Sunday's coming!

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 ...