Sharing some thoughts

On Friday millions watched the Royal Wedding – many made the journey to London to catch a glimpse of the Royal family celebrating their big day, and many more watched on televisions or on big screens throughout the world – the wedding captured people’s imagination – people who certainly wanted to enjoy the moment and the big day but also the people who were wondering what comes next… We all know that sadly not all weddings, royal or otherwise, prove to be the beginning of long happy marriages – but there is a sense of expectation and anticipation on the wedding day as people join in the festivities, and offer a word of prayer for the couple… Anticipation and excitement are 2 of the themes of our gospel reading today (John 20:19-31). Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to his disciples – and in doing so he stood amongst them and said the very simple words, ‘Peace be with you’ – but what power there is in those words. Jesus who had been through so much with and for the very friend...

There’s a definition of a pessimist which says, ‘A pessimist is someone who can hardly wait for the future just so he can look back with regret.’ On the other hand there was a schoolboy who took a very optimistic view of life when he brought home his school report one day; It was an awful report, filled with poor grades. "What have you to say about this?" asked his father. "One thing for sure," the boy replied, "Dad, you can be proud of me. You know I haven't been cheating!" In every area of life it seems there are pessimists and optimists, and the Church is obviously no different, but today offers us a very stark and powerful reminder that there is no place for pessimism as we follow Christ. On Good Friday most of the disciples had left Jesus, they had run fearful for their own lives, disillusioned with the seeming collapse of their organisation – there would have been few who had any hint of optimism amongst the followers of Jesus… And who can really...

This evening’s gospel (John 12:20-36) was set in the context of the Feast of Passover, one of the holiest days of the Jewish faith. Jewish people would travel long distances to celebrate the festival together at the Temple. Some of these people were the Greeks who met Philip in our reading – and came up with the simple but incredibly profound words, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’. Sometime ago I had a meeting with Bishop David Yeoman, the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff, and he said that when he was travelling in Africa, a Bishop came up to him on the Saturday evening and asked him to preach at the big confirmation service the following day. Bishop David hurriedly prepared what he thought he was going to say and the following morning climbed up into the pulpit about to preach, and in front of him he read a note that had been left for him. It said very simply, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus.’ Suddenly all the words he had to put down to preach were in question – how many of those words were actua...

Palm Sunday is one of the most dramatic days in the Church calendar – it’s a day that some Churches have commemorated with the aid of donkeys and processions, many with Palm Crosses as we have…. But today our journey through Lent takes a dramatic turn. Through this journey we may well have taken time to consider our relationship with God – we may well have thought about things that are separating us from Him. We may well have given something up, or taken something up – but now we’re approaching the end of that particular journey. Soon, Lent will be over for another year – and we have another big decision to make – the decision as to whether anything we may have done or not done through Lent is going to make a difference to the rest of our lives. The first Palm Sunday was the beginning of an irreversible change – a change not just in the life of Jesus, or his disciples, but a change in the whole of history – whatever a person’s view of the Christian faith, there is no doubt that Jesus h...

Recently I have gone along to a couple of pub quizzes – the first week I went my team didn’t do very well at all, and frankly I didn’t contribute a lot !!! The following week I couldn’t go – but the following morning I heard that the team I had been on had won ! This was rather disturbing – a very poor performance with me and a victory without me – it did not suggest good things !! But then I heard that actually the type of quiz is alternated – one week it is aimed at younger people and the other at a more mature group – this at least gave me some sort of relief – until I realised that the quiz we had failed so badly in was the one for younger people, and the victory came in the more mature group !! It was a painful realisation that time had moved on a little further than I’d realised !!! In 2003, a funeral company in Brazil released an advert on local TV containing the motto: “Our clients have never come back to complain”. This morning in the gospel (John 11:1-45) we have heard of som...

The letter of James is one of the bluntest in the whole of the New Testament, if not the Bible ! The fact that it’s a favourite of mine probably indicates that I enjoy being challenged. James talks about doing not talking, saying that faith without works is dead; he talks of the dangers of a loose tongue; the challenges of temptation; he warns against judging one another, against the dangers of using wealth unjustly, and advises his readers to be patient in times of suffering… This evening we hear the last passage of the letter (James 5: 13-20) – it’s very difficult and occasionally dangerous to choose just one verse, or one part of a verse to consider, but this evening I want to think of the words of James, ‘Pray for one another’… Within the New Testament there are at least 50 verses which talk about ‘one another’… For example, ‘love one another’ (Jn.13:34,35; Gal 5:14), ‘encourage one another’ (Heb 3:13; 10:24,25), ‘Be devoted to one another’ (Rom 12:10), ‘Build up one another’ (Rom ...