Faith Goes Walkabout

Thoughts and reflections

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Advent 4 Mary and Elizabeth

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On December 21, 2020

In Advent, Christmas

The light shines in the darknessDoes this seem a particularly dark and gloomy time of year? Or is it just me?

More than ever  we need the light of the world to come among us. If He could also stop all the messages about Covid and let us reflect on what is important at Christmas, that would be wonderful too.

On the last Sunday before Advent, in our readings, Angel Gabriel visits Mary in Nazareth and following her news, Mary travels a considerable distance to see her cousin Elizabeth, also expecting her first child.

A real sign of hope when it was so needed.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and returned home to her parents and her betrothed husband Joseph. Such courage and real strength.

This Christmas, 2020, we can still hope, we can light the candles, we can decorate the tree and know that whatever happens God loves us forever.

Read more in Sermons 2020

 

Rev’d Sue Martin

 

Christ the King The Sunday before Advent

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On November 21, 2020

In Advent, Faith goes walkabout, Sermons

…the Sunday before Advent.

We are at the end of the church year! Like the calendar year of 2020, what a year!! Most people will be pleased to see this year behind us.

Christ the King is the last Sunday before Advent and as we reflect on his kingdom, what does it mean for us?

Is it…  The living of a good life.

 

Serving others and our community, sharing in love and friendship, knowing God as the true and  living God.

Is this where we can start to get close to the  kingdom of God.

Is it for us to find, and for us to be part of?

The good thing  is that every day we can help others.

We can stop for a minute and help.

We can show someone  love and friendship.

More thoughts on Sermons 2020…

Rev’d Sue Martin

On this day…

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On April 9, 2020

In Easter, Faith goes walkabout, Holy Land

Six weeks ago I was one of a number of pilgrims from Norwich Diocese on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We stopped in the Garden of Gethsemane and looked over the valley to Jerusalem. We visited the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest where Jesus spent the night in his dungeons. It was a dark and dismal place.

Today is Maundy Thursday, and amazing that we are all, in some ways contained in our own houses with the Corona virus pandemic.

We hope soon to be able to journey away from our homes and get back to some kind of normality, whatever that will look like, but I strongly suspect that for so many of us life will not be the same again.

The events of the crucifixion and Easter happened over 2000 years ago. Jesus lived among us and died for us. Life can change for us all, His resurrection meant that life would never be  the same again.

Amen

Rev’d Sue Martin

Have we locked God in the church?

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On April 4, 2020

In pilgrimage, theological

Have we really locked God in the church along with the pews? Did we firmly turn the key and slide the bolt so we can’t get in and He can’t get out?

Over the last week , or is it two… all the churches have been locked. Understandably church goers are distressed. Where can they go to pray and worship? Is anybody doing anything?

But out of sadness there comes joy,and out of a locked church emerges online services. Numbers for people listening in to a service of their choice is huge, larger than church attendance by far. So, now is the time to reach out and offer help and support to all those who are getting in touch.

And, no, of course we haven’t locked God in the church, how could we. He is out there, with us, walking with us through this crisis, reaching out to all who ask.

And all we have to do is to ask, to pray and to find Him in our lives  today.

 

Rev’d Sue Martin

Heroes and Villains – Archangel St Michael

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On September 30, 2019

In Michaelmass, Sermons

Mural on entrance wall at Rockingham Centre

Dragons at Rockingham Centre, Southwark

Many stories have a hero and a villain.
Some that come to mind are; Superman and Lex Luther , Batman and The Joker, Harry Potter and Voldemort, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader,

What happens in these stories; well let’s take Harry Potter, of course…

As he grows up in his school at Hogwarts he discovers the evil truth about Voldemort, that he is trying to overthrow all that is good in the world of wizardry including the head of the school,  Professor Dumbledore.
But Harry Potter is strong and rises up to those who are used by Voldemort to
do his evil works, eventually Harry Potter meets and fights with Voldemort himself.
Harry Potter the hero and Voldemort the villain.

Sherlock Holmes, the series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman is one of my favourites.
Sherlock who is able to make amazing deductions from clues, is always aware that
Moriarty is a force that is usually present.
And so then to St Michael, we hear in the book of Revelations that Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels and that Satan, the dragon is defeated and thrown down.

So St Michael is the hero!!

And then what about his band of angels, read more in Faith Goes Walkabout, sermons.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Lent Course, A Journey to the Holy Land

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On March 16, 2019

In Faith goes walkabout, Lent, pilgrimage, theological

 

As part of our discovery about our own journeys we are looking at parts of the Holy Land; Galilee, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Sacred places, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, 2000 years on in our own time with changes and challenges but still a deep sense of God’s presence.

The Holy Land is the place in which Jesus grew up and carried out his ministry. It is an area about the size of Wales, although it has many different parts.

Physically it is set on the edge, the edge of the Mediterranean and Europe, the edge of The Middle East and Africa.

The valley of the River Jordan is a rift valley and is the deepest valley in the world. It develops from the Sea of Galilee and continues to the Dead Sea. Further south it reaches the Red Sea.

It is featured many time in the Old and New Testament. It continues to this day to be a place of friction and war.

Read more at Lent Course 2019 as the journey evolves over four weeks in Lent

Rev’d Sue Martin

Signs of Hope & Blessings

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On February 17, 2019

In Faith goes walkabout

Bless You – That’s my line!

Blessings, God Bless You, Blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who mourn, and those who are hated because of their faith…

What does it mean, blessings, blessed, bless you? Is it really a sign of hope, when hope is needed? Like the first daffodils in Spring, blessings for us all at the end of winter, we hope!

It seems that many people use the term, ‘Bless’, ‘bless you, bless him, and bless her’

I find it hard when people say that as I think what do they mean?

So, when people say to me ‘Oh, bless you,’ I often reply, ‘that’s my line!’

I must admit I deviated quite a bit from my sermon on the Beatitudes today, it seemed that hope was what was needed.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Happy Christmas

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On December 26, 2018

In Christmas, church seasons, community, Faith goes walkabout

And all the bells on earth shall ring

On Christmas Day

On Christmas Day

And all the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day

In the Morning

Happy Christmas to All

Rev’d Sue Martin

 

Advent

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On December 8, 2018

In Advent, Faith goes walkabout

Four weeks of preparation and getting ready! That’s a long time even for those, like me who are not that organised, all those endless jobs that need doing before Christmas are sitting in my lists, staring at me every day!

I met with a friend this week who has everything done and finished, just waiting now for Christmas to arrive! At first that seems wonderful but what would Christmas be like if we had it all completed before we had even started?

So, I give myself permission to remain unorganised, have many jobs left to do, and presents to wrap. But in the midst of that I hope to meet friends along the way to share time with, to see sparkling lights brightening the dark skies, to think of just how lucky we are and to find a time each day to thank God for the arrival of his son Jesus into the world over 2000 years ago.

A prayer…

Slow down Advent, and take time to look inwards at our hopes and fears, to look outwards at a world in need of hope and to look Godward confidant in his love and committment to the world.

Amen

Rev’d Sue Martin

Read more at Faith goesWalkabout advent 

 

Remembrance 2018 – 100 Years

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On November 16, 2018

In community, Faith goes walkabout, Remebrance

Poppies made by the Girl Guides,Gayton

One hundred years ago the Armistice was signed between the Allies of World War 1 and the German Empire. The cessation of hostilities took effect at 11.00 am on 11th November 1918.

This year marks the centenary and Remembrance Day is commemorated across the UK.

In our Benefice on Norfolk, we held two main services with packed churches and two minutes silence at 11.00am. Even the traffic stopped on the road for us this year. In the evening  two large bonfires were held and again huge numbers of people gathered to watch and the church bells rang out at 6.50pm to join in across the UK.

This was followed by singing the old songs and enjoying a glass of wine and some cakes and listening to stores of people from our village who went to war and never returned.

The first verse of the poem by Rupert Brooke, written in 1914, is a reminder of that time and the young men who gave their lives in the trenches in France and Belgium.

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is forever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England’s breathing English air,

Washed by rivers, blest by suns of home.

 

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt if friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke 1914

Rev’d Sue Martin

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