Pause for Thought – 19 August 2020

Isaiah 52:7-12 Acts 11:19-30 I reckon that if there’s anyone you want to meet that if you sit in the church coffee bar long enough, eventually they’ll come past. They the same about King’s Parade in Cambridge – if you walk up and down for long enough, whoever you want to meet will come past….

Who wants to a pull a cracker with the Minister? Christmas has so many traditions, some more related to the Christmas story than others.  The Christmas cracker is a great British institution, whether they’re Lidl’s extra cheap ones, or Evitavonni’s ones more expensive than Harrods.  We all know that you get three things in a…

Ephesians 2:11-22 In the north of England, two great rivers rise. One begins high in north Pennines on Alston Moor, flowing through Haltwhistle and Haydon Bridge to Hexham. The other rises on the Scottish border, and flows through Kielder Forest and Bellingham to Hexham, where the two rivers join. The first river is called the…

Matthew 15:21-28 She didn’t belong there. I knew it and the rest of us knew it. We were just sitting down to dinner when she barged in. The dogs woke up immediately, and from their place under the table they began to bark. One of the children started to cry as the woman frantically looked…

Matthew 16:21-28 Self-denial’s clearly an important element of tonight’s reading. That isn’t something that’s really compatible with life in the 21st century. I suppose it’s about as popular a topic as defending the ice cream sabotaging super villain from last week’s episode the Great British Bake Off. However, we cannot avoid that in tonight’s reading…

John 15: 1-8 Acts 8:26-40 Who inspired you in your Christian faith? Who nurtured you in being a Christian? Whose fault is it that you are here? When people are asked questions like that, the answer is very rarely clergy, but usually ordinary people like all of you. Over the years, many people in this…