Hitchhikers guide to God

  Footprints in the sand - John (14:23-28)   Recently I was lost on sand dunes at Dunnock on the North East of Scotland – just 400 miles from the Arctic circle   I had gone for a long walk on a vast sandy shoreline with enormous dunes   Quite suddenly found myself cut off from land by a large, deep, sandy lagoon I found myself back on my old standby of following footprints. Footprints can tell you a lot. Who use the path, which direction they were going. When the last person used that path Whether they were alone or in company. Generally, I don’t follow children’s foot prints. I don’t follow casual walkers prints with no tread on their boots. I follow recent, larger prints made by serious walkers with good tread on their boots I needed to find such foot prints and then follow a track made by serious walkers who had walked their recently I also needed the hope of seeing a person on the landward side of the lagoon. Eventually I did indeed see such...

Unbelievable truths of Easter and Holy week - and Jesus's ministry One of my favourite BBC 4 programmes is the amusing quiz game Unbelievable Truths. In it contestants deliver a short talk on a subject – but containing a string of falsehoods and fantastic untruths. The winner is the one who includes up to five unbelievable truths - which of course sound like lies.  For instance, it is said that Donavan swapped an Andy Warhol painting for a sofa – which was true! (The painting is now worth £850,000) I always think Holy Week would make and excellent subject for a programme - provided the participants were all atheists or unbelievers In short you couldn’t make up all the unbelievable but necessary truths associated with both Holy Week or indeed the whole of Our Lords Ministry ·        Who would have believed Our Lord’s detailed prophesy of His own death and resurrection ·        Who would have believed that he raised Lazarus after being in his t...

Easter Resurrection - Mary Magdalene & the empty tomb! John 20:1-18   This must be one of the most intense scenes in the whole Bible Last Easter we considered the extraordinary chain of events which lead up to our Lord’s Crucifixion. This Easter I thought we would consider awe inspiring detail of the discovery of Our Lord’s resurrection to help us to be actually with Mary in the garden of the tomb From his brutal, criminal crucifixion our Lord went to a royal burial. Normally executed criminals were not buried but left in the open to be devoured by vultures. However once Joseph of Arimathea had requested Jesus’s body, he laid Him in his own freshly cut tomb. He was joined by Nicodemus. Its worth remembering that both were members of the Sanhedrin - the very council which had conspired to convict Jesus Joseph’s tomb was in a garden conveniently close to Golgotha. This was important as the Sabbath was approaching and would have delayed the burial Nicodemus brought 75 ...

  The Fig Tree and Us   -  Luke (13:31-35) The Fig Tree is in fact mentioned twice in the Gospel Firstly in the parable the vineyard owner is God. The sympatric gardener is Jesus, and the fruitless Fig tree the pharisees   Secondly later Jesus curses a fig tree near Jerusalem days before his crucifixion - perhaps by way of demonstration and as a reminder of His earlier teaching Both Matthew and Mark record. ….’.In the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, He was hungry. / Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.’ Matthew 21:18-19 Religious practice in Jesus’s time had become stiff and rule bound. In the chapter before today’s Gospel Luke has pharisees objecting to Jesus healing on the Sabbath Our Lord gave the Jews 3 years of teaching culminated in the Beatitudes – which were the fulfilment and completion of the Jewish Tora...

Christmas – Who, Where, Why and What Next?  Luke 2.1-20 Exact date of our Lord’s birth is unknown. The Celtic festival of Yule is thought to be one of the motivators for the celebration of Christmas around the winter solstice. In fact Yule celebration takes place on December 21 or 22 and is associated with the lighting of candles and bonfires, decorating homes and feasting. So, not dissimilar to our celebrations today. Interestingly the Celtic teachings are also not far removed from those of our own Ten Commandments. These are the basis of first Jewish Covenant delivered by Moses in the desert.   Celtic ethics the include: Hospitality, Truth, Generosity, taking care of each other, Wisdom, Knowledge, Eloquence, Mercy, Justice, and the strong supporting the weak and worshiping God through the natural world Similarly, the Ten Commandments had also created a basic civilised code of conduct for Israelites. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and min...

  John the Baptist Prepares the Way     Mark 1.1-8 We are in advent! Where would be without the wonderful, courageous, energetic Saint John the Baptist – the herald of Our Lord Jesus Christ Some of you may know that I always gauge people by asking whether I would invite them to supper!   For instance, inviting St Paul could be quite dangerous. We could end up blind as did Bar-Jesus the sorcerer on Cyprus (Acts 13:1-3) Inviting St Peter could be even more hazardous. We remember the fate of Ananias and Sapphira when they did not donate all the proceeds of their field. (Acts 5:1-11) Both were struck down within hours. With St Peter we would need to have absolutely all our ducks in a row! However, 'John the Baptiser' as the Eastern church calls him was a simple, holy man who lived in the desert, dressed in camel hair, living on locusts and wild honey. He led a life of penance and prayer. Why would we have any problem inviting John to supper although we might...