Curate Conundrums

  In the words of the great twentieth century mystic and spiritual writer, St Robbie Williams; I sit and wait, does an angel, contemplate my fate? And do they know the places where we go, when we’re grey and old? Yes that’s right today’s sermon is on my specialist subject, cheesy pop music from the nineties. No today we’re going to have a chat about angels, as we’re celebrating Michaelmas, or as the CofE calls it Michael and All Angels. Why are we talking about angels? Why do they matter, what’s important about them, I hear you cry, well buckle up, because hopefully we’re going to explore some of that over the next few minutes. The word angel appears in the Bible over ninety times. Can anyone tell me some times when angels appear in the Bible? ·          Appeared to Gideon ·          Visited Abraham   ·          Took Elijah up to heaven · ...

  What does water mean to you? Water, we use it all the time don’t we. To bathe, to cook, to clean our clothes, to look after the plants in our garden, to flush away our nasties, to put cucumber and ice in and have a refreshing drink on the patio after a particularly stressful Sunday. Just water by the way. We are so reliant on water aren’t we? It’s not something that we often think about in this country, as usually there’s a lot of it about. Although this year has been very different. We just expect it to come out of the tap don’t we? That is until a drought comes along. I’ve been thinking a lot about water. I often walk by the River Wensum here in Norwich, and was shocked at how low it was the other day. Now you all know that I’m an anxious person. I didn’t hear any gasps of surprise there. Bit insulted actually… Anyway. My anxiety manifests itself in lots of ways. Every year during the summer I get fixated on running out of water. I develop something I call ‘water guilt’...

  I had a period of very bad mental health recently.  We've all got mental health, but some of us have more than others! I had to take a couple of weeks off to regroup, I couldn't cope. I started crying often and felt overwhelmed. A sense of darkness that I'd never had before. I was hurting.  It wasn't anything that anyone had done. I love our Parish and both our Churches, nobody was being nasty to me. In fact the outpouring of support and prayer from our parish when I shared how I was feeling was wonderful. My Team Rector too, his support has been invaluable, and others who know who they are have supported me and encouraged me.  Stepping away was hard. That voice within said 'you're a failure, look at you, you can't even cope. Your job's not even that hard!' Of course that's not true. I know that, but it doesn't stop that sense in those of us who have a really destructive perfectionism that runs through them.  I packed my bags and trundled o...

The way what we speak and comoonicate say a lot about us dunt uht? From the southern drawl of the United States to the rounded vowel sounds of Yorkshire, you don’t need me to tell you that we all communicate in very different ways. Today is Pentecost , a high feast day of the church year. When the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples. It’s the birth of the church! Pentecost is about Communication, God’s communication with us, and God’s anointing of all of us to do His work in the world. I trust and believe that God has given us what we need within this congregation, not just to grow numerically, but spiritually and in our love for one another. I don’t buy into this language of poverty we use about ourselves sometimes. Have you noticed that the only time the word ‘dwindling’ is used, either in the media or elsewhere is about churches? Oh we’re all so old, oh we’re so small and we can’t do it, we’ve not got the resources to do this or that. We may not be Soul Church (good as it is), ...

Feed my Lambs I sometimes look at the pages of the Bible and think that God uses the most unlikely people doesn’t He? From Moses, the Murderer to Ruth the Moabite, David the womaniser, to Paul, also a murderer.  As far as I know I’ve not murdered anyone, well, not lately anyway, there’s nothing under my patio by the way, what patio, who’s even talking about a patio, not me! Unlikely people, that are used for God’s purposes. For me that’s one of the most wonderful things about the Bible, it’s got every little bit of humanity poured into its pages. Whoever said ‘we shouldn’t use our experience to shape our thinking about God, only the bible!’ Is clearly a bit flawed in my view. Because the whole of the Bible is lived human experience. Story, History, Poetry, Gospel all combine into a beautiful mess of complicated questions, thoughts and meaning.  Our faith isn’t a neat little box, but like that box of wires at the back of the drawer, you all know the one I mean. The one with...

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’ve nearly died twice. One time I can remember, the other time I can’t. Our reading today from Hebrews is all about death and what God does with it. And today we celebrate the presentation of Christ in the temple or Candlemas. It’s an important day, and I’ll explain a bit more later, but our readings are linked. Candlemas, That’s about death too, but also about light, life, unexpected joy and promises. When I say I’ve almost died twice, I don’t mean dying as in ‘I had a hangover and I felt like I was going to die’, or ‘I was so embarrassed I felt like I wanted to die.’ Because if that was the case, I would have hundreds of ‘near death’ experiences. No, I mean literal, near death experiences. The one I can’t remember was when I was about five or six years old. Some tree surgeons were cutting down a tree at the house opposite our house, so naturally, I wandered across the road to go and have a look at what they were doing. We lived on a quiet suburban road. And I was an an...