Sunday's coming!

So apart form being away from home, trying to sort out a final draft of the wedding sermon & get ready for Sunday (given that Saturday is all mush too exciting!), I'm fairly relaxed this week! here is first draft of Sunday's (baptism) service: 30-8-09 If you stop to think about almost anything you do in life it can seem a bit strange. I spend quite a bit of my leisure time staring at an electrical device which produces a changing patterns of dots on a screen – we call it television: it brings me news reports, amazing scenery, and the everyday goings-on in Albert square, to inform & entertain me. And then there’s church – singing together, listening to a book which is thousands of years old, and perhaps oddest of all – sprinkling water on a baby. Why do we do it? What does God want from us? Well there are people who might say that God wants us to be good. Help old people across the road, remember birthdays, come to church, that sort of thing. These are the sort of people...

Thought some people might like to read this sermon I've written for a family wedding on August 29th - a week on Saturday! This is draft 2 - probably will get worked over again before the Big Day! What does love look like? (Ruth 1: 15-18, 1 Cor. 13: 1-8a, 13.) We are here today to celebrate love – but what does love look like? I tried Googling ‘love’ to see what images came up: predictably there were hearts, red roses, kisses… less predictably pictures of Courtenay Love, Swizzels Love Hearts and some rather interesting diet advice with graphic images of love handles. So let’s leave the internet to one side and ask what this wedding service teaches us about what love looks like. I love the part of the wedding service in 'Worship from the URC' in which is written in the opening prayer, of the bride and groom: ‘Make them today a sign for us of your love in all creation’. One answer for ‘what does love look like?’ is here right before our eyes – in Grace & Stephen. Love lo...

With apologies to those who read this each week (and with thanks for your faithful support) - I'm off on a church holiday on Saturday so won't be preaching on Sunday 23rd but I will be getting ahead for Sunday 30th and will post ideas here asap. I think the focus for the 30th will be James 1:17-27 and Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 The contrast between living 'religiously' and living in a way which is 'Godly' is what jumps out at me from the readings. I'm wondering whether to grasp the nettle of high profile 'debates' within the church and how they detract from following Jesus... will keep thinking.

True bread Proverbs 9: 1-6 John 6: 51-58 Yet again the lectionary reading from John presents us with Jesus saying ‘I am the bread of life’. If we ask ‘what does the bread of life mean’, there is no simple answer – there are many answers, or many layers of answers, and it seems that John’s gospel wants to take our understanding deeper and deeper. Alongside the listeners of Jesus wondering ‘how can Jesus be bread?’, we heard today from the book of Proverbs. This contains a collection of wise sayings and also many exhortations to take time to listen to the words of the wise and to become wise. The passage we heard uses the image of wisdom personified as a lovely woman, inviting people into her house to eat and drink and learn how to make the right choices in life and live as wise people do. Eating & drinking is used as a symbol of fellowship, of companionship – by ‘eating and drinking with Lady Wisdom’ people are committing themselves to seeking wisdom itself. Similarly, by eating...

T he sharp-eyed will see overlaps between this sermon, last week's & next week's - but given the readings what chance so I have! and given that I'm at 4 different churches, and trying to fit in some time off, maybe it's forgiveable. Bread Bread Jesus says ‘I am the bread of life’. Hang on a minute – didn’t Jesus say that last week – and maybe even the week before? In the film 'Groundhog Day' Bill Murray plays a TV reporter who keeps waking up to the same day over and over again, the same events, the same things said. We seem to be stuck in a kind of Groundhog day in John’s gospel – we seem to hear Jesus saying the same thing over and over again. I was at a meeting of ministers last week where we were all bemoaning being stuck with 'I am the bread of life' - but then we began reflecting that perhaps Jesus has a reason for stressing the point. Bill Murray has to learn to behave differently in Groundhog Day - maybe we need to think differently about Jes...

I was at a meeting of ministers today where we were all bemoaning being stuck with 'I am the bread of life' - but maybe we have to keep coming back to this as the central point of believing in Jesus. 'Nice thing with the loaves and fish jesus' - yes, but I am the bread of life 'You like Moses, then, giving us manna?' - no, I am the bread of life 'But aren't you just Jesus - son of Mary & Joseph?' - more than that - I am the bread of life. Hmmm......

After a good break & week of catching up - back to business as usual! Bread for others Exodus 16:2-4,9-15 John 6:24-35 What is bread? Bread is what we need to live, to survive. We pray ‘give us today our daily bread’, meaning not just bread itself, but all the material things we need to continue to keep body & soul together. So John in last week’s gospel reading, tells us the story of more than bread when he tells us about Jesus feeding of the 5000. Jesus shows the people that he is the one who can feed them, just as God fed the people of Israel in the desert with manna. This sign from John’s gospel shows that Jesus is the one from God who can do the great works of God, and that he is worthy to be followed. Jesus is the 1 who feeds people. Jesus, in today’s reading, explains to people that it wasn’t Moses who fed them, but God. They mustn’t pay too much attention to the one who told them to expect the bread, they need to concentrate on God, who gives them what they need. ...