Sunday's coming!

1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21, Luke 9:51-62   As we listen to those readings – the story of Elisha following Elijah and the words of Jesus about what it means to follow him – we might be struck by how hard this discipleship thing is – how tough it can be to follow Jesus.   I learned in the last few weeks the story around a little chorus we used to sing in my school Christian Union  “I have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back, no turning back”. When we sang it in a quiet classroom at lunch break, perhaps before an inspiring speaker, or just a ‘time of fellowship’ – swapping stories of how our week had been, no-one told us where the chorus originated. Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can tell you that it originated in Assam, India.  The lyrics are apparently based on the last words of Nokseng, a man from a local tribe who converted to Christianity in the middle of the 19th century through the efforts of an American Baptist missionary. He is said to have recit...

Psalm 23 & John 10: 22-30 I have to confess that at first my heart sank when I saw that today’s psalm was the 23rd Psalm: I immediately thought of the opening credits of The Vicar of Dibley – the soaring views of peaceful Oxfordshire countryside and the beautiful chorister’s voice “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want…” It all seemed too lush, too perfect, too tranquil for the 21st century in a pandemic-ravaged, war-torn, desperate world. It’s a bit – the word I use sometimes is ‘mimsy’ – feeble, wet… And yet, in our reading from John’s gospel, Jesus is challenged ‘if you are the Messiah tell us plainly’ and Jesus uses the metaphor of the shepherd to describe himself and his work on earth: ‘My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.’ Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep – he is a shepherd of the valley of the shadow of death just as surely as he...

  Introductory comments Now the green blade rises from the buried grain Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain; Love lives again, that with the dead has been: Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green. I have struggled to find words of hope this Holy Week. We always have to make an emotional journey from the jubilant crowds of Palm Sunday, through the sorrow of the Last Supper, enduring the agony of Good Friday and the puzzled silence of Holy Saturday to reach today. But this year.. how hard it is to sing those Alleluias -  Praise to God! Praise God that we are still here, despite Covid – and yet what about those who are not..and what about the fear of another variant.. and what about those countries still without adequate vaccines? Praise God that voices are heard to speak out against the war in Ukraine – and yet the violence continues and the world’s leaders seem paralysed with fear…and can we really welcome refugees with open hearts? Praise Go...

I saiah 43:16-21,   John 12:1-8    What a great family Mary, Martha & Lazarus are. It seems that their home in Bethany was Jesus’ home-from-home when he was not in Galilee. In today’s reading John tells us it was just 6 days before Passover, and Jesus chooses to be in Bethany, about 2 miles from the temple in Jerusalem, surrounded with this family he loved and who loved him. I think as a family they teach us so much of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.   We first meet Mary & Martha in the gospels when Martha is working hard to get a meal ready for Jesus while Mary sits at his feet. Martha is a practical disciple of Jesus, and Jesus has to remind her that listening to him is ‘the better part’ that Mary has chosen.  Martha only has a brief mention in today’s reading – but it’s a really important phrase “Martha served”. Martha reminds us that  service  is a vital part of discipleship. But in case you think Martha is just about serving – rem...

Gone a bit "off piste" with the lectionary this week - preaching on Habukkuk 3: 17-19 and Luke 13: 1-9 You may have barely heard of Habukkuk – you might, like me, have trouble spelling his name – but I promise you, you will want to know the question he asks. About 600 years before Jesus – time after Assyria conquered God’s people in the land of Judah – and the Babylonians or Chaldeans ruling Judah instead. The tiny land of God’s people has just breathed out from one invasion, and then another comes. And in the midst of it the prophet Habakkuk asks ‘what does it mean to say God is with us, if it doesn’t mean safety and success?’.   If we are God’s people; if God is with us; why is it all going so wrong? More importantly, can we still believe in God when life is at its toughest?   Habbakuk’s answer is a kind of poem: The fig tree has no buds The vine bears no harvest,   The olive crop fails, The orchards yield no food, The fold is bereft of its flock, And there are no cattl...

Luke 4:1-13 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 I have a confession to make. I have been a minister of the URC for nearly 29 years and I think every sermon I ever preached about Lent has been wrong. I have tried, year after year, to understand what temptation might be about, to ask how we might resist temptation, and I’ve encouraged people to use Lent to give up something, to better appreciate all that we have when the feast of Easter comes. In lots of different ways I think I have said that Lent is about recognising that we have enough – that we should not want more. So when a famished Jesus is tempted with bread – I have preached that he bravely says ‘no, I will resist it’ – and we too can resist those chocolates, or alcohol, or whatever  - and either give the money we save to charity or the time we free up to study and pray. But finally, I think, I’m ready to say ‘NO’ this Lent to all that puritanically - minded stuff. This year I have seen the temptation of Jesus in a different light. The dev...

  When the world all seems too much, I give myself a break by watching the BBC’s     “the Repair Shop” If you haven’t seen it, I can thoroughly recommend it as a life-affirming programme! People bring a ‘treasured object’ which is broken or simply worn by the passage of time, and various experts set to work to mend, restore and, well, repair the object. The highlight is the moment when the person returns for their toy, or furniture, or whatever, and the utter delight on their faces as the memories of what that object meant comes flooding back. Often they want to touch, handle, even stroke their possession: there is something about the physical object that makes all the emotions flow. I usually need a tissue at that point. No amount of telling the story or hearing the history can compare with the sight, smell, sound touch of that thing – right there in their arms.   God knows this is how people work. John 1: 14   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling a...