Sharing some thoughts

Sign above the vestry door in Penhow: Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel  Some people really enjoy numbers, for others they can be a great barrier. This morning in our gospel reading (john 21:1-19) we have what seems a rather random number – we are told that the fishermen obeyed the instruction of Jesus to go out again, and when they did so, they caught a net full of 153 fish. As I said, it seems a rather random number, but a number of people over the centuries have assumed that it was included for a reason - Cyril of Alexander said it was a symbolic number - 100, meaning the fullness of the Gentiles, plus 50, representing the remnant of Israel, and 3, representing the trinity. Augustine discovered 153 is the sum of 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17. Then he proposed that seventeen was a symbolic number representing the Ten Commandments and the seven gifts of the spirit. St Jerome suggested there were 153 fish because there were 153 different kinds of fish in the S...

Lord Halifax, who was a former foreign secretary was apparently a little bit mischievous! He once shared a railway compartment with two rather prim-looking ladies. A few moments before reaching his destination  the train passed through a tunnel. In the utter darkness Halifax kissed the back of his hand noisily several times. When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat, and in a gentlemanly way said: "May I thank whichever one of you two ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident in the tunnel." He then beat a hasty retreat, leaving the two ladies glaring at each other as each doubted the behaviour of the other. Today we’re going to think a little bit about doubt, or at least about the most famous doubter of all time – Thomas.  The gospel reading this morning (John 20:19-31) begins on the first evening of the first Easter as the disciples were gathered together in the house with the doors locked... The disciples must still have been afraid that wh...

  Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!  On social media in the week I saw a quote from Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal football manager, who said, ‘Christmas is important, but Easter is decisive.’  It would be good to think that he was doing a bit of publicity for the Christian faith, but actually he was talking about results of games – in football the Christmas period is important but the games around Easter, as the season comes to a close, are decisive.  But of course, he could have been talking about the  Christian faith and today represents the most important day in the Christian calendar, and a day where we celebrate the world literally being changed forever. The events of the first Christmas were important, but it was the first Easter that was decisive!  And on that first Easter Jesus offered the greatest invitation of all – the invitation to a new life. Today I want to think about that invitation using two images I hope yo...

  Today begins Holy Week, the time when we are asked to walk with Jesus to the cross before, next week, joining in with the celebrations of Easter Day.  Palm Sunday is always a special day in church. Sometimes churches (as some of us did this morning) do processions which can be a bit chaotic with different people walking at different speeds, sometimes even in different directions…  However we commemorate it, Palm Sunday is special, and 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 includes Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. There were people spreading their cloaks on the roads and waving their branches as they greeted Jesus into Jerusalem.  The hopes of a passionate crowd were pinned on Jesus, but I’m not sure they even understood what those hopes might be. And that seems to have been true of the disciples too as the events of the week unfold, and it becomes clear that e...