John the Baptist’s image is – to say the least – severe. We’re not likely to be impressed today by someone who wears nothing but camel’s hair, who brings only locusts to the church ‘bring and share’ lunch and for whom washing is probably more religious ritual than personal hygiene. And he doesn’t seem to have heard that advice […]
Prayer
O God, in this season of reflection, help me to find the people who are calling me to change my ways and to search my heart. As the Winter deepens, may my heart be stripped bare, so that when comes the Spring, I can rise renewed and flourish into life. Amen.
Advent Sunday
Advent Sunday So, the day is near. Salvation is nearer now than it was when we first believed, or nearer than it was when we met last Sunday.. Does it feel that way to you? Does it feel as though salvation is near, as though the night is passing and the dawn is about to […]
Christ the King – 20th November 2016
A friend of mine was once being interviewed by a political party because he was thinking about standing for parliament. It was all going well, until they asked him a question about party loyalty. Would he always put the party first? Would he put it above his own personal convictions? He began to say ‘yes’ […]
Harvest – 2nd October 2016
I wonder whether you think of yourself as a glass half full kind of person or a glass half empty kind of person? I imagine that we all have a kind of tendency to go one way or the other, and each of us probably drives someone else mad with either our relentless chirpy optimism […]
Prayer
O Christ, in whom there is no longer slave and free, rich and poor, or male and female, but only children of your love, give us grace to see each other as we truly are, and to embrace, include and celebrate all our difference and all our oneness. Amen.
The rich man and Lazarus
I wonder whether we can bring this parable a bit closer to home… Perhaps you have read or seen the play or the film of Alan Bennett’s little book – The Lady in the Van. It’s a true story about the years when a woman lived in some squalor in a van parked outside the […]
Prayer for a new week
O God, who anoints us with love and bathes us with grace, may we begin this week knowing how you bless us and believing we can bring blessing to others.
Balm in Gilead
The book of Jeremiah is not full of stand up comedy – it has to be said – but it has got some of the most memorable language of the Bible. In one of the highlight passages, we hear what is probably the voice of God, bewailing the sorrows of the people, as God looks […]
A prayer for the week
O God, who is right beside us whenever we are lost, go with us through the days of this week, that in every moment of worry, in every minute of despair, and in every occasion of rapture we may know that you are there, ready to make wherever we are a place called home, Amen
Being lost and being found
I wonder if you can remember a time when you were literally, and obviously, lost. Perhaps you have a memory from childhood or from more recently, a memory of being lost, and you can summon up in your stomach that awful sense of panic, that sinking feeling.. Perhaps you’ve broken down on the motorway […]
A prayer
O God, who created the world in beauty and who declared it all to be good, give us grace to see the value of the world and the purpose of our lives, and to use our power, resources and lives wisely for the good of all. In the name of Jesus, the Lord of life, […]