Sunday's coming!

This weekend I will be at the United Reformed Church General Assembly and therefore not preaching. The lectionary readings are: 2 Kings 5:1-14 Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 and I think I see a thread running through of simplicity. True simplicity is life-enhancing, liberating, God-given. I think we have a tendency in non-conformist circles to "push" simplicity (of worship, of churches, of lifestyle) in a way which can seem life-denying: as if beauty of form or worship-space or language was somehow wrong and sinful. As if we should deny ourselves 'nice' things to be near the kingdom. Our readings show how we can get it wrong about 'things', but I think we have to work out for ourselves how to get it right. Naaman wants to be made well with grand gesture & ceremony: but he learns that God can work in the unimpressive little trickle that is the Jordan. (Just as God can speak in the unimpressive little slave-girl who tells Naaman where to go). P...

Ref last week (20th June) - a timely story about storm-chasers bbc item Slightly mad, possibly!

Lots of comments about the sermon today - and I did feel I had something to say. It's interesting that I spent quite a lot of time wrestling with why Jesus seemed to mean to his would-be disciples. I often think sermon-writing & delivery is a bit like bread-making: vigourous kneading and a good 'knock back' leads to a better loaf! I hope my listeners were fed with the bread of life. God is good.

A little earlier than usual - tomorrow I'm off to an ordination & with travel as well it will take most of the day: but worth it to see my parents & the ordination of a friend. Trinity 4 (1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21, Luke 9:51-62) So Elisha becomes the disciple of Elijah. Elisha is chosen by God: when the ‘still small voice’ of God speaks to Elijah on the mountain it tells Elijah to anoint Elisha as the next prophet for the people of God. As we are told the story there is no great discussion between Elijah & Elisha – Elijah walks past Elisha & throws his mantle, his cloak, over him. And that’s it… “tag, you’re it!”. Elisha’s response is not to question Elijah or try to wriggle out of his new position, but to ask if he can say farewell to his parents.. which he does.. and then to final sever all links with his past life as a farmer. Elisha doesn’t just leave behind his oxen and his plough – he slaughters the oxen and uses the wood of the equipment to light a fire to cook ...

1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21 Galatians 5:1,13-25 Luke 9:51-62 On first looking, the link between these 3 readings seems to be yokes & ploughing (or plowing, as our US friends would have it): but of course in each reading this is used as a metaphor for discipleship. This links quite well with what I was saying last week - but one of the small frustrations of being in 4 churches is that I am at the 'other' 2 churches this week, and they won't have heard the sermon for June 20th. Still. it keeps the preacher humble! I am struck by the all or nothing nature of following God's way - Elisha demonstrates this perfectly by slaughtering the oxen with which he had been ploughing. I wonder what his parents thought? Not only is he saying he won't return, he's assuming the land will now just fall into misuse - or maybe be sold off - no-one else will need his plough either! It's scary stuff, this following God's way - no dipping your toe in the water, or wondering how l...

Welcome to the new look blog. I hope it's reasonably easy to read. Please note the advert for 'beauty products' came with the hit counter (the cute line of penguins) - I am NOT suggesting that my loyal readership might be in need of these... Always glad to have comments - but welcome, even if you're a 'lurker'!

(Not as early as I had hoped, but...) Trinity 3 (1 Kings 19:1-15a: Luke 8:26-39) Is there anybody there? What does it look like when God is at work? How do we know God is with us – how can we be sure we are not just whistling in the dark when we declare our belief in God? These are natural, recurring human questions and Elijah must have had some of these questions in mind as he fled from the anger of Jezebel, having triumphed over the prophets of Baal. Elijah has had a pretty torrid time – facing up to King Ahab, predicting and then living through the drought, challenging and ultimately slaughtering the prophets of Baal. But now Jezebel has sent Elijah a message not just threatening, but promising, to have him killed: and Elijah flees for his life. Elijah decides that it would be best just to lay down and die, and give up on God’s call to prophecy. But God hasn’t finished with Elijah yet – he still has work to do, and so sustained by food and drink from angels he goes to the mountain...

I'm tempted to change the layout of this blog - it must be the electronic equivalent of tidying your sock drawer as a displacement activity.. Anyway - this week's readings: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a Galatians 3:23-29 Luke 8:26-39 I think I see 'call' as the overarching theme - the call to steady service rather than whizz bang pyrotechnics. I'm always struck my Elijah's "I only I am left" - when in fact God talks about 7000 others! We've all felt that sense of loneliness sometimes - but maybe it's not always justified... I will try to post more, earlier, this week!

Luke 7: 36-38, 48-50 Narrator: One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Then Jesus said to her, Jesus: Your sins are forgiven. Narrator: But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘ Jesus: Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Prayers of intercession Narrator: Let us pray. We pray for those with not enough to eat. We think especially of the people of Gaza and of Libya. Jesus: Jesus says ‘I am the bread of life’. We pray for those who feel alone or outcast. We think especially of those wh...

Trinity 2 Jesus is sitting at the dinner table – well, reclining in a Roman fashion, probably, when a strange woman comes in and pours expensive ointment on his feet and wipes them with her hair. You can’t really blame the host of the dinner party for wondering what’s going on. But very simply, this woman wants to express her love for Jesus. Maybe she’s seen him perform healing miracles; maybe she’s heard him talk about the love of God which will forgive all her sins… she wants to do something to express her love and so she anoints Jesus’ feet. It’s a great story of extravagant love – that wastes all that expensive ointment. So it’s a good story to hear in a baptism service – because this baptism is all about a sign of extravagant love. But as we baptize Emilia/Zac it is not our love of God that we are celebrating, but God’s love for her/him. An extravagant love, a love that doesn’t count the cost, a love that has been there from the first day of life and will be with Emilia/Zac throug...

More by chance than design, both churches this week have an all-age/creative service with a baptism. So recognizing that the congregation is likely to be augmented by people who aren't so used to listening for God's word in the Bible, we're keeping it simple: Luke 7: 36-38, 48-50 - which is the story of the woman anointing Jesus at the house of Simon the pharisee, but without the story-within-the-story of the one who is forgiven much debt. We will (at one church at least) have the story presented as a dialogue, with the voices of the narrator and of Jesus. Then in a short reflection, we will consider how the woman anoints as a sign of the love she has for Jesus - just as in baptism we baptise as a sign of the love God already has for the child (or adult - but as it happens both candidates are children). There is recognition of God with us, love of God for us, and our desire to symbolise that and to act on the love by loving in return. So I just have to create the dialogue...

(Keen readers will note I'm using some of the same material as at Pentecost - but it will be to the other 2 congregations, who haven't heard it already! - it's not just me being lazy - it seem to fit!) Trinity 1 I’d like us to think today about what it means to be faithful, not fearful. When I was thinking about the sermon I preached at the 8am service on Pentecost, I came across this reflection, which explores some of our fears: Go on admit it. You’re wondering about the future. Maybe worrying. Do we even have a future? Will our church survive? Will our children have faith? Will our faith have children? There are so many challenges. We don’t know the people next door anymore. Why would they want to come to our church? People pass by. We don’t know them. No-one comes in. They are outside. We are inside. And so we wait and watch and worry. But we don’t know what to do. Won’t someone come to help us? But have you noticed there’s a story just like this in the Bible. There are ...

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair grows in me and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting for their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. and when I come back from the wedding I'm just about to conduct I WILL sit down and finish the sermon & get it posted here. Unless I've gone to lie down in the woods.