Sunday's coming!

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, Matthew 25:31-46   You might wonder where the story “Great Joy” that I read earlier fits into today’s worship. (You can hear it read here  ) When I picked it up and read it this week I couldn’t help hearing today’s parable in my head.  The little girl, Frances, is worried about the old man (& his monkey) – is he homeless? Is he cold? Is he hungry? She wants to help – first of all by inviting them into their house – but her mother say they can’t because he is a stranger. As they leave in the evening for the play at church, Frances gives the man some money, but also invites him out of the cold into the church for the play. It seems as though her mother, and everyone else, is so focussed on the play, on the costume, on the words, on the audience.. that they haven’t seen the old man.   But at the play, when the moment comes for Frances to speak, she can’t – she can only think of the man, the stranger, the one who is cold and homeless and hung...

Matthew 35: 14-30; 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11   Advent Sunday is just two weeks away. Soon, if it hasn’t happened to you already, someone will ask you “are you ready for Christmas?”. Try not to panic. Being ready might mean buying presents, sending cards, thinking about food, preparing for guests; or it might mean wondering how we’re going to get through all the tinsel and jollity around us, without feeling lonely and sad. But those sorts of being ready seem to depend entirely on us . Advent, traditionally, is a way of getting ready – not just by counting down the days on a calendar – but by spending some time thinking about how our hearts and minds can be ready to celebrate God with us in Jesus Christ. And the good news is that it is not entirely dependent on us – much of our getting ready to welcome the presence of God into our world involves being attuned to the ways in which God is already present.   Those who chose the lectionary readings are helping us to prepare, even befo...

  Isaiah 2: 1-5; Matthew 25: 1-13 We gather to worship God this Remembrance Day, as people have gathered since the end of the First World War “the war to end all wars” – and really there can be only one question: when will there be peace?  Whilst we remember the silencing of the guns on 11 th  hour of the 11th day of the 11 th  month, marking the armistice ending the First World War; we know all too well that before a baby born that day had even reached their 21 st  birthday, the world was propelled into a second World War.  And since the end of that conflict in 1945 there has not been a year without a war somewhere in the world.    Today, of course, we cannot mark our Remembrance without also remembering the people of Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, & Russia, and also Nagorno Karabakh, Yemen, South Sudan, Haiti, Syria, Taiwan, Afghanistan… there are more. When will there be peace?   We have heard Isaiah’s prophecy that ‘in days to come’ God’s hom...

Revelation 7: 9-17;  Matthew 5: 1-12 At the beginning of November each year we remember All Saints Day, and then All Souls Day – coming just before Remembrance Day (next Sunday) and at a time of year where, in this part of the world at least, days are getting shorter and perhaps we are feeling more thoughtful as we hunker down at home out of the wind, cold and wet. And so we remember the saints and all God’s people who have gone before us – and our Bible Readings help us to reflect on what it means to belong to a church that contains people in heaven (what some people call the Church Triumphant) and people on earth (the Church Militant or the Church Pilgrim). Our reading from the Revelation to Saint John gave us John of Patmos’ description of a vision of the people of Heaven- the church triumphant. There is a huge multitude, from every nation, all tribes, peoples and languages.  There is no room in John’s vision for an elite or selective heaven of just a few thousand  - a...

Exodus 33: 12-23, 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10 It has been another tough week for the people living in Gaza & the people living in Israel. Almost every conversation I’ve had has turned, sooner or later to the need for peace with justice for the Middle East. And even while such terrible events come to our living rooms via the news, we are also living our own lives – with the inevitable ups and downs we face. We might want to ask ‘where is God?’.   I think it is a fair question – with a complex answer – one we need to be honest about. There are times when God feels far away. There are times when we feel we need to see God at work. So, like Moses, we may call out in distress for God to show us his face. What happens next?   Let’s look at the Exodus story.   Moses is having a wobble - and you can't really blame him. After much pleading with Pharoah, and many miraculous interventions from God, God’s people have been released from Egypt. Then the people wander in the wilderness,...

Psalm 23        Matthew 22: 1-14 What comfort there is in the 23 rd   Psalm. At our Zoom Bible Study last week someone said that the different verses and the different images of the Psalm hit home in different ways in different times. We can relax into the green pastures; imagine the cool still waters; know that, even in the darkest stretches of life, we are not alone; look forward to a feast where we will be able to look down on our enemies; and know that there is a place in God’s house where the cup will never run dry. It all sounds very reassuring, and is made even more comforting by the link to Jesus the Good Shepherd, brought out by the Godly Play story.   But Mathew’s version of the parable of the wedding banquet is a different kettle of fish: it is incredibly challenging. The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. When the original guests do not come, the slaves are sent out to gather people from the streets – good a...