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Friends of God

Psalm 16   John 15: 13-15 Joseph Scriven was born into a wealthy, devout family in Northern Seapatrick, Ireland, in 1819. He completed his education at Trinity College, Dublin. Scriven’s life took a tragic turn in 1844, just before his marriage. His fiancée was thrown from her horse and drowned in the River Bann, the day before their wedding. Overwhelmed by grief, Scriven left Ireland for Canada in 1845, settling in Port Hope, Ontario. In Canada, Scriven committed his life to God and service. At 25, he vowed poverty, sold his belongings, and helped those in need. He preached and read the Bible in community gatherings, taught in a school, and even cut wood  - all for no pay. He was known as “the good Samaritan of Port Hope”. In 1855, Scriven penned a poem titled ‘What is this Friendship for Which We Long?’ to comfort his ailing mother in Ireland, never intending it for public eyes. She kept the poem safe in the pages of her Bible. A decade after his first fiancée’s death, Scriven fell i
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Remembrance Sunday & Jesus and the widow

Mark 12: 38-44   I’m sure we all come with our own collection of memories, feelings, regrets, and concerns this Remembrance Sunday. Even though very few people are left alive who fought in the second world war, there is always family history, the memories passed down, and there have been other conflicts – just as there are conflicts today.    I am always struck by the power of the two minutes’ silence. People are always having to remember those they have lost; remember lives blighted by injury; remember how fragile justice can be; remember how precious peace is…   In the face of current global conflicts or personal disaster or the weight of history we might just feel too small to matter. We want to speak up for peace, act for peace, pray for peace…but we are just one insignificant person.   If we feel too small to be significant, what Jesus teaches in the temple, in the story we heard from Mark’s gospel, has something to say to us.   Jesus watches a poor widow drop two tiny copper coin
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What (the book of ) Ruth teaches us about faith in God

Ruth 1: 1-18 What does it mean to be faithful? The story of Ruth has a lot to teach us about being faithful despite difficult situations – continuing to be faithful to people and to God.   I’m guessing this is a story most of us know fairly well.  It won’t surprise you to learn that, as a Ruth, it’s always been one of my favourite Bible stories – Ruth is the hero, the faithful one, the good friend. So much so that we don’t really know what the Moabite parents of Ruth meant when they named their daughter ‘Ruth’ – what meaning it originally had, because we now know the meaning as ‘friend’ or ‘companion’.    Ruth says what, to me, are some of the greatest words in scripture “where you go I will go and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, your God my God..”.  At its most straightforward this is a story that teaches us what it means to be faithful: we could read this story and simply conclude that we should all be more like Ruth.    But wait a moment – there is the fai
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What prayer is.. and is not

Mark 10: 35-38 (recap) and 46-52.   It’s amazing that we have got to October 27 th  – and this is the first time I’ve mentioned Strictly Come Dancing – it’s week 6 ! One of the highlights this year is undoubtedly the dancing of comedian Chris McCausland – who is blind. The confidence he has to have in his dance partner, Diane, to put his all into each routine when he literally can’t see where he is, is astonishing. I couldn’t help thinking of Chris McCausland when I read today’s story of blind Bartimaeus.   In the time of Jesus, someone like Bartimaeus would have had no real options in life. He can’t see to fish, or farm, or make things. So as Jesus leaves Jericho, the blind man is sitting by the roadside doing the only thing he can do to scratch a living – he is begging. He hears a crowd approaching – we’re told it’s a large crowd – and someone tells him that among that crowd is Jesus of Nazareth. So Bartimaeus shouts out “have mercy on me”.   That could have been his regular shout fo
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Trusting God.

Job 38: 1-7    Mark 10: 35-45   When we had the baptism here last month I realised that it was a while since I had held a baby. I hope we all know how it feels. Making sure the baby is comfortable – that you are giving them a firm support, if they’re very young, supporting the head. It is a great honour and joy to hold a baby safely in your arms. But even the smallest of babies will often grasp your finger, or the edge of your clothing. It’s a very deep instinct that however well you’re holding them, they will hang on to you.   I think in a sense we never lose that instinct in life. There comes a time of course when we leave the security of loving human parents’ arms and learn to cope on our own. But we know that God whom Jesus called ‘Father’ holds us in arms of love the whole of our life through.  But the instinct kicks in: it is not enough to be held in God’s arms – we are always looking for something else to hang onto.     For Job, he tries to hang onto a reason why his life is har
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The joy of being human? (Proper 22)

  Reading:   Mark 10:2-16 Jesus placed a child in the middle of them and said “unless you become like a child you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven”.   What is it that a child has which makes them more able to accept and understand the love of God?   There could be lots of things, I’m sure – but at least one thing a child has that we should all try to find for ourselves is a capacity for joy – and especially joy in the telling of a story.   Those who were at Kate’s ordination here a couple of weeks ago might have heard that as I started to tell the story of creation from the first chapter of Genesis, and held up a card showing the light that God creates on the first day, one young lad in the congregation just said ‘Wow’.   I think Jesus is reminding his disciples that when they stop to think about what God has done and is doing in the world it should make them go ‘wow!’.   Can we bring that sense of wow with us when we listen to our next reading. It’s the second story of creation –
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