Sunday's coming!

Not preaching at the main service tomorrow, so here's the 8am reflection: Presentation of Christ in the temple. Luke 2:22-40 We are a little early to celebrate Candlemas – it actually falls on February 2nd, because that is exactly 40 days after Christmas Day and the birth of Jesus. According to Jewish law, families were commanded to present their male children at the Temple in Jerusalem, to give thanks to God and pray for the purification of the mother and health of the child, for it was considered that after the vital forty-day period it was almost certain that all mortal danger was passed. This is a perfectly normal event in the life of any Jewish family but that this is not an ordinary family. Luke tells us this story because he believes it is a story which will help us to understand more about what God has done in Jesus Christ: to grasp the good news of God’s coming kingdom. We hear how Simeon & Anna see and recognise the 40 day old Jesus – and know this is the ...

Readings for this week are: Isaiah 9:1-4 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 Jesus calls the first disciples. Every now and then when I’m reading a familiar Bible story, a question will pop into my head that seems so basic I wonder why I’ve never thought of it before. We’ve heard the story of Jesus calling the first disciples. My question is WHY FISHERMEN? First a subsidiary question – what’s Jesus doing by the sea at all – why Capernaum? We know Jesus was referred to as being from Nazareth, despite actually being born in Bethlehem. Nazareth is land-locked, between the sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean, but in this story here he is walking by the shore. Jesus is by the sea of Galilee, in the tiny fishing village of Capernaum. We might wonder why, if Jesus had decided to move away from Nazareth, he didn’t choose a place of power like Jerusalem, or at least Bethlehem, which is in striking distance of the city. But Jesus chooses.. nowhere – a backwater. Right from the start, Jesus si...

Readings for today include John 1: 29-42 but quite honestly I've had enough of John the Baptist for a while. And we can look forward to hearing about Jesus calling disciples NEXT week - so (shock horror!) I'm ignoring the gospel. For those who want to, they can think about John's role as a fore-runner and how that relates to what I have to say about being called to be saints - but I'm focussing on 1 Corinthians 1: 1-9 and Isaiah 49: 1-7 I just sat down and rattled off the first 2/3rds of the sermon - and now need to sit back and chew over my own question - how can we live up to our calling to be saints... (more to follow, I think...) Called to be Saints Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth certainly starts with a clarion call: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…” Called to be saints. What an expectation. I wonder how you feel about being the church of God that is in Whittlesford/Duxford – called t...

Having been away for a few days I was able to look at this again and hoik it around a bit - much happier with this draft. Can't help noticing that while I was away I broke through the 10,000 hits mark. Apparently there are 249 posts ss that's about 40 hits per post - which in my world is a pretty large congregation - I just don't get to see you all! Thanks for reading - I find it encouraging. Baptism of Christ The baptism of Christ is one of those rather unusual events in Jesus’ life: it is an event that is recorded in all four of the gospels. Maybe this isn’t so surprising – it is the start of Jesus’ ministry, it is the point where the obscure carpenter’s son from Nazareth starts to preach & teach & heal. This is clearly a vital moment in the life of Jesus and it tells us so much we need to know about Jesus: as a part of the community of God’s people, as God’s servant, and as part of the Trinity – the community of the Godhead. Firstly, here is the point where Jesu...

Readings are: Isaiah 42: 1-9 Matthew 3: 13-17 I have 'splurged' a sermon, which I will take with me as I have a few days away, and will probably hone - but here is the fist draft: Baptism of Christ The baptism of Christ is one of these rather unusual events in Jesus’ life: it is an event that is recorded in all four of the gospels. Maybe this isn’t so surprising – it is the start of Jesus’ ministry, it is the point where the obscure carpenter’s son from Nazareth starts to preach & teach & heal. This is clearly a vital moment in the life of Jesus and I hope we can learn from it. Here is the point where Jesus claims by his actions that he is part of the community of people walking God’s way. John the Baptist has appeared, calling people to repentance, to turning back to God's ways. He tells of the nearness of God's kingdom, the time of complete fulfilment of God's promises to humanity. A new era, in which God rules, is almost here! And Jesus comes because he ...