Sharing some thoughts

The comments of children sometimes are wonderful. We can all probably think of a funny story to do with something a child has said – a while ago I remember a 3 year old telling Helen that she looked a mess in the morning !! I, of course, would obviously dispute that (at least until she’s made my breakfast in the morning !) There’s also the great children’s letters to God – I’m a bit sad perhaps but I never tire of hearing things like, ‘Dear God, Did you mean to make giraffes look like that, or was it an accident ?’ or ‘Dear God, I keep waiting for a nice summer day, but it hasn’t come – did you forget ?’ or just one more, ‘Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms – it works for me and my brother.’ Children's words are often profound and today in the gospel reading we hear the only recorded words of Jesus as a child (Luke 2:41-52). As a 12 year old after his parents had visited Jerusalem for the Passover festival Jesus was lost

One of the most popular Christmas stories is ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. There is one scene in it where the Ghost of Christmas Past has just paid a rather unnerving visit to Ebenezer Scrooge. Clearly the old man is shaken by the entire ordeal. But when he awakens from his sleep does he take the message to heart ? No, he simply dismisses it by saying: Bah, humbug, it wasn't real – in fact he puts the episode down to indigestion as he mutters to himself, "Just a bit of last nights undigested beef," he says to himself, "There is more gravy about you than the grave." As we found out though in the rest of the book – the episodes were real for Scrooge and his life was eventually transformed for the better… And that word transformation is a huge part of Christmas… Somewhere around 350 years after Jesus was born Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus – it wasn’t a big festival at the time and I wonder who could ha

For many people religious or not, listening to and singing carols remains an important part of Christmas. There is a comfort and a peace in the words of so many of them. And that comfort and peace that Jesus came to bring and which we so often sing about is a comfort and peace we are called to share. The shooting in Connecticut a week last Friday has rightly sent waves of disbelief and horror across the world. The debates have begun again over the use of guns in America and a great political argument seems to be looming… But what is far more important at this point is just to think about the loss of life of those barely out of nursery with so much to live for – it seems almost incomprehensible. The question has understandably once again been asked how God can let this sort of thing happen. When faced with such a question my honest answer would have to be I don’t know. In many ways I think those who try to offer a reason are a little bit foolish or naïve… I think that on occasion

This morning I want to think about the words we recited earlier known as the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). The words are very well known to all who attend evensong as they are included at every service. These are the words of Mary after she has been told that she is to give birth to Jesus. It’s a remarkable set of words for a young lady, and it’s worth just remembering the position she had found herself in. Here was a girl probably in her early to mid teens who was engaged to be married to a local carpenter who was probably quite a lot older than her, and she received a vision that she was to give birth. Whilst she may have had little doubt about the reality of that vision and of the virgin birth, she must also have known and feared what people around her would have been thinking. The disgrace and shame she had brought on her family would only have been part of the problem – for her, if she escaped a literal death sentence, life may just as well have been over because she would have

Oliver Wendell Holmes was a member of the United States Supreme Court for 30 years. At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained he may have chosen a different career but said: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." Now, I like advent a lot – it’s a chance to be really solemn before Christmas, a chance to suggest to people that they shouldn’t be partying and enjoying themselves so much, but should in fact being spending time thinking about their eternal destiny and how God is viewing their lives – this sometimes leads to accusations that I’m a bit of a Scrooge – these accusations often come from very close to home as well !! However the readings and the meaning of the season of advent to an extent back me up on this one – it is not a time of partying and festivities.., it is a season of expectation and reflection - that is until today ! Today is often known as ‘Gaudette Sunday’, in other wo

I’m sure it won’t come as any great surprise to any of you if I tell you that I was as a baby very well behaved, which of course I am today as well ! I didn’t cry very much at all and I listened when people spoke to me or made the sort of funny noises people often make to babies and I smiled quite a lot of the time too ! I responded well when people made noises – I’m no great scientist but I know that sounds are heard in many special ways – often people will talk to children before they’re born and the unborn child often moves as a response;  or playing music can sometimes calm down a child kicking in their mothers tummy. Words and sounds can make a big difference and that is something that  was well known around the time of our gospel reading today (Luke 3:1-6). The Jewish people had relied on prophets sharing the word of God with them for many years and the words of these prophets had been shared down from generation to generation, but it seemed that God had been silent for aro

As Jesus left the Temple one of his disciples commented on what large stones and buildings. It was a comment that recognised the grandeur and majesty of the surroundings, but Jesus replied, 'not one will be left; all will be thrown down'. Tough it doesn't immediately sound it the reading reflects hope - not hope in the way it is seen often in worldly terms - hope of a good job, hope of lots of money or good health, hope of winning the lottery perhaps but hope in terms of knowing that whatever happens in our lives with Jesus on our side, nothing can ever really destroy us. There’s a rather nice true story about a volunteer tutor was asked to visit a nine-year-old in a large hospital. She took the boy's name and room number and was told by the boy's teacher that they were studying nouns and adverbs in class. It wasn't until the tutor got to the boy's room that she realised the boy was a patient in the hospital's burn unit. No one had prepared her to

Today the Sea of Galilee is an incredibly beautiful and seemingly peaceful place. It is set in the middle of wonderful countryside, with hills surrounding. It is a place where you sense little has changed from the time of Jesus. But of course, it has. The water level has dropped massively for a start as water has become such an important resource. In addition we are also reminded of the all too prominent threat of conflict. Many times the areas surrounding the Sea have become battle grounds. Today we are all aware of the problems in Syria boiling over separated from the Sea of Galilee only by the hills. In our gospel today (Mark 1:14-20) we have heard of a conflict in a different time. John the Baptist has been arrested, and Jesus has arrived in Galilee – it is time for Jesus to repeat the message of John – ‘The kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.’ And as he begins his ministry, he calls his first disciples to join in the work. Simon and Andrew wer

I think one of the great challenges the church faces today is to balance a message of love with a message of judgement – it is perhaps to balance some of the writing of the Old Testament with that of the New – that balance of a harsh, even vengeful God with the God of love portrayed by Jesus. This evening in our 2 readings we have quite a contrast. In Ezekiel (13:1-16) we heard of the condemnation of false prophets – and this condemnation is fierce. For example ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: in my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain, and hailstones in wrath….’ It’s a tough passage which contrasts with our new testament reading from the first letter of John (3:11-24)… So what should we accentuate – what message should we giving to people ? I think much of the church has actually decided on the side of the new testament message, particularly teaching like we have heard today. ‘See what love the father has given us, that we

There’s a story told about Albert Einstein in heaven: Einstein was having difficulty finding people on his intellectual level to talk to, so one day he decided to stand at the pearly gates and ask everyone who entered what their IQ was. Before very long he was having a lot of success guessing what people did for a living on the basis on their level of intelligence. For instance, a woman was ushered through the gates and in response to Einstein's question, said she had an IQ of 190. "Why, you must be a physicist," Einstein said. "Indeed I am," said the woman. "I'd love to chat with you about the progress being made in nuclear fusion and in superconductivity, as well as what's going on in space," said Einstein. "Please wait over there." He stopped a man who was entering the gates, and the man told him his IQ was 140. "You must be a physician, probably a surgeon," said Einstein. His guess was right. "Wonderful,"

I once heard the story of a rather frustrated church minister who announced, ‘there is nothing wrong with my church… that a few funerals couldn’t fix’… I’m sure Jesus would never have spoken so meanly of any of his followers but there must surely have been times when he must have been rather frustrated with them… In the gospel reading (Mark 9:30-37) we heard of Jesus travelling south – he had been to Caesarea Philippi and was now travelling through Galilee – it was a tremendously important journey. It seems Jesus in his earthly ministry would never again travel north – he was heading down through Galilee to Jerusalem – to his trial and his death on the cross. We are told that this was to be a quiet journey, he didn’t want crowds of people – in many ways his public earthly ministry was over… But Jesus did have things to do, and most importantly of all was to try and prepare his followers for what was to come, and so he told them that he was going to be arrested and killed, that he

Every 3 or 4 years all the clergy in the Diocese go on clergy school, and this last week Coventry was invaded by the clergy of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, eager to learn. In one of the sessions we had an afternoon out to the Church of St Martin in the Bullring in Birmingham – that church is centred as the name suggests in the Bullring surrounded by a huge shopping centre and also the big and famous Rag Market. The position that church is in is, in many ways, a perfect merging of the world and God. And that balance or meeting of the spiritual and secular is one that, as Christians living in a modern society, we constantly have to be aware of. And this conflict is one that has gone back to the times of Jesus himself, as we have seen in the gospel reading today (Mark 8:27-38). Jesus, travelling with his disciples, asks them who people say that he is – and Peter replies, ‘You are the Messiah’. But then, as Jesus moves on to speak of the suffering that he must undergo – of t

St Paul is often thought of as a rather blunt, maybe even not particularly pleasant sort of character in some of his letters. Certainly he was fairly ruthless in terms of trying to maintain a discipline in the Church, and he was passionate about sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. But this morning we’ve heard part of the letter of James (1:19-27), and here we find some even more blunt comments – James argued that whilst good works wouldn’t save a person, good works are certainly the marks of a Christian person. In the eyes of James, talk without action was meaningless. ‘Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’, wrote James. This remains one of the great challenges to the Church today – to not just listen and talk but to be doers of God’s word. As we look at some of the things we do in church, we find that many of them are man-made – the robes we wear, the way we conduct services, the way we organise the communion meal, the way we make up

Our readings today concentrate on lifestyles – a subject that has been hotly debated both inside and outside the church in recent years. Questions remain over what is a good lifestyle… The Book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about how we can deal with life and with people, and in the section we heard (9:1-6) we are told that wisdom has built her house – in other words wisdom is established and is calling out to people to follow the way of wisdom. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul writes (5:15-20) offering advice to a church, not just the Ephesian church it would seem, but to all of the churches that Paul had been involved in. The letter to the Ephesians is split into two parts – the doctrinal part, looking at things such as the unity of the church and the work of Christ in reconciliation as well as the mystery of the gospel message, and the practical part which concentrates on the lives of the followers of Jesus. And actually both of those things are important for our faith tod