Pause for Thought – 9 December 2020

Matthew 5:38-42 Isaiah 2:2-5 Ephesians 2:13-22   As a boy I remembered a bench being installed in our town, with an inscription “in thanksgiving for forty years of peace in Europe” – I think it must be been featured in the local newspaper, benches not being so very memorable, except for that one that was…

John 21:1-14 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 Noah started building several arks for various parts of animal kingdom. One was a split level job for all the fish – a multi-storey carp ark So, today’s gospel story is all about fish – many different kinds of fish – and a barbecue on the beach.  What an exciting…

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…

Matthew 4:1-11 “Time is Too slow for those who Wait, Too swift for those who Fear, Too long for those who Grieve, Too short for those who Rejoice, But for those who Love, Time is not.” Wrote Henry van Dyke. Matthew tells us that Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the desert. Matthew…

I asked people what they thought I should say today, and lots of people said it needed to be a big. Some people said I needed to make it a cracker. So, here we are! A big cracker! Produce big Cracker Only the English could find a toilet roll and gun powder amusing! Now the…

Pause for Thought is available to watch here:https://youtu.be/dBf3RfK0igk The text is also available: Perhaps you saw the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol? I’m one of those people who instinctively finds actions like that very difficult. Here’s a short video what happened. My first reaction is to question who gets to decide…