Sharing some thoughts

It might only be a week but Christmas now seems a long time ago – much has happened, normality has been resumed in so many ways… (Even New Year’s festivities are completed for another year...) January is often referred to as the most depressing time of year – the time when winter gloom really sets in, the euphoria of Christmas has ended and people have to get back to living ‘real life’. Christmas is a wonderful interlude in our lives, but now it is very much time to get on with life… And this is kind of the sense of our gospel reading today (Luke 2:15-21). The angels had left, then the shepherds visited the new born Jesus and they went back to their fields glorifying God – and life went on… It was time for the Jesus to be circumcised to fit in with the Jewish traditions… The Son of God had been born and would grow and live as one of us... A famous Christmas verse says, "When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are h...

from Helen Well Christmas day has been and gone. The new year has started and life  i s getting back to normal. I was thinking about the gospel reading  (Luke 2:15-21)  that we heard this morning and started to think about the affect of that reading and the good news it contains on us.  In order to think about  this  I would l ike to ask you to join me on a journey of  imag ination .  I want you to imagine that you are different people in the reading thinking about h o w they reacted to the news and  whether you would react in the same way. The first person I want you to imagine being like is Joseph. A man who was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. The necessary financia l  agreements between your family and Mary’s family  had been finalised. Life was carrying on as expected. You had behaved honourably, doing the right thing. Life was go o d but then… shock horror Mary had some news for you that wasn’t only not th...

from Helen A couple of years ago Ian and I ended up going to see a stand up comedian. Now, to be honest we are not really into stand up comedians but some friends of ours decided that we would enjoy going and had bought us tickets to go with them in case. Well we thought that we should go. To be honest it was a brilliant evening with lots and lots of laughter. One of the jokes was based around the idea of the little things that really annoy us. You know the types of things like corned beef tins and how dangerous they can be to open, sliced bread that is sliced either too thick or too thin, the internet being too slow when we want to go online or worse of the lot men who insist on leaving the toilet seat up - my husband doesn't do this, clearly he knows better but you get the picture all the little things that actually aren't that important but they cause us to get a little bit frustrated. 

 They are the little things that don't really matter as much as the problems going...

Today in our gospel reading (Matt 1:18-end), it seems that the church readings have gone mad ! In this advent season, as we prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus, as we continue to wait, the gospel reading tells us of the birth of Jesus. It is confusing to put it mildly, and yet the reading is not actually just about the birth of Jesus, it is also about the response of Joseph. As this period of advent draws to a close we approach the very centre of a great drama – the story of God coming into the world in the form of a vulnerable child. It is a story so dramatic that kings and emperors and rulers of this world play only bit-parts in the story. And we too have a part in the story – each of us has our own part to play out because, as we are drawn into the story, we realise that the story is far from over. Matthew tells the story of Mary and Joseph in a very matter of fact way, parents anxious about the birth of their child, and we could easily miss its importance. Yet it is on thi...

King James I once became annoyed with a preacher and shouted up to the pulpit, ‘Either make sense, or come down from the pulpit !’ The preacher calmly replied, ‘I will do neither’. I’m not sure that disobeying a king was a good idea, but the fact that something didn’t make sense is a position most of us, as preachers, might occasionally have found ourselves in ! And Advent can also be something which doesn’t seem to make sense in a world where so many other things are going on which seem to conflict with it ! In the church calendar we think of a time of preparation and reflection as we prepare to celebrate Christmas and we recognise the reason for Christ’s coming into the world. It can be in some ways a sombre time as we just try to clear away the things in our lives that are distracting us in our journey of faith – and yet amidst all of these serious considerations we have the carol services and parties, the Christmas songs and shopping. And so it can be for the church and for us...

Our gospel reading (Matt 3:1-12) includes the words of John the Baptist, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near'. Repent is one of those words which is not used very much but it seems to suit the advent season as we're asked to think about our relationship with God. John the Baptist was the one who was in the wilderness helping to prepare the way for Jesus and we are called to listen and to learn from him, but also, as Christians, to emulate him as we seek to prepare the way for Jesus in the world today... And one of his calls to his listeners was to repent... At this point it seems appropriate for a pretty awful joke ! Jock, the painter, often would thin his paint so it would go further. So when the Church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jock was able to put in the low bid, and got the job. As always, he thinned his paint way down. One day while he was up on the scaffolding with the job almost finished he heard a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sk...

from Helen Well Advent is here. The Christmas build up has begun.   Last week I was in two schools talking about advent and I used a teddy bear to explain that he had been so excited by Christmas last year that he forgot to go to all the lovely things that were going on.  Advent is a busy time. It is not an easy time to stop and reflect but that is what we are called to do. As we stop and reflect we can take moments to prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus to celebrate once again the amazing moment when God became one of us and then we can also look ahead to Jesus coming again.  There is so much to think about  with cards, presen ts and c e lebrations. But in all this we need to take time to remember what we are thinking about. In the midst of this we hear the call  from our gospel reading today (Matthew 3:1-12)  of John the Baptist to repent and prepare the way for the Lord.  I always think that John the Baptist wouldn’t have been the kind ...