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Sunday 18th January 2015
SECOND SUNDAY IN EPIPHANY
Read John 1. 43-51
COME AND SEE
Today’s reading tells of the calling of Nathaniel, who responded to his friend Phillip’s suggestion to ‘come and see’. Nathaniel recognises that Jesus is ‘the Son of God’. Jesus tells him that if he keeps looking he will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Can we say ‘come and see’ to our friends if they ask about our faith in Jesus?
And what would they see if they came?
Do we keep looking and see how in Jesus, heaven and earth come together ‘in a wonderful exchange’ - angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth as they did for Jacob all those years before?
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Sunday 11th January 2015
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
God the Father says to Jesus, 'You are my
child, I love you, and with you I am well pleased.'
And this is at the heart of the Christian
message which are called upon to proclaim. Those words are not limited to
Jesus, they are transferred to us at our own baptism.
So we do not have to prove anything to God, we are simply called to live generous and loving lives in the light of such generous and loving divine acceptance. And share that good news with others by who we are and what we say.
That is how we prove ‘God is Great’. Not with a Kalashnikov.
So we do not have to prove anything to God, we are simply called to live generous and loving lives in the light of such generous and loving divine acceptance. And share that good news with others by who we are and what we say.
That is how we prove ‘God is Great’. Not with a Kalashnikov.
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Sunday 4th January 2015
EPIPHANY
Have you noticed that Christ is
portrayed differently in different cultures? The Japanese, South American and
European depictions of Jesus all look different and bear the characteristics of
the indigenous people. This is inevitable. If Christ is for all people than he
must be recognizable in all cultures. We might like to think about the
theological, ethical and political implications of this. Whatever else, Jesus
is not the exclusive possession of one people.
Matthew's story of the visit of
the wise men to the infant Jesus is meant to tell us that in Jesus, God's
salvation is for all people, including the Gentiles (non Jews or outsiders).
Indeed these outsiders recognised in the child Jesus what many of his own
people did not. They had come to him in an unconventional way. Does that message still need to
be learnt?
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Sunday 28th December
SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS
Read Luke 2.22-40
Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna: all characters who play a part in this story. But not equal parts. Joseph is often portrayed in the background, holding the doves. It is to Mary that Simeon’s words are addressed. Did Joseph feel overlooked? Do you ever feel overlooked or taken for granted? Do we unconsciously / consciously ever overlook others? As the Christmas busyness dies down, let’s think of those who are always there in the life of the church; those who are faithful, in the background, making things happen. Maybe we can learn to watch, and wait, like Simeon and Anna, and will come to see the gifts others bring. God does not always choose the obvious ones. After all, he has chosen me and you. What do you bring to his temple?
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Sunday 21st December
THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Read Luke 1.26-38
On this Sunday before Christmas we read Luke's account of the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary. We learn of Mary's extraordinary faith and trust in God. She has a natural question and Gabriel replies that the Holy Spirit within her and the overshadowing of God outwith her would make it all possible. But it all required a crucial thing. Mary's consent. With Mary's consent God could do the seemingly impossible and come to birth in her as fully human and fully God. Because that is how God works. What Mary did literally, we can do spiritually, if we open ourselves to God.
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Sunday 7th December 2014
SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Read Mark 1.1-8
Mark begins his
gospel, not with a story about a birth in Bethlehem, but with a call to get
ready. It is a call given in the desert wilderness by John the Baptist. John is the voice crying out in the wilderness; a voice prophesied long ago by Isaiah. The wilderness is not an everyday place
but a place where prophets go to be close to God. John’s closeness to God makes
him cry out. He asks people to change, to repent, in order to get ready. To get
ready for one who is coming.
What sort of
things make you want to cry out? What are the situations in the world, in our
country, in your own personal life which need repentance? What injustices
make you want to speak out? How would you speak out? How could you prepare for
Jesus to enter your life or the situation for which you cry out? Advent is a time to 'get ready'. The question is, get ready for what?
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Sunday 30th November 2014
ADVENT SUNDAY
Read Mark 13.24-37
Today is the first of the four Sundays which make up the Christian season of Advent. For most people it is a time of preparation for Christmas and, for Christians, the celebration of the birth of Christ. The alternative focus of Advent, however, is preparing for the time when it is believed that Christ will come again in glory, as King, inaugurating a new kingdom and a new creation. Christ’s coming will be associated with a time of judgement so it is about being ready and that involves some self examination. In today’s Gospel reading we hear Jesus talking about this time and how there will be various signs before it all happens. His disciples, not unnaturally, want to know when this will be. Jesus tells them he does not know. Best that they don’t know or they would be preoccupied with the calendar rather than on living each day fully and walking with Christ. And when life seems in turmoil, whether personal, social, political or cosmic that is a time to know more than ever that God is still in control. Rather than panic when the foundations start to rock, we are to see such things as signs of God’s nearness, and be inspired to live even more attentively to the one whose return will usher in the age of come.
- How attentive are you to God?
- What draws you closer to God?
- What draws you away from God?
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