Simon Says ...

Luke 7.36-8.3 Some words from the Gospel reading this morning:   Jesus ‘went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.   The twelve were with him, as well as some women’. It’s a great pleasure to be with you this morning.   My thanks to Simon for his invitation, and to you all for your welcome.   I bring greetings to the Cathedral of the Peak from your Cathedral Church in Derby, where we pray for you regularly.   I’m here, I think, because one of the roles I have is as the Director of Curate Training in the Diocese.   So I have been involved with Sue, not least as she prepares to be ordained priest at the end of the month.   I want to say a few things this morning to help us all prepare for that new ministry.   At the end of the Gospel reading this morning we hear that Jesus ‘went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom...

Acts 10.34-43 ; John 20.1-18 “We do not know there they have laid him”.   If the stories of Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection have anything in common, then one of the major common factors has to be that they are all surprises.   Mary is surprised by the gardener.   The eleven disciples are surprised to find Jesus inside a locked room.   The two walking to Emmaus are surprised by a biblical interpreted walking with them.   The eleven are again surprised as they go fishing in Galilee.   And St Paul is surprised (to say the least) by Jesus appearing on the road to Damascus.   Jesus turns up where he is not expected, and that seems to be common to all of the stories of his appearances. When Jesus turns up all kinds of things happen.   There is healing of people and relationships; forgiveness and the rebuilding of community; there are lives transformed by love; and hope and confidence is rekindled.   In the Go...

Synod began, more or less, in silence as we remembered the 21 Coptic Christians martyred in Libya for their Christian faith on the anniversary of their death.   An important moment.   There was little silence thereafter, as we moved into the normal pattern of debates and presentations.   February was a relatively short Synod, across three days.   It was the first meeting of the newly elected Synod other than the short gathering for its inauguration last November.   This means that there were lots of maiden speeches, lots of new voices to listen to. It means that we the newly elected Prolocutors of Canterbury and York (the chairs of the House of Clergy) and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the House of Laity were presented to us.   It feels like the new Synod is still being run in. Business started with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Presidential Address .   This was mostly about the Primate’s meeting, and was clear and helpful.   He spoke of...

Zephaniah 3.14-20 ; Luke 3.7-18 . In the four weeks of Advent we have marked the lighting of the Advent wreath by remembering the preparation that God made for the birth of his Son.   This began with Abraham and continued with the prophets.   Today, the third Sunday of Advent, we reach John the Baptist.   In Christian art, John the Baptist has often been portrayed pointing upwards to heaven.     John points to Jesus.   The image is taken from John’s Gospel, when John says of Jesus, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’.   But it also takes up the Christian understanding of John as the one who prepares the way for the coming of Jesus.   John is a figure of some importance himself – in the Gospel reading this morning we hear how people asked him if he was the Messiah.   But John constantly directs attention away from himself to Jesus.   ‘One who is more powerful than...

--> Today is St Andrew’s day. Andrew is many things – patron Saint of Scotland, known for being crucified on a X-shaped cross.   He seems to merit a special Google home page for his day (but that could just be a feature of his Scottish association).  He is known biblically for being the brother of Simon Peter, and liturgically (at least in the Church of England) the eve of his feast a Day of Intercession and Thanksgiving for the Missionary Work of the Church.   It is these latter two that I have reflected upon today. I find I think of Andrew as the older brother of Simon Peter.   Less inclined to jump in with both feet, and thereby finding himself playing second fiddle much of the time.   It was Andrew who brought his brother to Jesus, and in doing so confesses Jesus as Messiah before his brother ( John 1.35-42 ).   But I am an older brother, so perhaps I’m looking for a scriptural model to balance the more famous elder brother ( Luke...

Review of Tom Wright, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel in News and What Makes it Good (SPCK, 2015). A new Tom Wright book is often a treat, but I confess to being a little under-inspired by the title of this one.   Perhaps it sounded like just another book on the Gospels and their historical basis.   I was wrong, this book has lots to say and is more than another history of Jesus. In fact this is a book about evangelism, about the practice of commending Christian faith to those who are outside the church.   What Wright does really well is to use his knowledge of history to explain what telling the gospel meant in the New Testament and what the implications of that are for today. He starts from the (hardly controversial) observation that the gospel is good news.   That is simply what the Greek work euangelion (gospel) means.   It was used to announce the births, successions and victories of Roman emperors.   Rather b...