I was recently reading a short article about one of my favourite films. Released about 25 years ago, the movie didn’t ‘do well’ at the cinema and when it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival it was mercilessly booed after the screening. The film has since been regarded as a “modern classic” by different reviewers. Last year, I won a signed shirt from a local sports team. Once I was the proud owner of the shirt I thought I’d go and watch the team. I did, and I’ve been watching them reasonably regularly since. The team did really well and found themselves promoted and then facing tougher opposition and things have been more of a struggle since. So much so that the team parted company with the manager. Had the team not been promoted and therefore facing more difficult opponents, perhaps the manager might not have left?In 2015 a friend and I recorded and released a post-hardcore, punk, metal, shouty CD album. With tongues firmly planted in cheeks, we sent the CD out to be reviewed. Ultimately we received one review: 6/10 and my favourite line of the review was “This is a very unusual CD”. (It could have been worse, it could have said, “I liked the bit when it ended”)Movies, sports teams, music releases: they are reviewed, judged, discussed, dissected. Their value can so easily be defined by a simple metric, dollars made, points scored, rating out of 10.As people we face all kinds of reviews and ratings, exam results, job interviews, etc, etc.And yet, as people we can also take one metric into consideration - we are loved.Loved by God, not for who we are, or what we have achieved - or not, but simply because. Because we are the creator’s creation. Made in God’s image, bearing God’s finger prints. Our forgiveness signed, sealed, delivered on the cross we remember at Easter. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it is true - YOU ARE LOVED!BlessingsRev Tim
It’s Ash Wednesday on Wednesday 18th February and from that point until Ascension Day on Thursday 14th of May my hope is that St. Margaret’s and All Saints’ will be journeying through a sermon series entitled God on the Road.God on the Road is a series of readings that will take us on a journey, reminding us that “God is always on the move” and that while we encounter the beauty of God in church services, so much of the work of God in the scriptures is found in the forgotten, barren and hurting places. As we pilgrimage through this earthly life it is helpful to remember that so much of the work of God (in all God’s wholeness) in scripture takes place on journeys, on the way to somewhere, on difficult and testing paths, on the road towards the new creation and the good future God has in store for all of us.On Sundays we will walk with Moses through our Sunday readings leading up to Palm Sunday. We will then follow Jesus from Palm Sunday until the resurrection, encountering Jesus in some resurrection appearances.The sense of direction for this series has emerged from a real sense of God’s leading: in each parish, at this time, we are challenged in who we (as churches) are in Jesus and I believe we should be challenged to explore where and how we might serve God as pilgrims walking the road as followers of The Way of Jesus.I hope you will join in following God on the Road.Tim
I wonder, how was 2025 for you? Perhaps it’s been a year of saying ‘goodbye’, or perhaps it’s been a year of saying ‘hello’. Maybe 2025 has been a year of good stuff. Then again maybe 2025 has been a year of bad stuff.Or what about, starting a new hobby, or job or relationship, or post-illness recovery?Or a year of just trying to make it through with family, financial, and work challenges?The chances are that 2025 has brought a whole host of things to your door, the ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘rather have avoided that completely’. The turning of the year is as good a time as any to take a moment to pause and to look back, to reflect on the year that has been, the challenges that have been faced, the impossibilities that have been overcome. There are all sorts of ways we can do this. One Christian practice often used at the end of a day, or year, is an Examen, basically asking, how was that (looking back), how are things (looking at now) and what are you hoping for (looking forward). This may or may not be a useful practice.Maybe something as intentional as an Examen feels a bit forced, but perhaps pause and have a think, what moments of delight caught you off guard this year? It doesn’t have to be anything big like winning the lottery. As I write this I’m reminded of one such moment for me this year. When at 7pm one Sunday evening I was supposed to be heading out the door to set up for a course starting at 7:30pm when at just the moment I was about to leave one of my children came in for a hug. So we hugged, and chatted and it was the best reason to be late I could ever have.Merry Christmas and God bless you in the big stuff and all the small things as you head into 2026, watch out for those wonderful moments when wonder breaks through.Tim
By the end of November we will be in Advent. Advent Sunday falls on the 30th of November this year and once we are there we can no longer deny it – Christmas is approaching – and fast!In Advent this year as we journey through the Sundays of the season I thought we’d follow the traditional Advent pattern but a bit more intentionally, with the four Sunday’s of this penitential season of preparation with its historic focus on waiting, for the ‘now and the not yet’.Traditionally the four Sunday’s of Advent can be described as being focused on: HOPE – PEACE – JOY – LOVE.Hope, peace, joy, love. Words that are always important, but words that feel especially weighty this year, after a year when it might be convincingly argued that those words have been missing from much of our shared public life and discourse.With that in mind we’ll be thinking about HOPE unending, PEACE unstoppable, JOY unbound and LOVE untamed.The promise we find in the ‘preparation’ and ‘waiting’of Advent is the promise that God will make all things new, that God’s good promises are for our future. But also that we can work towards - and get a glimpse of God’s good things in this season too.Who would have thought that four little words could be so counter-cultural.HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE, go on then, don’t mind if I do.BlessingsTim
