Sunday's coming!

(Genesis 22: 1-14 & Matthew 10: 40-42) “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.” God said to Abraham… ‘take your son & offer him there as a burnt offering’ and Abraham said …? Nothing. Not a word. No argument, no need for an explanation, no qualms. God said sacrifice your son & Abraham saddles the donkey, loads it with wood, and sets off with Isaac… to kill him. Because that’s what God has just told him to do. I hope we haven’t heard this story so often that we’ve lost the sense of outrage we should feel. I h...

Acts 2: 1-21 What were the disciples expecting on the day of Pentecost? They were expecting a celebration in the temple – Pentecost was a harvest festival in the time of Jesus. 50 days  (‘pente coste’) after the first reaping of the harvest, baskets of grain were brought to the temple so that thanks could be given to God for the fruitful harvest. It was also known as the festival of Shavu’ot – a time to give thanks to God for the giving of the Torah – God’s law: 50 days after the Passover. The Passover celebrated the freedom of God’s people from slavery – and then 50 days later the people gave thanks for God giving them the spiritual gift of the law to live by. It’s because it was a big festival that there were people in Jerusalem from all over the known Jewish world – people from all those places in our reading that are so difficult to pronounce – representing all four points of the compass. People had come from North South, East & West to give...

Acts 1: 6-11       John 17: 1-11 We are in a strange place in the year. I don’t just mean that today is the first day of June, so that we’re all left saying ‘where did May go ?’ and ‘soon we’ll be half way through the year !’. I mean that we’re in a strange place in the church’s year. Last Thursday, 3 days ago, was Ascension day – the day when the church remembers that the resurrected Jesus was seen by his followers going back into heaven. We have spent 6 weeks celebrating the rising of Jesus from the tomb and his appearance to his disciples. But now, he’s gone – back into heaven – back to the place he came from in the first place. But Jesus has promised that we won’t be alone, because he will send his Holy Spirit to be our Counsellor and Guide. Yet we know that Pentecost won’t come for another week : we will be celebrating it next Sunday. We are in a strange in-between time. We have celebrated the risen Jesus, ...