Sunday's coming!

  Lent 3 :  John 2: 13-22 Very soon now the building of Crundale Chapel will go on the market for sale. I notice that RK Lucas, who will be marketing it, have at least two other small churches for sale at the moment, and we can probably all think of churches or chapels we know which are struggling.  These are not easy times to be the church.   So it’s time for me to tell you something said to me by a very wise teacher of mine, about 20 years ago. Helen Cameron is a member of the Salvation Army and a wonderful theologian and teacher. As we were discussing the difference between the  form  of the church (the way we do things) and the  essence  of the church (who we are) she said “the way we do things may change, but  the church of God is indestructible ”.   I think our Gospel reading today tells us about Jesus demonstrating that very thing : the church of God is indestructible.   Today’s story of the overturning of the tables in the t...

 Mark 8: 31-38 We can have phrases in the Bible which are so familiar – yet when we stop to think about it, we might wonder what, exactly, they mean. This is one of them : Jesus said ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’. What does Jesus mean? ‘Take up your cross’ – and what might his first hearers have thought? We are used to seeing the cross as a familiar symbol of our faith. Just this week, as I was having my hair cut, Emily, who was cutting my hair, noticed the cross I was wearing and pointed out her own. It belonged to her grandmother, who has now died, and was given to her Nan as an anniversary present by her grandfather. She said ‘I love to have it, to remember them both by. Their faith meant a lot to them, and its lovely to have it right here’ (at which point she patted her chest). For us today, a cross can be an identifying mark, a badge of belonging, a family treasure, a bringer of comfort. But Jesus’ first di...

Mark 9: 2-9 I know from conversations I’ve had over the last few weeks that many of us are feeling the same thing about the state of the world, and the bad news which just keeps coming. Sometimes the news feels unbearable – please bear with me while I very quickly summarise a few things: 2023 was the hottest year on record, bringing floods, droughts, wildfires and heatwaves and taking our planet’s temperature closer to the point when we will not be able to reduce increasing global warming no matter what we do. We are fast approaching a crisis point which could leave a lot of the earth uninhabitable for animals, plants or humans. The shocking case of the murder of Brianna Ghy by two teenagers who planned together to kill her has made people worry about how we keep children safe from the terrible influence of violent games and films, as well as how we equip young people to cope in a world which can be frighteningly dangerous.   The destruction of war just keeps rolling on despite eff...