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On Families, P.I.P and Nurturing Purposes (Genesis 15.1-12, Luke 13.31-34)

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  Families are funny things aren’t they? There are some families that are very close, and others that are not. There are some people who we would call chosen family aren’t there. Friends who aren’t blood relations but we would consider like family. My Uncle Jim and Auntie Jane are my Godparents, but they’re not related to me. But, I called them Auntie and Uncle growing up. I’ve got friends who I’m much closer to than my own family, mostly because of geography. Lots of my family live very far away, and to be honest I haven’t seen that much of them. I think families are good, but I wonder what automatically comes into our minds when we think about family? What’s fundamental to a good family relationship? I think it’s nurture. Nurturing one another, our partners, our cousins, our brothers and sisters, even sometimes our own parents. Encouragement is the foundation of family life. Sometimes though, I struggle with the word ‘family.’ As a Gay man and as a single person I often wat...
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That's Not Fair! (Matthew 20.1-16, Parable of the Workers)

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  Let’s talk about fairness. What does fairness mean? What does it look like? When I was growing up we had enough, but not a lot, or at least not a lot by the standards of other people, and perhaps quite a lot by other people’s standards. We didn’t starve, but our house was small. Although we did own our house, which made us better off than many. However, I remember going one winter without heating and hot water because we couldn’t afford to get the boiler fixed. Life is unfair and one of the things we try to do as humans is something called ‘causality’, where we try to seek meaning in everything that happens to us. ‘It all happens for a reason’. I’m not sure I believe in that, I think there are some things that just happen, because that’s the nature of life. Someone stubbing their toe, or winning the lottery, I don’t think God, or some kind of force guides that. Some things are just part of existence and creation. Other things are not just facts of life, they are created and m...
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Timeless Transfiguration (Psalm 2, Matthew 17)

  Have you ever heard of the concept of flow? Flow is a state of being when you’re so engrossed in something you loose track of time. I know, that’s how you all feel when listening to my sermons… It’s sometimes described as ‘in the zone’, a state of relaxed concentration of focus. A strange paradox between something that feels like time is standing still, and also it’s over in a minute. Effortless but also a sense of extreme challenge, effortless but intense. Flow is something that I feel sometimes when I’m playing the piano at home, especially when it’s going well. I sometimes, on a good day, feel it when I’m sermon writing or presiding at a service. Focussed, concentrating and in the moment. And other times I’m thinking about lunch… Some people when they get into a state of flow forget to drink, eat, and focus for very long periods of time without stopping. Ever been in that situation where you start work on something, it’s about two in the afternoon, then suddenly it’s dar...
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Be Prepared! Or Expectant? (Matthew 24.36- Isaiah 2.1-5)

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  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...
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I'm Loving Angels Instead (Revelation 12.7-12, John 1.47-51)

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  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 · ...
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"People should be less squeamish about drinking sewer water." (Psalm 1)

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  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’...
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Hedgehogs, Heralds and Hurt

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  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...
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