Sunday's coming!

So, to try to help people grasp the wrestling that Paul is doing in this reading, I thought I'd try reading it antiphonally - some bits all together, and then the other parts with half the congregation saying one part and the other responding with 'but...' Like this: Romans 7: 15-25 All: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. All So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my me...

So I think this week I'm going to focus on Romans 7: 15-25 & Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 I feel I should tackle Romans - yet what I know I ought to do & what I do are two! Struggling with not launching into a whole spiel about Paul's theology (zzzzz) but can't deny that he hits the nail on the head: the law shows us what is right our will is to do the right thing but we fail! - only Christ living in us can help us. & can't help seeing a useful link between that and the gospel image of being 'yoked'. Will keep thinking...

With apologies for no earlier posting: I have been at a festival of preaching this week with the incomparable Anna Carter Florence. I have come away with my head buzzing with ideas - but then had to knuckle down to the hard task of actually writing a sermon! Maybe the style is different as a result of all I've learnt - and maybe for once I won't wrap thing up too much at the end - but leave a hanging question...? Abraham’s test (Genesis 22: 1-14) “God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him.” What?! Can we just ...

Trinity So here we are again on Trinity Sunday. We’ve celevrated the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ at Eastertide, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost – and now we have this one week to try to tidy all our thoughts about God into the formula of the Trinity – Father, Son & Holy Spirit. But why should we care about the Trinity? And especially, why should we care about the Trinity when there are 'real' problems in the world which demand our attention so much more urgently. Take suffering. To be specific, let's take the case of a little boy in one of our villages who is undergoing treatment for a tumour. He is suffering. His family is suffering. His friends are suffering. The whole school community is suffering. (all these to varying degrees, obviously). And in the face of all this not one person has yet asked me to explain to them the theory of the Trinity. Odd, that. But one thing that people are wondering and quietly asking, is ‘what is happenin...

This is absolutely an off-the-top-of-the-head ramble, just to get my mental cogs turning. Why shoudl we care about the Trinity when there are 'real' problems in the world which demand our attention so much more urgently. Take suffering. To be specific, let's tek the case of a little boy in one of our villages who is undergoing treatment for a tumour. He is suffering. His family is suffering. His friends are suffering. The whole school community is suffering. (all these to varying degrees, obviously). And in the face of all this not one person has yet asked me to expound a theory of the Trinity. Odd, that. But (and you were just waiting for that weren't you) I think that how we handle the crises and suffering of life and how we think about God are intimately related. If we think there is no God, then there is no anguished question 'why?' - stuff happens, people get ill, even little people, and there really is no reason. But if we think there is a God, we are...

This year we have a joint service for 7 churches with communion and with a baptism: so the order of the day is 'a short sermon' (just as well as I also have 2 weddings today!). Here it is: Pentecost Without question the reading we heard from Acts is the worst Bible reading ever to be asked to do. On ‘Thought for the day’ on the radio last week, Richard Harries, the retired Bishop of Oxford, used part of this reading at 10 to 8 in the morning: you have to be a retired bishop to get away with that sort of thing! After the Spirit comes, the people all around hear Jesus’ followers talking about God’s love and power: “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs”. Never get on the wrong side of the person who arranges the readers’ rota in your church, or you will be given this reading o...

Jesus prays “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you”. I wonder how Jesus disciples felt when they heard this prayer. What did they think they had ‘signed up for’ in following Jesus? When they first decided to follow him, perhaps they thought it would be nice to have a rabbi, to sit around and listen to him, watch him perform miracles.. all very cosy. Yet this prayer of Jesus - just before his crucifixion – warns them that it’s not that simple. The time is fast coming when they will have to do the work Jesus has begun. And the ascension, which was celebrated on Thursday, just underlines this sense of responsibility. Jesus has died and has risen but is now gone back to the father – the last thing they glimpse are his feet. Then they have to get on their feet & really start to follow Jesus. The disciples learn that following is not just tagging along after: it involves more commitment than that. I’m sorry to be so unseasonal – but w...

Readings: Acts 1: 6-14 John 17: 1-11 Following Jesus - what did the disciples think they had ‘signed up for’? When they first decide to follow Jesus, perhaps they think it will be nice to have a rabbi, to sit around and listen to him, watch him perform miracles.. all very cosy. Yet this prayer of Jesus - just before his crucifixion – warns them that it’s not that simple. The time is fast coming when they will have to do the work Jesus has begun. And the ascension, which was celebrated on Thursday, just underlines this sense of responsibility. Jesus has died and has risen but is now gone back to the father – the last thing they glimpse are his feet. Then they have to get on their feet & really start to follow Jesus. The disciples learn that following is not just tagging along after: it involves more commitment than that. I’m sorry to be so unseasonal – but we find this kind of committed following in the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’! You might remember that the King sees th...