Poems, Sermons and Writings

This is a brief reflection for our all-age service Sunday 29 March 2020 EZEKIEL 37:1-14 Imagine a valley full of bones Why does the writer mention they are dry? what is the importance of that? How do our streets look at the moment? Have you seen pictures on tv or the internet of cities with all the shops closed? Maybe these would be images for us today of “dry bones” We look at this passage in Lent and we look forward to celebrating the resurrection from the dead of Jesus But for Ezekiel and his people when he was writing this it had relevance for their current state of affairs - the nation of Israel was living in exile and many of them would have felt like dry bones with no hope of life Ezekiel’s picture of God bringing life to these dead bones was to give his people hope that this time of exile would come to an end. We are all in lockdown now. The streets look dead. But we can live in hope this time will pass. As the pe

Genesis 12:1-4 & Matthew 17:1-9 “Bless you 9 times” my Irish uncle used to say when I was a child after I sneezed. It was a meaningless expression of well-wishing that was uttered automatically. Nothing could be more different than the blessing of Abraham.  Last week our vicar, Sue, spoke of “original blessing” - the story of our God, our world and humanity. Genesis 1-11 can be seen as primeval history. In the stories, which follow creation and original blessing, we find things going horribly wrong - repeatedly. Humanity persists in making disastrous choices. What was true then is true now. We read it in our morning newspapers we see it on the TV news. Today as we contemplate a potential pandemic of Coronavirus we see people hoarding and profiteering. We have corrupted all of God's good gifts -- the gift of family and love, the good gifts of beauty and work, the gift of community among neighbours and nations, and the gift of fellowship with God. In these early chap