‘They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?’ (John 6:42 NIVUK)
When people made this comment about Jesus, they were implying that he is one of us. And in a sense, they were right. Jesus is like one of us. He knows what it is like to grow up in a home. He knows what it is to be single and have friends. He knows what it is like to learn and to work.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6 NIVUK)
The temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was an invitation not simply to break a rule but to engage in an act of revolution. Initially, the man and woman were in a right relationship with God. When they woke up their thoughts and imagination would go toward him, their delight was in him, for this God, who had made them, was their unifying centre.

Over the last few days, I’ve been reminded of two historic journeys. This September marks the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower setting sail from Plymouth taking 102 passengers to America to start a new life. On Monday, Israel’s airline El Al made its first-ever flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which is seen as the beginning of a thawing of relations between the two countries.

Earlier this month my daughter celebrated her first wedding anniversary – how time flies it really a year ago we were stressing about dresses, flowers, marquees, and my father-of-the-bride speech? Thankfully, all went well, and here we are a year later with my only concern being what to get my daughter and son-in-law for an anniversary present.

At once Jesus realised that power had gone out from him. He turned round in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ (Matthew 5:30 NIVUK)
The daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, was at the point of death, and Jesus was heading to heal her. On the way, a woman who had suffered some kind of menstrual problem for twelve years reaches out to him. This woman would have been considered far less important than Jairus’ daughter and her situation far less urgent and yet Jesus stopped for her. This woman didn’t just need healing, she needed words of comfort, acceptance, and restoration – all of which would take time. So, Jesus stops and gives her his full attention.

Then [the criminal] said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’
Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’ (Luke 23:42–43 NIVUK)
This criminal had reached the end of the line. He had been caught; justice had been metred out. There would be no last-minute reprieve. There was no hope of freedom. All he faced now was an agonising death by crucifixion. With all the thoughts and pain swirling around his head he still had the presence of mind to realise that the person being crucified next to him was no criminal at all. Seemingly, he was an innocent victim of a miscarriage of justice. And so, mustering up perhaps the last bit of energy he had left in his pain-stricken body, he asks for mercy and seeks hope for the future.

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,’

So go the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This week I read the story of two churches. The first is a church in Staffordshire that has not been used as a place of worship for over 20 years and was found to have 400 cannabis plants growing inside. The second is a Greek Orthodox church that was destroyed by the 9/11 attack but is being rebuilt and will open on the 20th anniversary of that horrific day.

In times gone by when I heard the term ‘The Mask,’ my mind immediately thought of Jim Carry’s film of the same name. Carry plays a hapless bank clerk who finds a magical green mask that transforms him into a mischievous troublemaker with superpowers. More recently, ‘the mask’ has taken on an entirely different meaning as should I venture out on public transport or into my local supermarket my first thought is ‘have I got the mask with me?’

‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.’ (Isaiah 55:1 NIVUK)
In the space of one verse Isaiah invites people to come to the Lord God four times. These invitations are not just to Israel but to all nations (Isaiah 55:5–6) – they are universal calls to come – and they encapsulate the gospel message.

Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:34 NIVUK)

It has always amazed me that these words from Jesus on the cross convey the idea of a continued past action, which means that Jesus was continually saying, Father, forgive them. In other words, he prayed this over and over as he was being crucified. As the nails were driven through his wrists, and then as his feet were nailed to the beam, and the soldiers gambled for his clothes, he is praying again and again Father, forgive them.

The ‘new normal’ is a phrase that has entered our vocabulary in the past few months to convey how life will be different because of COVID-19. What will this new normal look like? Will more people work flexible hours or work from home? Will bikes and walking overtake our use of public transport? Will we forever have to social distance in supermarkets and restaurants? For these things and many others, we will just have to wait and see how the new world order will pan out.

Have you noticed how the news channels and newspapers get fixated on one topic at the expense of everything else that is going on in the world? Over the past year we’ve heard about nothing but Brexit, then everything centred on Harry and Megan ending their royal duties and fleeing to Canada, followed by weeks concentrating on the General Election and for the last few months everything has been about COVID-19. To hit the headlines most of the news presented has been negative in one form or another. Now Brexit, Harry and Megan and the General Election have become today’s ‘fish and chip paper’ and in time so will Coronavirus. The news will then be preoccupied with something else.

‘…your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.’ (Psalm 139:10)
In his 1939 Christmas address, King George VI spoke of his faith in God’s leading. World War 2 had begun and with all the concern that lay ahead the king concluded his message with lines written by Minnie Louise Haskins some 30 years earlier:
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’

‘Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand’ (1 Peter 5:6 NIVUK)

In leading up to Peter’s statement to humble ourselves he has told us to ‘clothe ourselves with humility…because God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.’ (1 Peter 5:5) The question that comes to my mind is how can I humble myself? I didn’t have to look very far because Peter gives me the answer in verse 7, ‘Cast all your anxiety on him [God] because he cares for you.’ (1 Peter 5:7) Peter’s basic point is that we humble ourselves by casting all our anxiety on God.

‘Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.’ (Psalms 119:105 NIVUK)
One experience of lockdown is that we are thrown out of our normal routines because we are not able to do what we would usually do in our regular weekly schedule. This may present opportunities to spend time on other things, which in turn may mean we have more time to read the Bible than we have in normal circumstances.

Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:34 (NIVUK)
Jesus…said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ (John8:12 NIVUK)
‘I can’t breathe’ was not said by a Covid-19 patient urgently needing a ventilator but were the final words of George Floyd, a black man who died last week at the hands of a white policeman, sparking violent protests in the USA and demonstrations in the UK. There is no place for racism and the injustice it brings in its wake within our society.

‘If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.’ (Matthew 5:41 NIVUK)
On one of my brief forays out of the house to get some food, I was rushing around the local Tesco Express to get what I needed as quickly as possible so I could get in and out without meeting too many people in the aisles. This coronavirus makes you do some strange things. All was going well until at the self-checkout I heard the mechanical voice say, ‘unexpected item in the bagging area – assistance required,’ and over came the checkout assistant to sort me out. As I stepped back the required two metres, he smiled at me and automatically I just smiled back.

‘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.