Sharing some thoughts

There’s hopefully a moment in our lives, sometimes early, sometimes late, when we realise that God didn’t wait for us to be sorted out before loving us. He didn’t wait for us to be holy, or confident, or prayerful, or even particularly interested. He loved us while we were still… whatever we were.  That’s the message of the part of Paul’s letter to the Romans that we heard (5:1-8): “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It’s one of the most amazing sentences in the Bible. It tells us that God’s love is not a reward for good behaviour; it’s the starting point for a new life. That passage from Romans tells us what God has done for us, and then the reading from the gospel of Matthew (9:35-10:8) tells us what God now invites us to do with Him. Matthew paints a great picture of Jesus moving through towns and villages, teaching, healing, encouraging, sometimes challenging. But perhaps the most incredible line says, “He saw the crowds, and had compassion for them, because they...

  Readings : 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 and John 6:51–58 There are moments in the Christian year when Jesus’ words seem to slow us down, draw us closer to him, and ask us to look again. Today we are thinking about the feast of Corpus Christi and that is one of those moments. It’s a feast that invites us to pause and remember the heart of our faith - Jesus giving himself for the life of the world. For some Christians, today is wrapped in rich tradition and deep sacramental theology. For others, it’s not a feast that is widely  marked. But at its heart is something that every Christian treasures. That is the astonishing generosity of Jesus, who gives himself, fully, freely, lovingly, for us. In our reading from Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians he says that he is passing on what he himself received from the Lord. Not a theory or a symbol he invented, but a wonderful gift - a revelation. A moment Jesus wanted his people to remember until he comes again. “This is my body, which...

  There are some Sundays in the church year when the preacher wakes up with a spring in their step… and then there is Trinity Sunday. This is the day when clergy everywhere quietly wonder whether it’s possible to explain the mystery of God without baffling everyone, boring everyone or accidentally committing heresy before the Peace.   Perhaps the biggest problem might be that we try so hard to explain something that, at its heart, is meant to draw us into wonder. Trinity Sunday isn’t a puzzle to solve, instead, it’s an invitation to step closer to God who is love - love shared, poured out, drawing us in. And the most important thing to reflect on is that even if the Trinity is hard to explain, it is absolutely central to how Christians understand God. God the Father, the Creator. God the Son, the Saviour. God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Guide… Three ways God reaches towards us. Three ways God works in the world. Three ways God invites us into relationship. And that’s wh...

Most people have at least some idea of what Christmas is about - Jesus being born in Bethlehem, angels singing, shepherds hurrying down the hillside.   Most people know that Easter is important - something to do with Jesus dying and rising again, some recognising that it is something to do with hope breaking out of a tomb. But Pentecost? For many, it’s simply the weekend that sometimes brings a Bank Holiday, a long weekend, a chance to cut the grass, maybe a barbecue if the weather behaves… And yet Pentecost is one of the most important days in the Christian year. It is the birthday of the Church, it is the time that God breathed life, power and purpose into ordinary people and invited them to be part of something world‑changing. In the book of Acts (2:1-21) we read: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place… Suddenly a sound like a rushing wind… tongues of fire… all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…” “A crowd gathered… each one heard them speakin...