Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Exodus 17:1-7 listen to ‘When life gets tough’ on Audioboo The wilderness is a place of barrenness. It is the place abandonment, loneliness, hunger and thirst. It is a scary place because it is about coming face to face with forces that are far bigger than us, which threaten to overwhelm us.  Few voluntarily go into the wilderness. But the wilderness has also been, in Christian thought and experience, the place of meeting with God. Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry went into the wilderness for 40 days, in order to meet with God and to face the demons and devil. And the people of Israel had been a slave people in Egypt. They had cried out to God and God had rescued them. And through the leadership of Moses he brought them out of slavery and promised them a new land. But to get from Egypt to the promised land they had to go through the wilderness. And in our story, we meet them in the wilderness. They have no water, and they are thirsty. It was serious...

Isaiah 43:1-7 Great joy to celebrate the birth of Sophie. And I’m going to speak to Sophie this morning, because at long last it will be a privilege to be able to speak to someone who will be able to appreciate what I say Sophie, I’m basing what I would like to say on Isaiah 43 1. God made you. You might think that your mum and dad had a say in your creation – and I grant that they had a little bit to do with it. Verse 1 states: But now, this is what the   Lord   says – he who created you, Jacob,   he who formed you, Israel:     God created Jacob and Israel. Jacob is another name for Israel. But Jacob was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham. And when God uses the name ‘Jacob’, he is reminding us that although Israel is a nation, Israel is also a big family: made up of the descendents of Jacob. So God is saying, ‘I created this family’. And in the New Testament, we are told that God created all families. So ...