18th July 2010 - "Choosing what is better"

Colin Hull - All Saints', St Michael's and Peter's, Tewin
Genesis 18: 1-10
Col 1: 15-28
Luke 10: 38-end

Introduction - Martha and the special guest

Jesus has arrived and Martha is trying get a meal prepared. Ladies you know what is it like looking after special guest who has just arrived, especially if he has turned up unexpectedly.You want to show hospitality to an important friend- doing as much as you can to make him feel at home.

You get the drinks. Cooking or roasting some meat or fish. You’re slicing the veg and boiling some water but worried is all taking too long. You’ve got to lay the table as well. You’re worried the room looks untidy and wondering if you should get the broom out.

Then you notice your sister (or husband or other relative) sitting chatting with him. Wish you had the chance to sit down too but some one’s got to get things ready! How dare they sit there while you are working to get things ready? Maybe you get a bit angry.

So you complain to your guest you’re being left to do everything and no one is helping you. But He replies in a gentle way that actually your sister is doing the better thing sitting at his feet and chatting to him. She has got it right while you are worrying to much and scurrying around.

I wonder what you think of that. Mary sitting at Jesus feet is doing a better thing than you trying to be practical and hospitable. The implication is that your activity is not the right response at this point in time. He wants your attention rather than worried hospitality

4th July 2010 - "The harvest is plenriful"

Diane Whittaker
Luke 10.1-11,16-20

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

When I was a Ridley Hall, training for ministry, the one thing I dreaded was being sent out on a mission like the one Ron Dale remembers…

In the glorious summer of 1959 I was sent out from my theological college with three other students with a brief to preach the gospel in villages and towns along a prearranged 750 mile route across England.

We depended on the local people for hospitality, and they mostly gave us a warm welcome. However I did have two experiences which I’ve never forgotten.

4th July 2010 - "That still small voice"

Usha Hull - Ayot St Peter's and St Peter's, Tewin
Mark 6 7-29

The poet John Milton once wrote about conscience:

‘He that has light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day,
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid day sun –
Himself is his own dungeon.’

Conscience has been described as God’s very presence in man, that still small voice that whispers through the fire and the storm and is responsible for much happiness or unhappiness within our souls. It is true that ideas about good and bad vary from place to place in every age and indeed at every stage of a human life. Yet there remains for each human being an inner conviction that there is a difference between right and wrong, an urging towards the right, and a shame when we submit to compulsion or temptation and do the wrong instead.

27th June 2010 - "A calling that’s never Far, Far Away"

Usha Hull - St Mary's and St Michael's
Luke 9 51-62

I’d like to take you on a journey of imagination to the Kingdom of Far Far Away. Those of you who are fans of the Shrek movies, myself among them, will know that the Kingdom of Far Far Away is peopled with characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Today in our Kingdom of Far Far Away, the good citizens have formed a team to play in a major World Football Tournament. But there are problems right from the start.

The three little pigs, for example, are putting all their energies into a constant power struggle, vying with each other for pride of place. Pinnochio declares his absolute commitment in a flowery speech, but as he does so his nose grows longer and longer, because although he professes undying fidelity, he is telling porkies, and he’s secretly planning to sneak off halfway through. The fairy godmother is determined to be part of it all, not because she sees it as a worthwhile project but because she wants the power and the glory, so she’s busy brewing up some spells. Donkey spends all his time criticising what others are doing and dictating to them, rather than concentrating on what he should be doing. Puss in Boots looks adorable but does very little actual work.

Similarly, Prince Charming is spending most of his time on his fancy hairdo rather than on his fancy footwork. Cinderella would like to be part of the action, but only on her own terms. And Shrek, the team manager, is behaving like a true ogre by bullying everyone in sight, rather than seeking to get the best out of the players. Not unsurprisingly, the Far Far Away football team loses and is sent home in disgrace, not at all like our own England football team who thankfully are still in there with a chance, at least till this afternoon.

20th June 2010 - "Demoniac"

Diane Whittaker
Luke 8.26-39

The story of the demoniac is quite a difficult one to approach today I think – we are a little uneasy with the idea of demons as beings – often commentators will dismiss the story as indicative of how people viewed people with mental problems in Jesus’ time.

Yet – if we look at the popularity of books such as Dan Brown’s ‘Angels and Demons’ or the films such as ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘The Shining’ – society still seems to be fascinated by the possibility that demons may really exist…..

So – should we take this story seriously? Martin Warner, one of the commentators on this story whose article I read in preparation for this sermon seems to think so….He says

“the persistence of a fascination for demons suggests that we should take seriously what the evangelists say about the person Jesus met on the hills that rise over the far side of Lake Galilee. Their description of the man having demons is deliberate, and we are still capable of understanding what these writers meant even if we cannot fully account for the phenomenon. The man had demons: we all have to a greater or lesser extent” Who has not spent a wakeful night terrified of the darkness – and worried by the demons that speak of death and the loss of those we love.

I love Trevor Dennis’s retelling of the story – he leaves out the part where the pigs self destruct, but does pull out the possible reason for the demons possessing the man….. read the story. (in the Book of Books)

So where does that leave us?

20th June 2010 - "Reclothe us in our rightful minds"

Usha Hull - All Saints', Datchworth and St Michael's
Luke 8 26-39

It’s a beautiful day in early summer, with clouds that scud across a blue sky and spells of sunlight that come and go. A young farmer is helping his uncle to trim hedges. A devoted father to two boys, a loving husband to his adoring wife, possibly the last thing on his mind is death in that morning filled with sun and shade. Yet minutes later he lies dead, shot in a massacre that shocks the world.

Weeks later, the questions remain. Why did a Cumbria taxi driver by the name of Derrick Bird take up a gun and massacre twelve innocent people? What causes a seemingly ordinary man to become a mass murderer? What happened to cause the streets of one of the world’s most beautiful regions to run with blood on that lovely summer’s day? Possibly the questions will never be answered in this life.