Sharing some thoughts

From Helen  Recently Ian and I went to one of our favourite places – Liverpool. We don’t like it just because of the football ,  although that helps. Regardless of your sports allegiance or otherwise you will not fail to have picked up on the decision of unlawful killing  in the Hillsbo r o ugh inquest this week.  96 people went to see a football match in the Hillsborough stadium on 15 th April 1989 and died, now 27 years later the families of those who lost loved ones have been able to hear the words that it was an unlawful killing.  There has been a lot of news coverage but the one thing that has stood out for me was a comment on Sky News that the people of Liverpool were experiencing solidarity with the families of the 96.  Solidarity is an interesting emotion and action, it is about standing together and it is about what makes us united.  There was once a  group of well meaning  tourists who went to Morocco and wanted t...

I don't know how good you are at imagining things - Helen's really good at it, but I'm not ! But today I want you to imagine something - and this one is not too difficult really - I want you to imagine its winter - in other words skies are grey, it's dark and miserable outside, the rain is coming down and it's cold... See I told you it wasn't too difficult to imagine !  The subject of weather is always a popular topic, but rather unusually today the subject of winter comes up in our gospel reading (John 10:22-30). We are told it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, a feast that happens in winter time, celebrating the rededication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in 165BC.  And so it was probably cold and maybe that's why John, the gospel writer, tells us Jesus was walking in the Portico of Solomon, a covered area in the Temple. Or perhaps it's rather more likely that John was referring to the fact that the spiritual temperature seemed rat...

From Helen   I  am not sure about you but I like from time to time to think  of who my ideal dinner guests would be in the whole of history.   I like to think about what I would ask, what I would expect of these guests, and what I would say.  Maybe you would pick prime ministers, maybe you would pick famous authors, scientists,  the  list is endless. But would you choose  Jesus ?  If you did what would you  expect ? This morning in the gospel reading  (John 21:1-19)  we have heard of this type of game being a reality as Jesus said to the disciples  “come and have breakfast .” I love this passage, I have been to the place where it happened. It is my favourite place in the holy land, because I love the fact that the disciples were still reeling in shock from the news that Jesus was alive. Not only this but as they sat trying to deal with what they had heard about Jesus they were not sure how to react. It is amazing that...

Our gospel reading this morning (John 20:19-31) begins on the first evening of Easter. The disciples were gathered together in the upper room, hiding and scared. The doors were chained and bolted, for fear that what had happened to Jesus might also happen to them. There was a huge amount of confusion – the 2 Marys and Salome had earlier gone to the tomb of Jesus and found it empty. Simon, Peter and John also heard the story and ran to the tomb, witnessing the same thing as the women.  Then Mary came back, and said that she had seen Jesus alive. And, later on that same day, two disciples travelling on the road towards Emmaus also saw him. Yet, as the disciples gathered in the room that Easter evening, discussing the events of that day, the main emotion they experienced was fear. The door remained bolted. They had not yet experienced the power of Easter - They hadn’t met the risen Jesus. And so they remained powerless, and full of fear.  So, that evening, they were gath...