Sharing some thoughts

At a licensing service I was at recently one of the prayers offered was that our churches may be ‘can-do churches, where miracles can happen.’ I thought that prayer was a wonderful offering of faith, but also displayed the sort of faith that we all as a church should be displaying.    For all kinds of reasons many of our churches today seem to be lacking in confidence. Tomorrow, dragging things down a bit (!), is supposed to be the most miserable day of the year. It’s the day when we realise that Christmas is well and truly behind us, that the January pay day for lots of people hasn’t arrived yet, and where the weather and the length of time to go in the winter all seems a bit depressing.    I’m sure it’s absolutely not the case here, but sometimes our churches can feel a little bit like that all the year around if we’re not careful! And today I want to think of that statement about being ‘can-do churches where miracles can happen’.    And our gospel readin...

  Today we celebrate in the church calendar the baptism of Christ. And in our readings we are reminded that we are called to be active participants in God’s kingdom. In our reading from Isaiah (43:1-7), we heard some incredible words, ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine’.   That idea of God wanting us, each one of us, to be a part of his work, his family, is one that I think needs to be acknowledged every moment of every day – when we’re feeling good or when we’re not… God calls us by name…  Baptism offers an incredible symbol of God’s unbelievable grace. Today we have heard the account of the baptism of Jesus, an experience which led to the real beginning of his ministry.  The reasons for Jesus being baptised can be thought about separately but, for us too, baptism must be a beginning – Martin Luther said that baptism is something that's done in church one day but takes the rest of our lives to complete…  As Jes...

  We’ve arrived at a new year – Christmas seems a little way back. Lots of decorations have been taken down and put away and there are a lot less houses decorated with pretty sparkling lights as I travel around.  I hope Christmas was good and I hope you have a great new year. Some of you may have made new year resolutions, some may have made them and already broken them!! But with God’s grace, we are constantly given the chance for something new and something lasting.  At Christmas so many people celebrated and it was wonderful to hear so many churches talking about encouraging attendances at the Christmas services and in the lead up to Christmas. Lots of people will try to say that Christianity is an outdated message, but time and time again we’re reminded that isn’t true!  But this morning I want to think of some verses from the gospel (John 1: 10-18) which began, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He ca...