Tag: faithgoeswalkabout Page 5 of 7

Rocky ground, thorns and good soil

On July 15, 2017

In Faith goes walkabout, Sermons, Trinity, Uncategorized

The Parable of the Sower – Rocky ground, thorns and good soil. We all have time with rocky ground, thorns and good soil.

I would like to tell you about my garden.

Living in a new house for nearly a year now, and builders are great but they are not gardeners! The garden is, well let’s say it’s getting there!

On visits and walks in this village and other villages I see gardens of all sorts.

I have a little categorisation going on in my mind about gardens:

There are those where everything seems to remain in neat and tidy order all the time. How does that work? I’m never really sure how that can happen?

And then there are gardens where disorder has taken over completely, it could be in design, or not sure how to make a garden, or that life has become hard and the long worked over garden has just got out of control.

And then there are gardens where plants are purchased from the garden centre at least twice a year and order is restored, or the gardens where shrubs and everlasting plants are intertwined with gravel paths and maintenance is very low, but the effect is okay, nothing needed to be done.

And finally the garden where children’s games and toys are everywhere, plants are battling with the Buzz Light Year toy in the shrubs or tennis balls and footballs long ago punctured scattered across the garden. A grass lawn is usually there too, but with patches and areas where too many ball games have even worn down the grass.

The Parable of the Sower is a bit like modern day gardens. Jesus tells the story of how and where God can find his word present and alive. Jesus used parables as a way to explain the unexplainable, to give a picture in people’s minds of how God can be alive in everyone and how sometimes we are all a little deaf to His voice.

Mary Magdalene and the women by the cross

By faithgoeswalkabout

On April 22, 2017

In Faith goes walkabout

Mary Magdalene is of high importance in the story of Jesus, not just for the role she played as one of the women by the cross , but throughout all the gospels she appears and is seen with Jesus and the disciples.

This week, after reading the Easter story again and again, I have been wondering even more about Mary Magdalene, who she was, what did she do and do we have a good image and picture of her?

I came across a very interesting website, The Junia Project,with a recent blog, called The Women Who Stood by the Cross, by Gail Wallace. The words below are taken from the blog, which makes excellent reading;

“Some women were watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome. When Jesus was in Galilee, these women had followed and supported him, along with many other women who had come to Jerusalem with him.” (Mark 15:40-41)

We know from all four gospel writers that a number of women were present at the crucifixion and death of Jesus, and that some of those women were also at the burial and the empty tomb. Who are these women who stood near the cross, and what can we learn from their example of discipleship?”

It has long been argued that Mary Magdalene is wrongly portrayed and the emphasis has been on her femininity, rather than in her devotion and support of Jesus in his teaching and throughout his life.

There is a recorded Gospel of St Mary, which was found in Egypt in 1896, and was not included in the canon.

It is widely though that Mary went to France after the crucifixion and from the book Mary Magdalene by Esther de Boer it concludes that many of her relics are at the Benedctine Abbey in Vezeley, France.

Mary Magdalene remains for me a central character, disciple and apostle of Jesus. Worthy of spending some time in research to look at her role from a woman living in Magdala on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to follower of Christ.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Advent: Are we ready?

By faithgoeswalkabout

On December 4, 2016

In Advent, church seasons, Faith goes walkabout

See more here…

Advent calling. Are you getting ready, what can you actually do to get ready, how much time do you need and will this have the right effect?

My Advent reading this year is with Tom Wright, a great writer of commentaries and his Advent for Everyone: A Journey Thrugh Matthew.

So get ready for the adventure ahead, or are you already Advent ready!

Matthew 3:1-10 is the place to be!

Advent content available here…

John was preaching in the Judean wilderness. By all accounts John was a wild character, clothes made from camel hair, eating locusts and honey and foretold by Isaiah that there would be a voice in the wilderness shouting in the desert.

And he doesn’t let us down! As in Matthew 3:7 he says to the Pharisees approaching, who were full of pride and righteousness.

‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to escape from the coming wrath, you had better prove your repentance by bearing the right sort of fruit!

But what about us?

Can we take ourselves away from the glitter and spending for a little while, to reflect and prepare for Jesus coming into our world?

Advent is a wonderful time of year and it does bring Jesus into many homes, through Nativities, cards, carols and the church services. We can pass on that understanding of what Christmas is actually about.

That wonderful togetherness and joyousness is a reflection of the joy that Jesus can bring into all our lives.

It isn’t a case that we have to stop enjoying the preparations, let’s all have a great time and make as much festive Christmas preparations as we can, let’s light up the churches, let’s light up the world and let’s light up our hearts with the knowledge that once again we find ourselves at this splendidly wonderful time of year.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Welcome at West New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea

By faithgoeswalkabout

On November 7, 2015

In Faith goes walkabout, Uncategorized

In September 2015, I arrived in West New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. The warriors were the most spectacular sight and a welcome of dance, colour and warmth. We were to see the dancers on a few occasion, they were with us at church, at the Franciscan Friary in the middle of the rain forest.

In the two months since I have been back, these moments sit in my heart. A welcome warmth as we approach November darkness. A time when we were with Christians in a very different place and surrounded by love and faith.

A lasting memory is of being in the middle of the rainforest and waiting for the warriors and dancers to arrive, which they did in complete darkness, amazing! We returned with some songs and actions, I led the warriors, dancers and children with Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes! Still a teacher at heart then!

Somehow I know that this place will stay with me and I hope that I can go back there soon. There is a great deal that we can do to help the people, they have nothing and yet they have everything. There’s is not a life of need for material things. It is a life of family, tradition and faith with all the love and joy in knowing Jesus.

Rev’d Sue Martin Diocese of Norwich

The best gift of all! The Holy Spirit

By faithgoeswalkabout

On May 24, 2015

In Faith goes walkabout, Pentacost

Acts 2: 1- 21

And just how amazed do you think the disciples would have been to find that they were speaking in different languages!

Can you imagine it now? What would people have said?

A great crowd of people at a special festival, tongues of flame start to appear from all around, mmmm not looking to good. Someone by now would have called the police on their mobile.

Come quick please, I think we have been tricked! This new band have sent fire into the crowd and now there are men who are talking in all sorts of different languages. Youd better hurry!

At the feast of Pentecost there were a group of about 200 followers, the disciples, and Mary, mother of Jesus and his brothers. A sound from Heaven, like a strong wind appeared and tongues like fire rested on them.

Peter, standing with the other 11 disciples, addressed the crowd. He interpreted the tongues as the fulfillment of Gods promise, described in Joel

Peter went on to baptise about 3000 people that day. They were from countries far and wide; they had the potential to cross cultural boundaries. They had the power and the spirit to take the word of God across the world.

The church and Christianity started here!

Rev’d Sue Martin, Diocese of Norwich – www faithgoeswalkabout

Easter Sunday

By faithgoeswalkabout

On April 5, 2015

In Easter, Faith goes walkabout

Easter Sunday April 5th

Is there Hope?

Matthew 28:1- 10 Acts 10 34-43

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

What a week!

Quite a story, starting with the triumphal ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the humble donkey. Crowded streets, the place packed with people preparing for the feast of the Passover, Jesus turning over the tables in the temple, the Last Supper in the upstairs room, for fear of being found, the long night in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, the capture by the soldiers, Jesus coming before Pontius Pilate, the crowds calling for him to be crucified and the release of Barabbas.

And then the crucifixion.

Saturday, the holy day for the Jews. What was that like then?

And so to today, the good news that Jesus is risen.! Alleluia!

This is the good news, the news we all share even today 2000 years after the event and it hasn’t changed, He is risen indeed Alleluia!

But let’s go back to that tomb, the tomb given by Joseph of Arimathea. There are tombs in Jerusalem just like the one given by Joseph and I have seen a later tomb where they think Joseph of Arimathea was later buried.

In the morning Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus had gone to visit the tomb and see where they had laid his body. It had been such a dreadful day on Friday their sorrow and grief were unmeasurable but together they walked to the tomb, maybe like us today to visit the gravesides of our relatives, in respect and in love.

In Matthew we hear that an angel had rolled back the stone and was sitting there. This is a very short passage, but it says all that is needed.

The guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women,

‘Do not be afraid, He is risen. Go and tell his disciples.’

What could have been in the minds of the two Mary’s – joy, exhilaration, fear, wonder.And then on the way to the disciples they met Jesus. Immediately they bowed down and worshipped him.

In the meantime the soldiers had described what had happened and the story was made that his body had been taken by the soldiers, for fear of reprisal from the crowds.

The eleven disciples were making their way to the mountain in Galilee, when Jesus appeared to them.Jesus said to them,

‘Remember I am with you always to the end of the age.’

And that surely is what the Easter message is about. Hope, resurrection, a life hereafter.

What happen to us in this world when we lose all hope? This is such a sad and miserable place to be, the depths of despair.

But Hope… Jesus gives us that hope forever, a love that never ends, a hope for all to be well, a love that is unconditional, a hope that one day we will all meet with Jesus.

Jesus risen from the dead, alive and with us, here, now and forever.

Rev’d Sue Martin Diocese of Norwich

The Last Supper

By faithgoeswalkabout

On April 2, 2015

In theological

Maundy Thursday and the day when Jesus gathered with his friends in an upstairs room in Jerusalem for the Last Supper.

Today begins the time when Jesus becomes passive in the final stages of his life, he starts at the supper with washing the disciples feet, an action to share the caring and love he held for his friends.

At the supper he told them that one of them would betray him, that on that night he would be handed over to the Jews and the Romans.

What kind of disbelief the disciples must have had.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, he watched and waited, he looked across the Kidron Valley to Jerusalem.

Listen to Thought for the Day with the Rev’d Lucy Winkett.

Jesus Accepts us as we are

By faithgoeswalkabout

On March 9, 2015

In church seasons, theological

Lent 3 – Jesus accepts us as we are with our faults.

He finds us where we are, not where we wish to be or even think we should be and hope to be, but where we are.

In this place, in this time and just as we are.That doesn’t’ mean we should not try to do all that we can in the right way, but an acceptance that we as humans are pretty frail, pretty easily led, pretty concerned about things of no real importance.

Isn’t that why we struggle, isn’t that why we come back to prayer and to church time and time and time again?

In John 8:1-11, Jesus was seeking some rest in the Mount of Olives. The Pharisees brought him a woman who had sinned and they were hoping that he would condem her. What did he do? He asked for any there who had not sinned ever, to throw the first stone. They all walked away and he was left with the woman and asked her not to sin anymore.

Jesus accepts us as we are with our faults.

Rev’d Sue Martin – Sermon for 3rd Sunday in Lent at St John’s Church King’s Lynn

Epiphany 6 January

By faithgoeswalkabout

On January 6, 2015

In church seasons, Epiphany, theological

In Spain on 6th January the celebrations are held for the Twelfth Day of Christmas. The streets of the Spanish capital are filled with children who are waiting to see the parade of the Three Kings or Magi bearing gifts in an annual tradition.

People dressed as fantasy figures on the floats hurled sweets down to the children, who cheer the ornately decorated floats.

The “Magi from the east” – Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar are following a star to Bethlehem to give gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newly born Jesus Christ.

If you look in the East sky at night this month, you will see Jupiter,shining brightly, low in the sky,an idea of what that star would have looked like, but multiplied by a magnitude of a thousand times brightness.

Epiphany – bringing light into the darkness.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Diocese of Norwich

Christmas Eve

By faithgoeswalkabout

On December 24, 2014

In church seasons

mary & Joseph

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all should be registered.

All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.

He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver the child. And she gave birth to her first born son and she wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because their was no room for them at the inn.

Luke 2:1-8