by Anne Kay…..

John Newton is an inspiration to me!

That he could overcome all the challenges and persecution during  his life and come through with such a legacy of God’s Grace, that is still affecting us today.

Born 24^th July 1725 in Wapping, UK,  to a devout Nonconformist mother and merchant ship captain father. His mother taught him to read and she shared her active, living faith.

I found a post on Youtube recently called ‘Newton’s Grace’ it is based on the history of his life.

Even though his mother taught him hoping to give him a good start in life, he confesses himself, there was always a deep rage within him, partly due to his father’s absence and his sense of life’s challenges. As a young person he always seemed to be in trouble with the authorities.

Sadly his mother died from tuberculosis  when he was nearly 7 which was a a terrible shock to the young boy.  He was sent to boarding school after being expelled from previous schools. There he continued in his disruptive ways.  By the time he was 11 he was accompanying his father on  sea voyages.

While still in the Merchant Navy he had a very vivid dream. He was given a ring that if he kept it he would safe and things would go well. If he didn’t he would be on his own. There was a fellow seaman who taunted him about his faith in God and said his dream was untrue. ‘don’t believe all that stuff ‘be a real man’ so he threw the ring away.

During this time he had stayed with a dear friend of his late mother’s. she had a daughter called Mary Catlet and she became John’s ‘life-love’

‘His Polly’.

While at sea she became his reason for living. He had some shore leave and was on his way to visit Polly when he was accosted by Royal Navy thugs to serve on the HMS Harwich. The ship was patrolling the Channel during some skirmish with the French. He was 18.

He always worked hard and was eventually promoted to ‘able-bodied seaman’. Longing for a life with ‘Polly’ he attempted to desert. He was relieved of his post and sent aboard a passing slave vessel. Continue reading Sunday 21st April →

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Acts 3: 12-19

Peter’s sermon to this impromptu audience begins by identifying the God he refers to as the Jewish God and this God has glorified Jesus.  William Barclay says the early preachers never regarded themselves as sources of power but only challenges of power and this he says is the key to the Christian life. ‘Not I but Christ in me’.

Peter goes on to offer mercy and warning. Those who crucified Jesus did so out of ignorance, but that ignorance is no longer possible because of the resurrection, therefore there are no excuses for rejecting Jesus.  Barclay notes the text blames the Jews for the crucifixion and this blame has played a significant part in some appalling acts of anti-Semitism over the last two thousand years.  We need to recognise that, under Roman rule, Jesus was legally executed, and that execution critiques all empires and all power systems.  The resurrection calls us to live differently, and we are all vulnerable to being sucked into systems that deliver us comfort while disempowering others.

Luke 24: 36b-48.

The details here are similar to last week’s account from John and it is slightly odd that, as Christ arrives in the midst of a discussion about the resurrection, the disciples are said to be terrified and thought they had seen a Ghost.  But Luke is using this story to point out that whatever the experience of meeting the risen Christ is it is not about being frightened by a ghost.  Jesus’ identity is verified by the marks of the crucifixion and his reality by the eating of the fish.  Both these verifications were also used in John’s Gospel which would indicate that both writers had access to similar sources, or equally possible John had access to the synoptic gospels, but his more Gnostic or spiritual agenda makes this less apparent when compared with Mark, Matthew and Luke.

Sermon

I recently watched the documentary ‘Escaping Utopia’ and the comment that really shocked me was the young mother, who was obviously miserable, living in squalor in India.  When her sister challenged her she agreed her life was miserable but added, ‘The Lord will return soon, there is so much bad in the world, he must come soon.’

I reflected sadly on all those who, like her, have endured exploitation for thousands of years on the promise that God will build a new world for the righteous.

In fact, one of the mistakes the disciples made was their expectation of a superhero messiah.  Today’s readings are about their realisation of what Jesus’ mission was really about.  The startling realisation that they are the resurrection.

The gospel writers are also encouraging us to realise that is also true for us. As Christ lived in them so Christ lives in us and in the power of Christ we are called to transform our world.

The greenies are right, there is no planet B. As followers of Jesus, we are called to build a new heaven and a new earth.  Christ is risen in us!

The post Easter gospel readings have rightly been about the first disciples meeting the Risen Christ.  The question for us in those readings is ‘how do we meet the Risen Christ’.  We also should note what the readings tell us the Risen Christ is not.

Luke is very helpful because he gives us a selection of possibilities and to truly appreciate that we must look at the textural context of today’s reading.

Jesus appears in today’s reading to all the disciples together when Peter has returned after a meeting with the Risen Christ at the empty tomb.  The couple who met Christ on the Emmaus Road have also returned and related their experiences.

This episode is opposite to the Emmaus Road encounter where the couple recognise Christ in sharing a meal after he had opened the scripture to them on the journey.  In this episode the disciples verify Christ’s identity and then he opens the scripture to them and eats with them.

So perhaps Luke is stressing that there are different ways of meeting Christ.

But the point of the Risen Christ eating a piece of fish it that the disciples are not meeting with a ghost.  So why are they frightened?

Perhaps they are frightened because of the realisation that Christ is risen in them.  They are the ones who have to build the new heaven and the new earth.  It’s a scary prospect and church history testifies that plenty of people suffered a similar fate to Jesus for standing for what is right.

The gospel writers are very clear what the resurrection is not.  Even if the challenge of the resurrection may be frightening the resurrection is not a ghost or an hallucination.  From Luke’s account the Risen Christ can be met at the empty tomb, on a journey or more particularly when we break bread with a stranger.  The Risen Christ can also be met as people gather to talk about their religious experiences.  Meeting together and sharing food together is about meeting with the Christ in each of us.

Most importantly those meetings with Christ the readings describe, involve sharing the scripture together and seeing Christ in the context of the Hebrew Scripture or Old Testament.

Some people dismiss the Old Testament, but the Gospels only make sense in the context of what has gone before.  This is apparent in the Acts reading where Peter first defines the God he is referring to from the scripture of his religious tradition before introducing Jesus. Continue reading Sunday 14th April →

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Isaiah 25: 6-9

This passage is part of what is referred to as ‘the Isaiah Apocalypse because the verses are seen as resembling the apocalyptic works from about the third century BCE onwards.

The passage we read contains the remarkable statement that God will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces.  Maurice Andrew suggests it is likely that the reference is not to life after death.  Instead he writes that the writer has constructed a poetic picture of the total transformation of the human condition.^[1]

Mark 16: 1-8

Elisabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza says that Mark’s naming of Peter, Andrew, James and John at the beginning of the Gospel and naming four women at the foot of the cross at the conclusion of Jesus’ mission indicates that the disciples included both men and women.  Schüssler Fiorenza names the four women as Mary of Magdala, Mary the daughter or wife of James the younger, the mother of Joses, and Salome.

To get four women she has placed a comma in a different place to the NRSV but the original Greek text would not have had the punctuation so this is just as valid an interpretation as other translators. .^[2]

Sermon

The resurrection is not just an historical event that happened long ago, the resurrection is ongoing, and we are the resurrection in our world.

In 1971 Hodder and Stoughton published a book by Lloyd Geering called Resurrection-A Symbol of Hope.  Sir Lloyd had already caused division in the PCANZ before that.  In 1967 he was charged with “doctrinal error” and “disturbing the peace and unity of the (Presbyterian) church”.  The charge was dismissed and I doubt that any of those who brought the charge were knighted for services to Religious Education or live to be 106.

More to the point Resurrection-A Symbol of Hope pretty much sums up what Easter morning means for us.  Indeed, it is what the resurrection means for all Christians past present and future.

In our reading from Mark’s Gospel the heavenly messenger tells the women at the empty tomb that Jesus is not there, he has been raised.  Then he gives them a mission:

‘But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him just as he told you.’ (Mark 16:7)

We can’t make a pilgrimage to Christ’s tomb because he is not there.  There are plenty of tombs of great figures in the past that are major tourist attractions but not the tomb of Jesus.

The Risen Christ is going on ahead of us and has gone on ahead of us for more than two thousand years. Furthermore, the women were instructed to tell the disciples that the Risen Christ will meet them in Galilee. That was their home town and Christ meets us in our home, the place where we live, earn our living, raise our families and so on.  As Bill Wallace wrote ‘Christ is risen in our lives’.

The Risen Christ is a symbol of hope, and we are all called to follow that Christ and be that Christ in our world.

Maurice Andrew suggests the writer of our reading from Isaiah has constructed a poetic picture of the total transformation of the human condition.

That makes the passage an ideal reading for Easter Sunday because that is the message of the resurrection. It was the call from the empty tomb to the disciples who disserted Jesus after he was arrested. Continue reading Sunday 31st March →

Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Snakes and Darkness to the Light of Christ

Numbers 21: 4-9

This reading opens with a typical whinging in the wilderness prevalent in the Exodus saga and moves into a strange story that, Maurice Andrew says is not to be taken literally but, seeks to explain that the bronze serpent, which was to be found in the temple, was not a forbidden graven image.

The complaints arise in our reading because the Edomites refused to allow passage through their land so a detour had to be made.^[1]

The significance for us is the allusion to it in John’s Gospel where the image of the snake on the pole is substituted by the crucified Jesus.

Hear what the spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

John 3:14-21

This reading is part of the theological discourse given to Nicodemus which starts at the beginning of chapter 3 with Nicodemus coming in the night to Jesus.

From the opening of this sermon on, salvation by baptism, Jesus uses crucifixion as a saving symbol.  Just as the serpent, a symbol of evil from Genesis, becomes a symbol that heals those afflicted by snake bites so the symbol of evil in a cruel and tortuous death, becomes a symbol that gives life and, lifting up to die on the cross, becomes lifting up to resurrection.

In Numbers, God passes judgement on the people but in this passage the judgement is self-judgement in accepting the transforming light or ignoring it.

Bill Loader writes:

This sets the scene for 3:14-15 which belong closely with what precedes. The Son of Man must be ‘lifted up’. Like the ascent in 3:13 this refers to the event which begins at Jesus’ death. ‘Lifted up’ is wonderfully ambiguous. He will be lifted up on a cross. He will also be lifted up/exalted to God’s presence. John plays on the double meaning in typical fashion.  Here he uses what may have already been a traditional association between Jesus’ death and the snakes in the wilderness. A Crucified Jesus is like the bronze snake which Moses fashioned and put on a pole.

John is tending away from a picture of God who wants to punish people forever towards a picture of God who wants life for people.  Whatever our own solution to the issues of inclusion and exclusion, John’s Gospel asks us to recognise, that to reject the love, light and truth we see in Jesus, is to choose death.^[2]

Sermon

As a boy I used to listen to a radio programme called ‘My Word.’   You will not be surprised to learn that I liked it because of the way it manipulated words in a way that was funny.  In the introduction the listener was told that it was a programme about words by people whose business was words.

John the Gospel writer was obviously in the word business.  He manipulated words extracting meaning from them in the way he twisted and arranged them.  Many of the writers of what we call the Old Testament played the same games and if we could read ancient Hebrew, we would find that they used puns as well as allusion and quotations from older texts.

This twisting and turning of words and meaning is very apparent in today’s Gospel reading that contains layer upon layer of meaning as John passes on to us the passion he has for following Jesus, and his enthusiasm for encouraging others to also follow Jesus.

The interesting thing about the use of a snake as a symbol in today’s readings is that it is an image that twists and turns through scripture in a very snake like way.

Beginning in Genesis it is the serpent that tempts humanity away from the limitations God imposes.  The snake therefore becomes the symbol of the evil side of humanity that turns away from God.

Therefore, it is logical that image is picked up in our Numbers reading where snakes are the punishment for complaining about the freedom God has given the people.

Complaining about freedom’, or as I like to call it, ‘whinging in the wilderness’ is a constant theme that runs through the Exodus saga and highlights the reality that to be truly free means to live off the resources of the journey.

We have recently remembered the devastating damage Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle inflicted on the North Island bring floods and loss of life to Auckland and isolating parts of the East Coast around Gisborne.

As the stories of those isolated communities emerged, we not only learned of acts of heroism but also people who did what they could with what they had.  People who had bulldozers and people who had inflatable boats who cleared paths and recued people off roofs.  Surf lifesavers that took their IRBs up rivers instead of out to sea.  People who accepted the journey and made the most of what they had.

But complaining about adversity and inconvenience is also alive and well in Aotearoa.  We recently lived through the first and most deadly wave of a pandemic.  Our death rate was lower than most nations in the world.  But just like Moses’ people folk had to divert their journey to avoid conflict.  There was a cost to avoiding a potentially deadly pandemic.  Closed boarders enforced quarantine, and compulsory vaccination for those employed caring for people interfered with a lot of peoples’ individual journeys and personal beliefs.  So, they not only complained bitterly but made up alternative facts.

Recently real estate agent Janet Dickson has taken legal action against her Continue reading Sunday 10th March →

Rev Barbara Peddie

Pattern for living

A sermon on Exodus 20: 1-17 and John 2: 13-22. Lent 3B 2024

In these days of rising costs, ever-increasing lists of repairs left undone, resident Covid, and ever-louder voices of protesters, it takes an effort of will to move into the place of expectation that Lent brings to us. Just now, it’s definitely not easy to believe that God is about to do a new thing.

Well, it certainly wasn’t easy for the exodus Israelites in the desert, and it’s even harder today for the Palestinians in the wreckage and bloodshed of Gaza and the Ukrainians constantly listening for the next explosions. In these times, just as much as in the time of Moses there’s constant challenge and uncertainty and worry and fear about what tomorrow might bring. So maybe today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures comes at a very appropriate time for us. Although, for the Israelites in the desert, when God did do a new thing and gifted them with Torah – the Law – it’s possible they felt like it was like being kicked when they were down. Who wants rules and regulations when survival is top of the priority list? Who wants more challenges in a way forward? As far as the Israelites were concerned, all they wanted was to stop wandering and settle down in a good place!

The appearance of the Decalogue in the midst of the readings for Lent comes as a surprise. We’ve heard it all before. For my generation, the Ten Commandments were given a fair hammering. Moreover, the Sunday School stuff was probably overlaid with a heap of non-biblical imagery that can be very hard to shake off. Altogether, it’s hard to think of those 10 commandments, or laws, or ‘words’ as a gift of God to God’s people. But they were and they are. Walter Bruggemann writes, they’re a ‘proclamation in God’s own mouth of who God is and how God shall be “practised” by this community of liberated slaves.’ It’s about the ‘how’ of living in covenant with the faithful God of Abraham, – and Jesus. And God’s faithfulness is not a response to the people’s obedience. Fortunately! Continue reading Sunday 3rd March →

Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Transfiguration

Readings

2 Kings 2:1-12

Today’s reading is about Elisha succeeding Elijah and we should note that Elijah has to cross over the Jordan to fulfil his destiny then, in the passage immediately following today’s reading, Elisha crosses back to fulfil that promised ministry.

Moses led the people across the Red Sea to leave Egypt and Joshua leads them across the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.

As we listen to the crossing of the Jordan bringing new promise in today’s reading remember that earlier this year we looked at John the Baptizer appearing as the new Elijah by the banks of the Jordan.  We also read that in baptism Jesus comes up out of the Jordan and instead of the waters parting the heavens parted, a truly new beginning.

Andrew notes that all biblical religion depends on succession and that understanding not only helps us cope with our world but helps us understand the message the Gospel writers bring us as they explain Jesus as a continuation of their religious tradition.

Mark 9:2-9

Context is always important because so much of the gospel writer’s message is delivered in the way the story is assembled.

Chapter 8 begins with a great crowd following Jesus to the point where, if they went back to their homes for food, they would collapse on the way.

We learned in our first reading that new beginnings have got something to do with crossing water and dividing things.  However, with Moses as the model we also know that when people of God take people away from home on the way to something new they are expected to feed them.  Jesus does that by feeding four thousand. (Mark 8:9)

Then the Pharisees come and ask for a sign and the disciples worry about not having bread and we are left with the impression that neither the Pharisees nor the disciples can see what is happening.  Jesus then heals a blind man who sees very well.

That brings us to the turning point of the Gospel at the return from Caesarea Philippi where Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah but does not understand about Jesus’ death.

In today’s reading a representative group of disciples are taken to a secluded place and have a spiritual experience of Jesus’ identity.

Sermon

Through their understanding of their religious tradition and scripture Peter, James and John had formed a reasoned understanding of who Jesus was.  That framed the spiritual experience described in our reading and was the structure Mark used to describe it.

So are our spiritual experiences also constructed in our minds by our religious tradition and scripture, and if so can they still guide us to our best possible future.

Maurice Andrew writes that ‘All biblical religion depends on succession.  What comes feeds on the past, and what is past leads to what comes’[1]  A very wise comment from a very astute biblical scholar but it goes further than simply acknowledging biblical structure.  Innovation in the human society also feeds on the past.  Practices and understandings from the past help to build new knowledge, structures, organisations and ways of living in the future.  The rapid development of the covid vaccine was based on years of vaccination science and practise.

The Bible is built on a structure that recognises that experience and spiritual insight from the past informs the future.  The reason why Christians put so much emphasis on reading the Bible is this reality that spiritual insight from the past will not only inform our lives now but guide us to the future.

The Bible is a collection of books, that’s why it is called the Bible. It is not a book of rules called Spiritual Direction for Dummies.

The Bible has a collection of rules but also, history and stories.  All of which are assembled in a pattern of succession where the past informs the future and episodes in one time are reflected in earlier times.

Therefore, the Bible reflects real life and offers us both a foundation and a framework to build our own religious response to our world.

Our gospel reading is built on a previous episode and the imagery in the vision described reflects past scripture and religious tradition.

Jesus and the disciples took time out in the gentile resort of Caesarea Philippi.  That was not Jewish territory, but it was a place of considerable ancient religious significance.  Building on the past is an interfaith experience.

On the way back from Caesarea Philippi Jesus instigates a discussion about his identity.  Where does he fit in their religious tradition and perhaps other religious traditions?

Mark’s Gospel gives us two prompts from Jesus.  Who do people say he is, and who do the disciples say he is?  After going through a number of significant figures from their religious and cultural tradition Peter finally proclaims Jesus as the Messiah.

That was a reasoned conclusion based on the religious tradition of the past. It was also a conclusion derived from the difficulties people experienced in the disciples’ time.

Through reasoning they were led to believe that God would send new leadership in the future.  God would send a messiah.  The disciples concluded Jesus’ actions and teaching came so close to what tradition said about a messiah that he must be the expected messiah. Continue reading Sunday 11th February →

Rev Barbara Peddie

God’s work – and ours

Epiphany 5B and Waitangi

This was one of the times when I was tempted to move away from the set lectionary readings – although as it happens there was a choice for this Sunday. There’s a separate set for Epiphany 5 and Waitangi Day and this is the closest Sunday to Waitangi Day. But, in the end I opted for the readings for Epiphany 5. But, let’s face it, they’re a challenge!

In these days, where the news is full of death and disaster, both in the wider world where there is war and misery and desperation in far too many countries, and in our own land where the new year has begun with fire and storm, far too many deaths on the roads and in the water, and violence in the streets, it’s hard to take real comfort from Isaiah’s hymn to the everlasting Lord who “gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless”, or from the Psalmist who sings of the Lord who “heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.” Tell that to the people of Gaza and Ukraine and wait for their reaction!

And the reading from Mark has its own challenges. Jesus’ healing stories are hard for us. We know both too much about illnesses and not enough. We know that fevers are often caused by infections, and we know how to deal with them. We know that some mental illnesses are genetic in origin, and some are caused by chemical imbalances, and there are ways of treating them. But we also know that some diseases are unexplained and uncontrollable. And we know that wellness means more than physical wellbeing. There is a spiritual dimension to health, and there is a ministry of healing.

I’m not saying that God doesn’t heal. There are times when the veil between us and God – between what we see as reality, and what we feel as something other, or sacred, or numinous – whatever we call it – is thin. I think there are people with a healing ministry – who can make themselves channels for God to act as God chooses to act. I don’t, however, have much time for people who claim that power for themselves. And there’s more than one sort of healing ministry. We have people walking among us with gifts of reconciliation, or of mending the earth, or of recognising and calling out gifts in others. They’re all healers too. Continue reading Sunday 4th February →

Rev Stephanie Wells

Theme ” The Light Shines”

Epiphany 4

TEXTS:          Deuteronomy 18: 15-20,                    Mark 1: 21-28

Our news is often full of the cry that the young have no respect for authority. The strange thing is that we have heard this comment every generation as the young rebel against the rules and expectations of their elders.

‘Authority’ is a word that carries a lot of baggage. At this time of year we think of the authority teachers need in the classroom to make sure pupils actually get to learn. Teachers hope they won’t get students with authority issues – the ones that challenge their authority every moment. In turn pupils hope that they won’t get a teacher this year with authority issues either; the ones that are bossy and mean, and even worse the ones that have no control and let the classroom become a war zone where no one learns anything and each day is a case of the survival of the fittest.

We hear of parents too who have authority issues with their children; either being too soft or too tough on them. The government and its various agencies have also been worried about how parents exercise authority over their children. Unfortunately, according to many media reports, parents are either too harsh and should have their children taken off them or are accused of not taking enough responsibility for their child’s action and are told to be tougher. With all these conflicting ideas on authority it’s a wonder more parents don’t simply give up.

In the church we also get conflicting suggestions on this thing called authority. So much so I wonder whether some of us haven’t given up too. We are called to respect the authority of scripture. Which is something most people shouldn’t have too much problem about – right? Wrong! Because everyone who calls on the authority of the bible seems to have a different idea on what this means.

Some believe they can find a bible verse that supports everything they believe; (please note the order I said that). Some believe God dictated every word, in the language of the King James version, and this means other versions are evil. Some believe that every word has a divine meaning, or a cosmic meaning, or a hidden meaning based on a special code, usually their own. Bible passages have been used to justify wars, slavery, greed, all kinds of things we might regard as evil. Is it any wonder then that some people, even Christians, have become a little cynical about the claim of scriptural authority. Continue reading Sunday 28th January →

Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Voices in the Night and Encouragement

1 Samuel 3:1-10

Samuel you may remember was dedicated to God by his mother and given into the care of Eli the priest so he could be brought up to serve God.  In 1 Samuel 2:12 we are told:

Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for Yahweh or for the duties of the priests to the people.

So in a time of hereditary leadership, we have a constitutional crisis looming with the dedicated successors to Eli demonstrating that they are clearly unsuitable. It is a time when people were not particularly in touch with God.  But today’s reading tells us how that is about to change and how that change comes from an unexpected direction.

John 1: 43-51

Mark, Matthew and Luke describe Jesus’ baptism. But John’s Gospel does not have a baptism scene as such.  Instead, John the Baptist describes what happened when he baptised Jesus.  In so doing he recommends Jesus as the one to follow on from his ministry to two of his own followers and they go to visit Jesus.  One of them, Andrew, then goes and brings his brother Simon to Jesus whom Jesus then names Peter, or Cephas in Latin which in Greek is Petros.  John wrote in Greek so there is a pun as Petros is confused with Petra the Greek word for ‘rock’.  That becomes relevant later as Jesus affirms Peter’s rock like dependability and authority.

The key issue here is that John the Baptist, who has had a vision of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at baptism, recommends Jesus to others who then pass on that recommendation.  Listen for that as.

SERMON

Sometime, in the not-too-distant past, a young dyslexic man is called back to work an extra shift because the person rostered on was sick.  His father had told him that if you are working for someone you should always treat their business as your own.  So, in spite of a promised diner date with the love of his life he went back to work.

What his boss hadn’t told him was that there would be a film crew in the restaurant making a documentary about restaurants.  That didn’t bother him because he worked in the kitchen.  He just worked away with his usual skill and control of multiple orders, as he usually did.  However, the film crew were fascinated by the way focused on his tasks, his manual dexterity, his cheery countenance and his ability to keep so many tasks going at the same time.  As a result, he featured extensively in the filming and when the producer saw the film crew’s results, the young man’s phone began to ring.

This year with the publication of his latest book, Five Ingredients Mediterranean that now not so young man became the author of the most non-fiction books in the United Kingdom.  He has also just had a series on our television called ‘Jamie’s Christmas Shortcuts.

He is of course Jamie Oliver MBE. And after I reheard him relate that story on a recent Graham Norton programme it mixed with my recent reading of Samuel’s night voices, and I woke with the thought:

‘How many times does a serendipitist moment change people’s lives.’  Was, being in the right place at the right time what Samuel’s night voices was all about?

Are we all called to be awake to those unexpected events that can change the direction of our lives? Should we always be ready to sing, even in the middle of the day. ‘Here I am, Lord, Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night’. Continue reading Sunday 14th January →