Sunday's coming!

"Only" the 8am service to preach for this week - so here's the notes... Luke 19: 1-10 ‘The son of man came to seek and to save what is lost.’ Not ‘who is lost’ but what is lost. Yes, Jesus had come to save Zaccheus, but it wasn’t that Zaccheus was thoroughly bad and lost whilst everyone else around was thoroughly good and OK. Jesus has come to save what is lost – the bits of Zaccheus that had gone astray. And Jesus had also come to save the lost compassion of the crowd around Zaccheus, to show them that this man wasn’t beyond redemption, and that maybe they needed to be ready to love the sinner amongst them. Jesus comes to save what is lost, and this is good news for us – there are bits of our lives where we feel lost, things we know we have got wrong - and Jesus has come to set things right. That’s the saving bit – putting right what is wrong, bringing hope where there is hurting. But Jesus also says he comes to seek – to look deeply where other have only glanced and d...

Readings for this week: Joel 2: 23-32 Luke 18: 9-14 Stung by an article on Friday's "Women's Hour" (on Radio 4) that sermons never deal with the political realities - I've taken the current political situation as my starting point this week - we'll see how it goes! Pharisee & tax-collector. So finally this week we have heard where some of the cuts are going to fall as the coalition government tries to reduce the deficit. Inevitably comparisons are made: who will be hardest hit? who will get away with minimal changes to their lifestyle? and the question to which we all want the answer – how will this affect me? It is human nature to be concerned about ourselves and where we stand in relation to others. We would not have survived as a species if we had no concern at all for our own well being. But as people of God we need to be concerned for others, as well as ourselves, and we should beware any thinking that makes us believe that we are a cut above others....

I'm off to a 3-day meeting: so this had to be done early. I'm sure I will want to come back to it before Sunday - but these are my thoughts thus far: Oct 17th: 
Genesis 32:22-31 
Luke 18:1-8 One of the problems with listening to any Bible readings is that our minds can be so full of other issues. I wonder what’s bothering you as you sit there listening this morning. Perhaps you’ve been worrying about a member of the family – an elderly relative with health problems, or a younger one in financial difficulty; perhaps you’re worried about your own health, or fearful of the future in some other way. Perhaps you’ve confided in someone else or maybe you’re the only ones who knows what it is that you’re bothered about. With all this potential for distraction going on in our minds and in our live, who are we meant to listen to the Bible? And what can it possibly have to say to us, even if we do manage to still our internal storms for long enough to let the Bible speak to us. Perhaps ...

What a week it's been - 2 funerals, an art exhibition at one of the churches this weekend, and someone very ill ( but thankfully getting better) in hospital, on top of all the 'usual' stuff. Very little time to think about a sermon - so here's the notes for the 8am 'Reflection', then I must go back to the short sermon for the thanksgiving service (in which I've decided to use the Luke reading but also Mark 10: 13-16 - Jesus blessing the children). The gospel reading from Luke tells us of the 10 healed lepers – only one of whom came back to thank Jesus – and he was the foreigner, the Samaritan. I think I remember being taught in Sunday school that this shows we should always remember to say thank you. As I’ve got older I’ve taken this story as a great comfort when I’ve felt taken for granted. Even Jesus, who could heal people of leprosy, only got a 10% ‘thank you’ rate. But this time round, I was very struck by hearing this together with the Jeremiah reading....

Readings for this week: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Luke 17:11-19 For me there's something here about attitudes: God tells the exiles to get on and live in Babylon, and not to waste their years in pining for what they've lost. In the gospel reading, Jesus heals 10 lepers & only 1 comes back to give thanks. I think I want to go beyond the stereotypical Sunday school 'So you should always say thank you, children' to say that it is right for Jesus to heal all 10 even if only 1 thanks him - what's right is right, even if it's unmarked or unmentioned. I like the Timothy reading too: talking about our identity in Christ. I don't think we'll quite have time for all 3 readings - so may just go with Timothy & Luke (one of the services includes thanksgiving for the birth of a child). What does it mean to live as people touched by God's love in Christ - even if a lot of the time we don't notice it?