Sunday's coming!

At our all-age service I read this The Kissing Hand and linked it to the Isaiah bit about God's care. Everyone loved it. aaw.

Yes, for a while it said 'July' there...when's the next holiday?? Anyway. here's the final version - short-ish as there's a baptism and communion to fit in.. Matthew 6: 24-34 The reading we had from Matthew is taken from a long piece of teaching given by Jesus, in chapters 5 & 6 which Matthew calls ‘the sermon on the mount’. It starts with ‘blessed are the meek, the poor, those who mourn, the peace-makers’. Jesus is clear that God will bless them and provide what they need. Then Jesus talks about all sort of things – the law and the prophets and their relationship to his teaching, he talks about murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, giving to others, prayer, fasting, and attitudes to wealth. Phew! In just 2 chapters of Matthew Jesus covers a lot of ground. His listeners might have been wondering where the finger was going to point next. What else does Jesus want us to do, or not do? But as Jesus reaches the end of the sermon in many ways he c...

Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 49: 8-16a Matthew 6: 24-34 Over at 'Revgalblogpals' , there's a discussion of 'lectionary leanings' every Tuesday. This week the thoughts are about the Matthew reading. 'Parodie' has written: I'm thinking about how important it is to read this passage in the context of the whole Sermon on the Mount. Do not worry about what you will eat or wear - if someone asks you for your cloak, given them that and more - blessed are the meek/poor in spirit/etc. The encouragement to not worry does not come with the promise that all will be well in the moment, but that God is present with us even when things seem hard. Hopefully this will expand by the end of the week! I've got as far in my thinking as Jesus seems to be all over the place in this sermon - murder, adultery, retaliation.. where will the finger point next?? Jesus finishes with Do NOT be anxious. Believe in the grace of God. I think maybe these ideas belong toget...

Final version - with final section which I hope will preach the Good News. I was very struck by what Eugene Peterson says here, at 'Working Preacher' that sermons should be about what God is doing, not just exhortation of the congregation. So hopefully this sermon veers away from being a 'rant'! Choose This is proper ‘Old Testament God’ stuff from Deuteronomy: “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish”. On the face of it this is fairly straight forward – choose to f...

Here are Sunday's notes so far - I think I want to avoid hectoring and find a way of ending the sermon with some encouragement about how we can walk God's way in faith and not in fear... will come back to this tomorrow! Choose This is proper ‘Old Testament God’ stuff from Deuteronomy: “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish”. On the face of it this is fairly straight forward – choose to follow God’s laws, or perish. And it’s no good looking for a get-out in the words of Jesus...

Maybe I should rename this blog "Sunday's mercilessly rushing towards me like an express train" as that's how it's felt every week so far this year. So here we are again more than half way through the week & nothing much done. One service this week is our 'creative church' service, when we will be using a kind of labyrinth approach - moving between prayer stations to think about how we choose to walk in God's way (focussing particularly on the Deuteronomy reading) Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 but also allowing ourselves to be challenged by Jesus words about being mindful about the things that lead to sin in the Gospel reading: Matthew 5:21-37 My plan is to plan the creative church service & then use my reflections on that to write the sermon for the other (communion) service. Before Saturday, which I'm planning to take as a proper day off - because I need it. What was it Robbie Burns had ot say about 'best laid plans of mice & me...

Salt & Light There is a word used in my native Yorkshire which I still use quite a lot, as I have never found a satisfactory equivalent. The word is ‘sloughed’ – it has a sense of disappointment, of being down of feeling crushed and despondent. I wonder if it has its roots in John Bunyan ‘Slough of despond’. Even if you don’t use the word, you know the feeling. Sloughed. It’s a word which could easily be applied to many churches in our country at the present time. We’re not what we were – there are too many other options for things to do on a Sunday, there are too many people who think churches are just for weddings, baptisms and funerals (& maybe Christmas) and can’t see why you want to go at other times. Even a former President of the Methodist Conference has said “we used to be someone, once”. How can we keep our spirits up – how can we make an impact on the world around us? Jesus says to his followers “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” Not ...

I have been reading a suggestion from David Lose of the Luther Seminary, St Paul's Minnesota. here He suggests that to help people appreciate what Jesus says - that they ARE salt and light, we set up a 'salt & light blog'. So - humour me if you will - and tell me here any recent examples of when you have been salt & light to people around you. I hope to use some really good examples to inspire the congregation on Sunday. Have you got something to share? I'd love to hear it. Sermon so far goes like this - now it's over to you... Salt & Light There is a word used in my native Yorkshire which I still use quite a lot, as I have never found a satisfactory equivalent. The word is ‘sloughed’ – it has a sense of disappointment, of being down of feeling crushed and despondent. I wonder if it has its roots in John Bunyan ‘Slough of despond’. Even if you don’t use the word, you know the feeling. Sloughed. It’s a word which could easily be applied to many ...