Dog full of hopefulness,
Dog full of joy.
You like to eat snacks
And all treats you enjoy.
You like to go walking,
You do not like rain.
But you have a cute grin
And a very smart brain.
Dog full of hopefulness,
Dog full of love.
You love to give kissses,
You love to give hugs.
You are good company
All day and all night.
Your coat is so fluffy
And your eyes are so bright.
(Talk on Luke 24:13-35 23rd April 2023)
This passage from Luke teaches us a lot about truth and faith. It is, in both a literal and a spiritual sense, about journeys. Literally, it is about two disciples (followers of Jesus) walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Spiritually, it is about their and our journey from not knowing Jesus to truly knowing Jesus and sharing our experiences of Jesus. It is about rediscovering Christ’s presence in our lives, gaining a fresher understanding of God’s transforming grace, allowing our hearts to be ignited with the Holy Spirit as we too walk with Christ.
The Bible makes very clear and specific statements about Jesus. As the disciples walked along they were discussing the scriptures and the recent events that had happened. When Jesus appeared to them they were walking the wrong way – away from Jerusalem. They were preoccupied with their own difficulties, overwhelmed with sadness, grief and hopelessness. They were unable to identify God’s purpose in what had happened.
Humans like to know reasons for…well everything. We ask (both aloud and to ourselves) why? We analyse, we interpret, we assume, we conclude. And we use the answers as a Sat Nav! What we decide the answers are determine/direct what and where we do/go next.
The disciples did not fully understand the Scriptures or the meaning of what had happened to Jesus. They had knowledge but it was incomplete and not understood. It was not true knowledge of the right information.
Jesus appeared and started to walk with them. They did not see Jesus. They were kept from recognising him. The Risen Christ walking with them on their journey, but unrecognised, igniting the fire of God’s love in their hearts. Like the Footsteps poem when there is only one set of footprints (because Jesus is carrying us).
But, this enabled Jesus to impart true knowledge. He explains and interprets for them. This teaches us that the key to interpreting the Old Testament is Jesus.
Jesus explained everything from Moses to the prophets, how the Messiah would save God’s people through His death and resurrection, rescuing a sinful, unholy people by reconciling them with The Holy God.
Jesus is the Messiah whose life, death and resurrection grants us salvation. Jesus Himself told us “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me”.
God cannot be near sin. The only way for us sinners to be reconciled to Him was for Jesus to become sin, be punished for our sin, to die and defeat death; so that through His resurrection we could, with faith and repentance, be forgiven and have a relationship with God.
But it is not sufficient to just know the facts. We must also believe in that knowledge, we must truly believe in Jesus and in what He taught. Like the disciples recognising Jesus (when He broke the bread) and rushing back to tell the others, we have to open our eyes in faith. If we believe in Him then we strive to be in His image and this is shown in how we live. We need to believe in God’s word and be motivated by faith. We know God fulfils His promises but we also need to believe this. We know He is always with us, all the time, especially those times when we only see one set of footprints. But, we also need to believe this.
There is a story that gets quoted a lot so apologies if you, like me, have heard it used before:
There was a young boy caught in a house fire and forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you”. He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see was flame, smoke and darkness. The boy was too afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling “Jump! I WILL catch you”. The boy protested “Daddy, I can’t see you” The father replied, “But I CAN see you and that’s all that matters”.
Reece Sherman’s Faith Lessons
Do we understand truly? Or do we rely on our assumptions? Do we truly believe and trust in God? I pray that we do.
God is always there for us and will catch us. He can see us even if we cannot see Him. Do we have enough faith to jump into those life saving arms? I pray that we do.
Thank you.
(Talk given at Minster Abbey 16th April 2023)
So…witnessing and Doubting Thomas!
The other day I read that the public (according to the newspapers) claim the church do not promote Easter as much as Christmas. Easter and Christmas… two very important events for us – Christmas the celebration of the birth of Christ, the incarnation, God becoming man to save us…and Easter where Jesus is sacrificed in our place to defeat death, rise again, and enable us to be forgiven for our sins and reconciled with God.
So I thought about this and here’s a couple of comparisons:
The Church
At Christmas:
At Easter:
Versus
What I think is most appropriate to call commercialisation:
Where Christmas is promoted with:
And where Easter is promoted with:
In my opinion, having compared the aforementioned; the media, yet again, is showing a biased and incomplete picture. The evidence suggests that on the contrary the church does more at Easter but the sway of commercialisation makes the commercial version of Christmas more widely known.
This needs to be combated, but how? Simply, we need to follow the instruction and example of Peter in Acts and go out and witness, spreading the good news of the true meaning of both Christmas and Easter, sharing what, through love, Christ did for us and the joy of His resurrection with all it’s connotations of redemption.
Meanwhile, where does Thomas fit into all this?
Personally, I feel sorry for Thomas. I think he got a bit of a rough deal. Thomas the Doubter…in actuality he was a fervent believer yet what do we remember him for – doubting – the one who wouldn’t believe without seeing for himself and touching his beloved Master’s wounds.
Maybe, despite it being unfair, one of the reasons we remember Thomas specifically for this event is because it shows us that doubt is okay!
Doubt is something we all experience at some point and in reality, faith and doubt can and do co-exist side by side.
Thomas was not evicted from the group of disciples for his doubt. He was not condemned by Jesus for his doubt. He continued to be a valued part of the disciples as they stayed together, discussing all that had happened, sharing meals, continuing to accept each other.
Thomas had not been there when Jesus had appeared to the group of disciples initially. What was he doing? Where and why wasn’t he there are interesting questions.
BUT, it occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t there so that God could use him for the benefit of those too scared to admit their doubt both then and now.
Thomas only doubted for one week! He then met the risen Jesus and believed. In fact, he believed so fervently for the rest of his life that he was killed (or martyred) for his belief. Yet, still, he is referred to as “Doubting Thomas”.
One small brief moment of doubt, one incident, one mistake, one failing – and a label is applied – something that is still very much done today. And, whilst that person learns, believes, repents, changes, moves on, that label sticks.
Instead of calling Thomas “Believing Thomas” – a far more accurate name/label; because of that one brief moment of doubt he is known as “The Doubter”.
Through this and through Thomas, maybe God is teaching and reminding us that we should not label people. That we should allow people to change and accept that people do change. That we all make mistakes but when we repent God forgives us; likewise when others make mistakes we should allow them to repent and forgive them.
One more thing: asking questions.
There is a common phrase heard in classrooms and training rooms throughout the land:
“There are no stupid questions” and “if you ask a question most of the people in the room are probably thinking it and are just too scared to ask”.
Children in particular ask a lot of questions and, whilst these are often ‘when or what is for dinner?’, they often ask the really big questions:
The questions children, and indeed some adults, ask are, in their own way, blessings. They make us think and help us gain deeper understanding and insight together.
The person that both expressed the doubts of everyone and asked the question everyone else was thinking was Thomas. For this we owe him a great deal for if the question had not been asked the answer would not have been given. Thomas the Brave who said to Jesus “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” To whom we owe thanks for Jesus’s answer “I am the [only] way [to God], the [real] truth and the [real] life, no one comes to the Father but through me”.
Thanks to Thomas we know it is okay to be honest about our doubts as well as our faith, we know that labels do not reflect who people truly are and we can realise how questions can lead us to deeper knowledge and growth. Thanks to Thomas, who believed because he had seen, we can see because we believe.
Because it's a Monday
It's not a fun day.
It's too close to Sunday -
The 'Make Kids Hyper Day'.
He fills them full of sugar
And makes sure the manners suffer,
Ignoring needs and nurture
He doesn't care about their future.
It's not a competition,
But if it was then we'd win,
Because we care 'bout their wellbein'
And give love and time and cheerin'.
One day they will see right through him,
Sweets'll no longer be a shoe-in.
For time is much more precious,
And that is why he hates us.
*Written after the children had a particularly not good visit to their biological father!
Talk from 26th March (John 11:1-45)
Who likes reading spoiler alerts to find out what will happen ahead of the next episode?
Who avoids them like the proverbial plague? Ah okay, you might want to put your hands over your ears then because in some ways this passage from John is a little bit like a trailer or spoiler for two weeks time!
Today we hear about and celebrate the resurrection of Lazarus. In two weeks we hear about and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
There are lots of parallels in this story pointing towards what was going to happen. John even mentions at the beginning of this passage an event (Mary anointing Jesus’s feet) which does not occur until after the resurrection of Lazarus.
Jesus was very clear right from the beginning that EVERYTHING He does is for the glory of God. His wisdom and knowledge far exceeds ours.
It was still difficult for Martha and Mary that Jesus did not immediately drop everything and come to them upon hearing that Lazarus was severely ill.
Today’s society tend to want everything immediately. Patience and waiting are hard. Whilst I know that waiting times for ambulances are much longer than ideal at the moment; how many of us have to wait over two days before one leaves to attend to us?
But Jesus knew what He was doing and so He waited. Once the time was right He told the disciples He was going back to Judea. The religious leaders there already wanted Jesus dead and this worried His disciples. Ironically, it is Thomas (later to be known as the doubter) who persuaded the disciples to accompany Jesus even if it meant death.
Jesus is the Light of the World. As He says, if we walk during the day (in the light) we will not stumble because we see (have) the light of the world (Jesus).
Those who walk at night stumble because the Light (Jesus) is not in them.
By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.
Decomposing!
Stinky!
Yuk!
Martha (the sister who in another passage we are told did all the chores whilst Mary sat listening to Jesus) heard Jesus was on His way and came to meet Him.
Martha says “Lord, if you had been here…” Martha knows and believes that Jesus has the power to heal. Is she declaring her faith? Or is she displaying anger that Jesus was not there in time to stop Lazarus dying? Jesus tests her and she proclaims her faith and her belief.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life and He was about to prove it whilst showing, again, through this miracle that Jesus is the Giver of Life and the Saviour. He was also showing His followers a preview of how He would be defeating death.
It is important that we understand the relevance of Lazarus having been in the tomb for four days. Jesus had raised people to life before after all, so we need to know what makes the resurrection of Lazarus so different.
Well, previously when Jesus had raised people from the dead the timescale between their death and resurrection was a great deal shorter.
Jesus needed this miracle to be determinate.
To help us understand let me explain that at that time people believed that a person’s spirit left their body on the third day after their death. On the fourth day there is no doubt. The person is really dead. Not sleeping. Dead Dead!
This was important as it meant there could be no dispute over the fact that Lazarus was actually dead before Jesus resurrected him.
Martha went to Mary and told her “The Teacher is here”. Jesus is the Ultimate Teacher. Mary went to Jesus and used the same words as her sister, “Lord, if you had been here …” Mary and the Jews with her wept. Jesus wept. But, Jesus was not mourning Lazarus. Jesus knew all along that He would be raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus wept for those who did not understand. He wept for those who had lost hope. He wept at the sight of the very suffering He came to save us from. Through Jesus believers are to grieve with hope.
Jesus went to the tomb, He called for the stone to be moved away. The stench of death was all around. Jesus prayed. He did everything with prayer. He knows God always hears Him and thanks God for this. But He also needed the crowd to see that God had sent Him and that He was acting with God’s authority.
Jesus called out in a loud voice “Lazarus, come out!” Jesus has compassion for each one of us and calls us by name.
Lazarus came out still bound in the burial cloths BUT no longer a rotting corpse. Instead he was fully and completely healed. Jesus told the crowd to unbind Lazarus and they helped free him.
Lazarus, a new creation, freed from the tomb and welcomed back to life.
Jesus died to defeat sin and death, the Ultimate Sacrifice and our Saviour is raised from the grave so we can be forgiven and reconciled with God.
Not only that but Jesus came to have a relationship with EVERYONE, not just the Jews.
So how does that affect us. Basically, we cannot experience the resurrection unless we experience death. By this I mean that we cannot accept new life in Christ, if we do not allow our old, sinful lives to die.
We need to let go of whatever is holding us back, whatever is stopping us from being a new creation in Christ.
Let us hear Jesus calling us by name, let us say goodbye to what is holding us back, let us leave the tomb and walk in the light of Jesus.
And more than that, as we are told in Romans; by believing and having faith in Jesus, what He has done, is doing and will do, we are able to take part in bringing glory to God in all we do.
Let us give Him the glory, great things He hath done.
Talk from 19th March 2023
I’ll start by admitting that, whilst I was thinking about what I might say today, I was tempted to include a vote on who wants a talk about Mothering Sunday versus who wants a talk on today’s readings (Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 2:33-35, John 19:25b-27). Instead, in a good news bad news kind of result, you’ve got a bit of both.
The other week my husband asked me if I would be taking the Mothers’ Day break in the Lenten fast. Being me I asked why and got told it’s because it’s Respite Sunday. Well, those of us with the job title of Mother might agree that respite is a myth! So I looked it up.
In medieval times this Sunday, called Mid-Lent or Refreshment Sunday, was indeed used as a day of respite from the Lenten fast.
So why, I thought, would you break the fast, or resolution if you like, for one day when (assuming you’ve been able to keep it so far) you are half way through and it’s beginning to get easier. After all, it takes 6 weeks to make a new routine stick and only 1 to break it. Breaking the fast surely just makes it harder to keep for the final half of Lent.
Penny drops!
That’s why, I thought, because it had got easier, it’s not a temptation in the same way anymore, it’s easier to resist, that habit of having whatever it is we’ve given up is becoming a habit of not having it. We are not having to make as much effort and so the motive of Lent, the preparation, the trials, the testing need refreshing so that we are putting the same amount or even more effort into the second half of Lent as we did in the first half. It is not supposed to be easy.
So how did this become associated with Mothering Sunday? Simply because of the texts read at Mass during those medieval times which were full of many metaphors for and references to mothers; which are often linked to the personification of the church as the Bride of Christ and with the Virgin Mary.
Time passed. (It didn’t know the answer to the question). After the English Reformation (when coincidently the same readings were still being assigned to this Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer) Christians would ‘Go a Mothering’. This means they would return to their “Mother Church” for a service on this Sunday. By “Mother Church” we normally mean either the church in which we were baptised, the local parish church or the nearest cathedral (the cathedral being the “Mother Church” of all the churches in the diocese).
In more recent history, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their Mother Church, usually with their own mothers and family members.
Nowadays, we use Mothering Sunday to give thanks to all those who mother us. A day when we celebrate all who have and do give us motherly care.
Providing this love and care is, in itself, a vocation. It is a vocation of nurturing, care, love and joy. Equally, it is a vocation of tiredness and worry, pain and sacrifice.
There can be no doubt that Mary experienced all these elements of motherhood. She accepted the vocation and all the pain that was to come with it.
Jesus was born to be our Saviour and this involved Him being the Ultimate Sacrifice. In this short passage from Luke, Simeon receives Jesus like a priest receiving a sacrifice. He warns Mary that “a sword will pierce” her soul also.
We are told that Mary treasured and pondered on all these things she was told about Jesus. We can only imagine how much she may have dwelt on and worried or dreaded that time coming. Did it give her a chance to be prepared? A chance to be ready when that moment came?
Mary understood the joy of motherhood. But, she also had to understand the pain as she saw Jesus humiliated, tortured and die an extremely painful death. The sword piercing her soul.
Mary was there at important moments in Jesus’s life. Likewise, she was at the cross at His time of death. Yet, even at the moment of death Jesus’s heart is open. He sees the pain and grief of the mother who sacrificed for Him, whom He loves and respects. He sees the grief of a trusted disciple and friend and He gives them to each other to support and care for each other. He ensures that they will be okay by this act. An act of compassion at His darkest hour.
So as we move towards communion and towards our time of prayer let us bring to the Lord all our joys and sorrows. Let us bring to Him our thanks for all those who have provided us with a mothering care and all those who have been like mothers to us.
As we remember Jesus’s sacrifice for us upon the cross, His act of love, may we try and understand the pain of those who suffer out of love and may we strive to follow His example and walk in His footsteps striving to act with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love.
If you have a bad day
Just pick yourself up
And brush yourself down
And blow it away.
Try to remember
It won’t always be
A bad day tomorrow
So just wait and see.
It is time to sleep,
Time to dream,
Time to mend,
Time to pretend,
Time to hope,
Not to mope,
It’s not the end.
Happy New Church Year! Today, we are celebrating both the first Sunday in the church year AND the first Sunday in Advent; and so, yes, the Christmas jumpers have been got out.
And in Matthew, Jesus tells us to “Stay Awake…”. I don’t know about you but I am most definitely going to need more coffee!!!
We are told that, if the house owner knew in advance exactly what time the thief was going to break into his house, then he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. He would be prepared! He would have made plans to protect his home and for the thief to be caught.
Likewise, if we were to receive a warning that something would happen at a certain time then we would prepare and make sure we were ready. If an electricity company says at this time on this day we are turning the electric off then we would make sure that batteries were charged, the torches were working and so on.
We would be ready and alert!
“Keep awake for you do not know on what day or at what hour your Lord is coming.”
We know Christ will return – this is promised and God keeps His promises. What we do not know is the timing – and God’s time is not the same as ours.
So we must be ready and watchful.
Be prepared.
Advent is a time of waiting and preparation.
Are we prepared?
When I ask you “are you ready for Christmas” what do you think of?
Is it whether you’ve got all the presents?
Is it whether they are all wrapped or how much wrapping you need to do?
Is it whether the Christmas cards are all written or who you’ve still got to send one to or whether they’ll be posted in time with the planned postal strikes?
Is it when the decorations will go up or whether they are up already or when they’ll be got out of storage?
Is it whether the Christmas pudding and Christmas cake are made or when they’ll be made?
Be honest – when asked if you are ready for Christmas – who actually interprets this question as:
Are you ready for Jesus?
Are you ready for His birth?
Are you ready for Him to come again?
!!!
“Keep awake for we do not know the hour He will return.”
Thankfully, this does not mean that we all must become insomniacs. It means we need to be Spiritually awake. To be on our guard against spiritual distraction. To pay attention. To spend time with God in prayer and growing our faith. To be more fully alive in Christ.
I was writing Christmas cards this week. I’ve been writing quite a lot to give hope to people who would otherwise be forgotten. And I got quite cross because I found a range of cards that have the greeting “Happy Holidays”.
Now this really annoys me. It’s the same with a lot of television adverts on at this time of year.
Let me share why…
It misses the point!
It doesn’t just miss the point – it totally avoids it with an enormous detour.
And what is it that these Christmas cards and adverts are all missing out?
Well, the clue’s in the name. The reason for the season – Christ. The greatest gift of all.
So we must stay spiritually awake so that we do not commit the crime of leaving Christ out of Christmas. We must be alert and watchful to make sure that we do not demote Jesus to the bottom of the list. We must be on our guard to ensure that we are not just giving Him a cursory nod/brief acknowledgement or lip service just so that we can “tick that box”.
We must be prepared and ensure that we are putting Jesus at the forefront of our lives. Before everything else. First.
So this year let us use this time of Advent to wait patiently for Christ.
Waiting can seem boring. It can be hard to be patient. Especially when there are so many other distractions.
But waiting does not actually mean doing nothing!
It is an opportunity to prepare our hearts, our minds, our souls.
It is an opportunity to put our trust in the Lord. To truly repent, to forgive and to accept forgiveness. It is an opportunity to seek God more deeply in prayer and to surrender to His ways – becoming more alive in Christ.
I’m going to deviate slightly to quote from a Christmas film, which due to this quote is, in my opinion, one of the best Christmas films:
Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wise men came with birthday gifts.
The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe.
We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled…all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s his birthday we are celebrating. Don’t ever let us forget that.
Let us ask ourselves what he would wish for most…and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.
So let us use this advent to be ready for and to remember Christ this Christmas as we pray:
Lord, grant that we may stay awake, remain watchful and stand firm in the faith out of our love for you. Amen.
Poppet's running round the garden.
She thinks it's the bestest thing.
Running round and round in circles,
Then running around again!
Running around,
Running around,
Then running around again!
Poppet's worn her little self out,
So she snuggles herself up.
Dreams of running round the garden
Once again once she wakes up.
Running around,
Running around,
Then running around again!
Just because 