Sunday's coming!

Bit of a 'messy' week: I'm not preaching at the main service, which is a joint service for the week of prayer for Christian Unity. At the 8am I will concentrate on the gospel and the call of Jesus to James & John. Mark 1: 14-20 I've been reflecting with someone this week on how it feels when various chapters of your life are closing and the future is very uncertain. I'm sure we can all think of our own examples of this happening in life - and I suspect some of us will be going through change of this sort right now: loss of a job, moving home, family changes, or just time's winged chariot whisking us off our feet and dumping us down on our backside. What strikes me in the call to James & John as Mark gives it to us is how little information they are given to go on - Jesus says 'Follow' - he doesn't say where, why, how they're going to cope... he doesn't even say when - but it seems James & John know when - NOW. This is scary - but ...

1 Samuel 3: 1-10 , John 1: 43-51 To change things round a little, I did an introduction to the Bible readings this week - to help to set the scene and get people to 'tune in' to the Samuel reading in particular. Call The first of our readings tells us about a young boy, Samuel. He is the son of Hannah. Distraught because she had no children, Hannah prayed for a child and promised God that if he granted her request, she would give the child back to God. When the baby was born she named him Samuel – ‘I asked the Lord for him’ – and once he was old enough she took him to live with Eli, the priest in the temple. So in the story we are about to hear Samuel, who may have been 7 or 8 years old by this time, is sleeping in the temple as a little ‘mini-priest’. (Samuel read) … The second of our readings is from John’s gospel: right from the start of Jesus’ ministry – Jesus has just been baptised by John in Jordan and has started gathering followers around him – Andrew & Peter are ...

With apologies to anyone who has come here & found yourself stuck on Christmas Eve - but I did need a break after Christmas! I've just posted below the 2 sermons I have preached so far in 2009 - and will now try to get back on track, I promise. Later today I hope to be looking at the readings for this coming Sunday... Hoping that 2009 has begun more calmly for others!

The Baptism of Christ. (A short reflection for the 8am service) As we hear the words spoken at Christ’s baptism ‘you are my son, my beloved, with you I am well pleased’ we may wonder at what this says about Jesus. Here, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, he receives affirmation that he is beloved of God, and receives the touch of the Holy Spirit to enable him to begin his work. This is a great story about Jesus, the Christ, but I think it is also a story about each one of us. Over the Christmas period we may well, at some stage, have heard the beginning of John’s gospel, where it says: “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” The coming of Christ and the ministry of Christ makes us all sons and daughters of God. And today we can hear the voice from heaven ‘you are my beloved, with you I am well pleased’. Each one of us here is the beloved c...

Epiphany Today we have a chance to look at the magi – the wise men – in a different way. Up until now in our celebrations of Christmas I suspect they’ve had a balancing role alongside the shepherds. They act almost as book ends for our crib scenes – shepherds – magi – holy family in the middle. The shepherds are poor, Jewish & local – the magi are rich, foreigners from far away. The shepherds are told by a host of angels to look in Bethlehem for a new-born baby in a manger who is the Messiah; the magi have followed a star which rose when Jesus was born and are looking for a king. It is the fact that they are looking for a king that leads them to look first in the obvious, but the wrong place. They have come to the land of Judah & they are looking for a king – so they go to the royal palace in the capital of Judah, Jerusalem, asking to see the new-born ‘king of the Jews’. From there the prophecies and the star lead them to Bethlehem, where they finally find Jesus. When they find...