Sharing some thoughts

The great American evangelist Billy Graham is quoted as saying, “I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right.” I think there are some days and some times when we need to hear that a little more than at others… Perhaps for some of you, that time may be now !  And the readings from today point us, not to the last page of the bible, but certainly to some words of hope and inspiration.  In the gospel according to John (14:1-14) we’re told by Jesus, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me’. These are powerful words, and words which can be trusted because they come from Jesus, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds is it ?  Sometimes, although we want to trust,  and we want to be sure,  and we want to know that everything will be ok in the end,  it just doesn’t feel like it !  But Jesus didn’t leave it there. He had more to say, ‘In my Father’s house, there are many dwel...

We’ve had 2 wonderful readings today and both of them have so much guidance and help to offer us and I just want to think of 3 things, 2 from the reading from Acts (2:42-47) and then one from the gospel according to John (10:1-10).  The reading from Acts gives us a description of the early church. We’re told how the followers of Jesus devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. We were told how they lived together sharing everything. We are also told that they had the ‘goodwill of all the people’ and that, ‘day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.’   When I was thinking about what to say today, two things came up from this reading for me. The first is the fellowship that the followers of Jesus enjoyed together. Now I’m pretty sure they would have had a few quarrels too because that’s often what happens when people are together a lot, but they were bound together as a family, doing th...

This Sunday is sometimes known as Low Sunday – it’s the day when people often stay at home and don’t come to church... oh ! Well, this year, that’s a bit like any other Sunday of course…  But whilst we might be desperate to get back to our church buildings to meet up with family and friends, church has continued because of the event we celebrated last Sunday - church has continued because Jesus has risen from the dead, Jesus is alive !  In the reading from Acts (2:14a,22-32) we read this remarkable speech made by Peter – Peter of course had, not very long before, denied even knowing Jesus, but he was now ready to stand up in front of some of the people who had called for Jesus to die, maybe some of the people who had been responsible for killing him, and proclaim boldly that Jesus had been killed, but that he rose from the dead and that he and others were witnesses of that. Who could possibly deny the reality of the resurrection when faced with the boldness of Pe...

Alleluia, Christ has risen ! He is risen indeed, Alleluia ! D William Sangster, a Methodist who had been working on a renewal movement in this country following the 2 nd  world war contracted a disease which progressively paralysed his body, and even his vocal chords. But on the last Easter Day that he was alive, he painfully wrote a note to his daughter saying, ‘How terrible it is to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout “He is Risen!” But it is far worse to wake up with a voice and not want to shout…’  Easter Day is the greatest day of celebration in the whole year for Christians, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, the day when death was destroyed forever and the day when victory which seemed to have been claimed a couple of days before by the forces of darkness, was suddenly claimed by love, by God. It is the day to shout, ‘He is risen’ ! But this year those shouts will be a bit different. Rather than joining together in our church buildings...

Today begins Holy Week, the most important time in the Christian calendar, the time when we are asked to walk with Jesus to the cross before joining in with the celebrations of Easter Day. It’s an emotional week if we follow it properly and this year the emotions are even a little higher as we miss seeing and touching loved ones and we miss the chance to gather as a church family. Palm Sunday is always a special day in church as we’re presented with our Palm Crosses. Often it seems to be a chaotic mess as we attempt processions with people travelling at different speeds and sometimes even in different directions. We often gather for the first part of the service outside the church building offering a wonderful witness to people who are walking past that something particularly important is happening. Today, as I said, is different, but I wonder perhaps if it doesn’t give us the chance to understand the mind of Jesus in this week a little bit more. The gospel reading ...

Sermon for Morning Prayer 15/03/2020 You don’t need me to tell you we seem to be living in strange times ! A couple of months ago people had never heard of the coronavirus but now it dominates not just news programmes, but it seems also most of our lives. A trip to the supermarket will confirm that !  Into this situation our readings this morning couldn’t be more appropriate (Joshua 1:1-9; Ephesians 6:10-20). Amidst the chaos and the worry, God says ‘don’t be afraid’ and he reminds us that he equips us for anything we can ever face.  Don’t those words sound easy, but we all know they’re not. When God says, ‘do not be afraid, I’m with you’ I know it’s not as easy as it sounds to trust that. I, probably like many of you, struggle with questions about suffering in whatever form it occurs; I still worry about not being faithful enough, or not adequate enough to share my faith well enough and I’d still like to have that sit down chat with God where I could ask a pile o...