Sharing some thoughts

  It was in 1843 when the Revd R S Hawker put up a notice on his Church in Cornwall saying that there would a special Sunday of thanksgiving, and that the old custom of making eucharistic bread from the first corn would be revived. It read: "Let us gather together in the chancel of our church, and there receive, in the bread of the new corn, that blessed sacrament which was ordained to strengthen and refresh our souls." Harvest is a great festival celebrating God’s provision for us, and since that first Festival, it has been a great tradition in churches throughout the country to celebrate Harvest. It’s a day when many of us will remember going into church and literally being able to smell the fruit and the flowers…  Today harvest is often a little bit different, we often now see tins or packets being offered which are much easier to distribute or other donations requested, but what hasn’t changed is the importance of recognising the gifts we’re given and saying thanks to...

  In the early days of the Salvation Army, the founder William Booth was often bitterly attacked in the press by both religious and political leaders. People didn’t like that the Salvation Army were dealing with all kinds of difficult people, in difficult places - in spite of what the gospel says about how we absolutely must be doing those things!   Whenever William Booth’s son, Bramwell, showed him a negative newspaper piece, he would reply with the same answer, "Bramwell, fifty years hence it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us; it will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God." Today we celebrate Harvest and you may well wonder what that has to do with harvest, but at harvest we are doing a number of things. Firstly we are celebrating God’s goodness, we are offering our thanks to him for the good things that he has given us. Secondly we’re recognising the often large number of people who help to bring our food to us and we’re giving ...

  I read a story once  (S. I. McMillen, in his book  None of These Diseases)  of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application form that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being honest, she wrote, "No," and sent back the application, expecting the worst.    To her surprise, she received this letter back: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."   In today’s readings we receive an invitation again to be followers of Jesus and to consider what that really means… And we do it with the help of the day in the church calendar on which we celebrate Michael and All Angels…    It is particularly important in this church as we reflect on the history of this place dedicated to St Michael and All Angels and where there has been a place of...

Asked whether we would want to be rich or poor most of us would probably choose to be rich but today’s gospel reading (Luke 16:19-31) offers us another biblical warning about the dangers of being rich in material terms but poor in terms of our concern for others… We’re told “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.” It’s a hugely unpleasant contrast - and I think we’d all probably  agree that we’d rather be the rich man in this story. This man had the best clothes, he ate the best food and he lived in a place of luxury. He lived in a “gated community” and the gate served its purpose of keeping out the less desirable elements of society. And there are one of those less desirables, named Lazarus, lying there right at this gate.  That’s the po...

  The last week and a half has naturally been taken up on television and in newspapers with news about the death of the Queen. Much has been reported about her incredible faith as well as her devotion to duty which have offered an example for people to follow. Today in our New Testament reading from Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy, (1 Tim.2:1-7) there is a call for us to pray for those in authority, for Kings and all who are in high positions it says. Again, it seems a particularly appropriate time to be reminded of this.   Lots of us in our own prayer lives might offer prayers for other people, but those prayers often begin with those closest to us and work outwards from there - Paul is not saying this is wrong but is reminding us that those in authority, who sometimes may seem a little bit distant from us, are as much in need of our prayer as anyone else. The decisions they are making don't affect just us or our families and friends, but can affect whole nations or even the w...

  This week truly is a momentous one in the life of our country. We have a new Prime Minister, and we also of course mourn the death of the Queen. For a lot of us, she is the only monarch we have ever known in this country and she represented, whatever people’s views of the monarchy, a stability which I think we have treasured.     She also gave an example of a dedication to a calling which few of us can ever hope to match, and underpinning that dedication was her faith, a faith she was not afraid to talk about and in fact talked about even more in her later life even as our society seemed to move away from, or even sometimes become hostile to, such talk.    And I think those 2 things, dedication to her calling and commitment to her faith represent great examples to each of us.    When we think of calling, we often think of people with a vocation to ordained ministry, or perhaps to become a doctor, nurse or a teacher for example, but each of us h...

We don’t very often come across readings from Paul’s letter to Philemon – and that’s for a good reason because actually we have heard almost all of the letter this morning. It’s an extremely short book - but one which has a lot in it.  Paul is writing to Philemon probably when under house arrest in Rome. This man Philemon was a wealthy member of the Church in Colossae whose slave, Onesimus, had run away to Rome.  When he was in Rome he had been led to the Christian faith by Paul and Paul was now writing to Philemon to ask him to take Onesimus back – not as a slave but as a brother…  And Paul shows the depth of his commitment as he offers to pay back anything that Onesimus owes to Philemon.  And so there’s a number of things that come to mind when we read this letter. Firstly there is the obvious worry we might have about slavery – what was common then is sadly all too common in the world still and whilst slave...