Tag Archives: Spirit

All Posts, Blog

Striving for the good of God to come out on top

Leave a comment

I don’t often talk about the devil and spiritual warfare. From memory, I don’t think I’ve often preached on the topics, bar a fleeting reference or a small segue before coming back to the main sermon trajectory.

It’s probably a failing on my part as a church leader that I don’t. But I so often feel more drawn to preaching on God’s all embracing love, God’s unwavering grace, God’s transforming hope. Bad and evil don’t feel quite so attractive!

But this past week, when I sat down to read the lectionary passages for this Sunday (25th August 2024), I was immediately certain that God was asking me to preach on Ephesians 6:10-20 – the armour of God.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Ephesians 6:10-11

Day by day, as I came to reflect on the passage a bit more, and listen for God’s voice as I discern what God is willing me to say – there was silence.

When I’m doing sermon prep, there’s often a point where I’ve got more ideas that I can handle and I have to stop praying and thinking and start praying and thinning down! But this time, just getting something onto the page wasn’t happening.

It was like there was a brick wall between me and God. Between me and inspiration, Between me and hearing the voice of Spirit. I still knew this was the passage I needed to preach on – despite multiple little voices in my head saying; ‘I’ve got it wrong’, ‘dig out an old sermon instead’, ‘maybe this isn’t the right passage’.

Those voices were strengthening, but at the same time, the voice of personal experience – that when a sermon feels hard to bring to birth, sticking at it and continuing to wait on God always reaps results.

In many ways, my experience tells me that the harder I find a sermon is to craft – the more right it is for me to craft it and preach it.

By Thursday morning, I had reached the last bit of time I had to craft a sermon due to then having a couple days of leave. I was trying desperately to remain faithful and trust God – at the same time as beginning to feel a sense of panic – ‘what if I don’t get this sermon crafted today?’. ‘God I ain’t going to preach on spiritual warfare on Sunday without a plan – come on and help me here!’.

I turned to some commentaries and as I opened up Tom Wright’s ‘for everyone’ commentary notes on this passage everything began to make sense.

Tom writes about his own experience with this passage, and multiple barriers he experienced. My experience was no different. The reality is that preparing to preach on spiritual warfare was itself spiritual warfare.

As soon as I came to name that truth – inspiration struck, and the words flowed. Amazing really, that my writing was unlocked by simply recognising that my seeking to craft a sermon was being hampered by the spiritual battle between good and evil. It was like a doorway was suddenly added to my wall. A door was unlocked. A barrier removed.

And then since that moment of writing, I’ve come against multiple things in life that have been personal discouragements. Hurting me. Getting me down. Knocking my confidence. Tiring me out.

But as I come back to reflect on this sermon on the armour of God – I’ve come to realise that those personal discouragements and knocks are evil at work – trying to push back against the work of God and the flourishing of goodness in the world.

Once again, as so often happens for me, before I can preach on a passage, that passage needs to speak to me.

So today, as I put on the armour of God, and I preach on Ephesians 6:10-20, I will preach with all I have, heart on sleeve. Evil will not win, because good is stronger than evil. God is more powerful that any other. The good of God, when we seek it and strive for it – will always come out on top.

Featured Image: the path up Box Hill, Surrey. The journey up can be hard work – but the view’s that are revealed once you’re there are breath-taking. Hard work, diligence and ‘sticking at it’ pay off!

All Posts, Blog, Pentecost, Prayer, Seasonal

Come Holy Spirit

1 Comment

Come Holy Spirit.

One of the shortest and simplest prayers in all history.
Yet a prayer with power and breath and depth beyond measure.
For in praying Come Holy Spirit,
We invite you, God, to come to us.

We know you’re already here.
Already with us.
But we forget, sometimes.
Sometimes we go about our lives, our discipleship, our worship,
Forgetting, that Spirit, you’re with us.

So we pray,
Come Holy Spirit.

We open ourselves to your already present presence.
Come Holy Spirit.

Come and encourage us.
Come and inspire us.
Come and heal us.
Come and strengthen us.
Come and empower us.
Come and hold us.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Originally written for an ecumenical Pentecost service in Effingham and Little Bookham, Surrey, 19th May 2024.

The prayer ‘Come Holy Spirit’ was inspired by the work of Rabanus Maurus, a 9th Century Frankish Monk, who wrote a song ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’, (Come, Creator Spirit). in the 13th Century it developed into a familair prayer across the Western Church, ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus’ (Come Holy Spirit).

All Posts, Blog

What’s your ‘fishing’?

1 Comment

Part 2 of a 3-part series reflecting on the ending(s) of John’s Gospel, ch20 & 21.

Downloadable PDF

18-4-21-whats-your-fishingDownload

Full Text

Last week we began exploring the ending(s) to John’s gospel with its first ending (John 20:19-31). The disciples are gathered in a locked room together, surrounded by anxiety, fear and uncertainty, and into that space Jesus appears and offers them peace and breathes Spirit upon them, to encourage them and continue to teach them more of the story, to help sustain them as they keep on believing.

Now into chapter 21, the start of the second ending to the gospel, some of the disciples are gathered again, not in a room, but on the shore of Galilee. Peter says, ‘I’m going to fish’, and the others who are with him say they will come too.

Peter, and many of the others, were fisherman. So going to fish was familiar to them, and perhaps, after 3 years following Jesus, had become something of a past-time. Sometimes this moment can be described as the disciples going back to old ways, perhaps even turning their back on Jesus’ call to them to fish for people, and instead fishing for, well, fish.

Fishing: Life-giving fun

There can be merit for us in reflecting on that interpretation, but I’m not sure that’s the only way to hear the story. I wonder if Peter and his friends are not do much going back to old ways, but going off to spend time looking after their wellbeing. Why? Because I think we could quite equally read and hear the story as one about a group of friends going off to spend time doing something from their past that they love, enjoy and in the past found life-giving.

But yet, they have a bad night, this band of friends, and catch nothing.

As dawn comes, a voice comes from the shore – ‘children, you’ve not got anything to eat have you?’

‘No’, comes the reply.

‘cast on the right side of the boat’ says the stranger.

And so they do, and FISH! – the nets are bursting.

And Peter dives into the lake – for ‘It is the Lord’.

Once the rest of the disciples manged to drag the net of fish ashore, Jesus has a fire going, and says ‘bring your fish, let’s have breakfast together’.

and so they spend time together, in dawns morning light.

My Paraphrase, see John 21:1-14 for the full story
Fishing: A Children’s game

I love the fact Jesus, intially as a stranger to them, calls children to them. They weren’t children as we would see them, they were probably young adults by all accounts, but I love this image it leaves me with of someone standing on the shore, watching a group of friends playing around like children, having fun fishing together, despite the fact they’d not yet caught anything.

But then, with a bit of encouragement from this stranger, the disicples are blessed with nets a-bursting, and their fun and games bear fruit.

Fishing: Jesus in our everyday

I reckon this story demonstrates to us just how interested Jesus is in us, in our wellbeing, and our every day. Jesus blesses his friends with direction to get a bumper catch after a long and relaxing night as friends on the lake, doing something they love and enjoy.

Then what happens? Jesus invites them to bring what they have, and to share breakfast together. To enjoy the fruits of their leisure. There’s no teaching here, no lesson to learn, no parable told. Jesus just spends time with them, enjoying a meal together as the sun breaks on the shore.

For the disciples, their life-giving, enjoyable, fun-time-together activity was fishing, and Jesus was with them as they did so, enjoying its fruitfulness with them. What’s your ‘fishing’? What is life-giving for you? What fun is Jesus enjoying the fruitfulness of, with you?