Sharing some thoughts

  There’s a story told of a burglar in Antwerp in Belgium who was surprised by the owner coming home whilst he was in the house. The thief quickly escaped out the back door, managed to climb over a nine-foot wall and dropped down on the other side, only to find himself in the city prison. Perhaps it was justice being done !  When we think about justice we will probably have some different views on what that means and who deserves it or not !  But I don’t think God uses any of those thoughts or standards - whatever we may think about justice it seems that God confounds most of our thoughts… Justice isn’t about something that is deserved or even necessarily particularly worthy. Instead, justice seems to be thrown out in favour of grace and mercy…  The reality is that our concept of fairness and justice is something that is often adjusted to suit ourselves, and each of us probably even have an idea of how we expect God to deliver justice at times. But, again we’re remin...

  There’s often a debate in life between what is urgent and what is important – very often the call of the urgent thing that’s needed wins, taking up time and effort. To an extent that is probably inevitable – it’s part of being grown up and responsible perhaps! But there is a real need also to reflect on what is important and making time to treasure the important things.  As we consider God’s incredible creation, we are reminded of his awesome power but also of his attention to detail – the power to create the world and yet the detail to love what has been made and the detail that creates a beautiful flower and creates you and me, with all our intricacies and uniqueness. How often do we think of God as the creator drawing a picture of all kinds of wonderful things and fitting them together to make one huge collage…. And we are part of that incredible collage….  What is urgent and what is important isn’t always easy to define, but as a guide perhaps what is important is t...

  I don’t know how many of you are on facebook ? If you are, you may well have noticed that various comments are starting to be made about shops already starting to put out some Christmas stock… It does seem a bit ridicukous I agree, but actually you’ll be pleased to know that there are only 113 days until Christmas Day ?   We are more than 2/3 of the way through the year, but perhaps more importantly for today, we are well into the Trinity Season, the longest season in our Church calendar.  This season is one in which we traditionally seek growth and today’s New Testament Readings (Romans 12:9-21 & Matthew 16:21-28) show what an incredible message this is. But I don’t want to completely leave Christmas – the Trinity season in the Church calendar is a long one but Christmas, along with Easter, is one of the really special seasons !  We of course celebrate the birth of a baby born to save the world not through might or force, not through dictatorship b...