‘Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed’ (1 Corinthians 15:51 NIVUK)
This verse is often put up in church crèches, however, that’s not quite what Paul had in mind. He is telling us a mystery. This doesn’t mean something which is mysterious or weird, rather it means something that has been hinted at in the past in God’s revelation, but was hidden and muffled, and is now open and to be declared.

‘Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases’ (Psalm 103:1-3 NIVUK)
It can be a struggle sometimes to find the energy to pray especially when we’ve been on lockdown and out of our normal routines for some time and we can’t even remember what day of the week it is. What can we do if we are finding apathy in our relationship with God and in particular in our prayer life? I’m not a great expert in prayer, in fact, more often than not I struggle with praying, and when I struggle, I often turn to the opening verses of Psalm 103 for help.

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:13 NIVUK)
In Corinth, unity in the church had been fractured at the point where it so often breaks down – where the focus is on human beings rather than Christ (1 Corinthians 1:12). Within the one church of Jesus Christ, rival groups were quarrelling with each other over their allegiances to different leaders. To address this Paul, with three pointed questions, shows us the things that will promote unity in the church and they all centre on Jesus.

‘And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.’ (Hebrews 10:24–25 NIVUK)
Since being in lockdown we’ve had to do things differently. Events like One world: Together at home and The Big Night In brought music and comedy direct from the artists’ homes into ours. Keeping in touch with family and friends has meant many of us having crash courses on Skype and Zoom. For faith groups, holding meetings and maintaining contact has also presented a challenge.

‘Taking him by the right hand, [Peter] helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.’ (Acts 3:7 NIVUK)
This is the first miracle the apostles performed after the resurrection of Jesus and it points us in at least three directions: upward, forward and inward.

‘When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled… Jesus wept… Jesus, once more deeply moved…’ (John 11:33,35,38 New International Version UK)
Love in the Bible is never passive, it’s always active. To love our neighbour is to get involved in their lives and to help them, to support them and value them. This has to be important to me because it is important to Jesus.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;’
(Psalm 23:4 ESV)
Sadly, the world-renowned, glamorous and quintessentially British, RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been cancelled for 2020 due to Government advice about Coronavirus (COVID-19). This is a shame for me as my interest in it had been piqued by the plan to have the ancient text from Psalm 23, found in the Bible, portrayed as a garden. I was so intrigued that I did some digging.

With many people following the government’s guidelines to self-isolate at home, every day can feel like Groundhog Day where we are going stir crazy wondering what to do.

‘they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.’ (Mark 11:7 NIVUK)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a little donkey? Certainly, it fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 but what was its significance? Let me suggest a couple of things to reflect on.

‘…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ (Romans 8:28 NIVUK)
On the one hand Paul’s statement in the scripture quoted above is very encouraging, but sometimes it can be hard to believe. It is a bold, powerful and strong promise that leaves no room for halfway trust.

‘Be kind and compassionate to one another.’ (Ephesians 4:32 NIVUK)
When TV personality Philip Schofield announced on This Morning that he is gay he accompanied the announcement with an emotional Instagram message which concluded with him writing ‘Please be kind, especially to my family.’ Following the tragic suicide of former Love Island presenter Caroline Flack, her close friend who replaced her on the show, Laura Whitmore, paid tribute to her on BBC Radio 5 Live and pleaded with listeners ‘to be kind.’ This was an echo of Caroline’s own message posted a few months before her death – ‘in a world where you can be anything, be kind.’

‘What do you want me to do for you?’ (Mark 10:51 NIVUK)
If Jesus were to ask you the same question he asked Bartimaeus, how do you think you would answer? James and John had heard that question before. Jesus asked it of them when they approached him on the way to Jerusalem, and they responded by requesting, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’ (Mark 10:37) To which Jesus said they didn’t know what they were asking for (Mark 10:38). Bartimaeus, on the other hand, knew what he was asking for and answered, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ (Mark 10:51)

‘And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.’ (Mark 9:4 NIVUK)
Have you ever seen a group of people huddled together and wondered what they are talking about? Here Elijah, Moses and Jesus are talking together, but what are they saying? Mark doesn’t tell us, but thankfully Luke does: ‘They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem.’ (Luke 9:31) The word ‘departure’ is literally ‘exodus’, which is showing us that Jesus leads a new exodus: an exodus out of sin and death that is the fulfillment of that earlier exodus out of slavery.

‘always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Ephesians 5:20 NIVUK)
And the BAFTA goes to…
Then on to the stage comes the recipient of the best actor, or best actress, followed by one of those long rambling speeches.

‘Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two…’ (Mark 6:7 NIVUK)
Sandwiched between the rejection of Jesus by his hometown and relatives and the rejection of John the Baptist by Herod comes this little account of Jesus sending his disciples on an evangelistic mission. With the whiff of rejection in the air they are sent out ‘two by two’ for important reasons.

‘Then GOD shut the door behind him.’ (Genesis 7:16 The Message)
Have you noticed that in the story of Noah’s Ark God tells Noah to bring into the ark all the opposites: the wild and the domestic, the crawling and the flying, the clean and the unclean, the male and the female of each animal (Genesis 7:2-15). Then God does a most amazing thing. He shuts the door behind them and locks them inside the ark (Genesis 7:16). God actually closed them in. God puts all the natural animosities, all the opposites together, and holds them in one place.

As [Jesus]walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. (Mark 2:14 NIVUK)
Officials of HMRC are not popular today, but in Jesus’ day tax collectors were hated. They worked for Rome administering a heavy tax burden on the people, and to make matters worse they made their living by adding an extra amount for themselves. That was bad enough, but if one of these tax collectors happened to be a Jew, as Levi was, he was thought of as the ultimate turncoat, a collaborator with the occupying force of Rome, a traitor, a man who had betrayed his own people.

When I was at school George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 was required reading. But 1984 has come and gone. At work in the late 1990s the millennium bug was on everyone’s mind as we wondered whether the world’s computer systems would crash. But the year 2000 has come and gone. Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner was set in November 2019 in a world of synthetic humans, flying cars, and mercenary wars on space colonies. But now 2019 has come and gone and incredibly we find ourselves entering 2020. What will the year ahead bring? Will it be another bumpy year as the Queen described 2019 in her Christmas Day message? Or even another annus horribilis? Or are we about to enter the roaring twenties that our forebears experienced a hundred years ago?

‘The time has come…The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15 NIVUK)
The New Testament gospels were written as the original eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life were dying off and were recorded to tell us who Jesus was, and what he said and did. Mark is the earliest of these accounts and almost immediately, the first thing Jesus says are the words recorded in our header scripture. Here he talks about the ‘good news,’ or ‘gospel’, and ‘the kingdom of God.’