Every four years I share my birthday with the inauguration of a US President. To be honest, I didn’t even notice until the start of President Obama’s first term. Having a birthday that coincided with the inauguration of America’s first black president: that was something to be proud of!
Being asked to change water into wine is Well An occupational hazard for clergy. It is one of those jokes that the people think is original. Every time! “Hey Vicar, we need more wine. How about it!”
Baptism is, among other things, a sign of unity. With the world as divided as it is, that may make baptism the most practical gift we can offer the world right now.
As we enter a new year we welcome the light of Christ, symbolised by the star the Wise Outsiders followed; and we welcome all wise ones from diverse places and perspectives, who come to us as outsiders, looking different from us, speaking different languages, engaging in different customs, holding different beliefs and world views, yet determined, with us, to follow the light of truth. With them we discover anew each year that the search for truth always leads to Jesus – because all light is the light of Christ.
Once upon the very tip of a blue Papermate ballpoint Pen, there lived a Story that longed to be written. Pen was in the hand of a girl called Emily. Emily loved to write! She had written lots of beautiful stories, and she loved every character and landscape and plotline she had ever created. But this time… this time she had decided to write the most beautiful, most moving, most action-packed Story ever. And it was right on the tip of her Pen.
This Gospel reading gives us a glimpse into the exuberance of two pregnant women who know God is up to something new and big – something even newer than their babies and bigger than their bellies! These women are pregnant with very important sons, but they are also pregnant with new life for the whole world, and the hope and expectation within these women draws them to each other.
What image do you have in your mind when you think of peace? Perhaps it is a tranquil lake with tall trees and fluffy white clouds reflected in water that is perfectly still, except for V-shaped ripples that trail behind a family of swans. Perhaps it is a glass of wine in the bath after a long day. Perhaps it is a ceasefire that actually holds. I’m guessing it is probably not a funny looking man in strange clothes shouting that we are all a brood of vipers.
There seems to be a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but not anything we could remotely call peace. The violent mortification of hope in that region continues. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “When you see stuff like that happening, straighten your back and lift your head because your redemption is at hand.”
Jesus has told his followers – again! – that when they get to Jerusalem he is going to be condemned and killed then rise again in three days. This is hard information to take in. They don’t want to believe it. They also don’t want to conclude that he is mistaken, because then they might have to leave him, and they don’t want that.
The Book of Job is the place in the Bible where we tend to go for answers to questions about why good people suffer. It pushes this question to extremes by presenting us with a hypothetical situation in which an utterly righteous person suffers horrendously in every dimension of life, and then invites us to watch – to see how this might unfold.