Curate Conundrums

  How are your preparations for Christmas going? Perhaps some of you are inwardly or outwardly rolling your eyes at the mention of it, but are you prepared? Have you got the Christmas tree? Have you ordered the figgy pudding? If you’re getting presents have you got them yet? In life we prepare for things all the time, meetings, seeing people, travelling places, what we’re going to eat, when are we going to do the laundry, or the gardening if we have one. We’re very fortunate to have Rob here at St Augustine’s who does so much planning for us, he gets the fruit, makes the coffee and even mows our lawns. We’re very fortunate to have our musicians, who think about what we’re going to sing, practice and enhance our worship. We’re very fortunate to have Carrie and Judy, who help in the setting up of this service, and we’re very fortunate to have all the rest of you here, who most likely planned to be here and are all wonderful! But here’s another question, are you prepared for the...

Having moved to Sprowston very recently, thanks for hiring me by the way… I’d never been to big Tesco. I’d hear stories of Big Tesco, fables, tales about it. Hev' yeh bin up big Tescoo yet? Someone asked me. You’ll be pleased to hear that I have had the quintessentially Sprowston Experience of Big Tesco. That and getting the 11 bus into town. But I find Big Tesco overwhelming, I hate going in there. It’s just too big. There are too many choices. I can’t prioritise what I want, that’s why I’m a Lidl man. I don’t mean short, I mean there’s fewer choices and I actually prefer it. It’s less overwhelming, the bakery’s good as well, I’ve been known to polish off a goats cheese foccachia every now and then. Anyway my point is this. Priorities, choice we’re surrounded by them. What are our priorities? I ask this question not in a judgemental way but in a spirit of genuineness, what are our priorities? What choices do we face? We’re surrounded by priorities, choices, lives, mess. ...

  I tell you what, thank God God’s forgiveness and grace isn’t anything like ours. Is anyone else relieved by that? Human forgiveness falls short. If we look through history, we can see the affects of unforgiveness on our society. It’s dangerous. Wars, famines and many atrocities have all been caused due to a lack of grace and forgiveness. We’re obsessed with people getting what they deserve. You pays your money, and you takes your choice. What if I told you that it’s not as simple as that? What if I told you that’s not the way the kingdom of God works? If anything I think we’re more vengeful than God ever has been. I think we project our vengefulness, our characteristics onto God. But what do I mean? Many people present the Bible as a black and white thing, these are the people who are saved, these are the people who’re not, and it’s convenient isn’t it, that the people who aren’t saved are always the ones who don’t look like us? Who think differently or look different...

I sometimes feel a bit sorry for the Pharisees, I mean we all often get the wrong end of the stick. I’m sure we’ve often been in situations where we’ve heard the wrong thing. When you’ve been in front of a congregation and said ‘Can you hear me?’ and they reply ‘and also with you.’ Most of the time if we’ve got the wrong end of the stick, we will apologise or move on, or say Oh okay! Fair enough. Our reading from Jeremiah is a prophesy, all about the future of Israel after the exile. It was written a long time before Jesus came. It’s a prophesy all about who Jesus is. Jesus is the righteous branch that comes to lead and set his people free. It says just before our reading today;   “ Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the  Lord .  2  Therefore, thus says the  Lord , the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have...

As somebody who has a natural distrust of government, and people in positions of power, today’s reading from 1 Peter is one, when taken at face value I substantially struggle with. On the face of it disagree with. With the local elections coming up, it’s good for us as Christians to reflect on things such as power and authority, who has it? Who do we give it to? Where do we get it from? Now I’m not suggesting that we should take up arms against the government and form barricades around City Hall, like a Norwich version of Les Mis. ‘Do you hear the people sing, ‘cause they haven’t emptied the bin.’ But I think when we look at this letter within its context then it makes much more sense and is much more agreeable to those of us with a slightly less obedient mentality, when it comes to earthly government. What I don't think this letter is saying, is that we have to blindly obey those in authority. We’re not sure exactly who wrote this letter. Lots of scholars are unsure abou...