I find it hard to accept myself as I am; I have a low confidence level, always seeing others and wishing I was like them somehow, judging my abilities or lack of them against others who I perceive to be better than me.
Each time I receive the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, I pray that I would accept myself as Christ accepts me, yet I find this so hard to achieve. I know in my heart that I do have abilities; there are areas where I’m stronger than others but I still can’t help but feel low and worthless.
I’m also feeling like I don’t fit anywhere any more, work is frustrating and boring, ministry I’m not sure what I’m doing any more with that one, home life is difficult as well. I sometimes end the day crying as I’m totally frustrated by everything. I’m thinking now that it’s all tied up with the acceptance issue as well, I’m not sure.
I think it’s time for a change, but not sure what as yet!
Monday, 8 February 2010
Thursday, 4 February 2010
What is the spiritual meaning of work in our lives?
If you won £1m in the TV game-show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? would you go into work the following Monday morning? Is work something irksome that must be endured so that we may eat, enjoy quality leisure time, and retire as early as possible? Is it more integral to personal identity and one of the blessings of God’s creation?
The twin problems of today’s ‘high-pressure, burn-out’ workplaces and unemployment make some Christian theologies of vocation seem idealistic. The global implications of the West’s lust for cheap consumer goods pose major challenges to any moral case for prosperity. In Work, for God’s Sake Esther Reed tackles these questions within a biblical framework, and sketches a theological ethic of work in the hope of God’s coming kingdom.
The twin problems of today’s ‘high-pressure, burn-out’ workplaces and unemployment make some Christian theologies of vocation seem idealistic. The global implications of the West’s lust for cheap consumer goods pose major challenges to any moral case for prosperity. In Work, for God’s Sake Esther Reed tackles these questions within a biblical framework, and sketches a theological ethic of work in the hope of God’s coming kingdom.
Monday, 4 January 2010
Christmas Eve Celebration Sermon
It was Monday morning, the angles were at their desks, suddenly a email pinged up, it was from the boss, staff meeting in 5 minutes, a great sigh went up and they all reluctantly filed into the board room. God was not a happy bunny, he was pacing up and down, Gabriel the senior angel spoke up, what’s up boss, you seem worried, after a few seconds, God spoke, It’s those human’s they are losing the plot big time , but I’ve come up with a plan a risky plan that I’m hoping will bring them back to me, the angels looked concerned, what’s he up to know, has he lost the plot?
I’m going to send my son, my beloved and only son Jesus down to earth, not as he is now but in the form of a helpless baby, I’ve lined up a nice human couple called Mary and Joseph, they will look after him , the angles looked at each other, not really believing what they had heard, holy smoke they thought, he’s risking his boy just to save those smelly human’s, God one of the junior angles said why don’t you just turn the air off and start again it would be so much easier, God gave him the stare, you know the kind of stare your mum gives when you just know not to even go any further with that line of thought!
That was not an option even giving credence to, God had sent his mind on this course of action, God was risking everything, man the angles thought he really does love these human’s if only they new just how much!
Jesus didn’t come to earth with a crash and bang, he arrived quietly in a borrowed smelly manger, in the middle of now where to two young people, homeless with no money, neither a social mover, just normal people, like you and me, Jesus does not just come to save certain people, the chosen few, he has no shopping list, God through Jesus wants to save each and everyone of us, God wants us back in a relationship with him, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.
At the start of the service we heard a track, entitled look for me, the singing is searching for something, some kind of meaning, the answer to his question and ours is your looking for Jesus.
I’m going to send my son, my beloved and only son Jesus down to earth, not as he is now but in the form of a helpless baby, I’ve lined up a nice human couple called Mary and Joseph, they will look after him , the angles looked at each other, not really believing what they had heard, holy smoke they thought, he’s risking his boy just to save those smelly human’s, God one of the junior angles said why don’t you just turn the air off and start again it would be so much easier, God gave him the stare, you know the kind of stare your mum gives when you just know not to even go any further with that line of thought!
That was not an option even giving credence to, God had sent his mind on this course of action, God was risking everything, man the angles thought he really does love these human’s if only they new just how much!
Jesus didn’t come to earth with a crash and bang, he arrived quietly in a borrowed smelly manger, in the middle of now where to two young people, homeless with no money, neither a social mover, just normal people, like you and me, Jesus does not just come to save certain people, the chosen few, he has no shopping list, God through Jesus wants to save each and everyone of us, God wants us back in a relationship with him, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.
At the start of the service we heard a track, entitled look for me, the singing is searching for something, some kind of meaning, the answer to his question and ours is your looking for Jesus.
Epiphany Sermon
So it’s early in the morning and three Kings just turn up out of the blue, they had been star gazing and noticed a star that was different than normal, so they followed the star that lead them directly to the stable and Jesus.
Star gazing reminds me of the vastness of space, the outer reaches of the universe, the great mystery that only God knows about and understands.
Today we celebrate Epiphany when the Magi turned up to worship Jesus, epiphany means manifestation or appearing, it’s what I would call a eureka moment. Our faith is a ‘eureka’ faith: it revolves around the belief that God chooses to be revealed to human beings, and that this revelation is the basis upon which new realities can be imagined. The story of the epiphany of the magi highlights the fact that divine revelation can appear in many different ways – in this instance, through pagan astrology!
We have no way of knowing whether the story of the magi is true, what matters more to me is that the early Christians chose to include this story in the Gospel narrative, and that human longing for a new reality was linked to gazing at stars.
Star gazing can be a spiritual experience. I guess it’s to do with perspective, When we want to see new possibilities we say ‘the sky’s the limit’. In other words: there are no limits. An open sky reminds us that limits are self-imposed: there are always other possibilities, other realities, if we only had the faith to follow the star to follow God into new possibilities.
As we enter a new year we are called to follow the magi once again and become star gazers and not navel gazers. Navel gazers can’t see beyond themselves – their own self-imposed horizons. Star Gazers forget about themselves, become part of a far bigger picture. They dare to believe that something else is possible, that change can happen that the way things have been need not determine the way things will be.
The magi were adventures, they new they didn’t know everything, that there was more to learn, more to see, they were prepared to leave their familiar surroundings, prepared to explore beyond their self imposed boxes, prepared to recognise God in other forms, but are we that willing?
I thank the early church for incorporating this story in their account of Christ’s birth, a story of people journeying to God, not through scripture, or a voice of a prophet but thorough the guidance of the stars interpreted with pagan insight.
Deep within everyone there is a star gazer, we long for God to reside within our hearts. St Augustine said ‘God has made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in him again’.
The church’s task is to connect with this God-longing which is inherent within each of us no matter who we are and what form this longing comes. Sadly however the church is caught up in its own navel gazing issues – more concerned with its own agenda for its own survival than with the agenda of God’s kingdom in the world. We urgently need to remember that in the beginning the church was a by-product of the kingdom of God, and not the other way around.
Far too often we are not listening to God’s still small voice of calm talking directly to us right here right now! We are far too busy excluding those people whom God is including, we talk about not making God in our image but I think we do and we need to revisit the scriptures and find space to hear God afresh and be surprised by God once again.
My dream for the church in the next decade is to become a place where:
We accept people of other faiths to learn from them, encounter other dimensions of our awesome God.Seeing true value in both old and youngAccepting of both gay men and lesbian women as equal’s loved and made by the same God.Listening to its community no matter how painful that might be.Seeing value in the person with a mental illness / depression and walking with them through life.
Prophetic, not scared to speak out.To be safe haven for those on drugs or homeless or just out of prison.Not hung up on statistics but on serving their missionary God.
Not afraid to be real and does not hide behind a mask of respectability Finally I dream of a church that does not have all the answers but is totally reliant on God the Answer and the Question.That is my dream, is it too foolish? sometimes I think it is, other times I see glimpses of the dream becoming a reality only to be crushed, one day I pray it truly will, if not now when Jesus returns.So let’s refocus our vision our energy on God’s Kingdom,
On God’s priorities for this age and become better at serving him and bringing about his kingdom here on earth.
I end with this pray:
God of Israel, light of all nations, made known in the gifts, of those who call to other names and walk on different paths; may unjust powers and the hatred within us be dismayed by your friendship and dethroned by your love; through Jesus Christ, the open arms of grace. Amen
Star gazing reminds me of the vastness of space, the outer reaches of the universe, the great mystery that only God knows about and understands.
Today we celebrate Epiphany when the Magi turned up to worship Jesus, epiphany means manifestation or appearing, it’s what I would call a eureka moment. Our faith is a ‘eureka’ faith: it revolves around the belief that God chooses to be revealed to human beings, and that this revelation is the basis upon which new realities can be imagined. The story of the epiphany of the magi highlights the fact that divine revelation can appear in many different ways – in this instance, through pagan astrology!
We have no way of knowing whether the story of the magi is true, what matters more to me is that the early Christians chose to include this story in the Gospel narrative, and that human longing for a new reality was linked to gazing at stars.
Star gazing can be a spiritual experience. I guess it’s to do with perspective, When we want to see new possibilities we say ‘the sky’s the limit’. In other words: there are no limits. An open sky reminds us that limits are self-imposed: there are always other possibilities, other realities, if we only had the faith to follow the star to follow God into new possibilities.
As we enter a new year we are called to follow the magi once again and become star gazers and not navel gazers. Navel gazers can’t see beyond themselves – their own self-imposed horizons. Star Gazers forget about themselves, become part of a far bigger picture. They dare to believe that something else is possible, that change can happen that the way things have been need not determine the way things will be.
The magi were adventures, they new they didn’t know everything, that there was more to learn, more to see, they were prepared to leave their familiar surroundings, prepared to explore beyond their self imposed boxes, prepared to recognise God in other forms, but are we that willing?
I thank the early church for incorporating this story in their account of Christ’s birth, a story of people journeying to God, not through scripture, or a voice of a prophet but thorough the guidance of the stars interpreted with pagan insight.
Deep within everyone there is a star gazer, we long for God to reside within our hearts. St Augustine said ‘God has made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in him again’.
The church’s task is to connect with this God-longing which is inherent within each of us no matter who we are and what form this longing comes. Sadly however the church is caught up in its own navel gazing issues – more concerned with its own agenda for its own survival than with the agenda of God’s kingdom in the world. We urgently need to remember that in the beginning the church was a by-product of the kingdom of God, and not the other way around.
Far too often we are not listening to God’s still small voice of calm talking directly to us right here right now! We are far too busy excluding those people whom God is including, we talk about not making God in our image but I think we do and we need to revisit the scriptures and find space to hear God afresh and be surprised by God once again.
My dream for the church in the next decade is to become a place where:
We accept people of other faiths to learn from them, encounter other dimensions of our awesome God.Seeing true value in both old and youngAccepting of both gay men and lesbian women as equal’s loved and made by the same God.Listening to its community no matter how painful that might be.Seeing value in the person with a mental illness / depression and walking with them through life.
Prophetic, not scared to speak out.To be safe haven for those on drugs or homeless or just out of prison.Not hung up on statistics but on serving their missionary God.
Not afraid to be real and does not hide behind a mask of respectability Finally I dream of a church that does not have all the answers but is totally reliant on God the Answer and the Question.That is my dream, is it too foolish? sometimes I think it is, other times I see glimpses of the dream becoming a reality only to be crushed, one day I pray it truly will, if not now when Jesus returns.So let’s refocus our vision our energy on God’s Kingdom,
On God’s priorities for this age and become better at serving him and bringing about his kingdom here on earth.
I end with this pray:
God of Israel, light of all nations, made known in the gifts, of those who call to other names and walk on different paths; may unjust powers and the hatred within us be dismayed by your friendship and dethroned by your love; through Jesus Christ, the open arms of grace. Amen
Christmas Day Sermon 2009 8:00am
Surprises – Christmas Morning
The company that could manufacture ‘joy’ and market it in person-sized packages, would be an over night success, Alan Sugar would be very impressed and want to buy the idea, sadly many have tried, and many have failed in dramatic fashion. Everyone lets face it is searching for the magic ingredient that will make the day joyful and bigger and better than last year, we are encouraged to get ourselves into huge debt, buy Waitrose up in one shop to make the best Christmas ever.
Yet this comes at a cost, we hear on TV and Radio of people committing suicide, family break ups, many people simply dread the approach of Christmas, We get so caught up in buying the perfect present, by Boxing Day we are exhausted and too tired to care any more!
Ok that’s the doom and gloom over with; today we celebrate God giving joy to the world, total uncontained, unlimited JOY! So what did the shepherds understand but eludes us today? What are we totally missing the point on?
I wonder if it’s because we try too hard to make the day special with gifts etc, after all shepherds weren’t expecting anything, plus they were too poor to have brought anything if they had been warned known! For the shepherds it was another night on the hillside, just getting on with their routine work, then things started to happen they could never of imagined, you’ve got it God turned up!
First a visitation from some heavenly hosts – enough to make anyone jump, the angles didn’t send a celestial email to ask if it was ok to pop down, the news they had was to momentous that it had to be given without delay, yet the first people to be told were not kings or anyone important in the social scare but humble, smelly uneducated shepherds, they had no image to defend, they in fact had noting apart from the clothes they were wearing and some sheep, yet they received God’s message from the angel, once the initial shock had past they went to Bethlehem without any questioning.
Mary and Joseph must have also been a little shocked to find some unexpected guests and their sheep just turning up! No chance to tidy the stable up or even bake a cake or put the kettle on, they will just have to take them as they found them!
I think God says the same, come on, come and search for me, when you find me your have to take me as I am, where will we find God this Christmas day? Certainly in the hospitality of our friends and family. But maybe more visibly and powerfully, in the faces of those who have no home, no friends, and no resources behind which to hide their extreme vulnerability. A surprise visit to such a person would perhaps surprise us with the warmth it would generate.
Surprises are the very essence of Christmas morning. All those gifts we have carefully concealed are be joyfully unwrapped, some parents I expect where woken at silly o’clock this morning as they were leaped upon in bed with demands to ‘LOOK! And to join in with the new game, admire the new doll; share in the joy of it all. The bigger the surprise, the less it can be contained. And all our unwrapping and our sharing is just a faint reflection of God’s own great act of unwrapping himself, to reveal a helpless baby in the arms of two inexperienced parents, It was the mother and father of all surprises. It really no wonder the shepherds ran off to tell everyone they met about the amazing events of an ‘ordinary’ night.
This vulnerable baby who is God in human form has countless siblings; you may now a few of them? You will recognise them because they are a gift that comes unwrapped, with the eyes of need looking straight into your own:
Meet Jenny a single mother, whose boyfriend left here when he found out she was pregnant, this is her first Christmas with her baby boy, and she lives in a one bedroom flat, not much money.
Daniel a University Student who is a Muslim, who can’t understand why the shops are shut on 25th December, what is this Christmas thing all about?
Doris a pensioner who is alone this Christmas.
We all know people who are in need this Christmastide, why not go and surprise them with a touch of God’s love; you might be surprised at the results.
Lord, your gift to us of your self still lies, unwrapped in the forgotten concerns of our world. Give us, today, the joy of rediscovering your presence in the presence of each other. Amen.
The company that could manufacture ‘joy’ and market it in person-sized packages, would be an over night success, Alan Sugar would be very impressed and want to buy the idea, sadly many have tried, and many have failed in dramatic fashion. Everyone lets face it is searching for the magic ingredient that will make the day joyful and bigger and better than last year, we are encouraged to get ourselves into huge debt, buy Waitrose up in one shop to make the best Christmas ever.
Yet this comes at a cost, we hear on TV and Radio of people committing suicide, family break ups, many people simply dread the approach of Christmas, We get so caught up in buying the perfect present, by Boxing Day we are exhausted and too tired to care any more!
Ok that’s the doom and gloom over with; today we celebrate God giving joy to the world, total uncontained, unlimited JOY! So what did the shepherds understand but eludes us today? What are we totally missing the point on?
I wonder if it’s because we try too hard to make the day special with gifts etc, after all shepherds weren’t expecting anything, plus they were too poor to have brought anything if they had been warned known! For the shepherds it was another night on the hillside, just getting on with their routine work, then things started to happen they could never of imagined, you’ve got it God turned up!
First a visitation from some heavenly hosts – enough to make anyone jump, the angles didn’t send a celestial email to ask if it was ok to pop down, the news they had was to momentous that it had to be given without delay, yet the first people to be told were not kings or anyone important in the social scare but humble, smelly uneducated shepherds, they had no image to defend, they in fact had noting apart from the clothes they were wearing and some sheep, yet they received God’s message from the angel, once the initial shock had past they went to Bethlehem without any questioning.
Mary and Joseph must have also been a little shocked to find some unexpected guests and their sheep just turning up! No chance to tidy the stable up or even bake a cake or put the kettle on, they will just have to take them as they found them!
I think God says the same, come on, come and search for me, when you find me your have to take me as I am, where will we find God this Christmas day? Certainly in the hospitality of our friends and family. But maybe more visibly and powerfully, in the faces of those who have no home, no friends, and no resources behind which to hide their extreme vulnerability. A surprise visit to such a person would perhaps surprise us with the warmth it would generate.
Surprises are the very essence of Christmas morning. All those gifts we have carefully concealed are be joyfully unwrapped, some parents I expect where woken at silly o’clock this morning as they were leaped upon in bed with demands to ‘LOOK! And to join in with the new game, admire the new doll; share in the joy of it all. The bigger the surprise, the less it can be contained. And all our unwrapping and our sharing is just a faint reflection of God’s own great act of unwrapping himself, to reveal a helpless baby in the arms of two inexperienced parents, It was the mother and father of all surprises. It really no wonder the shepherds ran off to tell everyone they met about the amazing events of an ‘ordinary’ night.
This vulnerable baby who is God in human form has countless siblings; you may now a few of them? You will recognise them because they are a gift that comes unwrapped, with the eyes of need looking straight into your own:
Meet Jenny a single mother, whose boyfriend left here when he found out she was pregnant, this is her first Christmas with her baby boy, and she lives in a one bedroom flat, not much money.
Daniel a University Student who is a Muslim, who can’t understand why the shops are shut on 25th December, what is this Christmas thing all about?
Doris a pensioner who is alone this Christmas.
We all know people who are in need this Christmastide, why not go and surprise them with a touch of God’s love; you might be surprised at the results.
Lord, your gift to us of your self still lies, unwrapped in the forgotten concerns of our world. Give us, today, the joy of rediscovering your presence in the presence of each other. Amen.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Is Christainity the only way to find God?
I think it would be great to explore how to see God in all faiths and spiritual paths, why does the Christian church find this hard to understand or what to do?
Why are Chrsitian churches so scared of other faithes?
Why are Chrsitian churches so scared of other faithes?
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
I am who I am because of everyone
I am my mum; and my sister.
I am my best friend Mike, who I’ve known since school.
I am Kate, who’s still somewhere in Thailand.
I am all the girls I’ve ever kissed; and the girls I will.
I am the teacher that failed me; and the one that spurred me on.
I am my bosses and every one of my friends.
I am a bloke I’ll meet travelling, who’ll teach me the guitar.
I am the places I’ll go to with mates – and the jokes I’ll share with them.
I am the people who put me down; and the ones who pick me up.
I am who I am because of everyone.
So who makes you the person you are?
I am my best friend Mike, who I’ve known since school.
I am Kate, who’s still somewhere in Thailand.
I am all the girls I’ve ever kissed; and the girls I will.
I am the teacher that failed me; and the one that spurred me on.
I am my bosses and every one of my friends.
I am a bloke I’ll meet travelling, who’ll teach me the guitar.
I am the places I’ll go to with mates – and the jokes I’ll share with them.
I am the people who put me down; and the ones who pick me up.
I am who I am because of everyone.
So who makes you the person you are?
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