Sunday's coming!

Colossians 3: 1-17 and Luke 13: 10-17 It is sometimes worth remembering the status that Paul’s letters would have had in the early church. Paul was writing to very young churches, the gospels had not yet been written down. Most Christian teaching was carried by word of mouth – stories of what Jesus had done, miracles he had performed, parables he had told, teachings he had given. We have the luxury of opening our Bible and finding orderly accounts of Jesus’ life – the church at Colossae relied on rumours, and accounts, and snippets. And then they received firstly teaching from Paul himself, and then a letter from the great man, setting down for them how they should live as followers of Jesus Christ. And what wonderful teaching he gives: (shown on screen) Set your mind on things above, not below. Put away the life of sin, malice, anger and debauchery and put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, be thankful, ...

  Hebrews 11: 29-12:2 Luke 12: 49-56 What a strange few weeks it has been in the news: atrocities in Belgium, Nice, now Thailand – and yet also the positive news of the Olympics and its stories for human friendship and peaceful competition and joyful endeavour. Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, has said this about the human condition in his book “Between the Monster and the Saint”: “It is a harsh world, indescribably cruel. It is a gentle world, unbelievably beautiful. It is a world that can make us bitter, hateful, rabid, destroyers of joy. It is a world that can draw forth tenderness from us, as we lean towards one another over broken gates. It is a world of monsters and saints, a mutilated world, but it is the only one we have been given. We should let it shock us not into hatred or anxiety, but into unconditional love.” So how can what Jesus says to his disciples in Luke’s gospel help us as we try to respond lovingly to the world and its news? Je...