Sharing some thoughts

There’s an old joke about a little boy called Johnny meeting his new baby brother who was screaming. He asked his mu m, “Where did  we get him?”  His mother replied , “He came from heaven, Johnny,” to which Johnny replied, “Wow ! I can see why they threw him out!” I think most of us have a fair idea of what not to say to a new mother – I heard of one baby being described as looking like a skinned rabbit, and another mother being told how dark the child’s skin was compared to either the mother or father –  with the person  leaving a delicate little pause just in case some bombshell was about to be dropped about the parenthood of the  baby ! This morning as we think about the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, sometimes known as  Candlemas , we heard in the gospel (Luke 2:22-40) of Jesus being taken to the Temple 40 days after his  birth  as was the custom under the Jewish law. At the Temple Mary and Joseph met Simeon .  Simeon was...

We’ve thought over the past few weeks about how Christmas is over for many people... It’s as if the incredible build up was leading to something that was a one off occasion and is now over, but Christmas in reality is never over – it is a wonderful reminder of the grace and love of God as Jesus came into the world. In ‘A Christmas Carol’ the transformed Scrooge says, ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year…’ Like Scrooge, I think Christmas is something we need to live out throughout the year… If Christmas is the end of things or only something we do once a year we run the risk of ignoring what followed – of ignoring Jesus’ ministry and his life – we may ignore his teaching, ignore his messages, ignore his death and ignore his resurrection… And if we’re ignoring those things then we’re ignoring the fact that he came to offer a very personal invitation to each one of us – an invitation to know a greater transformation than even Scrooge knew in ‘A Christm...

From Helen Today marks the seco nd Sunday of epiphany.  I was talking to someone on the phone the other day and I asked how their Christmas had gone and they replied, ‘that seems so long ago now…’ Well in case you are feeling a little bit sad that Christmas may seem so long ago - I would like to tell you the true story of a man who loved Christmas. This man loved Christmas  so much that he celebrated it every day.  He even bought himself a little present for each day of the year. He put up different decorations every day and took some down each day.  Now to me that seems like a lot of effort. Strangely enough his odd behaviour caused television reporters to report his actions, and he did not see that he had done or was doing anything strange. After all, on December 25 th  he opened three presents instead of  1 !! It may seem strange, and it frankly it is, but it got me to thinking, about the excitement and love this man has for Christmas and the e...

One evening a New Testament professor visited a high school youth group. After the professor finished speaking about the significance of Christ's baptism as a revelation of God's presence in Jesus, one of the boys said without looking up, "That isn't what it means." Glad that the student had at least been listening enough to disagree, the professor asked what the boy thought it meant, and the boy replied, "The story  (Mark 1:4-11)  says that the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God came down" The boy paused and finally looked up and leaned forward, saying, "That means that God is on the loose in the world. And it is  dangerous ! " I suspect that when most of us think about baptism we don’t really think too much about danger , certainly in this country  and yet for many ,  even today, it is dangerous to be baptized – with the threat of persecution ,  and for Jesus too his baptism symbolized the start of a dangerous ministry.  A...