Today is the Fifth Sunday after Trinity. Our Collect today reminds me of the awesome responsibility we each hold as ministers of the gospel. Everything we do should show the grace that we have been fortunate enough to receive, and to share that grace with all whom we minister to.

To help me in this, I try to base my preaching and ministry on two truths. The first is that God loves each and every one of us. And the second is that the gospel is good news (which is what ‘gospel’ means).

I always try to consider how, what I want to say, fits with the God of love, the God who loves each of us as much as if we were the only ones too love. If it doesn’t, then I have to seriously consider whether it’s the right thing to be saying.

And then I consider whether what I want to say is good news for those who will hear it. If it isn’t, again I would need to seriously consider whether I’m saying the right thing.

I hope, and pray, that trying to base all of what I do as a minister of the gospel on those two truths is the right thing to do — fire and brimstone really is not my style. As ministers of the gospel I don’t think it’s a bad gauge for us to be measuring ourselves against, the Love of God. And even though I know I will frequently fall woefully short, it doesn’t mean I should stop striving towards that goal.

I appreciate that people from varying traditions will have differing emphases than me. I don’t think they’re wrong and I’m right, nor vice versa, I just think we’re different, and that’s a part of the countless gifts of grace that the God of love gives us.

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Today’s Collect, for the Third Sunday of Lent, always encourages me to think about my own ministry. It encourages me to evaluate where it is, where it’s been, and where it might be going. Of course, the third part of that is the most difficult, and I’m not sure I ever really come up with any answers, but will keep praying, “give us insight to discern your will for us”.

For many years, I’ve strongly believed that where God calls, he also enables. It’s something that has helped me enormously through some bad patches in my ministry. And for years it has been true. Surprisingly, for this incredibly shy person, I have been able to exercise an up-front Church based ministry, something I never thought would be possible.

Preaching has always been a large part of what I felt God was calling me to. Who would have thought that this man who finds it hard to talk to someone one-to-one could possibly preach God’s word to a church full of people? The service I’ve found most fulfilling for my ministry, though, has been Evensong. It’s a much smaller service in terms of congregational numbers: but that adds an intimacy that isn’t present in the larger services, especially as we’re all gathered together in the chancel rather than spread out in the much larger main body of the church. At an Evensong service, I not only get to preach, but also to sing; something that has seemed even more unlikely than preaching. And yet both have been possible because of God’s enabling — what he called me to do, he also enabled.

I still believe that where God calls he also enables. But now I wonder, too, if the obverse of God’s enabling might also be true; ie. where God does not enable, he is not calling. Or more particularly in my case, where he stops enabling. I keep wondering whether my Church based ministry should be brought to a close. My health, which is always very unpredictable, was very bad at the end of last year and the start of this year. As a result, my Church based ministry has been non-existent.

But that is due to change this evening; I’m preaching at our BCP Holy Communion service — it will be the first time in many months. I hope this will give me a good indication of what I might, or might not, manage in the future. If I manage well, I’ll be more confident going forward. If it’s too much for me, maybe I will need to think more carefully about what I should be doing. It will probably be somewhere in the middle of those, though. And I do need to be careful not to set too much store by what happens this evening — it is the first time for a long while. Still, I hope to be given some insight to discern God’s will for me.

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Third Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Today is the Fifth Sunday after Trinity. Our Collect today reminds me of the awesome responsibility we each hold as ministers of the gospel. Everything we do should show the grace that we have been fortunate enough to receive, and to share that grace with all whom we minister to.

To help me in this, I try to base my preaching and ministry on two truths. The first is that God loves each and every one of us. And the second is that the gospel is good news (which is what ‘gospel’ means).

I always try to consider how, what I want to say, fits with the God of love, the God who loves each of us as much as if we were the only ones too love. If it doesn’t, then I have to seriously consider whether it’s the right thing to be saying.

And then I consider whether what I want to say is good news for those who will hear it. If it isn’t, again I would need to seriously consider whether I’m saying the right thing.

I hope, and pray, that trying to base all of what I do as a minister of the gospel on those two truths is the right thing to do — fire and brimstone really is not my style. As ministers of the gospel I don’t think it’s a bad gauge for us to be measuring ourselves against, the Love of God. And even though I know I will frequently fall woefully short, it doesn’t mean I should stop striving towards that goal.

I appreciate that people from varying traditions will have differing emphases than me. I don’t think they’re wrong and I’m right, nor vice versa, I just think we’re different, and that’s a part of the countless gifts of grace that the God of love gives us.

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace

This phrase, “kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace”, from the Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, immediately gets me thinking about love — but I don’t imagine any regular readers of this blog will be too surprised by that though, I often do.

The love of God for each of us is one of the two truth’s I try to base my preaching and ministry on. The other is that the Gospel is good news.

I always try to consider how, what I want to say, fits with the God of love, the God who loves each of us as much as if we were the only ones too love. If it doesn’t, then I have to seriously consider whether it’s the right thing to be saying.

And then I consider whether what I want to say is good news for those who will hear it. If it isn’t, again I would need to seriously consider whether I’m saying the right thing.

I hope, and pray, that trying to base all of what I do as a minister of the gospel on those two truths is the right thing to do — fire and brimstone really is not my style. I appreciate that people from varying traditions will have differing emphases than me. I don’t think they’re wrong and I’m right, nor vice versa, I just think we’re different, and that’s a part of the countless gifts of grace that the God of love gives us.

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Friday Foto

Here is a photograph of the pulpit, or more properly called, “ambo”, at Godmanchester Church. It isn’t very old, only ten to fifteen years, and is quite small in comparison to the pulpit we had before. The old one was a magnificent piece of furniture, but unfortunately had to be replaced because of death-watch beetle, which we had problems with some years ago. My first sermons were preached from that pulpit; it was quite daunting but a wonderful honour. Interestingly, in all the time I spent in the church as a child, I never once climbed those steps into the pulpit. The first time I did, was to preach my first sermon.

The newer ambo doesn’t have the same presence about it, but it is wonderful piece of church furniture, and an immense privilege to preach from. One of the big advantages with the new ambo is it’s portability. Four people can move it relatively easily, which helps to open up the whole of the nave platform; which makes an excellent concert staging area.

Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace

Unexpected coincidences often amaze me, and leave me wondering if it’s God’s timing at work. I experienced one of those moments when I was reading the Additional Collect for this Sunday, The Fifth Sunday after Trinity. I looked at it soon after being tagged for the meme in my last blog post: Meme: what has God been teaching me? I was tagged by ElShaddai Edwards, and it was his response to the meme on his blog, “He is Sufficient”, that made me sit up and take notice when taken together with this Collect, or, at least, the phrase I’ve picked out to reflect on, “Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace”.

ElShaddai talks about his conscience being pricked beyond the bounds of legalism. It sounds to me as though the Holy Spirit is moving him in a positive direction. I remarked in the comments on ElShaddai’s post about how easy I can find it to slip back into legalism, almost like a comfort blanket. When, really, the love and grace of God should be fulfilling that role for us.

And that’s really where I think the phrase, “Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace”, comes in. Regular readers will probably not be surprised to see me thinking about “Love” again, I do it quite a lot. Whenever I’m preaching I always try to consider whether what I’m going to say fits with a God that loves each and every one of us as though we are the only to love. And if it doesn’t, then I have to wonder if it’s the right thing to be saying. I would be pretty hopeless as a “Fire and Brimstone” Preacher.

As ministers of the gospel I don’t think it’s a bad gauge for us to be measuring ourselves against, the Love of God. And even though I know I will frequently fall woefully short, it doesn’t mean I should stop striving towards that goal. All too often, though, I find myself clutching that comfort blanket of legalism.

You can probably tell from all this, that I’m a pretty mixed-up character at times. So this Collect will be a heartfelt prayer for me — especially when I’m preaching this Sunday.

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council