Category: Reflections

The Lord who unbinds us Protective God, who gathers us under your wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks, speak to us under the comfort of your wings today and help to bring peace and order to our troubled minds and hearts in Jesus’ name Amen Every year, the Reader’s Digest prints many quite amusing...

Based on Romans 16: 1–16 and Mathew 20: 20–23 Spirit of the living God speak to our anxious hearts and minds and bring us the consolation we so desperately seek in Jesus’ name. Amen Friends, happy Mothering Sunday! It feels odd speaking to you through this medium, but desperate times call for innovative ways of communicating,...

Many people have this romantic and idealistic notion that Christmas must be perfect. Such people have the tendency to dwell on the sentimental aspects of Christmas as an escape from the harsh, cold realities of life. The truth is, Christmas has always been untidy, and the powers of evil were active at work when Christ was born, and they are still active today.
Yes, even during Christmas, there are countless, untold stories of children being trafficked, abused, tortured and even killed. Unfortunately, most of these stories don’t make the headlines. This morning, our gospel lesson brings us such a story to shake us from our post Christmas sleep induced by all the good food and wine. We awake from our slumber to hear too many parents wailing and lamenting for their children and they refuse to be consoled because they’ve lost their children: they’ve lost their children to the forces of globalisation, child labour and sweat shops; they’ve lost their children to street gangs, drug cartels and militias who force young children to kill their own people. They’ve lost their children to the sex industry and sometimes the trafficked children are transported to far-flung destinations and the parents never see them again. Such are the harsh, cold realities of our world today. In this sense, nothing much has changed in the last two thousand years: Far too often it seems that the dark forces have the upper hand!

If you have ever been jailed or locked up by the police, perhaps you can appreciate how different things must have looked for John behind those prison walls. The denial of freedom and confinement to a limited space can quash one’s spirit. For, if ever the phrase ‘free spirit’ applied to anyone, it was John. As we mentioned last week, he lived in the dessert, dressed outrageously and said what he wanted to say without holding back, until Herod Antipas locked him up.
We don’t know much about John, so we don’t know if he was able to keep his ego in check when multitudes gathered from Jerusalem and the surrounding villages to hear him preach. Perhaps it is safe to say that John felt a kind of excitement with so much religious energy in the air. There was some expectation at the beginning of John’s ministry that something was about to happen, and John’s mission was to prepare the people because someone was coming whose sandals he was not worthy to untie.
John was sure that when this powerful person arrived, things would change. He expected the righteous to be vindicated and the evil and corrupt to be confronted. He therefore could not understand why he was in prison for speaking the truth while the Messiah who sets people free was around and had not sent the cavalries to rescue him. Was he frustrated, angry, bitter? We don’t know; but I am almost certain he was very disappointed! John had once made the multitude tremble with his words. Now he had to pass through his disciples to ask Jesus a question; and his question was this: Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?

Revd Canon Helen D. Cameron, Chair of Northampton District of the Methodist Church It is a pleasure and privilege to take part in the service today. From the Gospel according to John: ‘Abide in my love’ The readings we have just heard [Ephesians 4: 1–6 and John 15: 1–9] are core texts for ecumenism ,so they...

The Gift of Giving Lent Meditations by Revd Paul Le Sueur Lent 5 The Gift of Money This week we start with the task. Task Make a list of all the parables of Jesus you can think of that mention money. Make a list of incidents you can think of in the Gospels that mention money....

The Gift of Giving Lent Meditations by Revd Paul Le Sueur Lent 4 The Gift of Other People ‘Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I shall make a partner suited to him.”’ Genesis 2: 18. Few would choose to be hermits. For our physical, mental and spiritual...

The Gift of Giving Lent Meditations by Revd Paul Le Sueur Lent 3 The Gift of Talents Eight American and two English clergy were asked to write down twelve things that they were good at. The Americans all finished long before the English. Had it been twelve things we were no good at, the result would...

The Gift of Giving Lent Meditations by Revd Paul Le Sueur Lent 2 Time for God There are 86,400 gifts that God gives us every day. Or 1440 gifts if you prefer minutes to seconds. Within that span, what can we ‘spare’ to give back to God? Suppose if someone said to you, ‘I have no...

The Gift of Giving Lent Meditations by Revd Paul Le Sueur Lent 1 The Gift of Giving – Introduction The slogan for Islam is ‘God is great,’ and that is true. God is greater than the Universe with its thousands of millions of planets, stars and galaxies. The very size of the Universe can seem intimidating...

Here is Heaven made amongst us
When in peace we dwell side by side.
From the blinding glare of blank canvas
Life, in colours of communal pride.
Home to many sons and daughters,
Myriad more have journeyed through,
Floating on the peaceful waters,
Centuries old, yet still brand new.

.
Here is Heaven in sunrise glory
Over flower, field and lake.
Here a beacon sings its story
And the thirst for knowledge slaked.
Here our champions train for battle,
First was born his mysterious ways.
Here first heard in lowly chapel
Story of Amazing Grace.

.
Here the splendour of Midsummer,
Here protection when days were dark.
Here have monarchs made their slumber,
Humbler citizens found their ark.
Here are singers and musicians
Finding worship in their art.
Here are progress and tradition,
Both find room in faithful hearts.

.
Here are people of many nations,
Diverse cultures in unity.
Each follows their heart’s vocation
And builds a true community.
Here we raise our joyful voices,
Heart and Music the other owns.
Soul and Spirit both rejoices;
Here is Heaven and heav’n is home.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Thank you for the invitation to preach at this Covenant Renewal Service with the backdrop both of the Scriptures to which we have just listened and of the forthcoming celebration of the 25th anniversary of the opening of this church of Christ the Cornerstone. While my connection with the Cornerstone goes back...

[The full text of the sermon can be downloaded as a PDF here: Sermon APF Sell.]

The words we have heard from scripture, and the words we have sung, affirm the glorious message of the Christian gospel. The verses from the opening of the first letter of Peter tell us that through Christ’s resurrection we have been given a ‘new birth into a living hope’ (v.3). This hope is secure, that despite the trials we now face, whatever happens in the world around us, whatever happens to our loved ones, whatever we face in our own lives, we can live with the assurance, known by faith, that God loves and God saves. Or in the words of our first hymn:

Jesus lives! Thy terrors now can, O death, no more appal us
Jesus lives! By this we know thou, O grave, canst not enthral us.

Our short gospel reading records Jesus telling his disciples that while he is to leave them for a short time, he goes to prepare a place for them so that where he is, there also his disciples shall be (John 14:2–3). Or, again in the words of our hymn:

Jesus lives! To him the throne over all the world is given
May we go where he is gone, rest and reign with him in heaven.

As we gather today, these words encourage us not to linger in the shadow of death, but to look to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; a refuge and stronghold, a timely help in trouble (Psam 46:1–2). And so, what we feel and know to be such a great parting is not ultimate; as final as it seems, it will in fact pass; as much as it marks the end, we look forward to, and live in hope of, a new beginning. Because Jesus, who died, was raised from the dead and through God’s gracious gift, we share in what he has achieved, leaving us able to affirm with the Apostle Paul that

… there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths – nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38–39).

Through these words – these mysterious, powerful, inspiring words – we are drawn to the faith that where we stand at our weakest, our most vulnerable, our most helpless, God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit does everything; everything to enable us to live this life, and everything to give us the living hope that death has been defeated. We are drawn back to God’s promises that the new life made real in Jesus Christ does not end at this point. And we are drawn back to God’s seal on those promises, for as we approach the Easter season, we see that in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, those promises are fulfilled, and so ‘sin and death and hall can never over us final triumph gain’.