Sharing some thoughts

Someone once said that the role of a preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The first part, comfort the afflicted, is nice – it’s a quality that I’m sure all of us hope to show whenever it’s needed, but the second point, to afflict the comfortable, is not so nice – and it’s also not as easy ! But we’re in Lent, a time of trial and self examination, and a time of honest God inspired appraisal of ourselves, so it seems a good time to do a bit of both ! And that’s what Jesus did in this passage that we’ve heard in the gospel reading this morning (John 4:5-14). He was, we are told, visiting a Samaritan city – strange enough by itself for a Jew as the Jews traditionally hated the Samaritans, and then as a Samaritan woman approached, he actually spoke to her and asked her for some water, and he chatted to her and you get the impression that far from judging her or hating her, he actually cared for her. Immediately this passage would set alarm bells ringing for the ...

Recently in Pakistan the only Christian minister in the government was killed – that made the news, but very often what doesn’t is the many others who have given their lives or risk their lives constantly for the sake of the gospel today. We often think of martyrdom as a thing of the past – we couldn’t be more wrong. The last century saw more Christian martyrs than any before, and things haven’t improved so far in this century… Some things have not changed in the last 2000 years. As it was in the Roman Empire - where, over a period of about 250 years, hundreds of thousands, if not more, were tortured and executed for saying "Jesus is Lord" - so today it can still cost people everything to be a disciple of Jesus. Fortunately most of us will never face that kind of choice in our lives - We will not be asked to give our freedom or perhaps even our lives for the sake of the Gospel. But following Jesus today can still have other costs - perhaps the giving up of self that we are so...

There was once a young minister who found a serious problem with his new congregation. During the services half of the congregation stood for the prayers and the other half remained seated, and each side shouted at the other, insisting that theirs was the true tradition. Nothing the minister did or said made any difference at all so finally in desperation he went to see the 99 year old retired minister who had been the first minister of that Church after it was founded. He told the man all about the problems, ‘so tell me’ he pleaded, ‘was the tradition to stand during the prayers?’ ‘No’ replied the old minister. Relieved the young minister said, ‘so it was the tradition to sit down’. ‘No’ answered the old man. ‘Well, what we have is complete chaos’ said the young minister ! Half the people sit and shout and half stand and shout!’ ‘Ah’ said the old minister ‘that was the tradition!’ Tradition can be wonderful but it can also get in the way of all kinds of things – and today’s readings (...

It’s very easy to forget it, but Ash Wednesday is, I think, one of the most important days in the whole of the Church calendar. People think of the obvious days of celebration such as Easter and Christmas, and even the days building up to Easter – they think of the celebration of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit – but in many ways, Ash Wednesday gets even closer to the heart of the Christian gospel. On Ash Wednesday we recognise our weaknesses before God in a way that we probably do on no other day – we reflect that we are but a tiny part of God’s creation – a tiny and rather imperfect part. But as we reflect on our weaknesses we do so with the knowledge that God is loving and merciful and always ready to accept us just as we are… And that however tiny and however imperfect we may be, God loves us with an incredible unbreakable love… On Ash Wednesday we begin a journey through Lent in which we seek to build up our relationship with God – and when we think about it those things...