Methodist Bishop

2 Samuel 5.1-5 & 9-10 True leadership is not something that is conferred by the office we hold, or by any title that's bestowed upon us. No one knows that better, I suspect, than Peter Mandelson and Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown may be the prime minister, but Lord Mandelson appears to be the true leader of the Labour Party. Of course, that's not one of his official jobs. William Hague reminded Parliament recently of all the titles and jobs that Lord Mandelson actually holds. He is 'The Right Honourable the Baron Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the County of Durham, First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Privy Council and Secretary of State for Business and Secretary of State for Innovation and Skills. It would be no surprise,' said Mr Hague, 'To wake up in the morning and find that he had become an Archbishop.' King Saul was the nominal leader of Israel, but David was the man who was born to be king, the man ...

1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13 Psalm 20 2 Corinthians 5.10-17 The Old Testament reading for the second Sunday in June was about a leadership struggle. How topical is that? Samuel had anointed Saul as king, feeling sure that he was God's chosen leader. But then things started to go wrong and Samuel began to have doubts. Part of the trouble with Saul was his unpredictability and mood swings. Sometimes he was a highly charismatic and effective leader, sometimes he seemed to alienate those closest to him. (Does that remind you of anyone?) But, finally, what upset Samuel was Saul's lack of killer instinct. On one occasion Saul led an army in a holy war against their enemies the Amalekites. Saul was told to utterly destroy everything but, instead, he and his soldiers kept the spoils of war which they had won in the battle. When Samuel challenged him about this act of disobedience, Saul insisted that he had only kept the spoils - sheep, cattle and goats - to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord....

Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8 What's the best piece of good news that you've heard this week? Of course, it might be something personal - news about the birth of a grandchild or one of your children getting a job, or about a cure or treatment for an illness. But maybe this week hasn't been all that eventful for you personally, and the best piece of good news you heard was something on the radio or the TV. One piece of good news which dominated the headlines at the start of the week was the story of Ben Southall, the 34 year-old Englishman who has won a competition to live, with his girlfriend, on a tropical island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. He'll have a three bedroom luxury villa to live in for six months, the use of a buggy to drive around the island, a private swimming pool and a wet suit for snorkeling on the Reef itself. Not only that but he'll be paid a salary of £74,000 - and all he has to do in return is write a daily blog - or Interne...

The passage which we read from the Acts of the Apostles is one of the earliest Christian sermons on record. That remains true whether it's an account of what Peter actually said, or whether it's Luke's attempt at reconstructing what Peter might have said. No doubt it's a reflection of the kind of sermon which Luke had heard the first Christian leaders preaching when he was travelling with Paul around the Mediterranean. He had been one of Paul's companions on his last fateful journey to Jerusalem, and had met James the brother of Jesus, though Peter doesn't seem to have been present on that occasion. He knew, however, that Peter was absolutely in agreement with Paul that 'God shows no partiality.' Everyone, no matter what their cultural or religious background, is acceptable to God if they fear him, or show respect for him, and do what is right. He also knew that the first Christians were different from their Jewish compatriots because they believed and p...

Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29 John 12.12-16 Psalm 118 is what scholars sometimes call a processional psalm. It may also have been a royal psalm, where the king was led in procession to the Temple. It was certainly one of the psalms which pilgrims chanted or sang as they approached the Temple Mount at festival time. It's also one of the most often quoted passages in the Bible. The psalm begins with a note of celebration. The pilgrims are nearing the end of their journey and they're in the mood for rejoicing as they get ready to enter the Temple precincts. The cantor chants, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." And the people reply, "His steadfast love endures forever!" We're surrounded by so much fear and uncertainty because of global warming, the financial crisis, the world's rising population and scarce resources. No one knows what the future holds, but it often looks pretty bleak. Popular films like Cloverfield and I Am Legend show us v...

Genesis 17:1-16 I heard someone say on the radio the other day that maybe one good thing about the recession is that it's giving all of us a once in a lifetime opportunity to reassess the way we live and to start over again. She was certainly an optimist, a glass half-full person! But she went on to explain that because we can no long afford holidays, houses, possessions and nights out on the town maybe we now have the chance instead to re-evaluate what really matters in our lives. This is a chance to prioritise things like our health, our relationships and what we're achieving. Of course, it's easy to push this kind of argument too far. If someone's home is being repossessed, if they've lost their job and have no prospect of getting another one soon, if they're desperately in need of a holiday or badly need some new possessions, health, happiness and relationships can be damaged, not strengthened, by a crisis and we can end up achieving absolutely nothing a...

Isaiah 40.21-31, 1 Corinthians 9.16-23, Mark 1.29-38 Have you ever been outside on a clear, cloudless night, somewhere in the countryside, far away from the glare of streetlights, and looked up at the stars and been filled with awe and wonder? In the town or the city we see only a fraction of the night sky, but far from the bright lights of the town we can suddenly see countless stars stretching deep into the mists of time, the faintest of them billions of light years away from the Earth. And when we see the stars in all their true glory we are carried back to the exhortation of the Prophet, who said: 'Lift up your eyes on high and see!' The Prophet is breaking new ground in this passage. At the time of his prophecy, most people regarded Israel's God as just the greatest among a multitude of different and competing gods and spirits, but the Prophet considers Israel's God to be the only god, existing outside the boundaries of time and space, sitting, 'above the circ...

Genesis 1.1-5, Psalm 29, Acts 19.1-7 & Mark 1.4-11 The Bible story is about the triumph of light over darkness, of pattern and meaning over chaos, of good over evil, of the Creator over the destructive forces that constantly threaten to overwhelm creation. What more fitting time to be reminded of this than the middle of winter? Christmas coincides with the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, because Christians could see the symmetry between the Bible message and the turning of the seasons - the triumph of day over night, of life over death. It's a message that we need to hear again and again, isn't it? In the chaos of recession we need to know that the forces of disorder and despair will not have the final word. When we hear about yet another onslaught by Israel against the Palestinians, or by Islamic terrorists against innocent bystanders in a hotel or railway station, we need to know that redemption is more powerful than devastation - that the seemingly endles...

Isaiah 40.1-11 Mark 1.1-8 Several things strike me immediately about the prophecy of Isaiah when I think about it in the light of recent events. First there is the trial of Karen Matthews, described by the policeman who led the investigation as 'pure evil'. She has become a hate figure not only for West Yorkshire Police, but for the people of Dewsbury and for the nation as a whole. And, certainly, her plot to kidnap her own daughter and collect a reward from the newspapers for Shannon's safe return was monstrously wicked, as well as monumentally stupid. In the prophecy, Israel is compared to a prisoner who has also committed monstrous and monumentally stupid crimes. She has betrayed her God, acted unjustly towards the poor and oppressed, and shown arrogant complacency in imagining that, when her enemies invaded the land and besieged her capital city, nonetheless, God would save her from the consequences of her folly. God - and his Prophet - have every right therefore to po...

Exodus 20:1-11 Matthew 21:33-46 Today's lectionary reading from the Old Testament is one of the foundation texts of the Jewish faith - the Exodus version of the Ten Commandments, which sit at the heart of the Jewish Law. It's a fitting reading for a harvest festival because it reminds us, first, that - however wonderful the natural world might be - it is not in itself a fit enough object for contemplation or worship. A beautiful view or a glorious sunset might take our breath away. The image of the earth seen from outer space might be awe inspiring. The wonderful intricacies of sub-atomic physics might boggle our minds. Knowing what happened in the first split second after the Big Bang might give us a theory of everything. The birth of a baby might reduce us to tears of joy. But in the end the sum of all these things does not comprise everything that exists, so our contemplation cannot stop with what we can sense and measure.. It must reach beyond these things to something grea...