I can remember from my early years at infant school loving the hymn; ‘We plough the fields and scatter’ like all young children I sang it with gusto but without a clue at to what it was all about. For someone, like me, a complete born and raised ‘townie’; ‘Harvest’ is a sort of alien concept. As I’ve just said when I was growing up it was something we sang about at School and then ignored it for the rest of my adolescence and early adult life. It was only on returning to faith that I re-encountered...

Jonah 3:10-4:11

Poor old Jonah, never really got it right. First of all when asked by God to act as a prophet, he shot off down to Joppa and boarded a ship in an attempt not to do God’s bidding. We all know what happened with the ‘big fish’ and how he was spewed onto Nineveh’s waterfront beach. It shook that city into repentance but it sent Jonah into a deep sulk! Jonah felt sorry for himself. He realised that he had not been able to hide from God and when he eventually gave in and warned the people of...

Matthew 18:21-35

“21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ ²²Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. “

Matthew 18:21-22

Don’t just forgive once but forgive time and time again. For useless you do Jesus warns us:

“³⁵So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’”

Matthew 18:35

Forgive, forgive, forgive and God will forgive...

We regularly cheer ourselves up by watching classic sitcoms and reflecting, as one is increasingly inclined to do with advancing years, that “they don’t make them like that any more.” Recently we have enjoyed revisiting The Good Life and the title reminds us that, as Dean pointed out last Sunday, much of the teaching in Paul’s letter to the Romans is about how to live the good life which is the life in Christ. In last week’s passage, Paul provides a list of  “do’s”. This week’s passage begins and ends with a list of “don’t’s” but Paul’s advice is rooted...

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Jeremiah seems to be asking God to remember him despite anything he might do or not do. To remember him in his good deeds and in his forgetfulness. The forgetfulness is important here. Jeremiah tells God that he ‘ate his words’ and that wonderful phrase that reminds me of the Bible Sunday collect about hearing and inwardly digesting the Word of God:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience and the comfort of your holy...