Sunday's coming!

Tomorrow I will be preaching at Flavel, Dartmouth, as we commission Karl and Deb Stone as Local Church Leaders. The readings are  Ephesians 1: 15-23     John 10: 11-18 Today, as we celebrate this new chapter in the life of Flavel Church, it’s a great chance to give thanks to God for all that has happened, for all the people here today – and especially of course for Karl & Deb – and to place the future into God’s hands. How did it all start? First, from John’s gospel, we have the reminder from Jesus “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”. Whatever has been and whatever will be achieved here is because of the love of Jesus Christ, shown most of all in his death for us; and because of the power of God the Father, shown most of all in Jesus’ rising from death. Jesus is clear that he is giving himself for the sheep – five times in that passage we heard Jesus talks of laying down his life. As we commission ...

1 John 3: 1-7 Luke 24: 36b – 48 Today is a chance to look back and celebrate the life of this church. You might think about all the faithful people you have known through the years, all the things which have been said and done here as witness to God’s love, all the times you have come here to celebrate and mourn, laugh and cry. And I know that the last 2 years or so have been baffling and difficult, and that you may well look back with a mixture of longing for what has gone from the years long past and dismay at some of the things that have happened in the recent past. And then when you look to the future, you might wonder what is in store for you all here, and whether you have the courage to face what is to come… But this mixture of the highs and lows of life, and the determination to face the future faithfully, and the hope that God will be with us in it all, this is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Paul puts it well in his second lette...