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Consider the birds of the air. A meditation on "Being present".

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  “Consider the birds of the air”, says Jesus in Matthew 6. And in Matthew 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.” This morning we found that one of our cockatiels, Holly, the hen bird, died during the night. We buried her respectfully and reverently, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead and raising to life eternal. Psalm 36: You, Lord, save both people and animals. Her mate, Glimfeather, is bereft. He’s singing to her, looking for her. This is the second mate he’s lost in his sixteen years. Last time, depression brought on physical illness, before introducing Holly restored him to health. So I’ve moved a small table into the verandah next to the aviary, and I’m typing from there so that we can see each other, and I can talk to him. And he can sing to me.  Which illustrates a motif well known to chaplains, that of “being present”. Wouldn’t it be lovely if Glimmy spoke English (he sort
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Change and Challenge. An unpreached sermon for Pentecost 5B, 23 June 2024

Mark 4:35-41 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” +In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We love spiritualising bible accounts like this. Look, I’m as guilty as anyone. I was searching for a title, and came up with “We’re all in the same boat”. And yes, there’s real comfort to be found in the
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  A hot mustard harvest An unpreached sermon for Sunday 16 June 2024 Pentecost 4B Mark 4:26-34 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in pr
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Looking at our yard. Ramble just for the sake of it. 26 May 2024

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I always wanted to live in a country cottage. But it's only now, in this most un-English North Queensland tropical city, that I've realised that dream. And as I look up at the verdant bush (we had enough rain in the Wet to keep it still verdant) of Castle Hill behind us, and listen to the incessant chatter of birds, tiny and not-so-tiny, a verse of a hymn from childhood has wormed its way into my ear. I'm singing it as I type. Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green, Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs o'erflow, Flowers with deeper beauties shine, Since I know, as now I know. I am His, and He is mine.
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"Merciful and Mighty". An unpreached sermon for Trinity Sunday 2024

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  Isaiah 6:1-8 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. ” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who wil
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A Golden Age that might not have been, or was, but could be anyway. Unpreached for Pentecost 2024.

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  Acts 2:1-21 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear th
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The other Lord's Prayer. An unpreached sermon for Easter 7B, 12 May 2024

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 The Other Lord’s Prayer. Unpreached Ramble for Easter 7B, 12 May 2024 John 17:6-19 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be ful
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