Sharing some thoughts

From Helen One afternoon a rich man  was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the road- side eating grass.  Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.  He asked one man, "Why are you eating grass?"  "We don't have any money for food," the poor man replied.  "We have to eat grass."   "Well, then, you can come with me to my hous e and I'll feed you," the rich man said.  "But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree."   "Bring them along," the rich man  replied.  Turning to the other poor man he stated, "You come with us, also."  The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, "But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!"   "Bring  them all, as well," the rich man  answered.  They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine was.  Once under way, one of...

From Helen Who do you turn to in times of  need ?  Who do you look to for  advice ?  Who do you  trust ? In our epistle reading (1 Tim.2:1-7) and gospel reading (Luke 16:1-13) we heard a bout who do we trust. In the ep i s tle reading we heard of  the need to pray for our leader s for all those in authority over us. The  people to whom the epistle was  written lived  among people who trus ted in other gods, some of these people even had authority over them. Yet they are told that they are still to pray for these people. Then they were reminded that none of this matters w hen you know that there is one G od and this is the God that we worship. It seems like a question with an answer straight  away – the question is  do  we t u r n to others instead of God and the answer is no ,  you turn to God He is  the only one.  In our gospel reading (Luke 16:1-13) we heard  t he parable of the dishonest manag...

From time to time Jesus said some difficult things - many things are challenging because they ask us to look at ourselves, at how we truly love and care for one another, or challenge us as to how we work for justice in the world, or defend the needs of those who can't do it for themselves.  Today our Old Testament reading from Amos (8:4-7) talks about the greed of those who can't wait to get up and start trading - money is what the people are after and Amos is just reminding them that with riches come responsibility and privilege. The more we have the more is expected of us.  And then we have Paul writing to Timothy (1 Tim.2:1-7) urging prayer for those in authority. Lots of us in our own prayer lives might offer prayers for other people, but those prayers often begin with those closest to us and work outwards from there - Paul is not saying this is wrong but is reminding us that those in authority, who may seem a little bit distant from us, are as much in need of our...

We’ve all been in a position, I’m sure, where we’ve lost something and searched desperately for it – the black hole that is Helen’s handbag regularly hides keys for example…  There’s another story I heard of a woman who was looking at the floor and a man came to ask her if he could help. She explained that she’d lost her keys and so he helped her to look for them… After a while he asked her if she knew exactly where she had dropped them and she said ‘yes, across the other side of the road’. A bit bemused the man asked why they were looking on this side of the road then, to which she replied ‘well there’s a streetlight this side so I thought it might be easier to look.’  Searching and finding is a key theme in the bible and there seems little doubt that God wants the journey in life for all of us to involve finding out what a relationship with him really offers…  The parable s  that Jesus told in the gospel r eading this morning (Luke 15:1-10) are  v...

We don’t very often come across readings from Paul’s letter to Philemon – and that’s for good reason because actually we have heard almost all of the letter this morning. It’s an extremely short book  -  but one which has a lot in it.  Paul is writing to Philemon probably when under house arrest in Rome. Philemon was a wealthy member of the Church in Colossae whos e slave,  Onesimus , had run away to Rome. When he was in Rome he  had been led  to the Christian faith by Paul and Paul was now writing to Philemon to ask him to take  Onesimus  back – not as a slave but as a brother… And Paul shows the depth of his commitment as he offers to pay back anything that  Onesimus  owes to Philemon.  And so there’s a number of things that come to mind when we read this letter. Firstly  there is the obvious worry we might have about slavery – what was common then is all too common in the world still and whilst slavery seemed to...

From Helen A former prime minister Herbert Asquith once spent a weekend at the  Waddesdon  estate of the 19th-century Rothschild family. One day, as Asquith was being waited on at teatime by the butler, the following conversation ensued: "Tea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?"  "Tea, please," answered Asquith.  "China, India, or Ceylon, sir?" asked the butler.  "China, please."  "Lemon, milk, or cream, sir?"  "Milk, please," replied Asquith.  "Jersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?" asked the butler. Life is full of choices and in our readings today  we have heard about choices, and not just about choices but about the implications of those choices. In the reading from Deuteronom y  (30:15-20)  we heard the choice of life and prosperity or  death  and adversity .  It isn’t really a difficult choice to make or so it would seem.  Life and prosperity is a choice to follow God and be m...