Sunday's coming!

Christmas night I’ve got an uncle who is forever sending me emails of jokes & little quotes & things. I thought this was a wonderful quote from a 7 year old named Bobby: "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." It’s really tempting to spend a few minutes giving you the talk that goes ‘never mind all the presents & cards & decorations & stuff’ the REAL meaning of Christmas is this – the birth of Jesus. But the real meaning of Christmas is that God became human, that God takes all the human stuff seriously. God shows us how he feels all of our lives are important – not only spiritual, heavenly airy-fairy bits. God being born in Jesus means that God is earthy, grounded - real. The real meaning of Christmas is that it is all real – that God comes to us in all the ordinary stuff of life – crying babies, overbooked hotels, cold shepherds, so-called ‘wise’ men who are lost & won’t ask for directions. God...

Amid all the carol services I thought I had only 1 sermon to preach tomorrow - at an 8am. Then I've realised I'm not doing that service - so some of these thoughts will no doubt get recycled at some point next week. Funny how when you're up against it you create yet more work for yourself by doing unnecessary things! Advent 4 It has been the hardest preparation for Christmas I can ever remember. Like so many I have had the chesty/throaty/coughing and rasping bug. I’m sick of it, if I’m honest. I’m tired of keeping saying to myself – ‘just keep going – one more thing and then you can rest – just do this & then stop’ and ‘oh I wish I felt better’. And now it’s here – well Advent 4 anyway – and all the carols services and wonder of Christmas Eve & Christmas Day & then… oh blissful moment when I can stop. And here, right here, in these readings is the reminder I have needed – that Christmas is God’s initiative, not mine, and I have to ready only to croak out a ‘yes...

Well, can you believe it? Advent 3 already! This means 'Experiencing Christmas' at one church - a series of 'stations' inviting people to journey with the shepherds, the magi & with Mary & Joseph to the stable at Bethlehem: we're adapting material from the diocese of Gloucester which looks very effective. I also have a sermon to preach, on: Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 John 1: 6-8, 19-28 God’s gift to u s ‘What would you like for Christmas?’ I’d be very surprised if most of us haven’t been asked that by someone or other this year. Friends or relations who want to get us something, but get us something useful not the usual ‘bathsalts & inexpensive scent & hideous tie so kindly meant’ that John Betjeman puts his finger on so well in his poem. So we try to think – is there something we need? A little treat we wouldn’t otherwise get for ourselves? Something that’s broken & needs replacing? And of course we have to assess how much the person asking the questi...

Another frantic week: many funerals I'm afraid. Anyway here is the finished article, based on Isaiah 40: 1-11 Mark 1: 1-8 ‘Preparing the Way’ It’s coming to that time of year when the newspapers and magazines will be full of ‘key events of 2009’ – what they think will happen next year. I’m a sucker for these. I always read them and realise it’s because I would love to know what’s going to happen. But of course we can’t really know. Apparently Thomas Watson, who was Managing Director of IBM – which made millions from the sale of computers in the 1990s is quoted as saying in 1958 that he thought there was a world need for only 5 computers. I find it strangely reassuring that even a person whose company has capitalised so much from the great computer age couldn’t at first see what was coming. It seems that the whole church is facing a time of change right now: there is a lot of talk about ‘new ways of being church’, ‘emerging church’, even ‘liquid church’. We might wonder – what i...

Advent Sunday (Isa 52: 7-10, Romans 10: 12-18, Matt 4: 18 -22) As we mark St Andrew’s day, we remember one who gave his life to share Christ’s message with the world. And what shall our message be, this Advent Sunday? The world doesn’t need the church to tell it that it's nearly Christmas - every advertisement is shouting it at us, each shop is crammed with tinsel and trimmings, and tomorrow we get to start opening our Advent calendars. But what the world does need us to tell them is...what? What shall our message be? Well, today is also ‘buy nothing day’ – an international attempt to make people stop and think about how materialistic and greedy they – and therefore their celebrations of Christmas – have become. But before you either nod vigourously at me because you don’t want to be greedy, or stop listening because you’d planned to do some Christmas shopping this afternoon – let me say that I don’t think the church is here to tell the world to be less materialistic. Christmas – ...

Since this Sunday is our patronal festival at St Mary & St Andrew our readings will be Isaiah 52: 7-10 Romans 10: 12-18 Matthew 4: 18 -22 But I think these also fit the Advent theme pretty well. The world does not need the church to tell it that it's nearly Christmas - every advert is shouting it at us, and tomorrow we get to start opening our Advent calendars. But what the world does need us to tell them is... what? If we say 'the Lord is coming' we will see some people immediately write us off as the sort of people who want to walk round with a sandwich board which says 'the end of the world is nigh'. And yet our message is vital - and the world needs it now more than ever. Of course our message is more than what we say - it is how we live and how we treat people. If our following Jesus has taught us something about who he is and what his coming means, we need to share this with our neighbours.. somehow. Just opening thoughts - more to follow soon I hope!

For those who know me & have asked - I'm fine, thanks: down to 3 month check-ups at the dermatologist now & all nasty moles removed with no sign of more cancer. Meanwhile, back at the coal-face: This week's sermon so far (will need finishing off later/ tomorrow morning: Christ the King Today is the very last day of the current lectionary year – next week a new year begins for the church, with Advent Sunday. That means today we mark ‘Christ the King’. You might wonder what it’s all about. What does it mean to acknowledge Jesus Christ as King – and why are we doing it now, just as Advent is about to start, rather than after Easter, perhaps even at Ascension, when the hard part is all done for Jesus and he is about to take up his triumphal place in heaven. And anyway, you might well be wondering, does the lectionary and its themes really make any impact on our real lives? What’s it all about? This week’s gospel reading is another well-known one, but another quite tricky o...

So - we nearly made it to the end of the lectionary year! Readings this coming week are: Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24 Ephesians 1: 15-23 Matthew 25: 31-46 I feel really uncomfortable about the theme of 'judgement' - but it's inescapable. But I think I want to focus on our judgement. It seems to me that the last few weeks have all been building up to this - wise or foolish virgins; thankful, hard-working slaves or head-in-the-sand people; sheep or goats. It's not so much about God's judgement of us (and certainly not about condemnation) but about our choices, our discernment. If, in the end we discern that Christ is King, this has HUGE implications for our lives - this means following Christ is not just a leisure option but the basis for our whole lives. And if Christ is King then Advent (starting next week!) is also a BIG THING - not just a messenger from God but the message made flesh. More to follow when I've calmed down a bit!

This Sunday's gospel reading is Matthew 25: 14-30 - the parable of the talents. I'm not preaching - so I thought I'd post up a sermon I KNOW I wrote on this only a couple of years ago. But I can't find it - which is odd. I know that then I took a fairly hard line on 'this is about money - stop trying to squirm out of it'. But maybe that isn't the message for the four churches where I'm currently serving. I think here there are more issues about the other resources we have - especially of buildings. Who are our buildings for? And what does Jesus want us to do with them?? One of the great challenges of serving four churches is four potential set of headaches about maintenance - but I don't see anything in the gospel here which supports us using our buildings as clubhouses - isn't that the equivalent of burying the talent? - so we need to be more imaginative, more engaged, more prepared to have things get a bit messy in order to serve our neighbours...

These may be even more 'note-like' than usual - since I'm not sure what kind of congregation we'll get on Sunday (whether we'll have any children present, whether there might be a bigger turnout than usual, etc, etc) so I'll have to play things a bit by ear. Remembrance Amos 5: 18-24 Matthew 25: 1-13 What is the purpose of Remembrance Sunday ? Surely this question is what they call a no-brainer – Remembrance – it’s for remembering – duh! As a child I used to watch my grandad (who fought at the Somme) watching the festival of remembrance, with tears rolling down his cheeks as he watched the poppies fall in memory of his dead friends. We must not forget those who die at war. But it’s not enough to remember, it’s not enough - even though it can be very costly if our memories are painful. Of course it’s vital that we do not take for granted the lives laid down in war - but our Bible readings remind us that there is more to life than simply remembering – or even r...

With All Saints & All Souls last weekend, our Tuesday memorial service next week and Remembrance Sunday this week it seems the whole theme of memorial is hanging in the air. Sunday will see us standing at the war memorial for the 2 minutes' silence at 11 o' clock (& this year, for the first time, I'll be at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in the afternoon).. But I want the service (at 9.45) to be one of commitment to peace - not in spite of those who go to war, but in honour of them. Our readings are Amos 5: 18-24 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 Matthew 25: 1-13 Thessalonians is concerned about the dead & their 'fate' in God. Amos & Matthew are both concerned with 'values'. Amos contains the 'I despise your sacrifices... I require mercy & justice' bit. Matthew is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. We may have some cubs at the service so I guess they might hook into the 'be prepared' element of the story of the virgins...

I've spent the week thinking about the sermon - on & off - but not got round to posting - for which (if anyone ever reads this) - apologies. As you'll see from the notes below I have a baptism at one church - but this is the sermon for the other church (if you see what I mean). It may seem very simple - but I wanted it to be. Maybe my brain has been in a half-term sort of mood - or just frozen solid by the cold weather! Anyway - her it is: Fully Alive! 1 John 3: 1-3 Matthew 5: 1-10 Yesterday was All Saints day. Some people’s impression of saints is of people who gave up all fun in their lives to follow Jesus. But one of my favourite saints is St Teresa of Avila – who was once travelling with a younger nun who was shocked to see Teresa tucking into a dish of partridge with great relish. ‘Haven’t we devoted ourselves to a life of prayer?’ asked the younger woman, to which Teresa wiped her mouth & said ‘at prayer time, prayer – at partridge time, partridge!’. Or to put i...

Who do you think you are? Those who don’t watch TV might have allsorts of different answers to this question. But many of us here will immediately be thinking of our family trees: ‘Who do you think you are?’ is the title of a BBC series, which helps famous people to look into their family trees. Often the programme is surprising, it can be very moving, and whenever I’ve watched I have found it fascinating. A recent one that sticks in my mind saw Ainsley Harriott – the bubbly chef whose origins were in the West Indies – discover that he was not descended only from slaves, as he had always thought, but that his family tree also included a slave owner. Poor Ainsley was left pondering questions of his own sense of identity – he had previously felt proud that his ancestors had struggled against and risen from slavery, and now he says he feels more mixed emotions – with the knowledge that his family were more complicit in the slave trade then he previously thought. For many of us, ‘who we ar...

I found it helpful to look at the revgalblogpals site today (I often do!) - there's a link just to your right >>>> see! I posted this back to my e-friends (mostly across the pond) "I did a bit of reading around the Thessalonians & came up with a good question 'who do we say that we are?' - would fit with Reformation Sunday, too. But I'm not sure yet how to address the question: People of God, of course - not just following Moses, but following whoever God sends People of Love - for God & neighbour People of the way - loving one another, forming a new community who follows Jesus..." and since then I've thought - people of the past (thinking about the church record) people of the future - surely God hasn't finished with us yet. Nearly meeting time, so I'll try to come back with more thoughts - or even the final notes - by Friday (Saturday IS my day off - and some kind poeple have been reminding me of that!).

The readings (if we're not celebrating Bible Sunday): Deuteronomy 34: 1-12 The death of Moses 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8 How the gospel was brought to Thessalonica by Paul Matthew 22: 34-46 Yet more opposition to Jesus - with the question 'which is the most important commandment?' - Jesus answers that the greatest commandment is 'Love God & your neighbour as yourself'. Realising I knew nothing about Thessalonians I did a bit of reading around. I was surprised to learn that this is thought to be the earliest of Paul's letters (about 50 AD/CE): to a very new group of Christians from the artisan class of Thessalonica. They are facing persecution because their rich employers feared that by turning away from worship of the pagan gods these new Christians would jeopardise the prosperity of the city. The question for the church in Thessalonica was 'who do we say we are?' - Paul is anxious to build up a sense of belonging, of family-like relationships, of shared...

What is Caesar’s/ what is God’s If you came to church to get away from news of the Credit Crisis and global recession – I’m sorry, but you can’t. It’s tempting, isn’t it, to treat church as a holy space, where the worries of the world can’t intrude: sometimes we preachers make this worse by talking about ‘going out from here back into the world’. But the fact is that we are still in the world as we sit here in church. We may find here a sanctuary where it is a little easier to remember we are in the presence of God, but we cannot shut out the world: we remain in it, like it or not. And neither are we here to exchange platitudes about what God might think of the state of the world. We are here to wrestle with what it means to be followers of Christ in our world, with all its headaches and its wonder. There are apparently 66 more shopping days til Christmas, and you won’t thank me for mentioning it today! A friend sent me a link to an internet site ‘is it Christmas yet?’ – and when you c...

Readings: Exodus 33: 12-23 - God says to Moses you shall know my name & Moses asks to 'know God's ways' but God's face remains hidden 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10 The writer says faith leads to action; love leads to labour; hope leads to perseverance Matthew 22: 15-22 Jesus faces the question about taxes & tells his questioners to render to Caesar that which is Caesar's, & to God that which is God's. Over the last few weeks I've been trying to start my sermon with an 'issue' and then see what the Bible has to say t us on that issue (what do you mean, you hadn't noticed??). The big issue at the moment remains the credit crisis. What can we do in the face of greed, of gloom, of lack of confidence?? I'm aware of a number of people here in the villages who have lost their jobs, so I don't want to sound smug on this - it is hard to work out 'God's ways' in all this. So what does Jesus say... 'give to God what belongs to ...

Philippians 4: 1-9, Matthew 22: 1-14 What God gives/ what God requires On Thursday night I had the very noisy pleasure of an evening with the cubs! We were talking about the My Faith badge, and one of the activities they need to do to get that badge is to talk about a reading or prayer which means something to them. To get them thinking we made a foldy thing (demonstrate) in which normally you write something silly like ‘you smell’ but to get them thinking about what faith might mean to them they were writing inside something they thought was important. They had some great ideas ‘love God’ ‘love your enemies’ ‘forgive people’ .. though I think ‘you’ve got a big head’ did creep in there somewhere! But it got me thinking about the relationship between what we do and what is important to us, and the love God offers us. All the things the cubs came up with were about what is required of us, how we have to behave. They were very good at valuing things like ‘peace’ and ‘harmony’, and they e...

Too much going on at the end in the last one - plus the mistake, I think, of introducing another text from outside the lectionary, when there's enough to think about as it is.. so here is the final version A friend of mine has one of these funny T-shirts – ‘God loves you – but I’m his favourite’. She doesn’t wear it very often – it’s hard to know just when is the right occasion: but it got me thinking. Do we really believe that God loves everyone – or do we secretly think that some of us have the right to wear a T-shirt like that without it being a joke? Does God actually have favourites? Are some people ‘insiders’ when it comes to God’s love, whilst others are outsiders? The story of the vineyard can be quite dangerous – it can lead us to the conclusion that some people – namely Christians, are definitely more ‘in’ with God than others – namely Jews. The danger comes from how we read the story - when we look at this story of the parable of the vineyard there is a real danger of re...

Here are the notes for Sunday - not happy with the ending yet but I'll come back to it sometime tomorrow.. God's vineyard Matt 21: 33-46 & Philippians 3: 4b–14 A friend of mine has one of these funny T-shirts – ‘God loves you – but I’m his favourite’. She doesn’t wear it very often – it’s hard to know just when is the right occasion: but it got me thinking. Do we really believe that God loves everyone – or do we secretly think that some of us have the right to wear a T-shirt like that without it being a joke? Does God actually have favourites? Are some people ‘insiders’ when it comes to God’s love, whilst others are outsiders? The story of the vineyard can be quite dangerous – it can lead us to the conclusion that some people – namely Christians, are definitely more ‘in’ with God than others – namely Jews. The danger comes from how we read the story - when we look at this story of the parable of the vineyard there is a real danger of reading the story as an allegory – wher...

Well, yes, 28th Sept come and went & no sermon!! a) I've had a really busy week or two - 5 funerals in 2 weeks is a bit much on top of everything else b) Our internship student, Findy, preached on Sunday (very well!) - so I got something of a day off c) I did do an 8am sermon - but since I wrote it by hand (between Strictly Come Dancing & Casualty on Saturday night) - it never got onto the computer Oh yes, & I was on a conference/retreat Mon-Wed Is that enough excuses?? Must do better this week. Sorry anyone who reads this! But don't the cobwebs look great in the garden? Wish I had a digi camera & I could share them with you. Lovely misty, moisty mornings & then (if we're lucky) - some sun! Off to school harvest festival next...

Parable of workers in the vineyard/Jonah It’s just not fair! It seems that one of the earliest and strongest human emotions is a sense of fairness – listen to any children playing in a park and after a while you are likely to hear ‘it’s not fair.. it’s my turn now’ ‘it’s not fair.. your half is bigger than my half’ ‘it’s not fair.. she started it’. It’s an emotion we never grow out of. Published in the Guardian yesterday (Saturday 20/9/08), Gordon Brown has written a column entitled ‘Fairness is still our guide’ – in which he talked about the current economic situation and spoke of the government’s ‘commitment to fair rules, fair chances and a fair say for all.’ Gordon Brown wants to be known as a man who is fair-minded. Perhaps this is a way of securing votes – since we all want life to be fair. You may know that I happen to have been asked to conduct a number of funerals in the area recently – one here, two in Whittlesford, and this coming week I have one at the crematorium and one i...

With this week's two funerals now done I can turn my thoughts to this week's readings! They are Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 the bit where God has pity on Nineveh & Jonah gets the hump! Philipians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20:1-16 The parable of the workers in the vineyard The clear link to me seems to be a feeling of 'it;s not fair!' - why should God forgive Nineveh - why should the owner pay his workers the same, being generous to the last to come in - why should God love a rascal as much as a God-fearing Christian. Why should God love me just as much when I'm being a twerp as when I'm having a good day? Why? - because he's God, and he loves us. All. Always. Good News!

This week is going to be a busy one, so I sat down yesterday and thought hard about the service. At one church we have 'creative church', where we are focussing on the parable of the unforgiving servant & the issue of Fair Trade. Below is almost the complete sermon for a communion service where the readings will be Matthew 18:21-35 & Romans 14: 1-12 It feels quite strange to be so ahead of myself - but with a funeral this week & two next week it's probably just as well. Thoughts for Sunday 14th September Today we will be praying for Zimbabwe. It is difficult for us to understand the intricacies of what has gone wrong to the hopes of independence in that country, but all the news from there seems bad. Inflation is astronomically high, which means that everyone’s wages are next to useless. There are terrible shortages of food and fuel, and the country seems riddles with corruption, from ordinary police officers confiscating food from people, to armed men threateni...

Following Christ. On the 21st August, Professor A C Grayling reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London, wrote an article in the Guardian about David Miliband’s future political hopes and the fact that he is a declared atheist. ‘It would be a great advantage to everyone to have an atheist prime minister’, states Grayling. His arguments are that an atheist will form decisions based on rational argument, not ‘messages from Beyond’; that an atheist PM will not give special treatment of funding to religious groups, but will treat everyone fairly; and that an atheist will be down to earth about lifting up the poor of society, rather than simply offering them a heavenly reward. All this shouldn’t surprise us from the man who in March 2007 took part in a public debate arguing ‘We’d be better off without religion’. Meanwhile, in the States, Sara Palin, the Republican Vice-presidential candidate, is making a lot of her credentials as a creationist, anti-abortion, fundamentalist Christian....

AC Grayling has apparently written that it will be good for the country if David Miliband becomes PM because he is a declared atheist - this will mean he is interested in earthly, not heavenly matters and that he is more rational. Meanwhile in the States the VP candidate for the Republicans, Sara Palin, is making a lot of her fundamentalist, anti-abortion, creationist view-point. All of which leads me to ask, what does it mean to be a Christian in a world where faith has become a dirty word or a political label? There is something in the gospel reading about the role of the church in helping us discern what to do: our faith can never be purely an individual choice, but has a corporate element which helps us help each other walk with Jesus. Now I must choose hymns for our organists & return to thinking about the sermon tomorrow morning.

Readings for this week are: Ezekiel 33: 7-11 Romans 13: 8-14 Matthew 18: 15-20 A funny little collection of readings, with no real stand out 'stars' among them. But just as we heard about turning back to God in last week's Jeremiah reading, so there seems to be a theme of turning back to God here. So far I'm thinking about September as a 'back to normality' time of year - 'here we go again' - but in the midst of all the picking up of the same old reins there is a sense of being called to stop and ask just where we're headed and with whom. I can't get out of my head the last line from a baptism hymn, which speaks of God 'Calling the world to become what it is'. We should never feel we're on the same old track, because all is shot through with the glory of God. More thoughts as they emerge, I hope...

Where have I been all week? Trying to catch up after the holiday, in short - plus we had a (lovely!) wedding yesterday. As it's a baptism again this week and I'm responding to a request to relate the sermon more directly to life questions and not always start from the Bible the 'sermon' is actually 3 short reflections. So here they are: Reflection 1: We might wonder what we are doing in church today. We have come to worship God; We have come for Tracy & for Hayden’s baptism; Perhaps we’ve come for a bit of peace and quiet in an otherwise hectic life. We each have our own difficulties or problems, things in our lives we might want to say sorry for, or things for which we want to give thanks. Here we all are, gathered in this place, where for hundreds of years people have come to be reminded of the presence of God. Later we will have demonstrations of God’s love for us, shown in the water of baptism and the bread & wine of communion. But first we are going to hear...

I am concerned about the length of the Moses reading - given that it's a baptism service: so whilst taking the message of the story, I am thinking of omitting it from the service itself. So here is the first draft of the sermon on Romans & Matthew alone. I am taking Saturday as my day off this week (entirely! - a resolution I made whilst on holiday: be sterner with myself about getting service prep done & not letting it spread over into Saturday) and have a funeral on Friday, as well as the all age service still to prepare - so this first draft may be 'it'! Part of the body The reading we had from the Gospel all about Peter might make us think that to be a really good Christian we need to be some kind of superhero. But let’s look more carefully at what Jesus says – not ‘you are Peter & I want all my followers to be like you’. (After all this is the same Peter who will betray Jesus just before the crucifixion – Peter certainly isn’t perfect!). But, actually, Jes...

Here is the sermon I preached at Petertide (which included this same gospel reading, but with the relase of Peter from prison in Acts ch 12): pity I'm in the same church or I could 'pinch' bits!! Petertide I have always had a soft spot for Peter. Despite the confidence-inspiring nickname – the Rock – there has always seemed to me to be something very human about him – more rocky than Rock. Peter, it seems, is a blurter-out of what’s in his head. When Jesus asks ‘who do you say that I am,’ the others disciples don’t have much to say. They’ve been quick enough to talk about what other people have been saying, but when they are suddenly asked what they think, they go very quiet. You can imagine finger-nails being examined, clothing being picked at for imaginary fluff and sandals being drilled into the floor. But Peter splurges ‘You are the Messiah, the son of the living God’. He must have glowed with pride to hear Jesus respond ‘good for you, Simon’. Yet just verses later he ...

I had a great holiday - but often find it harder to get back to planning worship when I return..why is that? Readings for this coming Sunday are: Exodus 1:8-2:10 - the beginning of the story of Moses Romans 12:1-8 - living sacrifices as the body of Christ Matthew 16:13-20 - Peter the rock We have a baptism at one church - I think I'd like to say something about Christianity as a 'team event' (well, yes I have been watching bits of the Olympics) and each of us as part of God's greater plan. Moses may seem like the start of the show, but without the heroism of Shiprah & Puah, his mother & his sister, and Pharoah's daughter & her maid, he wouldn't have survived the first 3 months. Through baptism Connie joins the 'team' which is the body of Christ. At the other church we have an all-age service, so I think I'd like to focus on Moses - telling the story in an inventive way. It helps that the second week of my holiday was spent in the Norfolk ...

I'm now off for two weeks. Next Sunday I am preaching will be August 23rd - so normal service (no pun intended) will be resumed then. I hope any readers find the next 2 weeks restful, too. God bless you.

Poor Paul got dropped in the end! But hell be back, no doubt. So here's the finished for now sermon - I'll probably have another look at it this evening & make a few changes on the hard copy - but this is nearly what I want to say! Jacob at Peniel I don’t want to start with the ‘cosy’ story of the feeding of the 5000 this morning. I want to start with the much more difficult reading about Jacob wrestling at Jabbok. What happens? Jacob, returning to face his cheated brother, Esau, has sent his flocks and his family ahead of him, to try to curry favour with his brother. As he crosses the river Jabbok after them, alone, ‘a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak’. Who is this ‘man’ – what is going on? There are many ancient stories of wrestling and conflict at river crossings, of people being challenged by supernatural beings and emerging, triumphant, with a blessing. Some have interpreted this story as being an encounter with an Angel, with a messenger of ...