Sharing some thoughts

As Jesus left the Temple one of his disciples commented on what large stones and buildings. It was a comment that recognised the grandeur and majesty of the surroundings, but Jesus replied, 'not one will be left; all will be thrown down'. Tough it doesn't immediately sound it the reading reflects hope - not hope in the way it is seen often in worldly terms - hope of a good job, hope of lots of money or good health, hope of winning the lottery perhaps but hope in terms of knowing that whatever happens in our lives with Jesus on our side, nothing can ever really destroy us. There’s a rather nice true story about a volunteer tutor was asked to visit a nine-year-old in a large hospital. She took the boy's name and room number and was told by the boy's teacher that they were studying nouns and adverbs in class. It wasn't until the tutor got to the boy's room that she realised the boy was a patient in the hospital's burn unit. No one had prepared her to...

Today the Sea of Galilee is an incredibly beautiful and seemingly peaceful place. It is set in the middle of wonderful countryside, with hills surrounding. It is a place where you sense little has changed from the time of Jesus. But of course, it has. The water level has dropped massively for a start as water has become such an important resource. In addition we are also reminded of the all too prominent threat of conflict. Many times the areas surrounding the Sea have become battle grounds. Today we are all aware of the problems in Syria boiling over separated from the Sea of Galilee only by the hills. In our gospel today (Mark 1:14-20) we have heard of a conflict in a different time. John the Baptist has been arrested, and Jesus has arrived in Galilee – it is time for Jesus to repeat the message of John – ‘The kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.’ And as he begins his ministry, he calls his first disciples to join in the work. Simon and Andrew wer...

I think one of the great challenges the church faces today is to balance a message of love with a message of judgement – it is perhaps to balance some of the writing of the Old Testament with that of the New – that balance of a harsh, even vengeful God with the God of love portrayed by Jesus. This evening in our 2 readings we have quite a contrast. In Ezekiel (13:1-16) we heard of the condemnation of false prophets – and this condemnation is fierce. For example ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: in my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain, and hailstones in wrath….’ It’s a tough passage which contrasts with our new testament reading from the first letter of John (3:11-24)… So what should we accentuate – what message should we giving to people ? I think much of the church has actually decided on the side of the new testament message, particularly teaching like we have heard today. ‘See what love the father has given us, that we...

There’s a story told about Albert Einstein in heaven: Einstein was having difficulty finding people on his intellectual level to talk to, so one day he decided to stand at the pearly gates and ask everyone who entered what their IQ was. Before very long he was having a lot of success guessing what people did for a living on the basis on their level of intelligence. For instance, a woman was ushered through the gates and in response to Einstein's question, said she had an IQ of 190. "Why, you must be a physicist," Einstein said. "Indeed I am," said the woman. "I'd love to chat with you about the progress being made in nuclear fusion and in superconductivity, as well as what's going on in space," said Einstein. "Please wait over there." He stopped a man who was entering the gates, and the man told him his IQ was 140. "You must be a physician, probably a surgeon," said Einstein. His guess was right. "Wonderful," ...

I once heard the story of a rather frustrated church minister who announced, ‘there is nothing wrong with my church… that a few funerals couldn’t fix’… I’m sure Jesus would never have spoken so meanly of any of his followers but there must surely have been times when he must have been rather frustrated with them… In the gospel reading (Mark 9:30-37) we heard of Jesus travelling south – he had been to Caesarea Philippi and was now travelling through Galilee – it was a tremendously important journey. It seems Jesus in his earthly ministry would never again travel north – he was heading down through Galilee to Jerusalem – to his trial and his death on the cross. We are told that this was to be a quiet journey, he didn’t want crowds of people – in many ways his public earthly ministry was over… But Jesus did have things to do, and most importantly of all was to try and prepare his followers for what was to come, and so he told them that he was going to be arrested and killed, that he ...

Every 3 or 4 years all the clergy in the Diocese go on clergy school, and this last week Coventry was invaded by the clergy of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, eager to learn. In one of the sessions we had an afternoon out to the Church of St Martin in the Bullring in Birmingham – that church is centred as the name suggests in the Bullring surrounded by a huge shopping centre and also the big and famous Rag Market. The position that church is in is, in many ways, a perfect merging of the world and God. And that balance or meeting of the spiritual and secular is one that, as Christians living in a modern society, we constantly have to be aware of. And this conflict is one that has gone back to the times of Jesus himself, as we have seen in the gospel reading today (Mark 8:27-38). Jesus, travelling with his disciples, asks them who people say that he is – and Peter replies, ‘You are the Messiah’. But then, as Jesus moves on to speak of the suffering that he must undergo – of t...

St Paul is often thought of as a rather blunt, maybe even not particularly pleasant sort of character in some of his letters. Certainly he was fairly ruthless in terms of trying to maintain a discipline in the Church, and he was passionate about sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. But this morning we’ve heard part of the letter of James (1:19-27), and here we find some even more blunt comments – James argued that whilst good works wouldn’t save a person, good works are certainly the marks of a Christian person. In the eyes of James, talk without action was meaningless. ‘Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’, wrote James. This remains one of the great challenges to the Church today – to not just listen and talk but to be doers of God’s word. As we look at some of the things we do in church, we find that many of them are man-made – the robes we wear, the way we conduct services, the way we organise the communion meal, the way we make up...