I first discovered his writing in the early 1990s when I was starting to explore my faith and beliefs. I was able to immediately relate to his theology of `non-realism` which answered the questions and doubts that I had been struggling with. At last, I had found someone who understood and had similar ideas to me although far better at articulating them.

Why on earth is there so much fish and fishing in the gospels? For a day labourer, a jobbing builder from the hill town of Nazareth Jesus spends a strange amount of time (the bulk of his ‘ministry’) mucking about with fishermen when he might otherwise have been on building sites. Why?

The reading this week follows directly on from last week’s narrative of Jesus’ first recorded sermon (a whole nine words!) and moves from the rapture of initial reception to a concerted attempt to put him to death.

I don’t know what the average length of time that people spend on writing sermons is, in fact I’m not sure how you’d even know. I start my prep at the start of a week, and finish it at the end of a week - which means that there’s a bit of thinking time in the middle.

This week’s passage is one of the big beasts - the story of the wedding at Cana where Jesus magically turns water into wine.

Happy new year friends - I’m back at my desk this morning and we begin 2025 with a small passage from Luke which has a big story to tell.

I am not a huge cricket fan but the metaphor of having served an innings of 45 years for the C of E, retiring from paid ministry but continuing to serve as priest – retired but not out – seems an apt description. But the question which I am now wrestling with is this: do I return my licence to my bishop since the leadership of the church I have loved to serve has finally lost my respect and support. Let me explore this further.

There’s a pivotal moment in Victor Hugo’s classic tale Les Miserables in which the main protagonist, Jean Valjean, is released from prison but finds it difficult to reintegrate into society due to his criminal record. A pretty accurate description of an every day phenomenon.

The second Advent gospel reading is this one from Luke’s story about the the birth of John the baptiser - the context is that like Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth also experience a ‘miracle birth’. Further, though, Zechariah is struck dumb for the nine months of the pregnancy and upon finding his voice again he sings the song often known as the Benedictus or ‘the canticle’ of Zechariah.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Annette Kaye, a southern hemisphere girl who finds herself in the far north-east of the UK, mother to two adult daughters, and tow teenage step daughters, all of whom, along with my partner, keep me challenged, and happy to be alive! In addition, I am a ceramic and mixed media artist, an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, supervisor, and trainer, a transpersonal psychotherapist, and a facilitator of eco-spirituality, as well as psychedelic, retreats. Faith-wise, I have travelled through many rooms of Christianity - conservative Evangelical, charismatic, liturgical, contemplative, and would now, with my interest in, and concern for, the natural world, call myself something of a Christian Animist.

It’s the first Sunday of the church calendar, for anyone who cares about such things, so we enter ‘Year C’ in the revised common lectionary, the third of three years worth of set readings with this reading from Luke’s gospel. This time next year we’ll be back at the start of ‘Year A’ again - if, that is, the world doesn’t end first.

I’m drawing, somewhat, on a book by Laura Hunt for this week’s reflection. Hunt has written perhaps the only book which explains in detail how one can read John’s portrayal of Jesus as a picture of an ‘ideal type’ Roman emperor. She uses sophisticated methodologies to develop this idea and her book is worth a read if you have a taste for academic work and a library copy available to you (it’s somewhat expensive to purchase).

The gospels are full of parables. Parables of Jesus, and parables about Jesus. The kind of writing we find there, invented long before the enlightenment understanding of ‘fact’ is, to modern and post-modern readers confusing and elliptical.

Among the host of familiar stories in Mark’s gospel is the story of the widow’s mite - where Jesus and his disciples watch people paying the temple tax and Jesus notes how a poor widow pays more than anyone.

This week’s venture into the lectionary is suitably spooky for the time of year - as we hit ‘John’ telling the spoooooooky tale of the very dead ‘Lazarus’ being resuscitated.

There are tonnes of interesting things in this passage, the story of ‘blind’ Bartimaeus, and several mysteries to ponder. It begins with a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ visit to Jericho, the world’s oldest city, followed by a remarkable encounter between Mark’s Jesus and a blind beggar with a strange name. The story is revisited by the other synoptic evangelists - but without the repetition of that strange name which I think is important for Mark.

On the 28th of October 312CE, The Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. He believed, or said he did, that Christ had helped him triumph over his rival Maxentius, as a result he was about to make Christianity the religion of empire.

There are some wonderful, eye-opening, mind-expanding curiosities to get your teeth into in this week’s passage which is all about Jesus’ encounter with a rich young man. Trouble is, most people seem to get caught up in the eye-catching ‘easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle’ phrase, trying to decode it for hidden meaning. Could there have been a gate known as the ‘eye of the needle’?

There are key moments in the gospel according to ‘Mark’ where Jesus’ “mission” becomes quite clear. He was creating a new system in the shell of the old one, a network of ‘households’ where a different way of living was put into place. Many of us rail against the injustices and evils of exploitation, prejudice and hierarchy, part of the genius of Jesus as a man was that he demonstrated a genuine alternative.

In the reading this week John asks Jesus about someone who is ‘casting out demons’ - but isn’t ‘following us’. Someone, in other words, who isn’t part of the in-crowd. The reading follows on from the previous week’s discourse about ‘greatness’ and the link shouldn’t be lost.