Curate Conundrums

Who do you listen to? Who has authority? It’s a funny old world that we live in at the moment isn’t it? Russia flexing its muscles in Europe, Brexit and austerity, fake news, real news. It’s difficult to know who we should be listening to, or indeed who even has authority. The passage from John this morning indicates that Jesus was having precisely these issues with people, people who didn’t believe in him in the right way. It also indicates where he gest his authority from, from God. He’s hitting them here with a few home truths, and they don’t like it, not one bit. Just before the passage we heard this morning, Jesus said to the people who were present, Jews who had believed in him, that they were slaves to sin, by trying to kill him, and that only he can set them free. They are foaming at the mouth angry “We’ve never been slaves!” they answer, “we’re Abraham’s descendents!” This was a common boast of Jewish people at the time. Jesus then goes on to say that they are essentia...

As the old Christmas Carol goes ‘Christian children all must be, mild obedient, good as he.’ I was of course always an obedient child, I never spoke back to my parents and always did their will without question. Obvs. Well, of course I didn’t. We’re all human and sometimes we have to go our own way. Sometimes life also calls for obedience. Here’s another family story, in case you missed the one from last week. Mum still brings this one up about once a year. We had a green race car teapot when I was growing up, it was a beautiful object, it was a nineteen thirties art deco piece. It was a treasured possession of my mum’s. It WAS a treasured possession. So when I was about three years old, we had the decorators in to paint the landing and to give it a bit of a tidy up. One of the decorators had put the teapot on the floor. I think you might be able to see where this is going, so into the room I come, and obviously to my three year old brain, that’s not a treasured green art-dec...

Relationships are a tricky business aren’t they? I’m lucky in that my Mum and I have a very good relationship, I mean like all children and parents we have ups and downs, I can be very blunt, and she can be incredibly irritating. There are a couple of stories that sum up our relationship. Imagine the scene, enters young Graham about eight years old, stage left, with Mum, walking through a forest. Mum is behind me and sees something, a twig in the undergrowth, she pauses, and in her devious mind thinks aha this will be funny, I’ll play a trick on Graham. She sticks a twig up her sleeve that looks like a withered hand and yells out “ooh HELP! My hand!” I turn around, see it and it looks so realistic that I scream and run away crying, mum breaks into hysterical laughter, follows me, tries to console me, and what’s worse, Dad took a photograph of me crying. We’ve still got that photo. Obviously it was meant as a joke, and we’re always playing tricks on each other like that. This ...

Sacrifice is a harsh word isn’t it. Just picture that word in your head for a moment. Sacrifice. It often feels like it should have a prominent full stop after it doesn’t it? I wonder what kinds of things come into your heads when you think about the word sacrifice. For me two separate images come into my head about it: Firstly, the image of ritual sacrifice, like ancient Jewish people would have done in Jesus’ day, the sacrifice of lambs at the altar of the lord in Jerusalem. In fact many traditional religions still practice this idea of sacrifice today. The notion of offering something up to God, or a deity in order to receive a blessing, or favour, or in ancient Israel’s case to give thanks for God’s abundance and loving kindness. Or to placate God for people’s Sins. It’s in this sense that many sacrifices were offered in the Jewish temple, sacrifices made in thanksgiving for abundance and the sheer generosity of God.   Secondly, the image that probably comes to mind more r...

I love Christmas. Hands up who loves Christmas? Hands up who thinks Christmas is a little bit meh? Hands up who really doesn’t like Christmas? Hopefully I can persuade you why Christmas is a good thing. What if I told you that Christmas isn’t about presents, or commercialism, or stuff. I mean I’m a minister, so you’d probably expect me to say that. In fact most of us already know that, Christmas isn’t about presents. What is Christmas about then? It’s about love. What if I told you that Christmas is about God’s love for you, each and every one of you. The reason I love Christmas is because it’s a time of year when love between people is so obvious, people out buying gifts, thinking of others, spending time with families and loved ones, in the same way God’s love for us is so clear too. The baby Jesus being born is not just a distant event from a long time ago, but affects us today.  You might remember the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem ‘But in thy dark streets shi...

I wonder if John The Baptist was around today, what people would make of him? Would he get through the selection process criteria of the Church of England? Would he get through a Bishop’s Advisory Panel? I’m not really sure training residentially around lots of other people would have suited him, and then of course there’s his diet, would the kitchens be willing to provide enough locusts and wild honey? ‘And lo there appeared a Man named John, in Norwich city centre, he wore a crumpled and stained shirt, and ate out of bins, and people in the Norfolk countryside came to him to be baptised in the River Wensum.” Can you imagine it? The Christian story is littered with strange people, and strange stories, which gives me hope, if someone as strange as John the Baptist can find a place within the Christian story, then there’s hope for me too. The bizzare, the strange, the outcast, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the unclean, the unwashed, the poor, these are all the kinds of peopl...