Freddie was a young raccoon, He liked to run and run. Sadly, he also liked to thieve From all and everyone. It didn't matter what it was Or to whom it did belong. So long as he could make it his He thought he'd done no wrong.
"But Freddie" said Police Dog "You will soon end up in jail, And if you continue as you are No one will pay your bail." Freddie, he just did not believe, He stole more and more and more. Telling him it was a crime had now become a bore, And Freddie being oh so young was too young for the law.
"But one day Fred they'll get you" All his family did warn. Yet Freddie he just looked at them With a face of scorn. But on Freddie's tenth birthday All his thieving it did cease, For on that day he stole again And was cornered by police. "Ah ha my lad we've got you now" Police Dog he did say And Freddie can no longer steal, For he is locked away!
Here's a little hug for you, Whenever you are feeling blue. Now shut your eyes and slow your breath, And feel the comforting caress, As Jesus takes you in His arms. He'll take your sorrows and your frowns, Replacing them with love and calm. He'll take your worries and your fears, And gently wipe away your tears. He whispers "I am here for you", And you know these words are true.
The grumpy old cat He wanted a spat. So he bashed at the dog With his big furry paw But she was too quick And slid onto the floor.
She danced and she danced Saying "you can't get me, You are too old For the dance" said she. But she knows his grumpiness Is all sham For they both will lie down Like the wolf with the lamb*.
Grumpy Cat.Grumpy Cat, Poppet and dragon toy napping on a sofa together.
*Isaiah 11:16 A wolf will reside with a lamb, and a leopard will lie down with a young goat; an ox and a young lion will graze together as a small child leads them along.
As Poppet was walking From Dogland one day, She thought it would be A fun day to play. So she took a long walk To the top of a hill Because what she wanted Was to roll down her ball.
The ball it rolled down. It rolled down very fast And poor little Poppet Was sure to come last. But she ran and she ran Just as fast as she could And she did catch that ball, As it rolled through a wood.
What a choice for poor Poppet, A stick or a ball? As with only one mouth She can't carry it all. And so, she must choose What's the best thing for her But the sticks in that wood Were so many and tall.
Little Poppet did ponder A long time on this. But then she did realise The stick would be less Of a long term investment, So the ball would be best. Then she ran home for tea And a nice big long rest.
Two weeks ago we celebrated Jesus’s birth – the birth of a tiny baby. Last week we remembered the Wise Men finding and worshipping Jesus – a toddler. Today, we jump forward nearly three decades, doesn’t time fly, Jesus is thirty and being baptised.
In some ways, it is not strange to us that we celebrate Jesus’s baptism shortly after His birth. After all, it is not a rare occurrence for a baby to be baptised, making them a part of the family of God, washing away the consequences of the original and actual sin, granting them the hope and promise of salvation and professing the faith on their behalf whilst promising to bring them up in that faith.
Baptism is linked by Jesus to salvation. It is a symbol of the forgiveness of sins, the death of old life and the start of new life and acceptance into God’s family.
However, Jesus was not a baby. He was a grown man and the sinless Son of God.
So why did Jesus need to be baptised?
Indeed, John the Baptist asked the same thing saying “I need to be baptised by you, yet you come to me?”
Jesus replied “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus was to be the one to separate believers from betrayers. Jesus was also to bring a purifying and transforming baptism of fire; which enables us to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was baptised to identify Himself with sinful man, who He came to save. He took our sin to save us. His baptism marks the end of His old life marking the acceptance of and the start of His ministry. He is annointed by the Holy Spirit whilst He is affirmed by God as His Son (a parallel with Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down on the church).
This affirmation from God that Jesus is the Messiah also provides confirmation to John that he has completed his mission of preparing the way for the Messiah; whilst Jesus begins His earthly ministry with the blessing of God His Father and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Father God, we ask that you baptise us all again with your Holy Spirit empowering us to do your work. Amen.
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):
150g butter (3×50g)
150g sugar (3×50g)
150g self raising flour (3×50g)
3 eggs (3×1)
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.
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.
Just because 