Sunday's coming!

  Luke 8: 26-33   & then Luke 8: 34-39 Reflection 1 At first hearing this story of Jesus healing this man doesn’t feel like anything we would experience. But I still think it’s worth listening carefully to what the story means for us. Jesus is in the land “opposite Galilee” - a land of Gentiles, non-Jews, outsiders. That’s why there’s a herd of pigs, which Jewish farmers wouldn’t touch, because pigs were considered unclean. In this land which is not quite home to Jesus, he comes across an outcast, a man not in his right mind, someone we might describe as having a mental illness. The poor man hears voices,   can’t be restrained, rips his clothes off, and chooses to live among the tombs. Jesus heals him, because that is what Jesus can do for those who need his help. There was a time in my life when I needed mental healing.   Just after Ellie was born I became very detached from reality due to a condition called postpartum psychosis. It affects abo...

  Matthew 7: 7-11 & 24-17           Ephesians 2: 17-22 We are celebrating the 202 nd anniversary of the building of this chapel - What does it take to build a chapel? I can recommend typing that question into a search engine if you want to give yourself a giggle. One website solemnly describes the process of engaging an architect to help you decide the best site – and then the need to discuss “ sufficient office spaces, the children’s department, the proper sanctuary size, adequate parking, church kitchen and/or café, and needed storage areas   - just to name a few”. Or you find a man like Thomas Skeel. Thanks to the fact that the “History of the Welsh Independent Churches” by Thomas Rees & John Thomas (published in 1871) is available online I can tell you quite a lot about Thomas Skeel – and it’s worth hearing! Thomas Skeel was born in 1758, in Hayscastle, the son of farmers. He was ordained at Trefgarne in 1795 and later married M...

  John 14: 8-17      Acts 2: 1-6, 12-18 Having travelled from Easter to Ascension day we have now arrived at Pentecost. We remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to ignite the early church.   Pentecost is an invitation to all of us to become part of God’s kingdom here on earth – to know God more closely and to be given the strength to be the body of Christ, together.   But like so many invitations in life, it’s worth looking at it a bit more deeply, to see quite what it all means.   Let’s start with the name “Pentecost” Luke begins his account with “When the day of Pentecost had come” because this was a day that was already a Jewish festival – it already had a name, Pentecost was already a thing.   Along with the Feast of Passover & the Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost was one of 3 major Jewish feasts, coinciding with the Spring, Summer and Autumn harvests.  During these three great Jewish festivals, ever...

  Acts 16: 16-34 ,    John 17: 20-26 I was very moved when I first saw some of those ‘cardboard testimonies’ which show the power of God to transform lives.  eg.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrx-tJz_BtM     Seeing what was written on those bits of cardboard and especially seeing the faces of the people holding them light up as they showed their testimonies made me feel that I would want all churches to be a channel of that transformative grace, through our worship and through service of the world around. How can we help people to move from brokenness to peace?   When we look at the story from Acts it seems that there are many transformations in this story – or at least changes from one state to another – from brokenness to peace. Paul has toured to every city in which he has preached, to see how they are getting on. Then Paul sees the vision of a man from Macedonia (what we would call Greece) calling for help, so he and Silas travel ...

 John 5: 1-9;  Acts 16: 9-15 I hope there are times when we all get to listen to young people in our lives: members of the family, children who lives near us, families we come across when we’re shopping or out relaxing. Children need adults they can talk to, to help them make sense of life, and especially to help them connect with Christian faith.   As it happened I had a more than usually child-focussed week last week.   First of all, I had a conversation with a young lad at Lego church at Tiers Cross. We had thought about the ascension of Jesus, and Jesus’ promise to be with his followers always – though in a spiritual rather than a bodily way. The two of us had a go at building a model of a time when we needed to know Jesus with us (building a scene of some people rock-climbing). As we built, my young friend started talking about a talk that he needed to do in school the next week..how nervous he was, and how it felt more scary than rock-climbing. ...

 Acts 11: 1-18   Talk 1 – with map   As I talk about some of the events in the book of Acts and then read the 10 th chapter of Acts from “The Message” version, you might like to follow on the map to see just where the events take place. You will see from the scale that the places are all fairly close together – in fact the area of the whole map is not much bigger than Pembrokeshire!   After Jesus was resurrected in Jerusalem, he appeared to his disciples in Galilee (2) and in parts of Judea (1). After 40 days, Jesus was with his disciples for a final time -   on the Mount Of Olives just outside Jerusalem (4) – when he ascended into heaven. Ten days later was the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to fill the disciples who were gathered in Jerusalem. Peter & John had many meetings with the Jewish legal authorities – and more and more people came to believe as Peter preached about Jesus. Stephen became the first Chris...