Dear Friends,
Voting for someone to turn the world upside down!
Luke 19: 42-48
The one person who could make a positive difference in the world would get very few votes at a local, or general, election. I wonder whether he would even be nominated as an Elder in the Church!
THE GROWING PAIN IS HEAVEN’S GAIN!
John 15: 1-8
Love and Gardening are often two words I hear together like bread and butter. Not for me, but I did begin to think that LOVE must be like a set of secateurs in the hands of a gardener who prunes a tree like a parent who helps a child to grow. I don’t suggest threatening a child with the secateurs, but growing up can be a painful process.
Dear Friends,
This week I have been reminded of a reflection I shared a year ago about how we can lean on our Gate in prayer to find a new life waiting for us from John 10 verses 1-10….
We have talked about having to knock on doors in recent months, but we also continue to lean on our Gate as we pray about the future! To get to the door we have to go through a gate!
Dear Friends,
Unmute the muted!
As a Zoom host I have the power to silence people and, if they refuse to be muted, I can dismiss them to a waiting room until they calm down. What power!
Such power is disturbing though because it can be evident in daily life as people have their voice taken away and they are denied the opportunity to tell their story.
Service with Revd. Nick Stanyon –
By what power did you do this? Acts 4
Easter is dangerous. At least to preachers.
Every so often you hear of one ending up in hospital on Easter day. Poisoned. By eating daffodils!!
It was a topic of debate on the URC ministers facebook group again this year, and I have to say I cringed at the comments saying you could eat this bit of the daffodil, but not that bit. In truth, eating any of it can give you a very nasty stomach ache – not at all to be recommended!
Dear Friends,
Plant for the future,
but don’t obscure the vision!
As I sat on a bench in prayer my vision was as far as I could see and that was to the distant horizon. Without vision I will perish, but with it there will always be a horizon.
Our faith takes us on a journey to a horizon, but when we reach it we will have to refocus on a new vision because there will be another horizon. Between my bench and the horizon I could see so much, but there is also a lot I don’t see.
Dear Friends,
When trying to give me some well intentioned advice on taking time off a minister friend of mine said: “When I am expected to be in two places at once I don’t go to either!”
So, what do you do when you are always expected to be in two places at once: NOTHING!
Dear Friends,
Join together to dispel the darkness!
Matthew 5: 14-16
One single light is a sign of hope in the darkness, but a city of lights displaces the darkness and brings hope to life. One voice is a whisper of peace in the silence, but many voices is a choir of angels declaring peace to the world. One light or one voice, can be an inspiring sign or whisper, but it needs others to make something happen.
Dear Friends,
What becomes of the broken hearted…?
I have been reflecting this week on a question asked many years ago by Motown singer Jimmy Ruffin in a hit, “What becomes of the broken hearted?”
Forgive me if it wasn’t your style of music in 1965, or if you weren’t yet born, but Easter is a time for a healing of broken hearts and for people to find new life from their despair and grief.
Dear Friends,
Are you a Christmas child or Easter adult?
As children we do as we are told — more or less! — but when we mature into adulthood we choose what we want to do!
That is what separates Easter and Christmas — and identifies the men from the boys and girls from the women. In between we experience the transition from childhood to adulthood.