Do you know who Jesus was?

Sometimes when I see someone for the first time in years, often in a setting where I would expect to meet them, I often cannot remember their name. If they have had a makeover since that time it makes them even harder to recognise. You feel embarrassed because it is someone who has recognised you and you are trying to bring to mind something about them, sometimes from the distant past. Afterwards, and it is often afterwards, you remember a number of things when the pressure is off. Now I want you to imagine you are out in the street. It can be any street and Jesus comes walking up to you and greets you. Now you do not know this man and he may not fit in with your image of what Jesus looks like and you reject him. Jesus disciples may have known Jesus by sight but they had not recognised who Jesus truly was. Certainly Jesus was not the warrior king who was going to lead them into battle against their Roman oppressors. He was gentle in his manners but radical in his teaching. So no he was not a warrior king. He was man of peace. He had confronted the scribes who had become over legalistic and set down many rules for people to follow so they did things the correct way but Jesus told them they were wrong and were too controlling. We were to love one another as he loved us, and to love God with all heart, mind and being. Jesus did this in his life loving the many that the scribes made outcasts and brought them healing and wholeness again. He included them when others excluded them. Jesus was remarkable man then. Perfect it would seem and still they did not get it. In Mark 4: 35-41 Jesus calms a storm. He has power over creation. They will not truly get who Jesus is until the Ressurrection. The perfect man, who has power over creation and rises to new life after dying a painful and humilating death. Who do you think Jesus was?

What does nature tell us about God?

Can we tell what God is like by looking at nature? What will it tell us of God if we do? Let's look at it from a human perspecitvie first if I look at a chair what I can tell of its maker? I can tell the chair had a design which the maker put together. I might also ascertain from looking at the chair, that the maker was a good craftsman. However I cannot tell whether the maker was loving or cruel to his family. In other words I cannot tell from looking at the chair the personality of the maker. I would need other things and other sets of knowledge. I might need to meet the maker themselves. We meet God, through the Bible. It tells of our journey of understanding God. We meet God through Jesus. We can experience God in our daily lives. So while looking nature may point us to God it does not take into a relationship with him or give us clues to what he is like in any great detail.

New Year Resolutions

We are now in 2012. I am sure some of us have made new year resolutions. It is often our intention to keep them but how long before we stop going to the Gym or starting eating chocolate again? We all need discipline and help. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is not easy to do on one's own. We can waver as we need the support of other Christians to build us up and we need Jesus. We get that through looking through the pages of the New Testament and especially the gospels to help live as he would have us. We can also pray for the strength and courage to follow Christ in todays world.

Waiting that is almost over

As I write this it is Christmas Eve. Tommorrow will be Christmas Day 2011. The first Christmas saw a group of people waiting for someone to come and liberate them from the things that opressed them. In this case it was the Romans. The Hebrew Nation had long been under their control, and they longed for a warrior to liberate them. The promised Messiah who would lead them. They got a fragile baby, vulnerable like us. He was God as man. He would lead people away from the things that held them back from being with God the father. He loved, cared, showed compassion, and challenged authority but never lifted a finger. He loves us still today. Even though he went on trial for petty reasons and suffered a horrible death God the father raised him to new life. He wants each of us to enter into his world as he entered into ours.

Going Home!

I was once drifted away from Church. It was a hard time and personal issues made it difficult to see what Church was and what God was saying to me. However I realised that no matter you are St James' church accepts you as you are and allows you to grow and flourish as people. So why not follow me Back to Church this Sunday 25th September 2011 at 10.30am at St James URC, Palmerston Road, Buckhurst Hill?

Making An Entrance

If you were an important man or woman what sort of entrance would you make?


If you were God what sort of entrance would you make?


Would the answer to either of these questions be riding into town on a donkey?

Well that's what Jesus did on Palm Sunday. He certainly had people celebrating and some somewhat perplexed by the manner of his entrance for a man who claimed to the Son of God this seemed unorthodox. Perhaps because God is bigger than all of us he does need to be flash with his entrance. Jesus was a humble person, a person who lived the best sort of life a human can do. God as man.

Next week we celebrate Easter and remember Christ and his trials. We celebrate his rising over death, and reflect on what it means to be new people.

Mothers Day

What is mothering Sunday? Well it was a time when children in service used to be reunited with their mothers (and fathers) and with their mother church. Today it is a time when we celebrate mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, step-mothers, mothers-in-law and those who mother to us generally. We celebrate the times they look after us, especially when we are young. When they feed us, clothe us, clean up our room and keep a close eye on our safety and well being.

The bible has many stories of mothers. Hannah who had Samuel, Naomi who lost her children only to find a loyal daughter-in-law in Ruth, Eve, who is the first mother in the bible and Mary who gave birth to Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian faith.. We get a hint that even in his ministry Mary was keeping an eye on him.

When I was born, not only did I have a mother but two grandmothers and a great-grandmother too. I celebrate with other people today as I no longer have any of these people physically here but I hold onto the Christian hope that I will one day see them in the Resurrection life. Since losing my mother this has been of great comfort to me. This hope is founded on Jesus Christ who died but rose again to new life for all and he offers each one of us this too.