Sharing some thoughts

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 C hurch is obviously no different. As we look at the news from around the world we can be pessimistic sometimes – for some in Brussels today Easter may be tough, but it is also a reminder of the hope and peace we can have in Jesus and  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 ha...

Address 1  In our readings we ’ ve heard of two parts of the passion account so far. First, the arrest of Jesus and then the interrogation. In the arrest (John 18:1-12) we heard of Jesus finishing praying and going across to the Kidron Valley. As he went across he would have noticed the stream that he would have crossed was red with the blood of thousands of lambs being sacrificed in the Temple for the Passover. It would have been a chilling scene perhaps as Jesus considered  the sacrifice he was about to make . And then he went to a garden  –  as we look back we think of the Garden of Eden where humanity first opened that rift with God and now it was in a garden, the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus would give the possibility of humanity being restored in their relationship with God.  We ’ re told that Judas then arrived knowing this was a place Jesus went to regularly with his disciples, and he came with a detachment of soldiers as well as some off...

There’s a famous quote from Archbishop William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, which says something like, ‘The Church is the only organisation that exists for the benefit of its non-members.’ And I think there is no greater proof of this quote than when we consider the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And today, Passion Sunday, is the day when we start to turn our thoughts beyond our own journey through Lent, to the even more serious business of Holy Week, Good Friday and ultimately of course to the joy of Easter Day. The church is great as an organisation – there are lots of structures and systems and lots of people like to feel they have a special right to make decisions in the Church. Lots of us like to have our own places and so on, but within the membership of God’s kingdom we have no more rights than anyone else. There’s a story about a farmer in Russia. After it became a communist state he was visited by a party official, and the farmer asked what t...

from Helen May I speak in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy  Spirit.  AMEN Today marks the fourth Sunday of lent.  We are on the home stretch  now !  Next week we will celebrate  passion  Sunday, then Palm Sunday and then of course Easter Sunday we are more than halfway through lent. Today also marks Mothering Sunday the day when we give thanks for  mothers.  In our readings today we have heard about love and care. From the love of the mother of Moses who protected him by hiding him in the bu lrushes and then  being paid to look after him ,  to Mary being told that her  newborn  son was to suffer. The readings have reminded us of the amazing things that love can both do and bring.  In the Old T estament reading we heard of the love of a mother that she would risk being parted from her son in order to protect his life.  Pharoah  had been worried by the growt h of the L evites thinking  th...