New Kid on the Blog

I spoke Tuesday at the Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria 12-Step Recovery Service, and as I am unlikely to share this elsewhere thought I would come back to this blog and leave it here... Based on Psalm 96 and Matthew 18:12-14 Judgement I got to indulge my overacting ability last week when I was asked to come in and play John the Baptist in a school assembly here in the Cathedral for the school next door. After shocking a few of the tots by shouting ‘Repent – the kingdom of God is at hand’ as I walked in wearing a hairy poncho of some kind, I was asked questions by the children which I was asked by the teacher to answer as if I was in character. One of those questions was a very astute one – is God angry at us? It comes from John’s quote to the pharisees in the book of Matthew ‘you hypocrites, who told you could flee from the wrath to come.’. And it’s not a bad question. It certainly seems that in some streams of what is broadly called the Christian tradition that God seem...

So time to share a sermon, this one from July 7th, to give a little background to where my thinking processes have moved to since I regularly wrote here sooooo long ago, and to give an idea of where I think we should be going, as a church, as people of God, and as those who seek to follow Christ... With our new church website I can't embed it here, but here's the link: https://www.stjohnthedivine.bc.ca/podcasts/media/2019-07-07-let-us-not-grow-weary-of-doing-what-is-right

Another sermon - as seems to be the way of this blog at present! Life is busy and complicated, and good, and bad, and exciting, and challenging, and (in short) not conducive to getting Blog posts written! So, here's my thought for today taken from these passages (Click for details): Exodus 16:1–5, 9–15,  Psalm 78;18–29 Mt 13.1–9 Grace and Meaning In the words of St Paul, or perhaps St John, or maybe St George, or even St Ringo “When I was younger, so much younger than today.” Ah, sorry, couldn’t resist!  No, it’s not a tubby boy story – but just a general reflection that today’s story from the book of Exodus used to cause me great consternation.  Or at least was one of those parts of Scripture that didn’t seem to fit… I knew the story, the mythological story I am now convinced, of the temptations in the wilderness when Jesus proclaims, quoting Deuteronomy 6 ‘you shall not put the Lord your God to the test’. As I moved into the Anglican Church and ...

Yesterday was the middle of Pride Week here in Victoria and St John's marked it, in partnership with Christ Church Cathedral and our wider Diocese of Islands and Inlets (aka the Diocese of British Columbia), with our regular Eucharist in the morning, and with a special Eucharist in the evening at which our Bishop Logan McMenamie presided and preached. It is a sermon worth sharing - so here's the link to the recording of it: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/stjohnthedivine/episodes/2017-07-06T13_09_14-07_00 Some of what Bishop Logan said related to my own thoughts earlier in the morning - which wasn't recorded, but I have the script, so I thought I would share it here too! Cast Out I want to begin by sharing something that you might not know, but it’s important information that I think bears sharing in this hallowed setting. It’s just this – there’s a new Spider-Man movie released this week ! I know, exciting, eh? It’s the third ‘reboot’ – of the fra...

So, what is the nature of scripture? Hmmm, good question - and one I have been struggling with for most of my adult life, as I have journeyed through many differing traditions and ended up very much within the liberal, broad part of the church! I wonder if sometimes our approach to the Bible is somewhat like a misheard song lyric, every now and then we stop and say 'oh, so that's what it says'.  So here's some Peter Kay with some amusing misheard song lyrics (there's a few rude bits, so don't watch if easily offended)  I riffed off of this for today's sermon at St John the Divine, Victoria - as you'll tell if you listen to the podomatic link below, some of it I stole (acknowledged) wholesale, and then moved on to considering exactly what we are doing when we encounter 'bad' bible bits!

So today, again, I was presiding at the Eucharist for Recovery - 12 Step Communion at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria . It's always a welcome space for reflection and prayer and the opportunity for a short 'mini-sermon' gives me the chance to touch on a subject and, hopefully, begin the process of engaging with a subject rather than trying to give too many answers.  The thoughts below are my reflections on the reading set for today - John Chapter 11 verses 1-10 The Glory of God How do you picture glory? Lots of bling? Lots of bright light? Big ancient buildings full of beauty and art and tradition? Huge skyscrapers or outstanding buildings? Is it the wonder of nature, mountains and cliffs? Or is it the pinnacles of human achievement, in sport , or business, or entertainment, or music, or art? We often associate glory with ‘big and impressive’.  Or outstanding beauty.  When we talk of the glory of God we think in terms of a God who is great and powerful and ...

And here's my sermon from the Tuesday in Holy Week service for healing that we have as part of our lead up to the Triduum at St John the Divine Luke 10.1-9 Proclaiming healing As you probably know, I grew up a full on, high octane, almost Fundamentalist Conservative Evangelical.  I was high on salvation, and down on sinners, I was big on Jesus’ blood, and knew little of social justice. I was keen on songs, and not so good on theology, I was content to condemn people to some kind of eternal punishment but not so sure about grace being for those outside the church…. And I carried a WHOLE load of guilt around about readings such as our one this evening.  A reading which told me to go out, or so it was interpreted, and tell everyone about Jesus, and let them know that they were going straight to hell if they didn’t believe the right stuff in the right way. At least that’s what I thought the 70 disciples of Jesus were doing when I read about them, or heard about them i...

Once every month or so I get the great privilege of presiding and preaching at the Tuesday Afternoon 12-Step Recovery Eucharist at our Cathedral: Christ Church Victoria .  It's a quiet, healing, thoughtful Eucharist at which I normally offer a few thoughts... I'm sure I speak more than most visitors, but I've never really got the hang of 'reflection' - I seem to be much better at 'chatter'. So here's my thinkings from last week... Psalm 71.1-14 John 12.20-36 Yelling at God In this Holy Week – leading up to Good Friday and finally to Easter, we are confronted with the stark reality of human suffering. We see suffering in the last hours of Jesus (traditionally known as ‘The Passion’ – which comes from the Latin Passio, meaning suffering, or enduring) but we also get a glimpse, as in today’s Psalm, of the suffering that all of us go through, which is also a part of the reflection of this Holy Week. In today’s Psalm the writer, we don...

At the 12-Step/Recovery Eucharist (which takes place every week on Tuesdays at 5.15pm at our Cathedral (Christ Church Cathedral) on Quadra Street in Victoria) a few days ago I had the opportunity to preside and share a few thoughts on a passage I rarely get to preach on, except at funerals!  These words of Jesus from John 14 "Peace I leave you..." It had a particular context, that of the healing and recovery that comes through the 12-Step program.  The service is not just for those recovering from addictions but is a peaceful and health-ful shared space for prayer and the recognition of the need we all share for that deepest healing from those things which we do that take us away from well-being and wholeness.  It's a shorter meditation/talk than I would normally do for a 'sermon' so rather than putting it on New Kid Deep Stuff, I thought I would post it here. Tuesday of Easter 5 – 12 Step thoughts John 14.27-31 Peace Peace, I don’t leave you the...

Happy Easter! Alleluia - Christ is risen! In case I've not mentioned it before - sometimes when this blog is quiet (tumbleweed style) I am also blogging on our Church website.  There is a staff blog there which I try to contribute to as I am able. Two particular postings I'd like to point you towards rather than rehashing them here are the Good Friday meditations which I led - which used poetry and prayers based around the Seven Last Words of Christ from the cross - and some Easter Sunday thinkings which went hand in hand with my Easter Day sermon . I am at present trying to enjoy some downtime. This may mean I get to blog, or it might not. Thanks for the follows and the comments and the responses, always appreciated.

Some reflections inspired by something our Bishop, Logan, shared this Morning at our Chrism Eucharist.  He shared a lot more than this, including a moving account of his experience at the demolition ceremonies around St Michael's Residential School (read the record of +Logan's apology at the ceremony here ) and the place of ritual in healing and calling to a new way of being. Anyway, here's my Maundy Thursday thinkings - or at least a taster, full sermon on New Kid Deep Stuff  Defined by the Eucharist - a Maundy Thursday Sermon Last year I began the sermon for Maundy Thursday (yes, I check these things, just to make sure don’t repeat myself too much) with the words “At the blessing of the oils service this morning in the Cathedral, Bishop Logan reminded us….” And though I don’t like to repeat myself, I want to start my thoughts this evening with these words “At the blessing of the oils service this morning in our Cathedral, Bishop Logan reminded us… “ that this...

Again with the sermon! Yep, for a little while I will be posting the sermons I preach here at the blog... the podcast is not being updated quite yet!  Besides, posting here gives more space for comment and conversation, should you so wish. Today's sermon was inspired by some conversations had recently at the Clergy Day for the Diocese of British Columbia , by an excellent presentation by the Rev'd Canon Dr Richard LeSueur , by looking again at the Vision for our Diocese , and by looking back at an earlier (excellent) sermon by colleague Rev'd Canon Kevin Arndt and my own sermon from a year ago ! So here's the taster, as usual click [more] to get the full text! Malachi 3:1–4 Hebrews 2:14–18 Luke 2:22–40 The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2015) Year B RCL Principal This last Thursday we had a Clergy Day, one of our twice a year opportunities to meet up with colleagues from all the Islands of this Diocese, and to have some input and c...

Today's sermon had a lot of reaction, and because our usual podcaster is out of commission for a while I thought it might be helpful to post it on the New Kid Deep Stuff blog - so here's a taster, and you might want to go off and visit following the link at the end of this bit :-) Comments, as always, welcome - join the conversation here or at the original post.. . Readings The Conversion of St Paul (2015) Year B RCL Principal To Be Converted, or continued, or both… Today is, as you may have guessed, the festival of the Conversion of St Paul.  So I am going to begin by asking - as one should to an Anglican audience - "how many of you have been converted…?!??!" No, not really. I could tell you my conversion story, though… imagine a tubby little boy who looks just like me but without a beard, oh and mousey browny-blond hair.  This little lad is in a small chapel tent in a field of tents in a place called Polzeath (or Polzeth as many call it) and he’s chatti...

I struggled with this one...

As my dulcet tones (ahem) have been absent from this blog for a while, here's the podcast of this last Sunday's sermon....

There has been a LOT going on lately, trip to Vancouver with family, Synod, meetings  - plus everything has had a feeling of being 'up in the air' as we consider and reconsider vision - for the Parish, for our Diocese, and in our everyday life. But the everyday rituals and events of Church life continue, including our Midweek Eucharists.  So here is a sermon what I wrote for today.  Taster here, full text at New Kid Deep Stuff (click [more] for link) James Hannington Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, and His Companions Martyrs, 1885 — Commemoration Matthew 10.16–22 16  ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.  17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;  18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.  19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you...

It has been quite a couple of days - just one of those 'meeting to service to meeting to visit to meeting to service to service' kind of thing.  But three things have all coalesced and my thinkings have all come together in a way that seemed to me complementary. Firstly I had the privilege of presiding and speaking again at the 12-step Eucharist which is offered by Christ Church Cathedra l, Victoria.  The Gospel reading for the day and the structure of the service seemed to me (strangely in the case of the lectionary, as you will see if you follow the link) to speak to Grace, even in Jesus' Critique of the religious leaders of the day.  Then we had a wonderful celebration of New Ministry at the Induction of Bruce Bryant-Scott here in Victoria which had a sense of joy and liberation about it which made the whole evening (despite being at the end of a long day) feel very positive.  Then I was preaching and presiding again at our early Eucharist, which remembered ...

After my wonderings about preaching ( What are we doing when we preach ?) Karma decided to bite me a la derriere and I found myself having to prepare three sermons for today - Two Eucharists and a funeral address.  Rather than post the two Eucharistic Sermons here I will put them up on New Kid Deep Stuff and you can peruse/read/comment/respond as you wish. The funeral address was for the funeral, won't be putting that one up! Same set of readings ... different groups of people, though some overlap (so I couldn't cheat by using the same sermon twice!} So here's what I ended up with: One, thinking on the Gospel reading for today, is concerned with ' Shaking the Dust from our feet' The other, using the Psalm and Proverbs reading for today is talking around ideas of ' The word, the law and The Word' . And the common (sometimes) artificial contrast betweee 'Law and Grace' in the church - one which isn't a Jewish understanding of 'Law' ...

To keep things moving on the blog, here's the sermon from Sunday.  I have been thinking about the purpose and nature of preaching lately - but such lofty thoughts will need to wait....

Of course, having made reference to my Sunday Sermon in the previous blog post, I really should post that too... God is nowhere?