Methodist Bishop

  John 10.1-10,  Acts 2.42-47 One night, BBC regional news reported on a farmer who had lost several prize rare breed  sheep. His mistake had been to pen them in a field next to a busy road, where rustlers could spot them. The field was locked and gated, so the thieves rounded them up in broad daylight, tied their feet together and threw them over the gate to be taken away in a cattle truck. Passersby, whizzing along in their cars, didn’t see anything amiss. Most of them probably had no background in farming and might not have realised there was anything odd. Perhaps they thought that shepherds tie their sheep up and throw them around every time they move them.  However, eventually something happened to cause the rustlers to make their getaway. Did someone raise the alarm and cause a gatekeeper to come along? Be that as it may, one sheep - still trussed up - was left behind inside the gate. The sheep were probably stolen for slaughter,with the meat being exported...

  Genesis 1:24–31; 2:7–24, Luke 8.22-25 The first two stories in the Book of Genesis have  generated more controversy than any other part of the Bible.  For Biblical Literalists they’re a plain account of the dawn of time and the ancient fossils and rock formations that scientists find in the geological record have just been put there by God to mislead us - a sort of trail of false evidence leading the unwary away from the truth.  For more liberal minded Christians the stories are like a nut, with an outer shell of fabulous storytelling which cracks open to reveal an inner kernel of timeless truth.  As if that conflict over the interpretation of the two stories wasn't enough, the stories also range across some of the biggest issues confronting humankind. We're only a couple of pages into the Bible and yet already we’re being challenged to think about the meaning of life, the universe and everything. The writer of the second version of the creation story assumes ...

Matthew 6.25-34 Christians have long argued that consumerism is disastrous. There are two arguments for this.  The first says that it is spiritually corrupting. We end up in an endless quest for more things and new experiences, but this will never satisfy us. Better by far to emulate the natural world and take life one day at a time, because it is only spiritual fulfilment that will really make us content with our lot.  The second argument says that consumerism is irresponsible and drives us to use up more and more finite resources while releasing more and more pollutants into the atmosphere and the seas. The catastrophic consequences are already all too apparent. But what’s the alternative to consumerism? For better or worse, a certain amount of consumption keeps the economy afloat because - as Karl Marx observed - workers are also consumers and if they aren’t consuming anything many of them will inevitably be thrown out of work. Advocates of a ‘circuit breaker’, to try to st...

Matthew 13.1-9,18-23 The time has come to say ‘farewell’ and two songs come to mind.  The first is the farewell song at the ball in the Sound of Music, when the children are about to go to bed.  There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall And the bells in the steeple too, And up in the nursery an absurd little bird Is popping out to say "cuckoo"… There’s something slightly sad and faintly absurd about saying farewell without being able to say proper goodbyes. The other song is ‘So long, it’s been good to know yuh!’ by Woody Guthrie: Well, the churches was jammed and the churches was packed, But that dusty old dust storm it blew so black That the preacher couldn’t read a word of his text, So he folded his specs ‘n’ took up a collection, sayin'... So long, it's been good to know yuh, So long, it's been good to know yuh, So long, it's been good to know yuh, But this dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home And I've gotta be driftin' along...

Psalm 145.8-14 Israel had emerged into history as a federation of tribes committed to the idea that they didn’t need a national leader because God was the one true leader who united them all. This idea didn’t survive contact with reality. In no time at all people like Gideon, who was supposed to be an inspired leader acting on God’s behalf to provide much needed leadership in a time of crisis, was acting like a dynastic ruler and trying to get his sons to succeed him. Before long the idea took hold that an anointed king was needed to represent God to the people and the people to God. Fledgling democracy gave way to emerging dictatorship, and all within a few pages of the Bible. But the Biblical concept of leadership was further complicated by the enduring idea that kings might hold temporal power but prophets and priests are still called by God to speak truth to power and keep it in check, to remind the king (or queen) who’s really the boss. And the idea driving this relationship, that...

Zechariah 9.9-12 (NRSVA) What does a true leader look like? Someone who - like Pontius Pilate - is defined by their obstinacy? Someone who wraps themselves in Churchillian posturing and jingoistic slogans? Someone who’s one of the people? Someone who’s the epitome of calm and rational argument? Zechariah’s prophecy breaks the mould of leadership. A true leader doesn’t sweep to power with war horses and chariots or in a hail of arrows. They do still command peace to break out - and their dominion will indeed have no boundaries - but they proclaim its arrival from the back of a donkey. The prisoners of hope will be set free, not by fighting in the streets but by a silent revolution unfolding in people’s hearts and minds. In that sense the true leader is indeed a ‘popular’ leader. They’re not a typical political leader, they’re an inspirational, charismatic, prophetic leader with a similar approach - despite their many faults and failings - to people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther Ki...

Matthew 11:16-19 (NRSVA) One of the fascinating things about this passage is that it gives us an intriguing glimpse into Jesus’ own childhood. This isn’t St Luke’s version - where a saintly and erudite Jesus sits listening intently to the scribes debating in the Temple. This is a recollection from Jesus’ own lips. Like any preacher or teacher he’s reaching into his own memory bank for illustrations. We need to put out of mind any ideas we might have about teenagers hanging around together in the marketplace drinking cheap cider. Before the Twentieth Century there was no concept of being in between childhood and adulthood. At the time of Jesus you were either a child or a grown-up, in his case apprenticed to his father. Adolescent girls weren’t allowed to mix with boys and were soon married off, and teenagers of both sexes were probably too busy to do much socialising anyway. So this is a childhood memory. At a loose end after doing their chores or attending scripture classes, the child...