God, I’m not ok. That’s really not how it’s supposed to be is it?

We are promised so much – if we only have faith, if we only pray, if we only follow Christ’s teachings and his example then we will be blessed. For after all if we are truly god’s people why would he let any harm to come to us?

But you know life is not like that and it’s never been like that – ever. As Jesus said in Matthew 5: 45 “God makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong”.

Many Christians struggle with this.  If God is a loving God, Christ is our Saviour and the Holy Spirit is our guide and encourager then all we have to do is believe and life will work out well.  Have faith and God will bless you, even in material goods. Pray and your prayer will be answered. Proclaim the gospel and you will be rewarded.

To many Christians this underpins their faith and their expectation is for a life of blessings and joy and hope and fulfillment. But what if it isn’t?

[Read more…]

Those of you who were here last week heard me go on about how demon possession was an antiquated idea. Whether you agreed with me or not I came down pretty strong that explaining illnesses by attributing them to demonic possession was a concept from a culture that didn’t understand all we know now. I basically said the bible was wrong. Was that brave or foolhardy? I don’t really know.

But as I was preparing this week’s service I saw that the gospel reading was Mark 1:29-39 which is a story about Jesus healing the sick and in particular casting out demons from people.

So, who says God doesn’t have a sense of humour?

[Read more…]

Mark 1:21-28

As I prepared today’s message I became very aware how different the world Jesus lived in is to the world we live in today.

In the 2,000 years since Jesus lived our understanding of so many things has grown and grown and grown.

We now know the earth revolves around the sun and the sun is a fairly insignificant star in an ever-expanding universe.

[Read more…]

John 1:43-51

Many years ago, our daughter Kelly and I attended the funeral of my sister-in-law’s father. during the service the priest mentioned that he was the great grandfather of George, Charles and Douglas, to which Kelly jokingly said, “who the hell is Charles?” because Charles had always been and continues to this day as Charlie. It’s just a name but those who knew him, knew what to call him.

In today’s reading we have a disciple called Nathanael and I ask “who the hell is Nathanael?”

We know precious little about him including his name. He is believed to have also been called Thaddeus. Some biblical scholars say he was known as Jude or Judas. In john’s gospel he is called Nathanael. It appears we know so little about him we can’t even get his name right.

[Read more…]

Chris Dodd – 5 June 2022.
Reading: Acts 2:1-21

Our reading from the book of Acts this morning describes the first day of Pentecost.

Significantly the story has the followers of Jesus gathered in one place. They are together, not scattered or spread around Jerusalem. They are together. We don’t know what they are feeling, what they are talking about or even who they are. But they are together.

This is the second time in a few short weeks that the followers of Jesus have been together in one place, for after Jesus’ crucifixion they too were together in the upper room.

The gospel of john tells us:

• The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. When the disciples saw the lord, they became very happy.

[Read more…]