car loan, and so on, most people today owe something to somebody. In the time Paul wrote to the R...

During Victorian week a couple of people have commented about us selling Christmas cards – well I wonder how many of you realise that there are now just 118 days until Christmas. Yes, as we stand here on this summer’s day Christmas is well on its way ! We are now 2/3 of the way through the year, and we are well into the Trinity Season, the longest season in our Church calendar. This season is one in which we traditionally seek growth – in our relationships with God and with one another, and we seek to develop a greater understanding of the gospel message for ourselves and for the world. And today’s New Testament Readings (Romans 12:9-21 & Matthew 16:21-28) show what an incredible message this is. In a world so often driven by power, money and success, we find the message of Jesus to be one that turns those things completely upside down… In Paul’s letter to the Romans he writes, ‘Let love be genuine, hate what is evil…’ A little later, ‘Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in Spirit, ser...

Today we are used to reading verses from chapters through the Bible – but up until something like 1000 years ago people were used to reading Bibles without any chapter and verse numbers – it’s interesting that when people came to put the chapters into the Book of the Prophet Isaiah they split it into 66 chapters - the exact number of books there are in the whole Bible – they also split up the two parts of the Book of Isaiah into 39 chapters and 27 chapters – a lot of numbers to take in so far, but you may not be surprised to know that the Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament 27 books… And Isaiah in the first 39 chapters summarizes the message of the Old Testament and in the next 27 chapters he summarizes exactly the message of the New Testament… The second part of Isaiah (chapter 40) begins with the words later used by John the Baptist, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’… It moves on to a servant anointed by the Holy Spirit, dying for the sins of his people, and being raised a...

Life is full of choices, we choose where we want to go, when we want to go, what we would like to eat, when we would like to eat - Choices are all around. British prime minister Herbert Asquith once spent a weekend at the estate of the Rothschild family. One day, as Asquith was being waited on at teatime by the butler, the following conversation ensued: "Tea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?" "Tea, please," answered Asquith. "China, India, or Ceylon, sir?" asked the butler. "China, please." "Lemon, milk, or cream, sir?" "Milk, please," replied Asquith. "Jersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?" asked the butler. There are times when choices can just go too far – how often have you walked into a shop and seen too many things that you would like to buy or how often have you sat in a restaurant looking at a menu packed with things you want to eat ! In our readings today we have heard about choices, and not just ab...

One of the problems that each of us are faced with on a daily basis is recognising people who are good and who are bad, and the large majority who are not all good but certainly not all bad ! But we are challenged to live as people who recognise the good in others – we are to be people who are able to see people who are, in spite of their faults and failings, originally created in the image of God himself. Many of you will know the words of Mother Teresa. She was asked how she could tend the sickest and poorest people in the slums of Calcutta. Mother Teresa said that as she looked at each person for whom she was caring she tried to imagine that she was tending the Lord Jesus’ wounded body – His nail-scarred hands, feet, and side. And so it was that in each act of caring, she was welcoming Jesus, treating that person as if they were the Lord himself ! That sort of compassion and care is rare and yet it is one to which we are all called to aspire. And so we are called to look out for sai...

Trinity Sunday is a day often made up of a great deal of confusion – the Trinity is never the easiest doctrine to try and explain to people – there can be lots of complicated explanations and many people will try and use symbols as an explanation – it reminds me a little bit of a football match played one night. As the teams were playing the lights went out, and they called on an electrician to sort out the problem – he tried hard but failed, and then another man came forward who said that he knew what to do. Somehow he managed to communicate to some of the crowd to wave an arm in the air – still nothing happened, so he got some more people to do the same and this time asked them all to wave both arms in the air – as they did this the lights suddenly came back on proving the old Chinese proverb that ‘many hands make lights work’ ! Anyway that’s quite irrelevant for this morning, and you may very well wonder what I’m talking about, but that sense of confusion and mystery is particularly...

Today we celebrate the day when God breathed life into his people and his Church through the Holy Spirit and we’re invited to go back to those early days – days when the early followers must have wondered minute by minute what God had in store for them. These were the followers who had lived through the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension and now saw God’s power literally transforming their lives – on the day of Pentecost they were given the ability to speak and understand different languages, they were given the courage to go and speak about the incredible things that were happening to them, and they must have been transformed by the joy of knowing that, whilst Jesus had ascended into heaven, God was right there amongst them. And God was there with them in a way that demanded their attention and commitment – they had no structures to get in the way, they had no rules, not even ideas about how the Church would grow… And yet it was to be a Church that would grow and grow… An...

Mark Twain once wrote that ‘it is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things : freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and the prudence never to practice either of them !’ In the gospel of Luke (Ch.4 vs. 16-21) we are given the account of Jesus visiting the Synagogue in Nazareth and being handed some scripture and exercising freedom of speech and conscience, but not having the prudence not to practice them – he reads the passage from the prophet Isaiah which we heard this evening (Ch.61). It’s a wonderful passage talking about bringing good news to the oppressed, binding up the broken hearted, proclaiming liberty to captives and release to prisoners. It talks about the time of jubilee – proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour. The passage is a whole string of celebrations as the Lord triumphs and sin and misery and evil and death are conquered… It was no coincidence that as Jesus read the scripture in the Synagogue that day, it was this pa...