Episodes

When John wrote the gospel, he includes just 7 miracles – even though he knew a lot more happened. What his account highlights is how Jesus engages our vulnerabilities and brings us back to health. Back to life.

You can see that some people have been broken by life. Others just hide it well. How honest can we be? Jesus steps into our brokenness and stops us being defined by it.

One of the questions that crops up at regular intervals throughout life is one of the most basic ones: ‘Can we change? Can the direction of my life change?’ Jesus offers hope that things are not fixed, that change is possible to all who are open. It begins with the heart.

Too many of us wonder whether we are good enough, or fear what others might think about us. The power of shame can be crippling. Jesus rescues us from that power so that we can live joy-filled lives.

Life is complicated. We can either try to work out our own pathway, or we can accept the invitation of the One who knows where he is going and wants us to walk alongside him.

Every generation of Christians needs to be taken back to their origins. Faith can become fluffy, sentimental, or detached from the reality of Jesus. John’s gospel, written for people who may never have met Jesus, or perhaps even been born when Jesus was on earth, needed to be rooted in understanding who Jesus was and what his actions meant for them in their time. We are in the same place as them. Reading John’s gospel together will take us ‘Further up and further in’ with Jesus.

Matthew retells the story of Jesus stilling the storm as part of a group of stories about how Jesus confronts all manner of hell-bent evil. He did it because we need to hold onto the core truth of Jesus’ authority over everything – especially when things seem to be going wrong.

Storms come to all of us. Without the storm Peter would have never had the chance to walk on water. Peter’s experience was written for the next generation of Christians to be encouraged by, because every Christian has to learn to walk by faith in the middle of the storms.

Crosses make nice necklaces, lapel pins and tattoos. Take your pick. It’s a good reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus. But today the cross is vacant. Jesus’ story is that death didn’t get the final word. Life did. Resurrection life. And his promise was that this new life is ours to share. Life always trumps death!

The call to be as holy as God is holy sounds as odd now as it probably did when it was first written down in Leviticus. Is this even possible? And what would it look like on the school run, or handling finances, or dealing with the awkward colleagues or aging family?

Many people are good starters. Perseverance is the quality that ensures you finish well. Peter sees it as essential for those running this Christian race. The Forget Me Not that Jumi mentioned in her sermon.

Self-control is one of the most underrated virtues. We can excuse ourselves too easily when we give in to the temptations that surround us so often. How do we grow in self-control?

Today knowledge can feel just 2 clicks away on Google. But is that knowledge, information, what Peter meant? Sometimes it can feel like it is, and those who have this knowledge can feel superior to everyone else. That’s dangerous. But what if Peter meant there was a different way of growing in knowledge? What if it was about a growing relationship – both with God and others. What does it take to get that sort of knowledge?

Goodness can sound soft and prissy. No one wants to be called a goody-two shoes. Unless you have faced the opposite and been the victim of evil. Goodness is the authentic integrity that is creative and trustworthy. It may not be glamorous but it makes all the difference in the world.

I believe lots of things that make no real difference to my day to day life. New Testament faith is different. It was never a static acceptance but trust in a person who transformed everything. Faith was dynamic. And it was the bedrock for everything else that would be possible…

Why did Paul send Onesimus back? Was he encouraging slavery? How do we read the New Testament on these issues when we hold to different views of what is right?

Let’s not fool ourselves: forgiveness always costs something. Always did, always will. Relationships will occasionally rupture. Forgiveness is the way they can be repaired. How do we do this?

This church lived at a time when everyone knew their place. Rank mattered and brought privileges. If you were at the top of the pile you could order people around. Paul modelled a different way. He chose to appeal rather than to order. He demonstrated how we subvert the natural hierarchies.

Church is never about preserving your anonymity. It’s about allowing people to know you. For some of us, we have been so hurt or disappointed that this can be really hard. But as we learn one another’s names and enter one another’s stories, we are given the opportunity to grow more than we might ever have imagined.

There are times when we just can’t hear, and it may be that we are sure God is silent. What do we do in these situations?

Paul and his companions were stuck because of circumstances and they changed their plans because of that and a vision. How do we know how to make sense of the circumstances we find ourselves in? When should we press on regardless of roadblocks and when should we take stock?

Prophecy is for the sake of others. It’s a clear reminder that we listen to God because we are part of a community that we care for. Hearing from God is not a personal luxury – it’s a church necessity.

Angels, visions, unexpected meetings, dramatic turns. If angels only turned up once in the Bible it would be easy to overlook them. But they are everywhere! How do we make sense of that today in a society that sees itself as far too sophisticated to believe this?

We believe that reading the Bible is one of the foundational ways to hear God speak to us. But how do we hear a word that we might find difficult to understand? How do we read well so we can hear well?