Author: Mark Okor

Advent is an invitation to make a pause in our busy lives. A great opportunity to examine our lives.

This year our theme for Advent is: Light in dark times.

Light and darkness are very well-known Christian metaphors that represent constant struggle between the forces of good and evil. We can find the use of this metaphor also in other religions, literature, music, drama, art and film among others ( to read more click on title)

We all have our own stories to tell – the things that we remember, that have been good positive memories or painful difficult ones. Sometimes things turn out well, despite the difficulties, and sometimes they don’t. In times of war, people so often find themselves running- sometimes to safety, sometimes to even greater danger and they may find that people help them or they may not. But it’s not just the big international situations of conflict that may be part of our story. We may have been bullied: at school, at work, at home. We may have neighbours we can’t cope with. We may have conflicts at home, in our churches, our neighbourhoods. And in all this Matthew’s gospel has Jesus telling us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. How do we begin to do that? Is it even reasonable to expect us to? ( to read more click on the title)

If there is to be a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ why worry about a living wage?

Why worry that people don’t really have enough to live on?

Isn’t the government sorting this out anyway? (To read more click on title)

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Mark 10:17-21

Sometimes when we think we have everything, God challenges us to realise that we’ve maybe got it wrong. Amos, who never really wanted to be a prophet, had to tell the people that it was justice and the way they ran their economic affairs that really mattered, rather than their worship and words about God. The young man in the gospel story had to learn the same lesson. He’d kept all the commandments- what more did he need to do? The answer was deceptively simple: put God first, not what you think will give you security.

So what is the lesson we need to learn when we look at how to manage our affairs, as individuals, as a church, as a community?

Deuteronomy 26:1–11, Matthew 6:25–33

Harvests are fragile times. Will there be enough to eat and still to plant for next year? OK – yes be thankful when everything comes right, but what about when the harvest fails? What about droughts and floods? And how does our celebration of harvest work in with the new UN sustainable development goals? The passage from Deuteronomy is about giving thanks for harvest, but more than that, it’s about recognising the God who has led the people out of captivity, a life of death and hopelessness, into freedom in the promised land. Does that sound familiar at all? And when Matthew speaks about not being anxious about food and clothing, it’s in the context of placing our trust, our priority on God, who cares for all of creation. The world has enough for us all. It can be a safe space for us all, despite its fragility. But we need to believe that all of creation matters and every person within that. And if we believe it, then live it. Maybe that’s what the Harvest Festivals we celebrate in our churches are really all about.

Mark 9 30-37

Jesus’s closest friends were arguing about who was the greatest. I wonder how they categorised themselves? Peter, James and John had just been up on the mountain seeing Jesus transfigured in glory, talking to the two greats Moses and Elijah, while the others had been left below, and had also failed to heal a sick boy who could not be helped until Jesus himself arrived. Was that what prompted the discussion? Did the other disciples point out that Peter was famed for making foolish remarks and had received some cutting rebukes from Jesus at times? Did they know that James and John really, really wanted to be the closest to Jesus? In fact, they all want to be close to Jesus, but they don’t, yet, understand what that means. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”. Perhaps Jesus wants to remind his friends of the ones who don’t get mentioned in the “who is greatest” stakes, Thaddeus or Philip or the others whose names hardly appear, that they are just as close to him, just as important to him. More than that, to be close to Jesus they must be the servant of a nameless child, of no apparent value. There are plenty of images of nameless children in the media at this time. The demands of welcoming Jesus in the child may be huge, and completely disruptive to our sense of order and security. But that is the way to live in the presence of God.

Marian Ballance

Genesis 18:1 – 8, Matthew 2:13 – 22
My experience of living in shared accommodation as a student was somewhat mixed. I had some really nice housemates during my eight years of university, who’ll hopefully be friends for life. However, others were rather less pleasant to live with. When I was an undergraduate in Bath, one of the people my friends and I were going to share a house with dropped out at the last minute. The landlord advertised the room without consulting us, and we ended up with the housemate from hell. She had a serious alcohol problem, evidenced by her ability to still be standing and reasonably coherent after downing a dozen or so cans of lager. Her preferred way of obtaining the money to pay for this meant we never knew which young gentleman would be joining us for breakfast each day. Added to this, she stole our food, and once had a go at me for daring to move my tomato ketchup out of the kitchen cupboard. Most annoyingly, she also had a fondness for playing cheesy dance music so loud it made the house shake. (to read more click on title)

James 2: 1–10, 14–17, Mark 7: 24–37

Jesus had been talking about not making judgements based on what you think you know about people. Then he travels through territory that is beyond his normal home and meets a Syrian woman whose daughter is in desperate need of new life, new possibility and hope. Jesus tells her that she’s not on his priority list. He has other more important things to pay attention to. But she doesn’t give up. And what happens? – Jesus gives this woman and her daughter what they so desperately need. Does this sound familiar at all? The thousands of people from Syria and elsewhere looking for new life, new possibility and hope are not prepared to give up. How will we respond? It’s not an easy question. Don’t for one moment think the answers to this are simple – but however we deal with that question – let it not be on the basis that responding does not fit with what we thought were our carefully worked out plans and priorities.

It was all too much for some people – they couldn’t cope with Jesus’ teaching so they walked out. What was the problem? He was talking about them being so one with him that they would indeed be one with God. What does that do to our excuse on so many occasions that ‘It’s only human nature after all…’? When Jesus asked his closest disciples if they were going as well – their answer was simple –‘Where else could we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ ( John 6:68)

And how do we do it? Well, Paul gives an answer in his letter to the church at Ephesus. He tells them that every day – just like a Roman soldier putting on his armour – they need to put on the truth that they are God’s children – of ultimate value and worth – rather than the lie we are so ready to believe that pulls our self-esteem right down. They need to be ready to go with God’s love with whatever it takes – but it’s an everyday, intentional choice. Do we stay with Jesus, or do we go? The invitation will always be there for us. No doubt about what God wants. How will we respond?

Living Bread Sermon by John Bradley

John 6:51 ‘I am the living bread that has come down from heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. The bread which I shall give is my own flesh, given for the life of the world.’

If you have followed the Bible readings for the past few Sundays, the theme running through them is bread. First we had the feeding of five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. Last Sunday we had manna in the wilderness and in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is saying that he is the living bread.

First today we heard from the Old Testament. Elijah has just had a literal mountain top experience. On top of Mount Carmel he has seen with his own eyes the mighty victory of the God of Israel. But now the threat of Queen Jezebel has thrown him into despair and depression. He runs away into the wilderness and just wants to curl up and die. But God hasn’t finished with him yet and the first step of his recovery is to eat some bread.

Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to give us this day our daily bread but we live in a land where up to one third of the bread purchased is dumped when it could be eaten. At the same time, half a million people rely on food banks. But the good news is that the bread of life, the true bread that gives life with a capital ‘L’, life in all its fullness that is so strong it can survive even death, is free. It’s not cheap but it remains, as it has always been, absolutely free. You can’t buy it, you can’t earn it and you can’t deserve it. All you can do is accept it and enjoy it. ( to read more, click on the title)