Sharing some thoughts

From Helen Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday, the day that we think of the majesty and glory of God as we think of the fact that God created us, God became one of us and God walks with us now as the Holy Spirit.  This could be the most complex of all days but actually I think that it may be simpler than we expect. I want you to think for a moment of c onversations. I as you know har d l y ever  talk !  I never have much to say, but more seriously have you ever thought about the number of different conversations we may hear a day. It may be other people talking to us, it may be us talking to other people, it may be the radio, the television, eavesdropping – and I am afraid we all probably do that from time to time but conversation can tell us so much.  A while ago my Mum was going on holiday to Italy. She was really looking forward to it, but imagine my surprise when she told me that she was going to Cornwall. I told Ian that she wasn’t going to Italy anymor...

Today we celebrate Pentecost. We’ve reached 50 days after the 40 days of Lent, and we have this challenge to think about what happened in lent and Holy Week and of what we celebrated at Easter, and to think about whether it’s changed us in any way, because while we have breath in us, we are constantly being changed by God…  Our reading from Acts (2:1-21) reminds us that the disciples were gathered together in one place and they were waiting. Imagine what a time they’d had recently – there was the time spent with Jesus, the journey to Jerusalem, the arrest, the crucifixion and then incredibly, the resurrection…  And then Jesus seemed to have left them and now the disciples were stuck in that period between what we call Ascension Day and this day of Pentecost, but they weren’t left with no hope. They may have been confused as to what to expect but Jesus had made promises that they would have a helper, that he would be them always and they listened and they waited… ...

From Helen Last Thursday was a great day, there was so much to celebrate. There was the opportunity to vote and exercise our democratic right, there was Liverpool getting through to the final of the Europa cup and most important of all it was the day when we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus. I may have told you this before but in one of our Church schools every year the local Vicar would go in on ascension day and the whole school would go outside as he talked about the ascension of Jesus and he would send a balloon flying up into the air showing something of the ascension. There was one child who had a problem with this. He noticed that the vicar was right handed and so would send the balloon up to his right, the child pointed out that one year at least Jesus should be sent to the left of the vicar, after all Jesus is  everywhere ! Ascension is such a wonderful celebration because it reminds us of the new chapter. Jesus had physically left the earth and yet He had prom...

A while ago I did an assembly in school and talked about Christmas backwards day or even Samtsirhc day and they all thought that I’d gone quite mad – samtsirhc, for those who haven’t realised it, is actually Christmas spelt backwards. But Christmas backwards is part of what Ascension Day is about. At Christmas we celebrate Jesus being born into the world, coming amongst us, and at Ascension Day we celebrate Jesus leaving the world.  It’s a very odd celebration because whilst Jesus was here he did an incredible number of good things, both in teaching and in his work and example to others, but we celebrate Ascension Day – Jesus physically leaving the world – because in that action his ministry was widened and his power revealed more clearly.  On earth, Jesus was a human whose ministry was restricted to a relatively small number of people, but in heaven his power extends to all and over all. On Ascension Day we celebrate Jesus entrusting us with the power to help build h...