Latest Thought for the Week

At this time of year, my inner ‘Victor Meldrew’ is most likely to surface. It usually happens in response to someone saying ‘holidays are over now’ or ‘it’s the start of a new term’.

John’s Gospel Chapter 6 talks about the living bread and water we need for our Spiritual life. Jesus is our resource and when we come to him, we need never feel hunger or thirst no matter what we face in our lives on earth.

When I was at an American university, each year the head of undergraduate studies would give the same address to the entering class: ‘find your passion.’ It gave the impression the faculty offered a beauty parade and the students surveyed the catwalk and eventually decided – ‘That’s the one for me.’

How often have you heard about the importance of a work-life balance? I’m always tempted to point out that I’m very much alive at work.

Why do we celebrate the Eucharist? Perhaps we do it because it was handed on to us, just as Paul handed it on to the Corinthians? Perhaps we do it because Christians all over the world have done it every week, even every day, for most of the church’s history? Perhaps we do it because the Lord commanded us?

Thinking about today’s gospel passage reminded me that God wants us to use the gifts we have.

When I read the words, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches’, I usually start to think about how I myself connect to the vine. Later on, Jesus says, ‘just as the father has loved me, so have I loved you’- and I feel comforted by those words.

This weekend, Ali Lyon and I are leading a session at the Parish Away Day entitled ‘Healing, Wholeness and Holiness: many branches: one vine?’

My dad’s death at only 73 was very sudden. In a warm condolence letter, one of his medical colleagues reflected on the countless deaths he’d witnessed and admitted that he still couldn’t say which type of death and associated grief he would choose.