Rev elations

We put limits and boundaries in all of the roles that we as humans occupy. None of us can be everything to all people. In Matthew 15:21-28, we notice Jesus doing just that. He has a clear sense of what his purpose is and what it is not: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ’. This sort of role clarity we are surprised at in Jesus because we see him as our universal saviour. But at this point in our history and story Jesus is also a human prophet, and it is only progressively that it is revealed to us (and perhaps even to Jesus himself) that Jesus is to be so much more than a first century Jewish prophet. Within this context then Jesus’ refusal to respond to the woman’s request, makes limited historical sense. She is an outsider, a nameless non-Jewish woman. Jesus has no relationship to her and feels no sense of duty towards her. What is fascinating about this passage then is how this woman refuses to be dismissed and ignored by Jesus. Even though she knows...

St Paul is a man who experienced a seismic shift in his understanding of how God relates to His people and to him as an individual.  That shift in thinking is dramatised in the road to Damascus episode, which as a story has become synonymous with the experience of dramatic conversion. Paul provides us with a paradigmatic example of the effects of conversion on an individual. His passion for and evangelical zeal for his new found understanding is second to none. Yet with the advantage of hindsight we know that the division between Judaism and Christianity has led to some pretty awful consequences. Paul’s continuing comparison between what he used to believe and what he now believes necessarily casts the Jewish comprehension in an unfavourable light. So much of Christian history has been about casting the Jewish faith as one that has been superseded by the superior Christian one. What can we do about this? We can’t read Paul’s words innocently after the holocaust and we can’t speak...

Looking back helps us to see who we have become – and so it is as we look back to the start of the First World War. Britain was very different in its national character compared with today – a time however no less complex and demanding, despite our tendency to be nostalgic about the past – the political atmosphere in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was tense in 1914, Home Rule and the threat of civil war in Ireland along with the suffragette movement were urgent questions. As war was declared, almost without warning, despite the trepidation, no-one could have predicted how the First World War was to change the Western experience and consciousness. World War Poetry has become a part of our national imagination, with stark clarity it has spoken deeply to us of the suffering and sacrifice that war demands and exacts. For some of those men facing their own violent and brutal death and seeing it happen to their friends, comrades and enemies, the words of the Bible offer...

The Mayor has given himself a challenging theme for his Mayoral year that of peace and unity.  In our current national context where fears around religious fundamentalism, or fundamentalism of any kind are rightly feared, it is so important to articulate a hospitable and generous account of what it means for people of different faiths and none to work together for the common good.  This is something that the new Mayor, Ramesh Srivastava has committed himself to, which is a truly noble task. This year provides a great opportunity for the people of Rugby to be further united and to work for peace; we have come together today to witness to what it means to be people of difference who work for peace and unity. Thich Nhat Hanh, an internationally known Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Monk, writes that: 'The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.' Jesus says in the Bible reading we have just heard: 'Blessed...

As Christians we all the time stand in the presence of the one who is glorified; we always have God as our background, as our strength. We look elsewhere for the ultimate means of knowledge, for the ultimate means of consolation. This marks us out in a secular world, for a secular mindset rejects the idea of there being something greater and better than us who teaches us who we really are and what our real end is. Everything is reduced to what humanity can see, understand, categorise. The Vision that Isaiah* has of God, sums up in many ways the story of God that is told from the start of the Old Testament to the close of the New – God alone is worthy of honour and praise – a true encounter with God brings us to our knees in recognition of our own unworthiness – God forgives us and calls us and sends us to do his work. This Vision of God is a Trinitarian vision as God is seen to work in the ways that we understand God to work as Christians – The Mighty Creator and King worthy of ho...

At the Feast of Pentecost we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. To help us enter into that story afresh,  I wonder if you will imagine with me that you are visiting a house that hasn’t been lived in for some time which, however, you know it really well. Perhaps it’s a summer house that has been left empty all winter; you are travelling down to re-open this house for the summer. Imagine approaching this house, what do you see? Perhaps the grass is very overgrown at the front, too many shrubs that need cutting back. All the curtains are drawn. As you turn the key in the lock and push the door you are at first halted by the amount of mail that has piled up behind the door. As you start to move through the house opening curtains and doors, light starts to filter back into the house, so that you see the furniture and the dust. Your presence starts to bring light with warmth a human touch. You pat down sofas, move some things around. Start to open and sort throu...

My children love the story of the three little pigs, which is a great narrative about how to build a secure life, how to protect ourselves, how to prevent our selves from being victims. A similar parable is found in the Bible of course, the parable about building a house on sand or on rock. ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!’ Matthew 7:23-29 The Gospel reading for the Sunday after Ascension* gives us a very clear expression of how to build a house on rock, for we listen into a conversation between Jesus and His Father. Jesus’ pr...