We may desire to trust God, particularly when those close to us cannot help us or have somehow failed us. However, we won’t see the truth, have the evidence, of God’s trustworthiness and faithfulness, unless we are obedient to his word to us in Jesus of Nazareth. (11 February 2024 - The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany)
It was John Wesley, in the dark place where he had found himself, searched for a shaft of light reaching into the profundus. That light shone on Wesley himself so that he saw himself in a different way to that which he had seen before.
Christ’s birth was not just a miracle but a proof of God’s love for his creation by his breaking back into the world in the form of His Son.
But beyond the glitter, what does Christmas actually mean for you? What does it mean for you not just in general terms but what does it mean for you this year in particular?
It was locusts and wild honey that fed him, it was camel’s hair and a belt that were his clothing. John the Baptist’s exhortation to those who followed him, and, as we ponder his leading us, his exhortation to us, is to repentance. Repent, he said. He didn’t exactly win his hearers over with flattery or encouragement. ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.’
"O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!" This is the Advent cry. The cry of the prophets.
Our apostles this night are better known as the ones who are not rather than the ones who are. This evening, we celebrate the Feast of St Simon and St Jude. Simon is not Simon Peter, Jesus’ best friend, if you like, the one on which Jesus built his church, the flawed one who misunderstood and panicked and on that dreadful day denied Jesus three times, just when Jesus needed him most. The one who Jesus forgave in such a beautiful way by asking three times if he loved him, to wash away those three denials. Our Simon, Simon the Zealot is not this famous Peter, he is just another Simon, who nonetheless, Jesus chose.
My earliest memories include lessons about the intrinsic value of nature. My mother instilled in me, that every animal, plant, tree, insect, lake and stream, mountain, desert, the oceans, star and moon, and the Earth itself has value - not because humans ascribed value to them but because to be in existence is to belong to something much bigger than the self.
He is trying to cut a deal. A deal in which he will earn eternal life. He is a good man, this man who runs up and kneels before Jesus. He senses that Jesus knows the way to eternal life. His longing for this life and his sense of the holiness of Jesus are clear. He is not like the religious leaders who try to trap Jesus. He is sincere. But he wants to cut a deal. What must I do? What actions and commitments of mine will give me, in exchange, eternal life?
In the Christian tradition the Song of Songs has been interpreted as a depiction of the love between Christ and his Church, reading the Songs as a theological metaphor produces an interesting view of this relationship one in which the two partners are equals, bound in a committed relationship. How shall we ponder this song about love as we enter the Season of Creation, as we embark on a piece of time when we consciously allow our concern for the earth, God’s deep love and longing for the health of the earth, to be our focus
