Today we have two Gospel stories about being lost and being found. A sheep and a coin are lost. Their owners, a shepherd and a housewife go to great lengths to find them. Scripture speaks about human beings who wander away from God being ‘lost’, and these two stories Jesus told tell us something about …
Did you imagine that coming to church today would be a nice peaceful, comfortable experience? That you would be sitting comfortably? Well once again, as we listen to the outspoken Jesus of Luke’s Gospel, we find ourselves being disturbed and challenged about how we should live. Isn’t that so often the case when Jesus gets …
This morning we welcome Bishop Mark among us for the first time, and we look forward to him preaching for us. Bishop, we are glad you have come to lead us in this Diocese, and we extend a very warm welcome to you today from All Saints’ Parish. Hospitality and sharing food are core issues …
Today’s Gospel focuses on rules, law and grace, or more specifically, Sabbath rules, as Jesus faces the question of whether healing on the Sabbath is lawful. We also meet two people who have a deformity. One, the old bent-up woman, has a physical deformity of the spine that makes it difficult for her to walk or …
Today we mark Mary’s day. Mary the Mother of our Lord. As Anglicans, we tend to have an uneasy relationship with Mary; we are uncomfortable with deifying her or sentimentalising her, but as so often happens, in dismissing her and pushing her aside, we throw the baby out with the bathwater and forget her genuine …
By faith…by faith….by faith. These words echo through today’s epistle like a heartbeat. Faced with challenges, faced with difficult circumstances, the thing all these heroes have in common is that they trusted in God, stepping out in faith often against the odds. They acted in faith, and by faith. What then is this faith, where …
Today we mark the Feast Day of St James, apostle and martyr. We celebrate Saints’ days as a reminder that we are all called to be Saints, and to remember that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who call us on in faith. We remember great saints and lesser saints, all of whom struggled …
We are all familiar with this story of life in the house at Bethany, and most women have a secret soft spot for Martha and her dilemma! But here in this house, with his good friends, Jesus points out just how we can lose sight of what’s really important. There is no one who hasn’t been worried, …
Last week we were thinking together about Jesus’ invitation to each of us; ‘follow me’. Jesus is not inviting us to be part of an established religion, but part of a lifestyle that is simple, non-violent, shared and above all, loving. But today, we find that this is not only a call for us to …
Today we enter into a long period of ‘Ordinary Time’, a time when all the big festivals are over, and we can settle into some simple quiet time, if spending time with Jesus could ever be called ‘quiet time’. Jesus has a habit of stirring us up, and unsettling our nice settled, ordered ways. Throughout this …