Rev elations

Jeremiah 26:1-16 In the Jewish religious tradition, prophets call the people back into right relationship with God .  Through cajoling, prophetic sayings and pronouncements, prophets face the wrath of the  people  – for they speak the truth and it’s not always well-received. Especially if the message  is ‘God is  not pleased with you!’. Jeremiah was rejected, abused, attacked and threatened  with death. In this passage (26:1-16) Jeremiah is let off lightly and the people concede that they should  listen to him,  rather than kill him as, ‘he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God’.  But, if could have been so different…. What role do prophets, can prophets play in the life of the Christian faith today? Prophets are there to remind us of the essential nature of our Christian faith.  They are to recall us to our right mind. They are to encourage us to follow the laws of God  and not th...

Peter Brueghel the Elder, Journey of the Magi in the snow. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001w33 I really enjoyed  Rev'd Dr Sam Well's Epiphany Meditation on the BBC  Daily Service (see above). I adapted it for use in church on Epiphany and invited the congregation to move around the church between the places of Nazareth, Bethlehem and Egypt (located metaphorically in the building), thinking about what they represented in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. At the same time, we thought about our own journeys, and how they related to the themes present in Jesus'. For a map of the Holy Land - visit this page: http://www.seetheholyland.net/tag/egypt/ The Christmas and Epiphany stories involve journeying. In what ways can Mary, Joseph and Jesus’ journeys between Nazareth, Bethlehem and Egypt help us understand our journeys in life? Nazareth:  home, nurture, growth, safety, secure, known. Bethlehem:  mystery, encounter, surprise,...

Detail, The Census at Bethlehem , Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Mary and Joseph The Census at Bethlehem , Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565 By Pieter Brueghel the Elder - The Adoration of the Magi, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20714243 Brueghel's masterful paintings of religious stories, set in the hustle and bustle of 16th century Flemish life and landscape, are a fantastic reminder that God doesn't tend to show up in our lives by the announcement of golden-halo wearing angels . Religious story-telling tends to go in for gold and glitter, for God's incontrovertible presence. Perhaps, it would have been better to tell the story in the way that Brueghel has. To recognise that God appears gently and quietly into our lives, if at all. This Christmas, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of people will celebrate Christmas without even thinking about Jesus Christ. As a priest, I wonder, what's the point in the church having its l...

What does it mean to live in the kingdom of God? I would like to contrast 2 attitudes. Self-righteousness versus Humility To live in the kingdom of God is to have our hearts transformed from arrogant self-righteousness to humble compassion and mercy. We are invited to live in the kingdom of God, but it takes all of us to make it and create it. Christianity is a social (and therefore political) religion. What is self-righteousness? The self-righteousness person thinks that he or she has earned and deserved his/her own success and good fortune. The self-righteous person refuses to understand the poverties and inequalities of our world and equates success with personal gain. It involves judgment (and condemnation) of others. Self-righteousness is the primary sin of the Pharisees and Jesus is forceful and swift with his condemnation of it. They claimed the love and favour of God as being due to their own personal worthiness, rather than seeing that it is God who is worthy. Such an a...

Why bother opening the doors to madness? A church can't pay the bills, we have No  Business We offer care and tea Prayer Candles Whilst God enters unheard but noticed into a humble, maiden soul silently becoming unravelling sin

Journeying in Expectation and in Hope Lectionary Readings,  Advent 1 Jeremiah 33.14-16; Psalm 25.1-10, 1 Thessalonians 3.9-13, Luke 21.25-36 Looking towards the East End Reredos and window Christianity is a future-oriented religion ; standing at the back of St Andrew’s Church, Rugby (William Butterfield, architect) we notice how our hope is written in the stones of the building, in the way it tells its story. We look at Christ (as the one who is ascended into heaven) above the high altar. Our eyes are drawn to this image through the architectural sight lines – everything in the building’s bones draws us to this spectacle of Christ ascended into glory. William Butterfield resisted the tradition of displaying Christ on the cross on the reredos of the high altar, as is seen in so many examples of religious iconography across churches in the west. Rather, he prefers to show this in the glorious east end window. In so doing he places the suffering of Jesus on the cross with...

For the Feast Day of St Luke, 18th October, Evangelist and Physician How should we understand healing as Christians? What does healing and wholeness mean for us? Christianity asks us to grapple with ourselves – to take life seriously. Here, we do not escape the frustrating and complex questions that narrate our humanity. Why are we so vulnerable? Why is there death and decay? Why is nature so powerful, awesome and threatening? How can humans treat each other with such contempt and violence? Why does God let us suffer? How do I cope with the sin that drives me in my own life? Christians can be tempted when faced with such problems to preach a false message of miraculous cure and healing and in so doing they can do enormous damage. Those with life-long conditions, with disabilities and chronic illnesses can suffer the well-meaning but misdirected desire of Christians to offer them ‘healing’, usually interpreted as cure. Healing, if it is to be authentic within the Chris...