Category: faith

Bible · Church · faith · Me · Prayer

Why I Believe In Jesus

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There’s a passage in John’s Gospel, (Chapter 5 verses 31 – 47) where Jesus explains reasons for people to people in him. Here they are:

1 John the Baptist. John came with a message of truth, and an important part of that message pointed to Jesus.

2 The works that Jesus was doing. Even more than John’s witness, the works that Jesus was doing were evidence.

3 God the Father. The Father also gives witness to Jesus, but where minds are closed, and there is a refusal to believe, it is impossible to hear his voice.

4 The Scriptures. Openness to hear the truths contained in the written word leads to a revelation of the ‘Living Word’ (Jesus)

So, the question is – why do I believe in Jesus ?

  1. The people who, like John the Baptist, showed me Jesus.
    My Sunday School teacher, Jim Gravett. Jim was also a teacher at my secondary school, so I saw his faith lived out in the work setting as well as at church. I remember outings that we went on a children – sometimes a walk in the Sussex countryside, after which we would all go back to Jim’s house where he and his wife would cook us something like beans on toast. Simple hospitality that I remember from 50+ years ago. Jim kept a range of animals at the bottom of the garden and we were captivated by watching his ferrets run around the garden. Jim kept chickens at school as well, and would take the left over communion bread and feed it to the hens. An earthy, simple faith.
    Bob and Julie Phipps, who attended our church, and experienced several bereavements – losing a son in a road accident and another son as well – I can’t remember the circumstances. Yet they were the most alive and faith filled couple I knew. They talked about their faith with enthusiasm; they believed that God answered prayer, and had a long string of faith stories to prove it.
    My parents, who brought me up in a relaxed way that allowed me to take things at my pace, and never forced things on me.
    My uncle Hugh and Aunty Mary. Hugh would look for opportunities to have a one to one with his nephews and nieces and would be sure to ask us how things were between us and God. They were both so generous with their home, having an open table on a Sunday lunch time for anyone to join the family. I spent so many Sundays with them when I was a student, enjoying the food and the company.
    Gareth Bolton, a primary school teacher who would spend every holiday working with a Christian mission agency. His faith in action was inspiring. His charity, AMEN, is now supporting thousands of small communities around the world.
    David and Dorothy Bond; David was the vicar of St James Church in Selby, North Yorkshire, and set for me an example of Christian leadership. A gentle, humble man, with a passionate faith. Together David and Dorothy modelled hospitality and welcomed us into the church and into their lives.
  2. The works of God/Jesus that I have seen in my own life and in the lives of others. Christians who have lived a life of faith, whilst experiencing great suffering and difficulty. Answers to prayers that have sometimes been ‘yes’, sometimes ‘no,’ and sometimes ‘not now.’
  3. God. Always trying to live with an openness to what God is doing in me and around me. A sense of God’s care – what the Old Testament calls ‘steadfast love and faithfulness.’
  4. The Scriptures. So many times God has spoken to me through something in scripture. I wish I had written them all down, because my memory lets me down. I will read a passage, or a verse, and it will immediately connect with something that I am asking, or something I am about to do. I have heard it called serendipity, but for me it is God at work, and it happens so often that I couldn’t explain it away.

Here’s the passage – John 5:31-47

Witnesses to Jesus

31 If I speak for myself, there is no way to prove I am telling the truth. 32 But there is someone else who speaks for me, and I know what he says is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he told them the truth. 34 I don’t depend on what people say about me, but I tell you these things so that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you were glad to enjoy his light for a while.

36 But something more important than John speaks for me. I mean the things that the Father has given me to do! All of these speak for me and prove that the Father sent me.

37 The Father who sent me also speaks for me, but you have never heard his voice or seen him face to face. 38 You have not believed his message, because you refused to have faith in the one he sent.

39 You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, 40 but you refuse to come to me for eternal life.

41 I don’t care about human praise, 42 but I do know that none of you love God. 43 I have come with my Father’s authority, and you have not welcomed me. But you will welcome people who come on their own. 44 How could you possibly believe? You like to have your friends praise you, and you don’t care about praise that the only God can give!

45 Don’t think that I will be the one to accuse you to the Father. You have put your hope in Moses, yet he is the very one who will accuse you. 46 Moses wrote about me, and if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. 47 But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say?

faith · Song for Today

Song For Today #21

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This song came to mind reading a part of psalm 107 (verses 10-16, below). Maybe the greatest gift that one person can give to another in these days is hope. Hope in what often seems to be a hopeless world. I came across the song on an album by Eric Bibb (Painting Signs). The version I have chosen (below) is performed by one of the writers of the song – Phil Roy.

10 Some sat in darkness and in gloom,
    prisoners in misery and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
    and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Their hearts were bowed down with hard labour;
    they fell down, with no one to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress;
14 he brought them out of darkness and gloom,
    and broke their bonds asunder.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
    for his wonderful works to humankind.
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze,
    and cuts in two the bars of iron.

Hope in a Hopeless World – Phil Roy

Baby born in New York City
Wrapped in a blanket that’s tattered an’ worn
Mother doin’ the best she can
Teachin’ hope in a hopeless world

Eldest son, he stayed in school
Listened to his mother, didn’t drink or use
Yet, every job he wants he gets refused
It takes hope in a hopeless world

Lookin’ for hope in a hopeless world
Searchin’ for love in such hateful times
Tryin’ to stay strong when my mind gets weak
Looking for hope in a hopeless world

On the corner stands a young girl
The home she left was from a better part of town
Her daddy did things she couldn’t talk about
Is there hope in a hopeless world?

Ya got a quarter for the homeless man?
Spare some change for the soldiers
Who fought the war
Put some money in their hats an’ in their tins
Give them hope in a hopeless world

Lookin’ for hope in a hopeless world
Searchin’ for love in such hateful times
Tryin’ to stay strong when my mind gets weak
Looking for hope in a hopeless world
Lookin’ for hope in a hopeless world…
Tryin’ to ease my mind…

We got to listen to the voice inside
That speaks of love – don’t compromise
Realise time is passin’ by
There are mountains to climb,
We can’t be standing still

Churches are full, but the prayers are not heard
Saturday’s child don’t wanna go to sunday school
Whatever happened to the golden rule
Teach them hope in a hopeless world

Somebody out there’s got to listen
Somebody out there’s got to know
What i’m talkin’ ’bout
Raise your hand, raise your hand if you’re with me
There’s hope in a hopeless world

Lookin’ for hope in a hopeless world
Searchin’ for love in such hateful times
Tryin’ to stay strong when my mind gets weak
Looking for hope in a hopeless world
Lookin’ for hope in a hopeless world…
Gotta find love in a hopeless world…

Songwriters: Robert Thiele / Phil Roy

faith · Prayers

A Prayer For This Day

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God of earth and sea and sky
God of flesh and joy and sigh
God of every seam of life

In the quiet of the garden
With the hum of traffic
And the urgent sound of siren

Cover all with your patient love
Plat in us new seeds of hope
Renew our faltering faith

So that our purpose, our passion
May be driven by heaven sent engines
To bring all things to one glorious whole
Alive in harmony

16.7.20

Bible · faith · Political · Theology · World Affairs

With Prayers For The Landless

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I was reading in Psalm 105 this morning

For he (Yahweh) remembered his holy promise
    given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
    his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
    and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—
45 that they might keep his precepts
    and observe his laws.

There is much that I find helpful in the Old Testament to do with God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to his covenant people. But I have a problem with God giving his chosen people land that others have lived in and toiled over. (See above verse 44)

With verses like that in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is, maybe, not surprising that Benjamin Netanyahu is still hell bent on annexing more land from the Palestinian people.

It is possible to find in holy scripture a warrant for the most evil of deeds. Christians must acknowledge that, and attempt to read the whole story of God and his people. In the prophet Isaiah for example, we see that God’s blessing is in fact intended for every people, and not just Israel. And in the verses below, Isaiah had harsh words for those who steal the land of others.

Ah, you who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!
(Isaiah chapter 5 verse 8)

And his conclusion is that they will get their reward

9 But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    swear a solemn oath:
“Many houses will stand deserted;
    even beautiful mansions will be empty.
10 Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine.
    Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”
(Isaiah Chapter 5 verse 9,10)

With prayers for justice for the Palestinian people, and all those whose land has been illegally taken.

Bible · Church · faith · Theology

Walking Backwards Into The Future

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In case you haven’t been here before, I’m writing from a Christian perspective, and seeking to understand more fully what it means to live ethically and authentically as a follower of Jesus Christ. This post was triggered by listening to an interview with Rev Sam Wells, the vicar of St Martin in the Fields (London, UK).

I love this image. If you ‘walk forward’ into the future, you will have little idea what resources you might discover that will help to face the challenges you will meet. If you ‘walk backwards’ into the future you see the resources that people have used in the past that can help you in the future.

He couples this image with the idea of history being like a five act play. Tom Wright first suggested this as a way of seeing history. Sam Wells takes the idea and tweaks it:
Tom Wright: 1. Creation. 2. Fall. 3. Israel. 4. Jesus. 5. The Church
Sam Wells: 1. Creation. 2. Covenant. 3. Jesus. 4. The Church. 5. Consummation: New Heaven and New Earth

In the Sam Wells scheme, the Bible forms key parts of the script – Acts 1 – 3. Our life of faith is like a performance, where we are the performers, acting out our part in Act 4.

But we are not acting from a set script. It’s as if we are in an improvisation, and playing our part, but in keeping with what we have seen already in Acts 1 – 3. Scripture is not a rule book to follow, but a story where we have our part to play.

The idea of improvisation is a fascinating one. It’s not about trying to be the clever, witty one who plays it just for laughs, because that can just kill the story. That’s a very individualistic approach. It’s more of a collective enterprise where we are responding to other in the improv, trying to create the best that we can together. That makes it a bit like a game of ‘keepie uppie,’ where you and your friends are kicking a ball around and trying to keep it in the air for as long as possible. That’s not about doing an amazing kick, but simply keeping the ball in play.

As we play our part in Act 4 of the story of God and humanity, we walk backwards into the future, receiving all the gifts that God has given us to play our part.

A key aspect of the life of faith is the extent to which we live – day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year – actively seeking to allow God to shape and reshape us. It is this disciplined practice that will allow us to act in ways that contribute our best as God’s people for God’s world.

There are many examples of the ways this works – I have one ‘true life’ example and one fictional. The first is the account of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, so brilliantly told in the film ‘Sully’. In the film Ches is piloting a plane and has just taken off from La Guardia airport. The plane is hit by a flock of birds and the engines disabled. Knowing both engines are not functioning, he makes a deicision not to try and get to an airport, but to land the plane on the Hudson river, which he does, with no loss of life. A subsequent investigation suggests that he made the wrong decision and that he could have landed safely at La Guardia or Teterboro airports. It’s only when they run a simulation that faithfully recreates the situation in real time that he is proved to be right. If he had tried to get to an airport, it would have been certain disaster. It is his years of flying that enables him – in just 35 seconds – to make the right decision, almost by instinct. he was called a hero, but his reponse was “I’m not a hero, I’ve been rehearsing for this.” It is similarly the disciplines of faithful godly living that will help the Christian to make the right ethical decisions in the heat of the moment.

The fictional story, that I have mentioned in another post is the book by John Irving – A Prayer For Owen Meany. Once more, it is years of self discipline that makes it possible for Owen to make the right decision in the moment of crisis that is the climax of the book.

Sadly, the church has not always received the resources that God has provided. The result being that we have chosen scarcity and not plenty. It is only in recent years that the church of which I am a member (Anglican / Church of England) has begun to accept the ministry of women. Other gifts that we have been slow to receive are the treasures that we have missed by neglecting, rejecting and even oppressing those with disabilities and the LGBT+ community and what they could bring to God’s church.

Last thing, before I go for now. There’s a wonderful phrase that is originally in french – La disponsibilite – coined by french acting instructor Jaque Lecoque. In English the best translation is probably ‘relaxed awareness.’ Sam Wells uses this phrase to describe what our attitude might be to playing our part in God’s story.

It’s not about us being the ones to save the world. That’s God’s domain. It’s about following Jesus as best we can, and waiting expectantly for those opportunities to put our faith into practice. We don’t have to get it all right. God can deal with our mistakes.

None of this is mine – it’s just me trying to process what I’m learning and pass it on – in this case my thanks to Sam Wells and Tom Wright. If you get a chance to listen to the Sam Wells interview (highlighted at the top), please do

Grace and Peace.

Activism · faith · Greenbelt Festival, · LIterature · Me · music · Poetry

Greenbelt Is Wild At Home

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Every year for the past 20 years we have been to the Greenbelt Festival of Artistry, Belief and Activism over the August Bank Holiday. There is a different theme each year – this year’s theme was to be ‘Wild At Heart,’ but it’s being re-imagined as ‘Wild At Home.

We’re really disappointed that Greenbelt isn’t happening in the usual way, but excited that the Greenbelt spirit will be alive and well in spite of the pandemic.

So throughout the pandemic, Greenbelt have been creating online content, and this all comes together on 29th August when there is a whole day of Greenbelt offerings.

We’ve signed up to join in (at a minimal cost of £10), but in addition, we’re going to be doing our own ‘Wild At Home.’ We’ll be spending the Friday with our daughter and son-in-law and family (The Greens, appropriately!) and making our own mini festival.

On a ‘normal’ year, we would arrive at the festival site in the late morning, get the tent up, have a cuppa and a sandwich, and then pore over the programme for the weekend. (Which goes from Friday evening to late Monday evening). At about 5 pm Friday, things kick off on the Festival Village ….

So this is a rough programme for our ‘Green Belt’ (Kindly hosted by the Greens). We’ll be arriving at normal Greenbelt time on the Friday to put the tent up … etc etc.

Rachel, our daughter is working out the fine details, but it will include Greenbelt favourites including :

  • Fischy Music, (by kind arrangement with Jon, and Bev).
  • Food (Courtesy Mr and Mrs Green)
  • Camping (In the garden)
  • Toilets (proper ones)
  • Sports (Trampolining)
  • Tiny Tea Tent (Yes, really)
  • Open Mic Session
  • Family Twist (Hosted by the Greens)
  • Make and Create (The Make and Create team)

Whatever you are missing this summer – even so, I hope you might find a way to do something fun and soul satisfying

Bible · faith · Theology

Discovering The God Of Plenty

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I’m pleased to have started the C25K – couch to 5k – a programme to take me from having little cardio exercise during the last four months, to being able to run continuously for 30 minutes.

The podcast that I listened to today on my run was an interview with Sam Wells. Sam is vicar of St Martin in the Fields Church in London. There’s so much in what I’ve heard today, I’m not sure where to start. This will be a brief post, just aiming to make one simple, but important assertion. More to follow another day.

I think the best starting point is to note that we often function as though we live in a world of scarcity. Not enough resources. We’re always fighting a losing battle. But if we set against that the world view of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament we find that they affirm the opposite. God has given us all that we need. We do, in fact, live in a world of plenty, a world of abundance.

I’ll come back to the way Sam Wells argues this on a later post, but for now I’ll just offer a thought from my Bible reading today. As so often happens, I find that things come together in ways I could not have planned. After my run I read John chapter 2, and the account of Jesus turning water into wine.

If you don’t know the story, you can read it here

I’ve read this passage often, and preached on it more than a few times, and I always see something fresh. Today, it’s the way this gospel passage seems to be saying exactly what Sam Wells was talking about. In the story, the wine at a wedding has run out, and Jesus turns over 120 gallons of water into wine. That should be enough!

In 11 verses, we get something that should be foundational to faith. God is a God of plenty, not scarcity.

Of course that raises all sorts of questions about what we see around us, with people living in poverty and so on. There is more to say that sheds light on this, but I’ll have to leave it it until next time.

Grace and peace

Church · faith

One Of Those ‘Godincident’ Moments

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I’m reading in John’s Gospel, and today read this:

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

Reading this reminded me of a Sunday morning probably in January 2008. I was preaching on this passage at the church where I was vicar – St Nicholas, Beverley. We spent the longest time there that we have lived anywhere, and it was a very rich, sometimes tough, but basically a brilliant time for us.

My text for the day was ‘Come and See.’

I had noticed during the service someone I didn’t recognise sitting near the back of the church. At the end of the service I was keen to introduce myself to her, and as it turned out, she also wanted to speak with me.

Jane’s story was that she had woken early that morning, and decided to take a walk along the Beck – the canal that comes into Beverley from the river Hull. As she was walking, she sensed a voice saying ‘Come and See.’ Jane was a Christian, but for some time had been away from the church. Sadly this is a common experience, and is often due to the words and actions of church leaders that result in people leaving.

When Jane ‘heard’ the words, she knew what it meant. She knew that she had to find a church to go to straight away. Jane and Nigel lived just by the Beck, only a few hundred yards away from St Nicholas Church, and so it was that she walked through the door that January morning, only to hear the words ‘Come and See.’ It wasn’t long before Jane and Nigel became a part of our community at St Nicholas. Wherever you are today, may God bless you.

A Walk along Beverley Beck
Beverley Beck

Grace and Peace

faith · Me · Song for Today

Song for Today #18 – Woyaya

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This song is from a beautiful album by Art Garfunkel – Angel Clare. The original version is by Osibisa. You could find a video of Osibisa singing this live, but this is the version that is special to me. When I was a vicar, I introduced this song to our band – it’s not overtly a ‘Christian’ song, or even religious, but it seems to me that any song that speaks honestly about our humanity can be sung to God.

Angel Clare - Wikipedia
Angel Clare – 1973 Album by Art Garfunkel

Woyaya (Woyaya means ‘We keep going’)

We are going, heaven knows where we are going,
We know we will
And We will get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

It will be hard we know
And the road will be muddy and rough,
But we’ll get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

Keep on going – Grace and Peace