Perhaps you’ve experienced, along with me, some embarrassment when you’ve been talking to someone for the first time. What kind of questions do you ask to get the conversation going? After, “How are you?” has elicited the standard, “Fine, thanks.” and an obligatory statement about the weather, or a question about holidays; we often ask, “And what do you do?” Embarrassment increases when we realise that our new acquaintance is struggling with unemployment!

We find it difficult to avoid the issue. We usually categorise people by what they do. She’s an Engineer. He’s a nurse. She runs an investment bank. …. You know the way it is. We live in a society that places great value on what we do. Even if not related to employment, the need to be ‘doing’ hangs in the air, it feeds our guilty consciences, it disturbs our rest-time. It is important to be ‘doing’, to be achieving – if we want to feel valuable, to feel at peace with ourselves, we need to be active.

Is it like this? … I suspect – if your answer is, “No!” – then you’re the exception that proves the rule! It’s so much a part of our make up – we need to be ‘doing’, & we expect others to be ‘doing’, or we begin to question their commitment/motives.

So, how do you feel as you read the story about Martha and Mary? Is it the first time you’ve heard it? Have you heard it before? Often, if we’ve read a story before – we know what is coming up – we know what the right answer to the question is. So, in this case, we know that Martha is going to get a mild rebuke, and Mary, praise. But try setting that aside just for a moment – who do you sympathise with in the story? … Why? …

I sympathise with Martha – the hospitable one – wanting to do her best for her guest. Not enough time to get everything done, getting frustrated with everyone around her. Gradually losing sight of the real reason that she is busy. Until, in the end, she even has a go at her guest! Entertaining can be hard work. The more so, because we want to put on a good show, to do our best.

When Jo and I went to Uganda in 2001, we stayed for a few days with Cranmer and Hope in Kisoro. At that time Cranmer was the Pastor in the Cathedral in Kisoro. Hope, his wife, a teacher in a primary school (with a class of over a hundred children) and, like most women in Uganda, bearing far the greater responsibility for running the home. Cultural pressures meant that while we were staying with them Hope had to prepare big meals – the family’s best had always to be available for guests. Hope was a gracious and wonderful hostess who spent all day working at school, and all her spare time cooking over charcoal and wood fires, or marking homework. We would have been much happier with less food, much less. Hope was rushed off her feet – and we missed out on her company. We were unable to do justice to the meals she prepared – they were too big. She was left feeling exhausted, and, unsurprisingly, a little disgruntled at our lack of appetite. In the years that have followed, this has changed. Hope now, as Bishop’s wife, has a much better understanding of the size of our western stomachs.

‘Doing’ isn’t always best. ‘Being’ is often much more important. … Hope’s company would have meant so much more to us than the wonderful large meals she prepared.

If we’re honest with ourselves we can retreat into ‘doing’, so as to avoid having to ‘be’. Martha did just this! Jesus wanted her company rather than her food! But she busied herself with making dinner. Mary seems to have got it right. ‘Being’ with Jesus was more important, at least at that moment, than ‘doing’ for Jesus.

‘Being with Jesus’ ensures that we keep a right perspective on life. It helps us to realise that God loves us, not for what we ‘do’, but for who we are. ‘Being with Jesus’ is ‘worship’ – giving both to God, & to ourselves, ‘worth’ and ‘honour’ – it’s God’s priority for our lives.

God intends this to be the context in which everything else in our lives happens – not the thing we make room for if we have time, nor something we do when everything else has been completed. There is a serious challenge for all of us here, me and you. Jesus says to Martha, “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

So, how come this is true? Why is ‘being’ with Jesus, time spent in worship, so important? The  answer is provided, at least in part, by a few of the verses in Colossians which the Anglican lectionary sets to be read with the story of Martha and Mary.

Colossians 1:15ff

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

The apostle Paul is saying that when we look at Christ, when we spend time with Christ we see God and ourselves in the right perspective – we see God as he really is! … If time with God is something that we fit round everything else that’s going on, we inevitably come to God preoccupied with our own concerns. And God’s response to those concerns becomes critical for us. Our worship, our understanding of God, becomes dependent on our needs being met. We allow our agendas to determine our picture of God, what God is like for us.

Sometimes I borrow Jo’s Computer Projector. What makes it very useful to me is that when I call up an image on my laptop it is faithfully reproduced on the screen for everyone to see. The image on the screen is a direct replica of the image on the laptop.

We are like Projectors!!

We fill our minds with our own concerns or with our own ideas of God or with our busyness. And in doing so we make God in our own image – we project onto the screen of our lives a God that isn’t really recognisable in the Bible. We so easily see God as the overbearing father, the demanding or authoritarian boss, the over- zealous judge, or the policeman; or alternatively we see him as the gentle giant, the cuddly old grandfather, or the sugar-daddy who lets us do just what we like. We project an image of God based on our experience.

Paul, in Colossians, asks to think differently. ‘Christ’, he says, ‘is the image of the invisible God.’ In Jesus, we see God projected in human form, for ‘God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him’. Paul wants us to make the image that we project, that of Jesus. To spend time with Jesus, reading about him in the Bible, worshipping him, so that rather than our own measly images of God we see God as he intends us to – because we see Jesus. ….. What is God like? … Paul’s answer is, ‘Look at Jesus!’

Mary chose ‘being’ with Jesus rather than busying herself with important tasks and duties. Jesus wants us to make being with him our first priority. He doesn’t want us to stop serving, to stop caring, but he does want us to stop flapping, to stop worrying and to centre ourselves on him. Both Paul and Jesus himself want worship to be the key central act of our lives. For in worship we begin to see God as he really is, through the lens or image of Jesus. We see God at work in creation, in covenant, in judgement and in salvation. As we worship we begin to see life and the world from God’s perspective.

Don’t let me stop you ‘doing’. Working for God in the world is vitally important. But please make worship, ‘being’ with Jesus, your highest priority.

Samaria was the area of Palestine which sat between Galilee and Judea. The central area north of Jerusalem. By the time of Jesus, it had become a Jewish ‘no-go’ area. The shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee was North through Samaria. However, most Jews wanting to do this journey would set off in an Easterly direction – they would travel to Jericho, cross the River Jordan and then turn north, only crossing back close to Lake Galilee. Jews would avoid going through Samaria.

The Jews were strongly prejudiced against the Samaritans. The Samaritans were a mixed race – their ancestors were Jews who had remained in Palestine at the time of the exile to Babylon, and who had intermarried with other people groups who had been settled in the area as part of the Babylonian policy of ethnic cleansing. There had been a number of disputes between Jews and Samaritans down the years. We have a record of one in the book of Nehemiah were Sanballat opposes the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

However, by the time of Jesus, there were no current grounds for this prejudice. Jews and Samaritans were just two different people groups, sharing similar religious practices, living alongside each other. But Jews hated Samaritans, saw them as unclean, and would have nothing to do with them. And it is important to understand this if we are to begin to understand what people would have heard as Jesus told the story in our Gospel reading.

A Jewish man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, probably doing so because he wanted to avoid the region of Samaria, is robbed and left for dead. The upright Jewish religious establishment gave the man no help, but a Samaritan – an unclean, hated Samaritan. Someone, who according to the Jews, had no goodness in him. The scum of the earth. He is the one to help.

As I read this famous story, I hear Jesus is doing two different things – he is setting a standard for neighbourly conduct and he is challenging people’s perceptions of reality.

I wonder how this parable might have gone if Jesus had been telling it in Manchester – perhaps in Oldham or Ashton. In the early years of this century we heard quite a lot about perceived ‘no-go’ areas in Glodwick and elsewhere. We’ve even heard of white people walking round the outskirts of an area, so as to avoid crossing Asian territory. Election results have shown a startling support for the more extreme right wing parties, even here in Tameside.

If Jesus has told this story in the white communities of central Oldham or to members of the EDL, who might his Good Samaritan have been? Perhaps a knife carrying Asian youth. Or if Jesus spoke in the midst of the Asian community, the Good Samaritan may well have been an over-weight skinhead with union-jack tattoos who belongs to the EDL. In Jewish culture the words ‘Good’ and ‘Samaritan’ just did not belong together. And in some of our communities it is nigh impossible for people in one area to think well of those in another.

Jesus challenges prejudice and hatred by making the perceived enemy, the saviour in the story.

How would the story translate in the area immediately around the church of St. James in Ashton? If Jesus were to tell a story about one of the people living on Cow Hill Lane being mugged, who would the other main characters be? The priest …? Me or one of my colleagues? … The Levite …? Perhaps the closest would be a churchwarden or treasurer or church council secretary.

Starkly, in this version of the story, we are seen to take one look and because of our own fears to walk by, to get into our cars and drive quickly out of the area. Perhaps a quick call to the police on our mobile phones! Who would the ‘Good’ Samaritan be? …

You might not know, but 8 to 10 years ago St. James’ Church was very close to being burnt down. Someone set a bin fire against the wall of the vestry. Who was it that dealt with the problem? I know that at times we have made comments about our neighbours, but it was  a local Asian Muslim lad who with his bare hands dragged the bin away from the vestry wall. And you know what he said to me. ‘Someone is trying to burn down my church!’

Even if we think there is little of overt racism as we look around us in our neighbourhood, or as we look at each other. Actually we all need to acknowledge our own personal prejudices. It is so easy, isn’t it, to think in terms of them and us, so easy to harbour negative thoughts about those we perceive as different from us. And we do make comparisons, don’t we, and so often when we make those comparisons, we compare our best with the other’s worst.

We have been encountering these issues for real in recent weeks. Since the Brexit vote, hate crime and religiously motivated crime has risen five-fold (So the Sun tells us : https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1372072/hate-crime-reports-of-abuse-up-500-per-cent-since-brexit-official-figures-show). It is as though a vote to leave the EU has been seen by many as an excuse to let rip with unacceptable views. All we have actually done, whatever our motivations, is voted to leave the EU. We remain a part of a global community, we continue to need those who have moved to live in this country over many years and if most of us could trace our ancestry back we would find that we originate from outside this island – all of us do. 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice-age there was no one living here. We are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants, all of us.

Four days ago, in the house of Lords, our Archbishop, Justin Welby, urged political leaders on both sides of the Brexit debate to take on the “xenophobia and racism” that has been prevalent seen since the decision to leave the EU. (https://www.politicshome.com/news/europe/eu-policy-agenda/brexit/news/76966/archbishop-canterbury-eu-referendum-has-created. He reminded us that it is unacceptable to refuse to guarantee the rights of EU nationals living in Britain, speaking of the “unacceptability of treating people like bargaining chips”.

Justin Welby said that “The referendum campaign was both robust – as it properly should be on such great issues – but at time veered over the line on both sides into not merely being robust but being unacceptable.”

“Through those comments were created cracks in the thin crust of the politeness and tolerance of our society, through which since the referendum we have seen an outwelling of poison and hatred that I cannot remember in this country for very many years.”

He said there was an urgent need to “tackle the issues of inequality”, which he said “raises the levels of anger, resentment and bitterness”. He called for a renewed focus on investment in education, housing, and public and mental health services to deal with the problems. But he was very clear that we all must challenge the attacks, the xenophobia and the racism that seem to have become more acceptable.

In the Gospel, Jesus is calling us to neighbourly conduct, to crossing perceived boundaries to help others in need, to be Good Samaritans. He is calling us to be good neighbours to all, not just those like us. And he is challenging us to question our own prejudices and assumptions. Just as the actions of the Samaritan would have shocked conscientious Jews, so Jesus wants to shock us, to help us to see the good in those we so easily despise.

It’s close to the beginning of the holiday season – and our Old Testament Reading told the story of the first known package holiday. Not arranged by Airtours, Monarch or Thomas Cook – this holiday was arranged by God.

Elijah has been working all hours as the head prophet in the Yahweh organisation. Business has not been that good. The competition has been gaining ground. It seems like bankruptcy is on the cards. Yahweh (Israel’s God) could well go out of business – or succumb to a hostile and aggressive takeover by the Baal conglomerate.

The tension is brought to a head on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. Elijah challenges the opposition. A credibility test – whoever wins is the real God.

I hope you know the story well – Elijah wins. Baal cannot provide the fire to light the sacrifice on his altar. Yahweh, the God of the Bible, sends fire down from heaven. The whole Baal organisation is in turmoil – Baal’s prophets are killed. Elijah is on cloud nine. But things are not quite that simple – the chief shareholder of the Baal conglomerate is incensed. Jezebel, the Queen, will not go away, she issues threats on Elijah’s life.

How does Elijah respond? The tension of recent events has got to him. Rather than

confident trust in God, built on the foundation of what God has just done at Mount Carmel, Elijah panics – he runs. It’s a classic case of depression and stress – he’s taken on more than he can handle. He can now only see problems where once he saw opportunities. Run down, feeling hopeless, he runs off into the desert. And it is this story that we have read in our OT reading today.

I don’t know about you but there have been times in my life when I’ve been just like Elijah in our reading. Stressed out, having lost perspective on life, God seems to have disappeared. … It isn’t always something as drastic as Elijah’s experience that affects us. It’s strange isn’t it how often when we review something we have done, that it’s the negative things we remember rather than the good. Or, I wonder, have you ever had the experience in some unguarded moment of tearful emotions overcoming you. Sometimes holidays, perhaps because we begin to relax, or perhaps because of the memories they evoke, are times when life is particularly hard – times when we’re prone to self-pity – even times when God feels distant.

How did God deal with his faithful servant Elijah in this time of darkness. It’s important to note is that he doesn’t tell Elijah to snap out of it – or to buck his ideas up. No! First he allows Elijah time to rest and sleep; then he makes sure that he is well fed and watered; and then he takes him on a forty day excursion to the mountains. At times we need to hear this – rest and recuperation are God’s gifts to us – listen to the words Jesus speaks in Matthew’s Gospel: “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Secondly, God helps Elijah to see that although he, God, can work in power, he is to be heard most clearly in the silence. God’s words of comfort to Elijah are not spoken in the wind, the earthquake or the fire, but are whispered gently to him in the silence. Time away from noise and busyness are times when we have a better chance of hearing God. Times when we can be resourced again for faithful service.

I don’t know what you are feeling about the events of this past week (23rd June onwards). Following the EU referendum this week, we find ourselves in a strange place.  Of those who voted, just over half are rejoicing and just under half are mourning.  It is a time of uncertainty, not just for our nation but for all sorts of people, including people we know and love.  In the news and on social media, there is all sorts of nasty stuff going around and this saddens me  but I can also understand that there are high emotions around.

I freely admit that I voted “remain” and reflecting on how I have felt, I thought it would be good to share a post written by my wife Jo on facebook just 24 hours after the result was confirmed. She was inspired to write the following as a status post on Facebook, just to help people understand what she feels at moment feel like…..

So a new day dawns. .. and yesterday’s news wasn’t just some bad dream.  A new and uncertain future lies ahead and I will be committed to being part of that future even though it’s not what I voted for.  BUT (and it is a big but)…  at the moment I’m grieving and it hurts and as I write this I feel the tears welling up. 

When I lost my dad, I grieved and then I healed but in between I tried to deny it, I was angry, I tried bargaining  (if only I had done….), I cried and eventually acceptance came.  Healthy grieving needs all these things to happen.  So, please bear with me, and all those who feel like this today.  If you voted leave, please recognise our hurt, let us grieve so that in time we can join you on this new journey for our nation.

In the days to come, we might say things we wouldn’t normally say and act out of character but please forgive us just as you would a friend whose just lost a loved one.  I will bounce back  but it won’t be today or even tomorrow. …

This is an emotional time for many. If we are to find a good future for our country, we need to spend some time focussing on healing, we need to take time out.  Those grieving need to have space to do so, those rejoicing need to be allowed to do just that – but the future that we need to keep our eyes fixed on is one where we can be reunited.  This is not going to be easy – neither campaign was particularly honourable – and some unpleasant stuff on both sides, so there is work to be done by us all.

At Diocesan Synod on the day before the vote, Bishop David spoke about how the Church had a role to play after the referendum in setting a good climate in which the people of our nation can reunite and work together whatever the outcome might be.

I am writing this blog on the morning of what the Church of England calls the 5th Sunday After Trinity and the readings set for the day include part of the reading from 1 Kings 19. And a passage from Galatians 5. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, was wanting these new Christians to understand what living like Jesus was all about.  He says that it’s all about loving your neighbour, that it’s about not trying to destroy each other, it’s about living in a way that does not damage ourselves or our relationships.

So he says, these are the qualities you need to develop as Christians, to be a people who are able to love their neighbours…..

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

He describes these as the fruits of the Spirit, the good things that Holy Spirit brings to the fore in our lives. If I could, I would give you a piece of fruit and ask you to think just for a short while about what it is that you like about that piece of fruit, its juiciness, its sweetness, its purity, its …………….. The fruits of the Spirit bring refreshing hope into the lives of our communities and it is these fruits of the Spirit that need to grow in our own lives and in our dealings with others, particularly at this time….

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Let’s ask God’s Spirit to help these fruits to grow and flourish in us. Let’s focus on them in the days ahead.

I’d like to conclude now with a prayer published by the Church of England after the vote on Thursday….

Life can drain us, it can pull us down, often we can feel defeated. Holidays are God’s gift to us, their times when we can chose to make space for him. Times when we can pick up our Bibles again. Times when we can make space to pray. Times when we can set aside noise and competition, even battle, and listen to God’s still small voice of hope. And if we are not going away, it is important from time to time that we make space for ourselves, when we can be generous to ourselves, when we too can hear once again God speaking words of love to us in that still small voice of hope.

Eternal God, Light of the nations, in Christ you make all things new: guide our nation in the coming days through the inspiration of your Spirit, that understanding may put an end to discord and all bitterness.

Give us grace to rebuild bonds of trust that together we may work for the dignity and flourishing of all; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Jeremiah’s Words to the Exiles in Babylon:

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

These are some of the clearest and strongest words in the bible encouraging us to pray for the places that God has placed us in. They are amazing words spoken to a people in exile. In this passage from Jeremiah God challenges his people, who are refugees in a foreign land, to pray for the city and the country in which they now live as foreigners and strangers.

There are passages in the New Testament which encourage us as Christians to see ourselves first as citizens of heaven rather than citizens of an earthly kingdom.

Philippians 3:20: But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Saviour.
Hebrews 13:14: For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
Ephesians 2:19: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.

The writers of these passages in the New Testament are encouraging their readers to see the events happening to them in the context of their citizenship of heaven. That is where we, as Christians, belong. Primarily, not here on earth but in heaven.

However, the passage from Jeremiah reminds us that we cannot give up on this world. If we are citizens of heaven, we are also residents of England, of Greater Manchester and of Ashton-under-Lyne. And through Jeremiah’s words, God calls on us to pray for the place we live in. … To pray for the welfare of the city.
So, we are called to pray for our town: local councillors; local schools; local businesses, shops and industry; those who keep our streets clean and safe; medical practices and drop-in centres; dentists, health workers, carers, befrienders; those who provide transport – Metrolink, busdrivers, taxi drivers; for our neighbours; for our foodbanks; for charities based in our town – St. Peter’s Partnerships; Action Together; Citizens’ Advice; Faiths Utd; TARA; Age Concern; Mind, etc. ……

We need to pray for ourselves as we serve out town and as we seek to strengthen God’s rule, God’s kingdom – for the Town Centre Chaplaincy; for growth of our congregations so that we will have the human resources we need to serve others; for us to hear God’s voice and participate in God’s mission.

We need to pray for friends, acquaintances and family, for their faith to grow, for them to come to faith in Jesus. …. We encouraged our congregation members to commit ourselves to praying for friends to come to faith by taking away a leather band, tie it round a wrist with a knot in for each person being prayed for, each time we are aware of the leather bracelet, we pray for each of those friends.

We need to pray for God’s Kingdom to Come and throughout the period from Ascension Day to Pentecost we offered opportunities to pray each day. Over 40 different people prayed together at different times of the week and others chose to pray quietly in their own homes.

God said through Jeremiah: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

And finally – here in the passage in Jeremiah is one of the clearest reasons for us to be places of welcome, for our Churches to welcome the stranger, the exile, the refugee, the asylum seeker. Why? … Because we too are strangers and exiles in our own land, we are citizens of another kingdom and we serve first another king. Our first allegiance is not to our government, nor our town but to Christ. We are exiles living in a foreign land, ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven. We must show the loving welcome of our Lord to those who are exiles and strangers, otherwise we betray our kingdom. God’s kingdom. …..

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

This prayer was offered for our use during the week:

God of the displaced, we give thanks that when we are insecure,
you offer us security,
when we are abandoned, you come to find us.
You invite us to embed ourselves in community,
to discover that you, already among us, enable the flourishing of all that is good.
We pray in the name of Jeshua of Bethlehem,
of Egypt, of Nazareth, of Calais, of Syria and Palestine,
of Ashton-under-Lyne,
of the asylum seekers holding centres, the detention centres, the boats in the Mediterranean ………..
Amen.

I wonder whether you can imagine what it was like to be the man at the pool in John 5:1-18. The story goes that the first person into the water when the water bubbled up would be healed. What might it have felt like to have been lying by the pool of Bethzatha for 38 years? Waiting for that chance to get to the water first, but always being too slow to get to the water before someone else.

What might it have felt like, in that hot climate, to occasionally put your toe, in the clear cool water of that sheltered pool?

What might it have felt like, after talking with Jesus to be able to walk again?

Just imagine what it was like for that man to have his life changed by Jesus, so much so, that after many years of being disabled he could walk again?

It is good to use our imagination, …. whether it is to feel the coolness of the water, or to imagine the long years of hopeful but frustrating waiting of the man by the pool. Or to imagine the way life can be utterly changed by just one encounter with a special person.

It is possible that each one of us has something in our lives like one of these different experiences … joyful experiences, waiting experiences, frustrating experiences, surprising experiences, positive experiences

Our churches in Ashton usually have baptism service on the first Sunday of the month. 5 children were baptised in our services today.  Everyone present at those services  was participating in the service, not just those who led intercessions or lessons, not just the priest, the parents and the godparents, everyone was a participant not a spectator.

The young ones being baptised are very unlikely to remember the experience, but everyone else present will remember the services they participated in and in remembering this service, they will have the opportunity to imagine what it was like when they, themselves, were baptised.

If we were baptised as infants, a service of baptism is an opportunity to imagine … to imagine just what happened to us at our own baptism.  Wonderful promises were once made over us, just as they were over the young ones today. God promised us that he would be there for us, God surrounded us with his love and with the love of our families, friends and the worshipping congregation of the church in which we were baptised.

Wherever we are in our lives right now, we can continue to be like the man at the pool who was always waiting for something good to happen to him, or we can turn to the one who can change our lives for ever – the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus changed that man’s life for ever, so can he change ours. Baptism is the promise of that, the deposit, the security.

Each of us who have been baptised only need to turn to God for support and help and he will be there for us. God does not make us a promise that everything in our lives will be brilliant, not even just OK. But God does promise that he will be there for us, alongside us in all the experiences of life bringing encouragement and strength.

As the children we bring for baptism hear God’s words of love, telling them that they are special and secure in that love, we have the chance to remind ourselves that we too heard just those same promises made over us and to realise that God continues to reach out in love to each one of us.

What might it be like to have a friend, who is always there for us, through thick and thin, through whatever life throws at us. A friend who will never let us go?

This is just what Christians believe about Jesus, this is what God promises in baptism. Today we can choose to take him up on the promises we received at our own baptism.

Just think, just imagine what that could be like!

No, not the 2006 film with Denzel Washington (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_Vu_(2006_film)), nor the chain of sandwich and coffee bars (http://www.dejavu.uk.com).

Have you ever had a sense of ‘déjà-vu’? That rather odd feeling that you’ve been somewhere before, or that you’re going through the same experience that you’ve had in the past? Often there’s quite a sense of dislocation about the whole thing – everything seems odd and you wonder what is going on. Perhaps you’re on holiday, visiting a cathedral, and suddenly it seems as if you have been in that very spot before. Or maybe you are having dinner with a group of friends, discussing something, and you have the feeling that you’ve already experienced the same thing – same friends, same dinner, same conversation.

Surveys have shown that 70 % of people report having experienced some form of déjà vu. The highest number of incidents occurs in people aged between 15 and 25 years old. Some doctors attribute déjà vu to simple fantasy or wish fulfilment, others ascribe it to a mismatching in the brain that causes the brain to mistake the present for the past. Some people would like to think it’s related to a past-life experience.

So, have you had such an experience? ……… Peter must have been having some sort of double-take as his story unfolds in our Gospel reading. You might be able to imagine him feeling the sense that he’s been here before, and then gradually remembering what it reminded him of. And I think that this happens twice for Peter in today’s Gospel.

The first time is this ‘fishing-thing’. Can you remember another similar occasion in Peter’s life? What happened then? …. It is a story from early in Jesus’ ministry – he purloins Peter’s boat to speak to the crowd on the sea shore and then, instructs Peter on where to fish. The catch is large and Peter is overwhelmed and he says – ‘Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.’ Jesus ignores Peter’s outburst and asks him to follow him.

The second is Jesus’ series of questions – ‘Do you love me Peter?’

In the first instance, Jesus is gently reminding Peter of his calling to serve as an apostle – a ‘fisher of people’ – a follower of Jesus. In the second incident, Jesus reminds Peter of the time he most obviously failed. The time when he denied Jesus three times.

We are told in the Gospel story that after Peter had denied Jesus three times he went out and wept bitterly. … He’d been the one who had bragged that he would never desert Jesus, yet he had been the one who had most obviously failed to stand by Jesus at his trial and Crucifixion. … Peter must have felt devastated at Jesus death and guilty and ashamed of his own behaviour.

So how did Peter feel when he discovered that Jesus was alive again? Somewhere in the midst of the feelings of elation was at least a nagging doubt, perhaps an even stronger feeling, that the way he’d behaved was unforgivable. Peter must have felt that he had nothing to offer Jesus, that his failure was just too great. How would Jesus speak to him when they next were alone? Would there still be that deep sense of friendship and trust, or would there always be a barrier between them? And I guess, that if it had been left to Peter, he would have always felt a barrier between himself and Jesus that he could not cross. His own failure weighed heavily on him.

So what does Jesus do? We’ve seen it happen in the Gospel reading. He first gently reminds Peter of the circumstances of his first calling as a disciple. He then provides Peter an opportunity to express his faith and his love for his Lord – and we’re told that it was a painful experience for Peter. But Jesus is making it so very clear to Peter that he’s welcome back as a close friend, that forgiveness is real and that his calling as a disciple still stands.

So, the question for us today is, “How does Jesus deal with us when we fail him?” We feel that we can’t meet him face to face, yet God wants us to believe that the same forgiveness and love is available to everyone, how ever deeply we feel that we have failed. Peter’s story makes that so very clear. … None of us will betray God’s trust in us in any greater way than Peter did. Peter was welcomed back and re-commissioned by Jesus to serve him as a leader in his Church. We can have the same confidence that we are welcomed back as repentant sinners, welcomed back into the loved of God.

And often, there is for us, something like a sense of déjà vu about the whole thing – for, time and again, God provides us with the opportunity to serve him again even though we have failed, even when we have repeated the same failures. And in doing so he gives us the opportunity to discover that we have grown and changed through the love he has shown us.

ISAIAH 55:1-9  28^th February 2016

There is a true story told of a group of sailors shipwrecked in the Atlantic, off the Brazilian coast. They were marooned for days on a small life-raft. Their small supply of water ran out long before they were eventually rescued by a passing ship.

The ship’s captain asked them why they were so dehydrated. Obviously they answered that they’d run out of water. ‘No water?’ said the captain, ‘You only had to reach over the side of the boat for an endless supply.’

We all know that you can’t drink sea-water because of the high salt content – but these men had been marooned in the middle of the freshwater stream which pushes out into the Atlantic from the River Amazon.

The shortage was an illusion. All they had to do was drink!!!

Hunger and thirst are compared in our passage from Isaiah with our need for God and his love. God invites Isaiah’s listeners to draw from heaven’s storehouses of wine, milk and bread. Isaiah highlights just how strongly our need for the love of God determines our lives.

God speaks through Isaiah, inviting the people of Israel to receive from him, from God, all that they need for life. And as God invites Israel to receive from him, so he invites us. God=s not so much concerned here with physical hunger and thirst, but with that sense we have at times that there must be more to life than we are experiencing, or the, at times overpowering, need to know that we are loved. Isaiah is convinced that as we come to God; as we listen to him speaking through his word; as we receive his unconditional love for us – then, and only then, will we find that our deepest needs have been met.

For many years we have lived in a society that has been telling us that this is not true. That if God isn’t dead, he has certainly become an irrelevance. Since the 17^th Century. and the Enlightenment we have been told that Science and Rational Thought will give us the answers to all our problems; that as the human race advances ‘enlightened thinking’ will mean an end to evil and will bring the gradual dawning of a new rational scientific age of harmony. An age that no longer needed the ‘Spiritual’ – that no longer needed God.

In the 20^th Century, we discovered that advances in knowledge do not change the human heart. In that century we saw some of the greatest evils committed by the most advanced of nations.

We’ve been left with a world which is suffering environmental damage, where the majority live in poverty while the minority feast on untold riches. As we come to terms with the state of our world, it’s no longer anywhere near as obvious that advancing human knowledge will create a better world.

People are dissatisfied, disaffected, and they’re looking for other ways to make sense of their lives. People are looking for spiritual answers – a trip into any bookshop on the High Street will illustrate the point. In the last few years significant shelf space has been given over to special ways of knowing, to alternative ‘spirituality’. As a society we are searching for meaning; we are looking for peace and wholeness; we are thirsty, we are hungry and we’re scrabbling around all over the place looking for answers.

It is no longer possible to argue that people are not ‘spiritual’ beings. We all have a sense of the spiritual, and of spiritual need. Men as well as women. Michael Nazir-Ali, one time Bishop of Rochester quotes some research done at the end of the 20^th Century among working men. This research found that a significant proportion of ‘working men’ at some point in their lives have gone through a ‘spiritual’ experience, but have not felt able to talk about it with their mates. Their experience was buried and not allowed to affect their lives at work, in the pub or at home.

It’s just like we’re in the boat with those castaways off the Brazilian coast. All they had to do was reach over the side to quench their thirst. All we have to do is reach out to God in Jesus. And if we do,  just as Isaiah describes, God will quench our thirst and relieve the aching pains of hunger Just as he reaches out to his Old Testament people in love, so he will do for us.

Listen to what God says through Isaiah:

“Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love.”