Thought for week 3rd Feb 2013

Breath of God:
softer than the beat of an angel’s wing,
building in intensity,
moving, moulding, stirring, churning.

Breath of God:
creating, dividing, building, shaping,
giving light and life,
touching, perfecting, enlivening.

Breath of God:
blowing, inspiring, circling, enfolding,
giving life and breath
intricacy and purpose.

Breath of God:
buffeting, weaving, soaking, connecting,
leaving nothing untouched,
inevitably changed and blessed.
JCH

Thought for the Week Conversion of St Paul

We are taught that Saul, the persecutor of the early followers of Jesus was blinded on the Damascus road and became Paul, the proclaimer of Jesus. The focus on the change in Paul is not the change in name but the change in attitude.Paul brings the understanding of how the Gospel reaches the people. This springs from an encounter with the real hero of the story, the risen Jesus. We are also called by God to share the wonderful news that the risen Jesus, the Son of God, is the Messiah and his kingdom includes all peoples. When all humanity shares this experience of the risen Lord, we will be all one.

Thought for the week Epiphany 3

At Cana the wine did not simply come:
the water became it. That is the divine
method. When Christ came he did not
come in a new order of being: he came in
flesh, as a man. It was this real and actual
human nature that he made divine. We are
to follow that divine method. We are to
take the water of life as we find it and
convert it into wine.
Our lives and circumstances may seem
incapable of fulfilling a divine purpose; yet
it is through these that the divine purpose is
to be fulfilled…. The artist, whatever his
dreams and ideals of beauty may be, does
not quarrel with this world and wait for
another. He sets to work with the lines and
colours that he finds and realises his ideal
through them.
The Christian is the true artist of life….It is
not too much to say that the main business
of the Christian life is to go through the
world turning its water into wine.
Cosmo Gordon Lang

Thought for the week. The Baptism of Christ

Put your hand in mine,
Just trust and follow me
fear no emptiness or confusion,
eventually, the way you’ll see.
Trust me with your self,
I know you through and through,
your doubts and little foibles,
the things you like to do.
I'll lead if you'll let me,
steer you through the wind and storm,
when you think I might have left you,
when you feel alone, forlorn.
After night there follows morning,
and my light makes all things clear.
I'll never leave you stranded,
to me you are very dear.
JCH

Thought for the week Epiphany

Although the scribes could explain where the Messiah should be born, they remained quite unperturbed in Jerusalem. They did not accompany the Wise Men to seek him. Similarly we may be able to explain every article of our faith, yet remain spiritually motionless. The power that moved heaven and earth leaves us completely unmoved.
What a contrast! The three kings had only a rumour to go by. But it spurred them to set out on a long, hard journey. The scribes, meanwhile, were much better informed, much better versed. They had sat and studied the scriptures for years, like so many dons. But it didn’t make any difference. Who had the more truth? Those who followed a rumour, or those who remained sitting, satisfied with all their knowledge?
Søren Kierkegaard


GOSPEL Matthew (2.1–12)

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him,
‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”’

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.