Sometimes you need to just do nothing!
Enjoy the peace and the silence!
And just rest your soul!
Forget the hustle and bustle.
Listen to the silence.
Listen to God speaking to you in the silence.
Listen to the sounds of nature.
The babbling brook.
The rustling leaves.
Be at one with yourself
And remember who you are
A much loved child of God.
Cake is really the simplest thing to bake. Obviously I am talking about really basic cake (like what I bake) and not the really amazing designs you can buy from experts for special occasions.
It follows the basic rule of three (like The Holy Trinity):
Mix it up and bake in the oven till cooked – yum yum yum.
So with cake being so popular in today’s society, if Jesus came to us today, what if He said “I am the cake of life” instead of “I am the bread of life”?
Would it have the same effect? Would it have the same meaning? Would it be more popular?
Okay, so we know that unless someone really hates cake the likelihood is that it would definitely be more popular. The thought of being able to live on cake is certainly popular around here.
But Jesus wasn’t trying to win a popularity contest. He came to save us. And if we are honest, if we want to be healthy, we can’t actually just eat cake (sadly). We have to accept that we must eat healthy food to live. So cake goes back to being bread and for this we are thankful as the sacrifice of Jesus and God’s forgiveness saves us from spiritual death. Trust in God and He will provide for us and sustain us.
(John 3:1-17)
Nicodemus was a pharisee well educated and well versed in the scriptures. He recognised and acknowledged that Jesus was from God and that God was with him. Yet he came to see Jesus at night, being at the beginning of his belief in Jesus, not wanting his fellow pharisees to know that he had sought out Jesus.
Later, once Nicodemus’s faith and believe had grown he defended Jesus in front of the council and annointed Jesus’s body after the crucifixion.
Jesus responded to Nicodemus’s greeting by starting to teach him how the Kingdom of Heaven can be reached. As is a common factor in conversations today, we are given the impression that Nicodemus has taken Jesus’s answer literally. Nicodemus is an intelligent man and some question whether he was merely stalling for time. However, whether he took Jesus’s answer literally or whether he was questioning it to allow him time to think, it is beneficial to us because this questioning opened up a further response from Jesus and the conversation that followed.
What does lend credence to the idea that Nicodemus was stalling for thinking time is that the Jews were not unfamiliar with the idea of rebirth and considered those converted to Judaism to have been reborn – just as we take those who have turned to Christ to have been reborn in Christ. As usual, like with the parables, Jesus was using metaphors and terminology the Jews were very familiar with.
So, being born again does not, thankfully, mean that Mothers are giving birth to the same person twice. In fact the actual rebirth is not even done by us but by God. What we must do is believe, believe and be baptised in water and in the Holy Spirit. We must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and, with Jesus as our root, let it be fruitful so that we live with love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
Aptly, this reading this year fell on Trinity Sunday when we celebrate that God is Three in One – the Father (Presence of God), the Son (Voice of God) and the Holy Spirit (Breath of God). As we who believe are born of man, water and the Spirit. Three in One and One in Three.
Those Doctor Who aficionados in the room will recognise that quote. There is a point! The Doctor brings down the Prime Minister with just those words because she made one mistake. But, and here’s the thing, when the Earth was moved and was out of phase and they needed The Doctor to save them, it was that same person who gathered his old companions and helpers and found a way to show how to find the Earth and who then sacrificed herself.
The Doctor had judged her on one mistake and didn’t see past that to what she was capable of and who she really was.
The Jews in the Gospel reading (John 6:41–58) knew Jesus as Mary and Joseph’s son, as a man in their small community. They rejected Him. They did not believe. Pride prevented them from seeing Him as anything other than a poor lowly man and stopped them seeing who He really was – the Son of God – the one from God.
We likewise make assumptions about others. We put them in little boxes instead of seeing them with open hearts and minds, instead of seeing who they really are and what they will achieve.
So do we see Jesus as the Bread of Life? As the one who will sustain us?
Jesus said “I AM the Bread of Life”.
“I AM”.
These two words tell us precisely who Jesus is. We don’t need anything else. We are left in no doubt about who Jesus is.
“I AM” – the covenant name for God (Yahweh) in the Old Testament, a name for God that the Jews were very familiar with. The Jews, well versed in the Scriptures, knew precisely who Jesus was claiming to be.
But Jesus is also taking His miracle of the day before, providing actual bread, to the next level – the spiritual level. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…The bread I will give to you is my flesh which I give so the world might live”.
Jesus is the incarnation of God who came down from heaven. He, like bread, is essential to life. Our Spiritual life, our Spiritual nourishment, renewed in our sacrament of Holy Communion.
Dying on the cross to save and forgive us and rising to new life. Just as, when we believe, our old life dies and we are raised to new life with Christ.
A repeated thread throughout the Scriptures is man’s desire for righteousness with God, a desire for eternity and to earn our way to heaven.
Jesus says those who believe in Him will never hunger or thirst. He is referring to our spiritual hunger.
By believing in Him and having faith in Him and His sacrifice for us on the cross, where He takes our sins and atones for them, He does what no one else can and feeds our spiritual hunger allowing us to be right with God.
The very moment a sinner believes in Jesus he is justified, welcomed, loved and accepted with no condemnation. He has peace with God instantly.
However, knowledge is nothing if you don’t believe! Knowing that Jesus died on the cross for us is not enough to save us. We have nothing if we do not believe in Him. The point now to be considered is whether we do actually believe.
“He that believes has everlasting life but he that does not believe will not see life” (John 3:36).
So let us believe and allow Jesus to be in our hearts, sustaining us as our Bread of Life.
Author’s note: Back in Lockdown when the children had to do Home Learning, one of them had to write a story and kept saying they didn’t want to. So Mummy challenged them that she could write (a not very good story) quicker than they could and to see if they could win the story race! Well it worked, they wrote a story, but it’s not this one. This one is the one Mummy wrote to get them to do theirs.
In a remote forest lived a very noisy elephant called Freddie. If he didn’t get everything how he wanted it, as well as more food than he could eat, he would stomp about trumpeting and upsetting all the other animals.
It was a lovely quiet day and Naughty the Monkey was enjoying resting on his favourite branch. But then, oh no, Freddie started rampaging…again!!! The other animals were getting very distressed and fed up with Freddie and his behaviour and Naughty Monkey thought enough is enough! Naughty Monkey hatched a cunning plan. It was soon going to be Freddie’s birthday and he was being very demanding about wanting a mahoosively giant cake. Naughty Monkey was determined it would be a cake Freddie would never forget. Having volunteered to make it, Naughty Monkey teamed up with all the other animals to get all the ingredients he needed – including some surprise ones.
When everyone was asleep Naughty Monkey started work. He baked and baked and iced and iced. Finally, it was complete and it was a wonderful sight to behold. Naughty Monkey spread the word to the other animals to make sure they knew not to share the cake, despite some saying it looked “just too good not to eat”.
It was not long before everyone was gathered and Freddie, in podium position, looked grandly on as the other animals were obliged to wish him “Happy Birthday”. Freddie closed his eyes to make a wish, which is why he didn’t see the other animals moving discreetly away, took a deep breath and blew…
{BANG} went the cake and Freddie the noisy elephant became Freddie the cake. He was so surprised but before he could so much as stomp Naughty Monkey said “Maybe now you’ll learn your lesson!”
And now every time Freddie starts to stomp the animals look him in the eye and say “cake!” Will he be a quieter elephant from now on? Only time will tell.
The End.
Red and yellow and pink and green
Homeschool till you feel mean.
Spellings, Tables, “You must know!”
Are their brains turned into snow?
Things they should have learnt by now
Seem to all have moved to Slough.
Having to reteach it all
Sometimes makes us want to bawl.
Feels like we’re wasting time,
Slowly going out our minds,
As we patiently explain
4+1 again and again!
This is stuff that they all knew
Just a few short months ago.
But still we try and teach them things,
Like all the Tudor Kings and Queens,
And Minibeasts and The Three Bears,
And how to be more Space Aware!
And what a rainbow really is
And how to do the picture quiz.
We strive to teach, with no reward,
And stop them all from being bored.
One day we hope, they’ll grateful be
That we do know our ABC
And numbers and our history.
And stopped them falling far behind
And helped them to improve their
minds.
“Thank God” they’ll say
“That Mummy has
More books than the local library has.
It meant”, they’ll say, “that we could learn
And, despite Lockdown, we could roam.
Throughout the pages we could, you see,
Sail far across the sea,
And have adventures far and wide,
Whilst still sat down on our backsides!”
Why do I like the idea of always having a lamb (or sheep) on top of the (Nativity) stable (especially when there is also a cross depicted on it)?
Well, there is, of course, the simple icebreaker reason. Children, and indeed adults, walk into the church, see the Nativity Scene and ask “Why is there a sheep on the roof?” Bingo! There is your cue to talk to them, tell them what the scene represents, why we actually celebrate Christmas, that Jesus is ‘The Lamb of God’ or even just have a chat with them. Evangelicalism at it’s best in fact because it has been started by someone actually asking a question, which can led to a much wider discussion and spreading the word.
As just mentioned, then there is the description of Jesus being the Lamb of God. A title given to Jesus in John’s Gospel and referenced in the Book of Revelation; symbolizing Jesus as the greatest sacrifice. His blood shed to take away the sins of the world. How apt then, especially if the stable used is one with a cross depicted, that a lamb be placed on the roof symbolizing Jesus coming down from heaven, being born human at that first Christmas to His sacrifice on the cross at Easter to save us, rising from the grave and ascending to heaven.
Christmas is coming
The turkey’s getting fat
Children cry for presents
Thinking that is that.
But what is forgotten
The greatest present of all time
That Lord Jesus died for us
And saved your life and mine,
It’s not about the goodies
Or about the Christmas tree
Although they’re very nice to have
And certainly not free!
It’s not about the stockings
Or the mince pies and reindeer
It’s not dear old Father Christmas
Or the so called festive cheer.
It’s not a time for greed greed greed
Or want want want want want
It’s not a time to break the bank
Or waste what we haven’t got.
It’s the time when darkness turned to light
The birthday of our Lord
A little babe who did no wrong
And who should be adored.
So whilst you’re busy having fun
And fielding demands
Remind them why we celebrate
And what our God has done.
A lowly stable’s all He had
His bed a bit of straw
Sent to us to save our souls
Our debt of sin He bore.
The stars shine bright to light His way
As angels His praises sing
So don’t forget on Christmas Day
Who gave us everything
Life everlasting
Love, hope and peace,
A light in the darkness
Be thankful at least.
Three in One and One in Three,
Just as you did say you’d be.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
And yet it doth confuse us most.
But it shouldn’t! As believers we know and accept that God is One and Three at the same time. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This is an element of faith, an element of belief. One of the wonderful mysteries of God.
As humans, however, we do like to both complicate and explain everything. We have a need to break down and solve such mysteries- indeed all mysteries.
I believe God has a huge sense of humour and enjoys our uncomfortableness of Trinity Sunday immensely as He watches and listens to us trying to explain Him in a language that can never give the wonder and miraculous nature of God its full credit. God loves our stories.
It happens to be one of my favourite Sundays. I love coming up with different ways of explaining The Trinity and I am under no allusion that I also fall short in this as my feeble metaphors and analogies are nothing when compared to God Himself. I love listening to others giving sermons on this subject and increasing in faith and understanding. Indeed, one of my favourite and most remembered sermons as a child listening to the church service was on Trinity Sunday. It involves a rope.
Trinity Sunday is celebrated by the Church of England after Pentecost. I have heard different theories as to why this is but the one I like best is, simply put, because we had to wait until after the Spirit was sent to us to stay to fully experience the full aspect of God the Three in One. And, of course, it is Pentecost at which this occurred, where the promises and prophecies of Jesus (and the Old Testament) that the Holy Spirit would be sent after His Ascension became fulfilled. And, therefore, it is a logical progression (to me) that we celebrate Ascension, Pentecost and then Trinity Sunday.
So why a rope?
Take one thread. It is strong, it will hold weight, but pull it with a little pressure and it will snap. It is only one part of a whole and without the other parts it cannot fulfill it’s whole potential. I have faith in this thread – I sew buttons on with it. But I would not use it to save my life if I were falling off a mountain!
Take two threads and bind them together. Now they are even stronger and will withstand more weight and pressure. Yet pull them hard enough and they will still snap. Still they are incomplete and whilst they are indeed strong enough to be functional and useful, I still would not use it if I was falling off that mountain!
But, take three and bind them together. Now you have a rope which I can trust with my life (see picture)! The strongest ropes are not made of one strand and they are one rope.
Three in One and One in Three.
You my God are Destiny.
Word and Voice and Breath of God
Just as in the prophecy.
Father, Son and Spirit: Infinite, eternal, unchangeable, full of wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, strength, truth and love!
As suddenly as a thunderstorm
Strikes on a hot summer’s day,
Flashes of pain sweep over us
Trying to take us away.
A day at a time
We fight on and on,
Until either the pain
Or us are gone.
We smile and pretend
There’s nothing wrong;
Whilst the rest of the world
Sings a different song.
They don’t understand.
They don’t reassure.
They have no idea
What we endure.
They throw us a carrot
Then take it away
And that just helps
The pain to stay!
Just because 