Sunday's coming!

Closing worship for synod Oct 2015 2 Corinthians 5: 16-20 (REB) Some of you will know that I had a sabbatical this summer, looking into Ecumenism. I was inspired by a quote from the French writer,  Antoine de Saint Exupéry: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach people to yearn for the vastness and immensity of the ocean.” I wanted to find some sort of vision for ecumenism – when it can be such hard work, why is it still important for Christians to seek unity? I had some great experiences of worship in other traditions – including preaching at one of the ordination services at Methodist Conference, and worshipping in the small Parish Church in Wales – Aberdaron – where the poet RS Thomas was once vicar. I also did some reading and thinking and attempted to capture in words and images what it means for Christians to be united. But it was only the week before last, ...

Genesis 2: 18-24, Mark 10: 2-16 Some reporters came to Jeremy Corbyn and said “Where does the Labour party now stand on Trident nuclear missiles?” and Jeremy sighed and thought “I wish they hadn’t asked me that question – there really isn’t a good answer that’s going to satisfy everyone” but he turned to them and said  “You’ll have to wait until we have a chance to discuss it fully”. Perhaps you think that Jesus should have given an answer something like that to the Pharisees who ask “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”. Jesus needs to think about the sanctity of marriage, the legality of divorce, the reality of human fraility and the feelings of the people who might hear what he says. And those issues remain for anyone reading or preaching about the gospel passage we heard. I don’t know where you all stand : your personal experience, your family situation, your hurts and your hopes. So it was very tempting to avoid the question altoget...

James 3: 1-12, Mark 8: 27-38 I wonder if you ever find yourself reading a passage of scripture and think “I’ve never noticed that before?”.  It happens to me so often that I’m starting to think that while my back is turned someone keeps putting new bits in my Bible. This week’s reading from Mark hit me that way this week. I know this story from Mark – it comes right in the middle of Mark’s gospel & is something of a staging post between the stuff Jesus has been doing up until then –healing, teaching & getting criticized and the second half of Mark’s gospel, where will see Jesus getting crucified, dying and rising again. So here in Mark’s gospel is a change of direction in the story of Jesus – and Jesus asks the question of his disciples ‘who do you say that I am?’. There follows the disciples’ discussion of who others say Jesus is – Jeremiah, Elijah or one of the prophets and then Peter states “you are the Messiah”. But I realised readin...

Isaiah 35: 4-7a. Mark 7: 24-37 Here is a sentence you will not often hear me utter. I feel sorry for David Cameron. Back in the middle of August he made an unguarded comment about the ‘swarm’ of migrants waiting to cross the English Channel. He was immediately accused of dehumanizing desperate people who often risk their lives to get to a country where they believe their lives will be safer. In just the last two weeks the word ‘swarm’ has come back to haunt David Cameron, as we have all been shocked by the stories of people dying in lorries in Austria, crowds desperate to board trains in Hungary and of course this week’s terrible image of 2 year old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy who died in the sea off Turkey together with his mother and brother. Suddenly we are waking up to the idea that these are people who need to be helped, not a sub-human ‘swarm’, a pest and a problem. I feel sorry for David Cameron because I doubt that he meant his words to be dis...