The priest and Franciscan Monk Richard Rohr published a book called ‘Falling Upward: A spirituality for the two halves of life’.In it he speaks of something long defined by philosophers and more recently by such psychologists as Carl Jung, as the first and second halves of life.In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identities – climbing, achieving and performing. We all try to do what seems like the task that life first hands us: establishing an identity, a home, a job, relationships, friends, community, security, and building, both a foundation and a ‘container’ for our lives.But too many of us stop there. As Bill Plotkin, a psychologist, and wilderness guide once observed, many of us learn to do our ‘survival dance’ but we never get to do our ‘sacred dance’. How sad that is.If we as a society were wise, we would do well to remember the enormous contribution that the oldest among us can make to our community life.In the story of Simeon and Anna, we hear how they came into their own in old age. Their testimony was revolutionary, shocking to conventional minds and systems.For the job of a prophet is to challenge, to test the fads and fashions of today against a measuring rod of long years and experience.Something, if they chose to, that the older among us could do in our present age……  

By the Sea of Galilee, presumably newly arrived, Jesus goes up to two brothers, Simon and Andrew, going about the comparatively lucrative business of fishing and tells them that he has chosen them as disciples. Conscripted, commandeered, requisitioned.James and John, the same thing ‘Drop all that, your father and the rest of the family can keep the business going, get your coat, we’re off.’And that is precisely, what they did.This may be an excellent way of getting disciples, I wonder if it also works to get volunteers in church?Should we give it a try?Out of interest, how would you respond?If you heard Christ’s call to serve him, if he came to you right now and said “whatever you are doing, stop that, follow me’ what would your answer be?What’s your instant reaction?  That’s the most honest one.

First broadcast in January 2026.A doctor friend once said that our life consists in juggling four balls, our physical and spiritual/emotional health, our families and friends and the last ball - our work, money possessions. The first three balls, he said, are made of glass, but the irony is we spend more time worrying about and protecting the fourth ball - which is also the only one made of rubber – so it can bounce back.You can usually tell what any society cares about by its largest buildings. In medieval times the Cathedrals were the awe-inspiring monuments of their times.  Later the Victorians enshrined their municipal and philanthropic ideals in great public works - water, power, hospitals. Today what are our greatest buildings - office blocks and shopping malls. Those who wish to sell their goods and services exhort us to be demanding customers, for whom good is never good enough. To be discontented, and dissatisfied. No one wants us to stop coveting and craving ever more possessions it seems. Except maybe that small still voice inside, telling us that we surely are meant for higher things. 

First broadcast on the first Sunday after Christmas 2026.We hear the story of the ‘Slaughter of the Innocents’ in Matthew’s Gospel; a reality check, just in case everything was getting too sentimental too saccharine – we are reminded of the kind of world into which Jesus, and countless millions of children have been born.And tragically, we don’t have to look very far or to a different time for the slaughter of the innocents. It is happening today.In Gaza, over 20,000 children killed, another 42,000 wounded. In Ukraine child casualties, according to UN figures, stand at over 3000, with around 750 killed and 2300 injured. And around 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted to areas under Russian control and Russia – who knows if they will ever return? In Sudan 1.4 million children at imminent risk of famine.As we look to an uncertain future for the Christian faith we might reflect ‘what is the core business of our church and our faith’. For a church that merely looks inward can never truly be called a church.In much the same way as the dead partner of Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, reflects on the business of his life in Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’:“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business.The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! "

Patriarchal societies and let’s face it most still are, to a greater or lesser extent, can sometimes be very unjust, especially to women. It beggars the imagination that a man can deem himself more manly because he oppresses and is violent towards someone who is physically weaker than himself, but such has been the culture and practice of countless numbers of men throughout history – who have bullied, abused, intimidated and dominated their way through life, when in fact it was a woman who bore them and gave them life and so often extend to them acts of kindness that they little deserve.History and church teaching has served Joseph badly. Sadly, consigned to a bit part, and rarely depicted as anything other than a dutiful attendant, in reality, he must have been a remarkable man who proves himself to be a very resourceful protector and guide. He cares for his family, protects them and provides for them, and moreover he provides such a model of fatherhood, that when Jesus seeks to name God, he uses a word that he utters with respect and love, Abba, Father.He stands in stark contrast to the terrible scourge of violence in the home and in close relationships – the places that should be the safest we know, that we should see as a haven, sanctuary – our homes – not places of refuge at all. And our church communities are by no means immune.That is why it is so important that we take a lead on this issue in the church since it is so easy for certain people, certain neighbourhoods and classes to feel that it has nothing to do with them.Victims and their abusers are everywhere, among us, standing right next to us – and we might never know. It is time for us as individuals and as communities to rise up against this terrible betrayal of violence and abuse….

John the Baptist presents a heroic but tragic figure. Crying out in the wilderness, giving voice not only to his own heartbreak, but also to the pain and suffering of all his people.However much the Romans might be bravely resisted, it was almost inconceivable that they might be repelled.Almost.For men like John still tried, still hoped, still preached that whatever worldly power the Romans might possess, nothing could withstand the might, in echo of Isaiah’s words, of ‘the one who is to come’, the promised Messiah.For some Jesus was a disappointment, those for whom military might could be the only mark of the Messiah. Far from Isaiah’s notion of the Suffering Servant, they expected nothing less than a second King David, a victorious warrior, triumphant general, a kingdom of this world. Jesus was an impossible claimant to the title; impossible and scandalous. A betrayal of the very ideal.Today new fractures are emerging. In certain countries and certain political cultures we are seeing the emergence of what might be called Christian Nationalism, where the faith of Jesus is being twisted and contorted into a reversal, a perversion of all that he stood for – hatred in place of love, racial discrimination instead of compassion , the glorification of the obscenely rich and the denigration of the poor, the celebration of the gun instead of peace.

More people go to their GP suffering from depression than any other affliction. Mental health problems among all ages, but also increasing among the young are ever rising.Now we can point at the alarming political news daily on our screens; we can cite workplace stress, the accelerating pace of modern life, the commoditisation of people in our aggressive materialist economies, a breakdown in traditional community structures, so many people living on their own, in fact a whole host of distressing reasonsBut least part of the answer, was taught to us over two thousand years ago, but sadly as G.K. Chesterton once commented: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”Of course we need to put food on the table, clothes on our backs. Of course, we want ourselves and our loved ones to be safe and healthy and happy.But is the relentless, single-minded, blinkered pursuit of possessions the means to fulfilment and peace, of truly realising our human potential?Do we work on the state of our souls, our precious inner spirit, do we devote as much time, attention and care to the person that we are and might yet become, as we do to the accumulation of the so-called treasures of this world?So what is Jesus trying to tell us, and why don’t we listen?

‘….the kingdom of heaven has come near.”These are the words of a young man named John, a young prophet of wild and dishevelled appearance preaching to the people of his time, about the saviour who was to come:‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” ’John presents a very odd picture indeed. Matthew describes him as wearing clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt to hold his ensemble together – eating locusts and wild honey – we can imagine dishevelled hair – a wild man, shouting, accusing almost raving.When today we see John as the forerunner we vastly underestimate his significance,For John was very great indeed, there were many religious groups and movements around the Judean wilderness, but John’s charismatic preaching and baptism attracted vast crowds including Jesus himself.There was also a rivalry between the followers of John and Jesus that persisted well after John’s death.Lives and relationships are complicated, even, sometimes especially, in the most important and profound relationships. And whilst the voice of the leader of any organisation and movement must usually take priority over those of their followers, nevertheless other voices can carry messages of great value and significance.

Apocalyptic writing is sometimes called the “literature of the dispossessed”. It is the product of a people oppressed and alienated who have little chance of fighting back against those who dominate them with political, economic and military power.Sometimes the oppressors are their own corrupt politicians, sometimes outside ‘foreign’ regimes. And sometimes the stranglehold that our western companies have on their economies and their industries. A stranglehold in which we as consumers, demanding lower prices in the shops, are sadly complicit.And this is should be the goad, the spur for us to reflect upon, and change, our own behaviour, towards each other and within our world. Scripture, and our own eyes, tell us what injustice, cruelty and greed look like, we can also recognize the opposite. So if we say we want to see the Kingdom, and in our prayers we claim that we do, might we not anticipate what the Kingdom might look like, as best we can, and start to behave that way now. And not to wait for others to start, that way the delay is forever, but instead consider our hoped for place in the Kingdom and start to behave as if it were already here, that way, we might have some hope of actually seeing the Kingdom, of catching even catching some glimpses of the way of peace, justice and love, that we claim to desire so much.

Luke’s story of the boastful Pharisee and the repentant tax-collector addresses the theme of what we might call ‘holy reversal’.That the standards of this world, the values of so much of our world, the one with which we are so familiar, in which some of us deem themselves so successful and dominant, are in fact but the shadows of the true reality to which we are called.Up is down and down is up.But what of our present world?Daily on our news we see the Christian faith upended into a cult of greed, pride, hostility and hate – lovers of guns and violence parading Jesus as their hero and guide. But when once we might have at least contented ourselves with the belief that these things happened far away, and in cultures different to our own, now we see, that the sickness has spread rather closer to home, the emergence of enmity and prejudice, no doubt deceiving itself that it is something else.How are we to contend with this challenge both within our world – and within ourselves?