Sunday 24th May 09

The problem with this Sunday's readings are that they are dealing with the rather strange time between Ascension and Pentecost - they have a sense of waiting for something bigger and better - and quite right too.
However, I have a baptism at one of my churches on Sunday, and trying to explain about Ascension AND Pentecost AND the fact that we're in-between the two seems a bit tough on all of us, so I've gone for celebrating Ascension, and linking this in to the Baptism, whilst also trying to prepare from next week's Pentecost service.

So the readings are
Acts of the Apostles (1.4-11)
Luke 24.44-end

And for the sermon I'm taking the Radio 2 campaign for this week 'Love where you live' from three different angles:
Love where you live can be about celebrating where you are - the Radio 2 campaign is about community involvement and talking to your neighbours. But as well as celebrating the specific place where you are, we can celebrate the world into which we have been born - celebrating life itself.
Love where you live can also be about recognising the love which you find around you. When Jesus' risen body was finally taken back into heaven, the disciples found that it wasn't that jesus had gone, but that Jesus had been released from the confines of that body to be with them wherever and whenever they lived. So jesus is where you are - Jesus is with us - and Jesus loves us - so there is love where you live.
And if you punctuate the phrase differently you get to another great cause of celebration: love - where you live! God's love shown us in Jesus enables us to live full lives where we grow and learn to love God and others.

Now I just have to work those thoughts up into a short sermon for the baptism service and an all-age service at the other church...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Faith and Guidance

Genesis 12: 1-9; Romans 4: 13-25   It’s been quite a week for politics. Whatever your party affiliations, there has been a lot of unpredictability and upheaval  - there are going to be 3 by-elections very soon - and we might all be left feeling breathless and wondering ‘what happens next?’.   We might wonder what guidance we might expect our political leaders to seek. And we might, this week, have had our own moments of wondering where to turn for guidance or direction in the turmoil of life.    So it’s rather helpful to look at the story of Abram.   Like all good stories this one is long and multi-faceted and well worth exploring.   Just before the part that we heard, we are told (in Genesis chapter 11)  that Terah, the father of Abram, took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (son of Haran, who had died) and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram’s wife, and set off from Ur of the Chaldees for Canaan. But when they reached Harran they settled there, and there Terah died, leaving Abram as the h
Read more

Abraham and Isaac - a good question!

Genesis 22: 1-14       Matthew 10: 40-42 Isidor Rabi, who was born in Austria in 1898, moved to the United States as a child and won the Nobel prize for physics in 1944. He was once asked by an admiring friend, “Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighbourhood?” Rabi responded: “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: ‘So? Did you learn anything today?’ But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’ That difference – asking good questions – made me a scientist.” I think we could say that living in a relationship with God – which for us means following Jesus Christ – is based on the same principle. Did you ask a good question today? What might our ‘good questions’ be as we read the scriptures today? Let’s look closely at the story of Abraham, bei
Read more

Spring IS coming!

I love to dip into Revgalblogpals, and though I don't usually 'play' at the Friday five questions, I thought that with no sermon to do I would, for a change: Sally writes: Candlemass is past, and Christmas is well and truly over, here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day.... 1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp? I do find it therapeutic to clean the house vigourously - but if you could see the dust you'd know I don't often get round to it! I also make a point of always running, rather than walking, upstairs - something my mum always did until her stroke. 2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer? I try to eat healthily, but my body craves carbohydrate. 3. Brainpower; do
Read more