Sharing some thoughts

from Helen I love weddings,  and  have been a bridesmaid 5 times . I t is something that I think I was quite good at. However, at the second wedding where I was a bridesmaid I  almost  stole the show… according to my cousin who was the  bride !  I was 7 years old and I ha d a very pretty dress with a ne t petticoat which was very itchy. During the service my bottom was very itchy and so I tried to work out how I could lift my dress and have a scratch. I waited and then there was a prayer. I saw this as an opportunity ,  after all when you prayed you put your hands together and closed your eyes. As the prayer started I lifted my dress and had a good scratch !!  strangely enough not everyone had their eyes  closed ! This morning we heard in the gospel (John2:1-11) about Jesus’ first miracle in Cana of Galilee. It was at a wedding, a joyous time,  but this wedding went a little wrong.  At  the  wedding they ran out of win...

I’m not sure how many of you watched much of the inauguration of President Trump on Friday. I was in the car and heard much of the ceremony and his inauguration speech. Without going into much detail there was one bit where I cringed (even more than in the rest of  it ! ). The President said, ‘ From this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first….’  Much as that language might sound good and appealing  and rabble rousing  to some there is absolutely no Christian basis for it at all because God simply doesn’t put boundaries around things –  W e do that.  God doesn’t say to first look after ourselves at the expense of others. In  fact  when we look at Jesus his commands are about love and about concern for others, particularly those who are struggling…  Our readings today help to emphasise some of this and they also remind us where our focus has to be – on Jesus and on the good news of his kingdom…  A kingd...

The journey through life seems to be one with all kinds of ups and downs, and all kinds of different learning experiences. Achievements are sometimes made, but not recognized and just occasionally when it seems we’ve done very little, people can think it’s a great success… Success means different things to different people – those who support a sports team may measure success in relative terms – what is success for a non league football team may be a disaster for a top club for example. But whatever people regard as success it is something that we should celebrate. It is a natural human emotion. People like to celebrate success – they point to people who can make a difference, whether that difference is perceived or real. We look at all kinds of people and point them out as someone special, and in the gospel reading today (John 1:29-42), this is what is happening. John the Baptist has been preaching in the wilderness, preparing people for the arrival of the Messiah, and now he has c...

from Helen This morning we are celebrating the epip hany.  (Matthew 2:1-12).  The time when the wise me n followed a star and found Jesus. To be honest I have always found the Kings a bit odd. Now this doesn’t  s ound very kind but they were always played by boys in school nativities, the costumes were always too glitzy really, I only had non-glitzy angel wings and a white robe.  I  always think of the three wise men/ three kings as a bit mysterious. They came from afar – and that afar was even further than John O’Groats.  The kings were a mystery. To be honest they still are a bit of a mystery.  We aren’t  told anyw here that there were t hree of them but tradition has p ut them as three because of their gifts.  Talking of their gifts, I read recently of a child who thought the gifts were g o ld, myrrh and Frankenstein, another  child who said that the wise me n brough t  gifts of gold, frankincense and humour and another wh...

It might only be a week but Christmas now seems a long time ago – much has happened, normality has been resumed in so many ways… (Even New Year’s festivities are completed for another year...) January is often referred to as the most depressing time of year – the time when winter gloom really sets in, the euphoria of Christmas has ended and people have to get back to living ‘real life’. Christmas is a wonderful interlude in our lives, but now it is very much time to get on with life… And this is kind of the sense of our gospel reading today (Luke 2:15-21). The angels had left, then the shepherds visited the new born Jesus and they went back to their fields glorifying God – and life went on… It was time for the Jesus to be circumcised to fit in with the Jewish traditions… The Son of God had been born and would grow and live as one of us... A famous Christmas verse says, "When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are h...

from Helen Well Christmas day has been and gone. The new year has started and life  i s getting back to normal. I was thinking about the gospel reading  (Luke 2:15-21)  that we heard this morning and started to think about the affect of that reading and the good news it contains on us.  In order to think about  this  I would l ike to ask you to join me on a journey of  imag ination .  I want you to imagine that you are different people in the reading thinking about h o w they reacted to the news and  whether you would react in the same way. The first person I want you to imagine being like is Joseph. A man who was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. The necessary financia l  agreements between your family and Mary’s family  had been finalised. Life was carrying on as expected. You had behaved honourably, doing the right thing. Life was go o d but then… shock horror Mary had some news for you that wasn’t only not th...

from Helen A couple of years ago Ian and I ended up going to see a stand up comedian. Now, to be honest we are not really into stand up comedians but some friends of ours decided that we would enjoy going and had bought us tickets to go with them in case. Well we thought that we should go. To be honest it was a brilliant evening with lots and lots of laughter. One of the jokes was based around the idea of the little things that really annoy us. You know the types of things like corned beef tins and how dangerous they can be to open, sliced bread that is sliced either too thick or too thin, the internet being too slow when we want to go online or worse of the lot men who insist on leaving the toilet seat up - my husband doesn't do this, clearly he knows better but you get the picture all the little things that actually aren't that important but they cause us to get a little bit frustrated. 

 They are the little things that don't really matter as much as the problems going...