Sharing some thoughts

A Vicar was taken ill and was lying in hospital when the Churchwarden came to visit. ‘How was the Church Council meeting last  night ? ’ asked the Vicar. ‘Well’ said the Warden, ‘the good news is that we passed a vote wishing you a quick and full recovery.’ ‘Oh that’s nice ,  what’s the bad  news ? ’. ‘It was only passed by 13 votes to  12 ! ’ I suppose every Vicar or Minister likes to be liked and would love to have the sort of power  that when you say ‘Follow me’, then people will do it – ‘Follow me’ could be translated into all kinds of different things – perhaps do ing  the service and kind of worship  the Vicar likes and everyone being  happ y about it, or changing  the church around as t he Vicar wants and everyone saying how nice it looks, or  ask ing  people to go out and really genuinely love one another and everyone does  it ! Of course these things are a little unrealistic – the human nature of congregat...

Today we  join together in worship and it’s good therefore  that the readings actually fall in with that principle of unity very well , but actually as Christians we can say that for the whole bible – there is no part that champions division ! But our readings today offer us some fairly stark challenges as we consider this question of unity and we join together in worship. In the reading from Isaiah (63:7-16) we have a section on prayer and praise which begins – ‘tell of the kindness of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised.’ It’s a section reminding us to praise God for all of the blessings we have – it is to praise God for his love and compassion. It is to praise God for things like the freedom to worship so openly. It is to praise God to be given the opportunity to be his disciples. It is to praise God for the chance to offer service to him, the king of all kings. And yet often this isn’t what we find in churches. Instead we find petty arguments...

When polls are done as they sometimes are about the most well known bible verse, a common winner is John 3:16 – ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ Here Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee – a group of people usually opposed to Jesus. But Nicodemus had come to speak to Jesus – he had seen what he had been doing, heard his teaching and wanted to know more. And so he came at night and began to question Jesus. Coming at night meant he came in secret, afraid perhaps of being seen by other Pharisees – it’s interesting that after this exchange we next hear Nicodemus spoken about as part of the Jewish Council – he actually spoke up for Jesus but was ignored. Nevertheless he had already made a journey of faith and courage – from meeting Jesus in secret he was now prepared to try and defend him amongst people who hated Jesus – and then later we see him a th ird time. This time he i...

This week has  been a big week for many people as it has been the week when children and teachers have gone back to school. There is a story of a  head teacher  who was  making  the  ro unds of the school when he heard  a terrible commotion coming from one of the classrooms. He rushe d  in and  spotted  one boy, taller than the others, who seem ed  to be making the most noise. He seized   the boy  dragged him into the corridor and told  him to wait there until he was  excused. Returning to the clas sroom, the head teacher restored  order and lecture d  the class for half an hour about the importance of good behaviour. He then asked if there were any questions, to which one girl put up her hand and said, ‘Please sir, can we have our teacher  back?’ School is an interesting place and this week m y  Facebook  page  has been full of pictures  of  children off to scho...

Did you know that we have just 116 days to Christmas Day ?   We are more than 2/3 of the way through the year, and 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 as I’ve just reminded you Christmas is coming ! And what a season that is too – we celebrate the birth of a baby born to save the world not through might or force, not through dictatorship but through love… Amidst the commercial chaos that is Christmas we are called to look at the birth of a baby who changed history. And as we go through this Trinity season in church that message is no less relevant – Jesus was born to change the world and to change us, and he did that with the example of a perfect life, but also the willing sacrifice of his life on the cross – the disciples didn’t understand, the author...

Have you ever felt incredibly  important ?  Have you ever felt as if you were the most important person in the  room ?  Well, it is a little like the old jokes of ‘don’t you know who I  am ?’ There was a man called Christian Herter who was governor of Massachusetts.  One day, after a busy morning  campaigning  (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"  "Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."  "But I'm starved," the governor said.  "Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer."  Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this ti...

Feeling suitably inspired to preach for today I had a look at the readings – St. Bartholomew’s Day. Now I think it’s generally a good thing to celebrate Saints Days as they can give a nice bit of human interest in the examination of their lives… However, there are some about whom we know so little that preaching about them is not very easy !! St Bartholomew falls into that category. Although he’s mentioned in the gospels as one of the 12 disciples, we know very little else about him at all. Suddenly my inspiration seemed to be disappearing a little !! That was until I realised that St Bartholomew is actually a perfect representation of most of us. We’re there as part of a Church, part of a family, chosen by God to represent him, supported and sustained by the Holy Spirit, but leading sometimes unremarkable lives, and that’s not a bad way to be. Many of you will know the story about St Maximillian Kolbe a Roman Catholic Priest imprisoned in Auschwitz by the Nazis who gave his l...