Simon Says ...

A meditation for Vocations Sunday I heard the call a long time ago.   Not really sure when it began, but I just began to watch, to look out for where I might find him.   Once I realised I was doing it, I started to listen hard.   My name, Simeon, it means the one who listens.   So I would live up to my name.   I listened for God, and I asked him about this calling.   Was it for me? Why on earth me?   What was I to look for? A new prophet or a holy one?   And from somewhere the answer came – ‘I am calling you.   Look for the Messiah!’ I’ve looked for a long time – I wasn’t always this old – carefully checking and testing.   A few have claimed that they were the one.   But they weren’t.   But just sometimes, there was enough doubt in my mind to leave me confused.   This calling has been a challenge.   Not everyone likes me saying, ‘no, not them.’   And it’s puzzled me why I should be s...

A sermon for the Chrism Eucharist,  Diocese of Derby, Maundy Thursday 2013. 1 Samuel 17.31-33, 37-40 ; John 19.1-5 It had been a hard Lent.  The APCM, the annual church meeting, had not been able to ask a question about the flag we flew in the churchyard without it feeling to me like it had been asked using a baseball bat.  Then, on Low Sunday, I was speaking with a friend of a friend, a retired priest who knew something of what had happened.  “You need to cultivate the skin of a rhinoceros”, he told me.  I think it was possibly the worst piece of advice I was ever given as a parish priest. Our first reading this morning tells us of David being unable to function in the armour of King Saul.   ‘I cannot walk with these’, David complains, ‘for I am not used to them’.   Saul’s armour was good armour.   It protected the king, it identified him as king and conveyed his importance.   Saul’s armour was of no use to Da...

The following is a discussion started for a group looking at Sarah Coakley's introduction to Praying for England , 'Prayer, Presence and the Poor':   I want to start by picking out one word, which occurs twice in the opening paragraph.   The word is ‘re-imagining’. Some of us will know that ‘re-imagining ministry’ is one of the priorities the Church of England has set itself for the next five years.   So it is something of a political word.   In this chapter, the word is linked to something Rowan Williams said at his very first press conference immediately after he had been announced as the Archbishop-elect of Canterbury.   Heady days! And something of an irony to be considering it as he prepares to step down from that role.    But the title of the book, I think, encourages us to drop the prefix, and to imagine.   There is a gentle sporting metaphor in ‘Praying for England’ and for two minutes now, I’d like to crudely take that ge...

Today is Vocations Sunday, a day on which the church invites us to think about God’s calling to us.  Often the word ‘vocation’, particularly when said from the pulpit, means nothing more than a recruitment drive by the church – wanting more clergy or religious or lay ministers or whatever.  But it is important to remember that we are all called by God.  We were called into being by God, our very existence is a response to God’s call.  In fact the church is called ekklesia in the New Testament which means the community that is called together.  So individually and corporately we are called. Together and as individuals we have a vocation.          And our primary calling is to be ourselves.  ‘Be yourself’ is a refrain that we hear a great deal in our society, and it can be give great freedom to be yourself, not to worry about other people’s expectations.  But there are also times when ‘be yourself’ tends to me...