Sunday's coming!

James 1:17-27:  Mark 7: 1-8,14&15, 21-23 Years ago, when I was in training for the ministry, I had a very wise tutor in the subject of Psychology and Religion. One day when we were discussing the development of faith in children he introduced us to the idea that children are “human becomings” rather than human beings – that they need good interaction with kind people in order to develop fully into the people they were born to be. After a little pause, he asked the three of us in the tutorial “do you think you are a human being.. or are you still a human becoming?”. I have never thought of myself as a human being since that day – I am a human becoming, still learning, growing, and still trying to become the person God has made me to be. What about you? If you think you are a perfect human being, you can stop listening now – but for the rest of us, I’d like us to see what God’s word says about becoming fuller, better people. We have already (in our...

Readings are : Isaiah 6: 1-8, Romans 12: 1-18, John 20: 19-29 Today is the day when it all comes together. Your experience of God in other people, your study of the Bible, your training as a preacher, your theological learning, the people who have loved and encouraged you, and that strange, hard to explain sense of God’s call to ministry. All that comes together, and the Methodist church will ordain you into the Order of Prebyters. The many strands of each of your lives come together in this place, at this time, in a moment you will never forget. There will be tears and laughter here today, as we celebrate and thank God, as it all comes together. And it is not just the Methodist Church but the whole Christian church that celebrates with you today and if you listen carefully you just might even hear some of the angels of heaven, full of joy that you repentant sinners are going to be ministers of the Gospel, helping other repentant sinners to find their way back...

Dear far-flung web friends, I am on sabbatical from May 20-August 20 2015. If you want to read a sermon, you could do what I sometimes do & look back 3 years, when the lectionary readings were the same. Help yourself. I look forward to re-engaging with God's Word on a regular basis in August - meanwhile I am thinking about the power of words and images and ecumenism, or the work of building unity in Christ. Sabbatical is a change of pace, but the first three weeks have been pretty amazing for me so far. I hope you all have a blessed Summer.

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...