Sharing some thoughts

  There’s an old joke about a little boy called Johnny meeting his new baby brother who was screaming. He asked his mum, “Where did we get him?”  His mother replied, “He came from heaven, Johnny,” to which Johnny replied, “Wow! I can see why they threw him out!” I think most of us have a fair idea of what not to say to a new mother – this morning we meet someone who speaks to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and they’re words that are not usually used to greet a new born child…. They are the words of Simeon as Jesus is brought to the Temple. Today we think about the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, sometimes known as Candlemas and we heard in the gospel (Luke 2:22-40) of Jesus being taken to the Temple 40 days after his birth as was the custom under the Jewish law.  Today we reach the end of the Christmas season – you might have thought it went some weeks ago, but actually it officially lasts until today. We’ve reached this point 40 days after Christmas and we go with ...

  For some people the idea of ‘charity begins at home’ is a very important one. I’m sure there are some arguments about well-being that might make this sensible but actually it’s not a sound Christian principle. Some of you will also remember at the inauguration of President Trump back in 2017 when he said, ‘From this day forward it’s going to be only 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 – we 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 kingdom that has no...

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 recognised 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 – 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 come and John points others to him. John had been the success story up to now in a way, drawing crowds to listen to him. He was the slightly eccentric and cou...

January 6th in the church calendar is the feast of the Epiphany, the day on which we remember the Magi (sometimes known as the wise men or the three kings) visiting the baby Jesus and bringing him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We know the story well, so well that perhaps we can take it for granted and not think of the lessons it offers us…  Actually we know very little about the Magi – we don’t really know how many of them there were, or even whether they were men. But regardless of how little we know of the Magi they represent an important part of Christian history...  They were early evidence of people searching for the Saviour who is Jesus. The gifts they brought were a little strange for a baby – I suspect many parents or grandparents would have strange looks if they brought such gifts for a child today but those gifts brought by the Magi were gifts that represented everything Jesus came to bring. The gold represented the kingly humanity – this was a kin...

Today we celebrate the life of St John the Evangelist. One of my favourite gospel readings comes from the gospel according to John (John 12:20-36). It was set in the context of the Feast of Passover, one of the holiest days of the Jewish faith. Jewish people would travel long distances to celebrate the festival together at the Temple. Some of these people were the Greeks who met Philip in our reading – and came up with the simple but incredibly profound words, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’. Sometime ago I was talking with someone who said that when he was travelling in Africa, a Bishop came up to him on the Saturday evening and asked him to preach at the big confirmation service the following day. He hurriedly prepared what he thought he was going to say and the following morning climbed up into the pulpit about to preach, and in front of him he read a note that had been left for him. It said very simply, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus.’ Suddenly all the words he had to put down to ...

“The past, the present and the future  I’ve reached the final chapter of this little book and want to try and sum up something of what I’ve tried to write. To do it I’d like to think about the classic novel by Charles Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol’. I’m pretty sure you will all know it reasonably well. Some of you will have read the book, many of you will have seen one of the many television or film adaptations of it.  At the heart of the novel are a number of things and these are just some of them :  The possibility of good triumphing over bad  The possibility of redemption for anyone The recognition of a need to look back in order to learn lessons for the future  A willingness to respond to a need for change  Sometimes change takes time, but sometimes it happens immediately ! With a fleeting glance it’s very easy to describe Scrooge as a rather unpleasant, miserable and mean man. All of these things are true without doubt, but this was a person, upon furthe...

  Longing for light - Waiting in darkness   Advent is a controversial season in the church calendar for some. It divides opinion as to whether it should remain a ‘sombre season’ of anticipation awaiting the celebration of the birth of Jesus and his promised coming again, or whether we should join in with the rest of society in building up to Christmas and taking the opportunity of sharing the wonderful story of why Jesus was born.  Recently I spoke to a fairly new Christian who didn’t know what Advent was. And why should they have ? As churches, we’re really not very clear about it a lot of the time. I tried to explain the intricacies of it as much as I could. I explained some of the different views, views of people who embraced Advent completely and didn’t allow any Christmas celebrations until after dark on Christmas Eve and others who joined in completely with the celebration of Christmas throughout December whilst still not ignoring an Advent message of anticipation,...