John Davies: Notes from a small vicar
By John Davies
John Davies: Notes from a small vicarDec 11, 2020
Protecting what is loved: the angry Jesus in The Temple
Temple, or Church: “Anger is the force that protects that which is loved.” If our anger with it expresses our deeper love for the institution, then it might just help to save it.
A talk for The Third Sunday of Lent, 3 March 2024.
Referencing Exodus 20.1-17, John 2.13-22.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
In Defence of the Offence of the Cross
"We have beautiful crosses on our churches, in our lapels and around our necks," preached the late evangelist Billy Graham. "And yet the Bible says the cross is a stumbling block, an offence, a scandal among men, a base and despised thing.” Graham was a fine example of how to ‘take up one’s cross and follow Jesus’.
A talk for The Second Sunday of Lent, 25 February 2024.
Referencing Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16, Mark 8.27-38.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
In our wilderness, angels minister to us
The ‘bogus baptism’ debate is a testing feature of the volatile world in which we live. Taking inspiration from the slaves and their Spiritual songs, can we follow Jesus out from the wilderness of this world into the dawning of a whole new age?
A talk for The First Sunday of Lent, 18 February 2024.
Referencing Genesis 9.8-17, Mark 1.9-15.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
I am your fan: on Christian Formation
What (or who) are you following at the moment? We are all followers. An exploration of discipleship and where it might take us.
A talk for The Second Sunday before Lent, 4 February 2024.
Referencing Proverbs 8, John 1.1-14.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Who will bring consolation to Israel?
Who will bring consolation to Israel? It's an age-old question with relevance to us all. Will the answer be left solely those who use force of violence, or are there other traditions of Israel which we can draw on?
A talk for The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas), with Holocaust Memorial Day, 28 January 2024.
Referencing Hebrews 2.14-18, Luke 2.22-40.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Pondering a larger reality
New Year is a good time for pondering. For going over what has been, and considering what is to come. It’s a good time for re-setting ourselves if we think that life has bent us out of shape. It’s a good time for putting life in context, and remembering the larger reality which may otherwise be crowded out.
A talk for The First Sunday of Christmas, 31 December 2023.
Referencing Isaiah 61.10 - 62.3, Luke 2.15-21.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Peace on earth starts within
Is 'Peace on earth' achievable? Christmas gives us an opportunity to hone our peacemaking skills - in those rooms and around those tables where we are placed, sometimes uncomfortably, alongside people we may see only once a year - maybe some of whom, if we were honest, we’d prefer to see even less often.
If we admit to ourselves our reluctance to let old wounds heal, or our strategies of avoidance of people we disagree with, or of sidestepping uncomfortable conversations, then we are at the start of building peace on earth. For the beginning of making peace from within is to ask ourselves why we act that way, and prayerfully, carefully, begin to work out what we might be able to do to change.
A talk for Christmas Eve, 24 December 2023.
Referencing Titus 2.11-14, Luke 2.1-20.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Among you stands one whom you do not know
"Among you stands one whom you do not know" - said the Baptist of Jesus; and he hardly knew Jesus himself. How Jesus' mission leaves out all traces of vengeance and nationalism, though throughout history, religion has succumbed to what Ivan Illich describes as ‘the troubled legacy of Christendom ... the terrible perversion that comes of love and truth when these are underwritten by institutional power.’
A talk for The Third Sunday of Advent, 17 December 2023.
Referencing Isaiah 61.1-11, John 1.6-8, 19-28.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God”
We come to worship at Advent, and these are the first words we hear: ‘Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.’ After a time of suffering and pain, the most uncomfortable of times, when the grass has withered from the earth, the world’s flower has faded, God wants us to know that he is coming to create new beginnings. And, to tell the world that this good news is coming, God is commissioning his messengers. Today we hear from Isaiah and from Mark. The book of Isaiah and the Gospel of Mark were written in, and describe, deeply uncomfortable times. They are both books of prophecy, for, like Isaiah, Jesus was a great prophet of his time.
A talk for The Second Sunday of Advent, 10 December 2023.
Referencing Isaiah 40.1-11, Mark 1.1-8.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Watch and pray with the Prophet of the true way to peace
When Jesus tells his disciples to ‘Keep awake’, ‘Watch and pray’, he’s not telling us to bunker down and wait for the apocalypse. He’s giving us the tools by which we can face the traumas of life with faith, the challenges of the world with hope; by which we can flourish and help others to flourish.
A talk for The First Sunday of Advent, 3 December 2023.
Referencing Isaiah 64.1-9, Mark 13.24-37.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
The parable of the man who liked to dig
This Parable of the Man who Liked to Dig is an upside-down version of the story which usually gets called the Parable of the Talents. It invites us to ask the question, what if this parable is about being happy not to spend your life striving for wealth and prestige?
A talk for The Second Sunday before Advent, 19 November 2023.
Referencing Zephaniah 1.7,12-18, Psalm 90.1-12, Matthew 25.14-30.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
In a world of conflict, be prepared for love
Any person determined to live in peace in this world must work out how to be ready in mind and body to act peaceably in every situation: to be prepared to develop the self-discipline to obey peaceful instincts over aggressive ones, to be ready to do the thing which unites, not divides; to be able to do the thing which generates love, not fear. All this requires a firmness of mind and heart, an absolute commitment of time and effort and energy: a strength of character which challenges the lazy criticism that pacifism is a form of weakness. Far from it.
A talk for Remembrance Sunday, 12 November 2023.
Referencing Wisdom of Solomon 6.12-20, Matthew 25.1-13.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
May our love not grow cold: being among the peacemakers
"For me, the other side, the enemy, is not the Palestinian people. For me the struggle is not between Palestinians and Israelis, nor between Jews and Arabs. The fight is between those who seek peace and those who seek war. My people are those who seek peace. My sisters are the bereaved mothers, Israeli and Palestinian, who live in Israel and in Gaza and in the refugee camps. My brothers are the fathers who try to defend their children from the cruel occupation, and are, as I was, unsuccessful in doing so. Although we were born into a different history and speak different tongues there is more that unites us than that which divides us." - Nurit Peled-Elhanan, whose daughter Smadar died in a suicide bombing in 1997.
A talk for the First Sunday before Advent, 5 November 2023.
Referencing Micah 3.5-12, Matthew 24.1-14
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
To die, like Moses, by the kiss of God
Moses died by the kiss of God.
Where our bible tells us that ‘Moses died … at the Lord’s command’, Hebrew scholars teach that the literal translation is that ‘Moses died by the mouth of the Lord’. His last breath was drawn while being gently kissed by a loving God. It was a peaceful transition from life to death.
Moses’ final moments were peaceful because he stopped fighting God’s judgement. He had to let go of his dream to lead the people into the Promised Land. He had to be reconciled to his own powerlessness. Moses died by the kiss of God: meaning that he came to accept that he would find peace, with the knowledge that he had finished his life’s work and that others would continue what he started.
A talk for the Last Sunday after Trinity, 29 October 2023. Remembering Bill Kenwright and Bobby Charlton.
Referencing Deuteronomy 34.1-12, Matthew 22.34-46
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New occasions teach new duties: Give to God the things that are God’s
We are reading Exodus at a time of elevated crisis in the Middle East; and in a conflict driven by religious ideologies of different kinds - Zionism and Islamism clashing - all these themes of Exodus are right there on the surface: Can the scared and suffering ones make it over the border? Which of the warring factions will win control of the land? And where is God to be found in this struggle?
It is all taking place a long way from here; but in another sense it couldn’t be closer; for the Christian Church is the ‘Israel of God’; we identify with Her closely; on some meaningful level the actions and the fate of the people of Israel are inseparable from our own. Though troubled and concerned, we may feel powerless to do anything about what’s happening in the Middle East. But how we respond to it, and how we choose to live towards our neighbours in our place, in our time, we trust is part of the kingdom of God which embraces us all.
A talk for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, 22 October 2023.
Referencing Exodus 33.12-23, Matthew 22.15-22
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Is this your God, O Israel?
Is this your God, O Israel: the enraged king, violent and vengeful towards those who disobey him, who will burn down whole cities in his anger; or is it the one who is expelled with the outcasts, and who bears the punishment of the world with grace?
Is this your God, O Israel: the golden idol you create, expecting it to make you whole, who you trust to remove your suffering, who you think will give you the truth; or is it the one who embraces suffering with you, who helps you face up to your unknowing, and to fully accept the difficulties of existence?
A talk for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 15 October 2023.
Referencing Exodus 32.1-14, Matthew 22.1-14
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
God loves soil: humility and reverence before the world
God loves soil, says the writer Norman Wirzba. "God is the first, best, and essential gardener of the world." Humankind has long assumed that what is good for us is also good for the world; but where pride and greed are the primary measures of what is good, this assumption leads to disaster. What happens when we put soil and soul together, and live “by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. ... Making the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. Co-operating in its processes, and yielding to its limits.” [Wendell Berry]?
A talk for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 16 July 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Unburdening: life in the divine presence
Stephen Barton writes that "Spirituality.... has to do with the sense of the divine presence and living in the light of that presence." A meditation on unburdening.
A talk for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 9 July 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
No sacrifice necessary - The Lord will provide
According to Leonard Cohen, his song called The Story of Isaac “is about those who would sacrifice one generation on behalf of another”. Is the voice he hears through the story of Abraham and Isaac the one we also hear: "You who build these altars now / to sacrifice these children, / you must not do it anymore."
A talk for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2 July 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
The Baptised are not a family
Jesus distanced himself from his society’s so-called family values. He would not make an idol of the family, as the rest of his society had. Time and time again in the gospels we hear him make statements like these incendiary remarks: ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.’ He made his point strongly in order to ensure it was heard - that whilst there will always be a place for the family in the future of God’s people, we must not make an idol of it, and we must be prepared to reshape our relationship with it, in the light of the values of God’s kingdom.
A talk for the Third Sunday after Trinity, 25 June 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
‘God has brought laughter for me’
Michael Rosen says that ‘Anxiety, surprise, absurdity and language-play all offer us a rich source for humour’. Anxiety, surprise, absurdity and language-play: we find each of these in the story of Sarah: The anxiety of being told to leave the place where you’ve lived your whole life, to start a journey to some unknown land, however flowing with milk and honey it was promised to be. The surprise - and that’s an understatement - of being told that after a lifetime of carrying nothing but the shame of barrenness, she would bear a child. The absurdity of falling pregnant in her nineties to a husband turning 100. And the language-play: ‘God has brought laughter for me’. That’s funny from Sarah, it’s a beautiful joke, naming her child laughter, remembering how she first laughed cynically at God’s promise, and now she found herself giggling, chortling, joyfully dancing with glee, at that absurd promise having been fulfilled. It is God’s delight to bring laughter - to those least expecting it.
A talk for the Second Sunday after Trinity, 18 June 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
They built their altars to the Lord
God's people have always been missionaries; always been builders. In our area (where today we walk from St Matthew's Church Keasden to Newby Methodist Chapel in celebration of their 150th anniversaries) farmers, labourers, landed families, lords: each in their own way, and often working together, have time and again 'built their altars to the Lord'.
A talk for the First Sunday after Trinity, 11 June 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Transforming our times of watching and waiting
Life teaches us to wait with patience; though we wait impatiently too. Life teaches us to wait with confidence; but nerves and fears can overcome us in our waiting. Life teaches us to wait in hope; but sometimes we give in to the prevailing spirit of the world which wants us to give up and give in to the lie that the way things are, are the way they always will be: this, I suggest, is waiting without the Lord. So, what does ‘waiting for the Lord’ mean? If those who wait for the Lord renew their strength, and mount up with wings like eagles, if they run and not be weary, if they walk and not faint, then we should consider this question deeply and often, for it will help us in our times of waiting.
A talk for Trinity Sunday, 4 June 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Pentecost: fellow-travellers reconciled
If we are dreaming of a good future for God’s church, then we needn’t necessarily embrace Pentecostalism; but we must embrace the Spirit of Pentecost. When we call on the name of the Lord we shall be saved. When we pray, ‘Come, Holy Spirit’, God will come. Each morning that we open ourselves afresh to the the Holy Spirit, begins a good day in the journey of faith we share with so many different, wonderful, others, here and across the world.
A talk for Pentecost, 28 May 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Holy hauntology: by the Holy Ghost, our dreams of a better life in Christ re-emerge with real potential
The followers of Jesus are haunted by a vision of all his earthly promises being fulfilled. The more we devote ourselves to this wonderful vision, the more it comes to life; and this awakening is enabled by One who the Church calls a 'ghost'... a Holy Ghost...
A talk for the Sunday after Ascension, 21 May 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
No more out of sight, out of mind: at the Sheep Gate, saved from Sacrifice
Our culture ‘sacrifices’ those who are deemed disposable: the sick, the lost and the lame, the unproductive, the unemployed, the foreigner. We know how these are always the first to be abandoned in a society which prioritises private gain over public well-being. Isn’t it a theme of our times that those who are struggling the most, are repeatedly told that they must sacrifice even more, for the greater good of all? We hear privileged economists telling struggling workers ‘to accept that they’re worse off’ and to stop demanding pay rises, hypocritically preaching that ‘we all have to take our share’. And we find ourselves complicit in this system where those we undervalue are forced into punishing sacrifices for the sake of our comfort and ease - like Bangladeshi workers producing clothes in squalid factories for less than a dollar a day, so that we can buy them at bargain prices. If we accept that the economists are today’s High Priests, we can see how universal was Jesus’ message at the Sheep Gate. Wherever a society’s victims are told by its gatekeepers, ’There is no alternative’, ’There is only one way’, ‘There is only one gate’, here comes Jesus, saying, no, there are other ways to live. For ’I am the gate for the sheep. ... Whoever enters by me will be saved'.
A talk for The Fourth Sunday of Easter, 30 April 2023. Referencing Acts 2.42-47, John 10.1-10 .
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Keeping on the Way of Joy
The story of the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, and all the other stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances show us that our God is a God of surprises: always seeking to surprise us with joy.
A talk for The Third Sunday of Easter, 23 April 2023.
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God frees us from death. It is impossible for us to be held in its power
Nature, scripture and experience teach us that death shall have no dominion. Or in other words the power of death is too weak to overcome us; the effect of death is not enough to defeat us; there are greater and brighter powers at work in the world and in the heavens than death. Death shall not dominate us. This is the meaning of eternal life.
A talk for The Second Sunday of Easter, 16 April 2023.
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Jesus took a donkey - and stole the people’s hearts
Reflecting on the influence of his elders in his early years, the late Paul O’Grady once said, ‘Comedy, your funny bone, is formed in childhood’. Was the nod of Jesus formed at home, as he soaked in the gallows humour of his working family struggling to afford food? Was the wink of Jesus formed in the temple, where in his youth he sat among the teachers and learned that God had little time for those who wielded worldly power at the expense of the poor? Is that where he came to see that the way of love involved challenging those powers-that-be, not by force, but with a smile?
A talk for Palm Sunday, 2 April 2023.
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Can these bones live? God’s pregnant promise
Can God breathe new life into a devastated people? It's a question which connects the struggling societies of today with Ezekiel's people, the Israelites deported to Babylon in the year 597BC. From Martha and Mary to all the bereaved; from the Israelites in exile to all of today’s uprooted peoples, this is God’s pregnant promise: ‘O my people. I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live ... then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’
A talk for The Fifth Sunday of Lent, 26 March 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
There is a line of women
Mothering Sunday is a day for celebrating the many women who nurture and sustain us, who fight for our right to flourish in life, who save and support us. Scripture sings their praises, role models all; and for celebrating the life-giving, nurturing, protective, compassionate sides of the Divine Trinity.
A talk for Mothering Sunday, 19 March 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
A woman's world: is this the inspiration she is seeking?
A talk for The Third Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2023.
Following a conversational reading of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4.5-30,39.
'He told me everything I have ever done!' - finally, a man who had come to know her fully, to understand her entirely, to love her wholly, to accept her as she was. No wonder she was so transformed that day. No wonder that her story made such an impression on those who heard it; because she may have been the most notorious addict for love in the city of Sychar; but everyone else in that place shared that ache to be accepted, that longing to be loved. This is one of the many Bible stories where women are the central characters. Women who discover that in a world where they are usually suppressed by men, God gives them agency.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
How can anyone be born after having grown old?
Rebirth is something we experience often in life. It's part of the call to joyful renewal which is the charter of the season of Lent.
A talk for The Second Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2023.
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Who told you that you were naked?
The tree and the fruit in Genesis 2 and 3 are unremarkable, so the story establishes this foundational truth about human beings - that we are people who desire. It is our nature to want what others want, and to do what others are doing, to know what others know and to be the people that others appear to be; and the envy and the rivalry which these desires create, are at the heart of human society.... The desire for our knowledge of good and evil to be affirmed is ubiquitous today... Who told us that we could be like Gods?
A talk for The First Sunday of Lent, 26 February 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
Take yourself up the mountain; be surrounded by the Cloud of God
Here is the weather forecast for Lent. There will be heavy cloud in high places. The mountains will be shrouded in cumulonimbus. A Weather Advice Notice is in place for Lent. We advise you to take yourself up the mountain; be surrounded by the cloud. For the cloud up there is the Cloud of God...
A talk for The Sunday Next before Lent, 19 February 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
To rest in the grace of the world: something worth fighting for
"When despair for the world grows in me..." writes Wendell Berry, "I go and lie down where the wood drake rests ... I come into the peace of wild things... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
It is good to rest, in the grace of the world; for God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. This raises questions for people of faith and goodwill. About those medical staff burnt out after weeks on 16-hour shifts: what changes are needed so that they can ‘rest in the grace of the world’? About those zero-hour workers yoked to their unpredictable working patterns: what adjustments could be made so that they are able to get out of their homes to ‘rest in the peace of wild things’?
A talk for The Second Sunday before Lent, 12 February 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
The fast that we choose
“If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,” says God in Isaiah, “then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.” A talk in honour of Traidcraft plc, pioneers of fair trade and the international Fairtrade Mark, who have ceased trading, but who have, over the past forty-plus years, "reimagined the relationship between producers and consumers, putting justice at the heart of trade.” The God of Isaiah would be pleased that in this era of escalating deregulation and profiteering, the fair trade movement steered many businesses in a completely contrary direction.
A talk for The Third Sunday before Lent, 5 February 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks
Seeing the light - a break with business as usual
Now, some will say (with justification) that an institution which has for centuries cosied up to power and wealth, is today incapable of bringing light into darkened corners of our troubled world. But at the grassroots this is disproven by the plentiful activity of those in and around our churches who feed the hungry, work supportively with those in debt, campaign for the renewal of broken public services, give their spare rooms over to refugees, protest for the planet, host meetings for recovering addicts. Sometimes they’re criticised for what they do; sometimes they meet fierce opposition. But they keep reaching for the light. For as Jesus’ first followers found, so might we: that ‘the call to discipleship demands more than an assent of the heart; it invites an uncompromising break with business as usual.’ (F. Dean Leuking)
A talk for The Third Sunday of Epiphany, 22 January 2023.
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We are all followers
Whether of Pele, Pope Benedict, or the inspirational figures of our choice, we are all followers. Following Jesus is a life of joy, but it is a joy which can be tempered by the pain of coexisting with a world which wants us to follow a different set of values.
A talk for The Second Sunday of Epiphany, 15 January 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Holy fools: the joy of journeying on hopefully
Because we come in hope, bearing our gifts of time and care and prayer; we come trusting that God has a future; and however foolish this may sound to a cynical watching world, our paying homage today affirms that indeed, God holds the future in his hands. Which is good news for those people who would rather not watch on cynically, but rather journey on hopefully together through this life.
A talk for The Epiphany, 8 January 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
New Year’s Day: good news can be terrifying #2
‘Good news’ for the majority of people looks like ‘bad news’ for the Herods of the world, as it is likely to involve them having to give away some of their power, having to share more fairly their wealth, having to tread more lightly on the earth. And so they will go to extreme lengths to resist any change which challenges their superiority. The power of governments, corporations and institutions seems to rule our world, and when it is threatened, then these rulers will enforce their power through threat and fear and terror. But the Christmas story teaches us that there is something else going on in this world we occupy. It is the sure and certain activity of a different power altogether, a power which is all for our good, which is entirely committed to our well-being, and completely devoted to our peace...
A talk for The Second Sunday of Christmas, New Years Day 1 January 2023.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Christmas: good news can be terrifying #1
If you're newly pregnant, taking on your first mortgage, suddenly promoted... the good news may be terrifying at first; but (as the angel said to all the people in the Christmas story), do not be afraid, hold fast, in confidence and faith, embrace it, and look forward in hope.
A talk for Christmas, 2022.
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Weak hands and feeble knees
The woman laden with Christmas shopping bags knows it; the alcoholic wit hate one remaining friend knows it; the athletic woman recovering from her car crash knows it: the hard-won hope in Isaiah's words, "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come ... and save you.’"
A talk for The Third Sunday of Advent, 11 December 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
On Jordan’s bank: crossing over from distrust to understanding
As the worldwide church sings, ‘On Jordan’s banks the Baptist’s cry announces that the Lord is nigh’, a reflection on whether reconciliation is possible today in the land of the River Jordan.
A talk for The Second Sunday of Advent, 4 December 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Redeeming the powers: that’s why we call Jesus our King
Why call Jesus a king when everything we know about his life demonstrates that he was the anti-king, a humble man with the least autocratic tendencies imaginable? It's an imperfect turn of phrase but the Lord of earth and heaven, the One we call our King, is the One through whom God ‘was pleased to reconcile to himself all things’... His kingdom of love, joy and peace is unlike any we’ve seen or can otherwise imagine. But it is the truest active force at work in the universe, and without a doubt, that’s why our hearts are stirred up to call Jesus our King.
A talk for Christ the King, 20 November 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Living faithfully in a time of conflict
Whatever our views on war and nonviolent action, the warriors and the peacemakers of old together call us to live faithfully, and in our own time of conflict to involve ourselves in doing what is right, being prepared to embrace both the trouble and the hope that this will bring.
A talk for Remembrance Sunday, 13 November 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
To God all are alive: in the midst of death we are in life
The words of committal in the old Prayer Book Funeral Service seem to sum up well our usual state of being: ‘In the midst of life we are in death’, it says, and it seems we are, each of us people who are keenly affected by loss, continually bereaved. Yet Jesus quotes the book of Exodus where God tells Moses ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ - three people who Moses understood to be dead at the time. Jesus is trying to help us to begin to understand that the power of God involves being completely and entirely alive, living without any reference to death. There is no death in God. ‘To God, all are alive’. To God, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive. What would happen to us if only we really believed only in life?
A talk for The Third Sunday before Advent, 6 November 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Celebrating those who know their hope, their inheritance among the saints
'Turning the other cheek’ and ‘giving up your coat as well’ - these are actions of defiance, rather than defeat in the face of a bully; these are actions of protest rather than passivity in the face of an oppressor. Today we honour those people who live lives of hope, who demonstrate what hope means in the face of challenge and hardship.
A talk for The Last Sunday after Trinity, 30 October 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
A Parable about the Pester Power of the Widow who Protested
The Parable of the Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow teaches that when ordinary people exercise pester power then the world can become a better place. It's about prayer and protest and how, when people combine these two, the world changes .
A talk for The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 16 October 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.
Being thankful in hard times
The story of the one healed leper who returned - the foreigner of the group - a story which may encourage even those of us at our lowest ebb that it is nevertheless possible, with thankful hearts, to experience respair, to move from despair towards a place of hope. To make a faith journey forwards with Christ at our side, giving thanks to God.
A talk for The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, 9 October 2022.
Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.