Hitchhikers guide to God

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...

  What is the true gift of Harvest? So what is the value of harvest in our lives? What harvest are we celebrating? Are we celebrating just the physical harvest which is wonderful but perishes or the eternal harvest inside us all   Life is like going to university. We go to university to learn. University is not the goal – it is a means to the goal – it is to build muscles   We have physical, mental, spiritual muscles. ·         The more physical exercise we do the physically stronger we become. ·         The more intellectual exercise we do the stronger our intellectual muscles become. ·         The more we read, the more we reflect, the more we pray, the more we love the greater our spiritual muscles become. What is the HARVEST - it makes life easier – more joyful – more peaceful. If we practice the Beatitudes, we do indeed improve our lives. We do indee...

Did Jesus brush off the Gentile Women? We are going to consider both Mark and Matthew’s record of Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith. Please read Mark’s version below. The role of scripture is to support and build our faith. Gospels have done this for 2000 years. However, there are just ones or two passages which seem to be going in the other direction! This seems to be one such passage.  How could our loving, compassionate inclusive Lord have been initially so dismissive of the gentile women. We have to do some Exegesis on this passage. (Exegesis is the analysis of Biblical texts - or getting to the bottom of it by checking the pretext and/or context of a given account.) Exegesis will suggest which is most consistent with our view of Jesus and so help build our faith in him. Jesus was lying low - he was trying to get away from the crowds who were coming to him largely because of his miracles. His main mission was not his miracles but His message.  The woman was a Gree...

What was the point of Miracles?  John 6:1-21 Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand and Walks on Water This month we have been following the progress of religious life from receiving the word, … committing to the word …. and finally spreading the word to other people. What authority did he have to deliver this teaching? The signs of a person speaking with authority. John’s Gospel originally was called the Book of Signs. The Jewish religion seeks evidence of prophet’s ability to produce signs or miracles Just imagine of the effect of these miracles in our area if we opened the Tavistock Times Prophet turns water into wine at wedding – 200 witnesses Prophet heals a blind man in the Tavistock Pannier Market Prophet heals MS sufferer in Sydenham Damerel Prophet feeds 5000 at an event on Dartmoor – twice! Prophet walks across Meldon Reservoir Prophet raises Mr Jones from the dead in Milton Abbot Stories like this would instantly be frontpage news not and just locally but nationally – and perhaps...

Growing The Seed ...... Recently our readings have been focused on our progress through religious life. This involved hearing about Christian faith, receiving the faith and this week spreading faith – or Evangelism.  First hearing the word – the truth – the meaning of life – the importance of life – the goals of life …………. we had the parable of the Sower.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sower   Where are we? Are we the seed thrown on the path of life? Often, we don’t even hear the word – the truth.  Perhaps we are the seed thrown on stoney ground. Perhaps our faith lacks depth. It is just a passing enthusiasm Perhaps we are the seed sown among thorns.  We are distracted by the worldly commitments and attractions of life. Shopping, sport, entertainment, family or business commitments. There is no time left for faith, church or religious commitment.  Hopefully we are like seed sown on good soil. We hear the word, accept it, and produce the wond...

Nicodemus the priest who had everything but ...... Nicodemus was born into the right family, had had the right education, he was a senior member of the Sanhedrin and yet he knew that he lacked something. Unlike his fellow Pharisees he recognised that Jesus was the Messiah because he not only exhibited all the signs of a great prophet but his life seemed to be fulfilling the all the prophesies of the Old Testament Today we are looking at how Nicodemus actually received Our Lord's teaching – and how we are receiving are his teaching today! Baptism is in two parts the water and the spirit. John did the water our Lord did the spirit. After Pentecost Our Lord empowers the disciples to Baptise with both water and spirit.  Nicodemus truly was reborn in spirit Many Christians begin their journey of faith with their Christening - with the water and their joining community of Christian life. They are welcomed into the church They receive the spirit in their confirmation. From ...

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 p...