Bradford North Circuit

A lady went to her minister and said: “I won’t be coming to church anymore.”  The minister said: “May I ask why?”  She said: “I see people on their mobile phones during the service, some are gossiping, some just aren’t living right. They are all just hypocrites.”  The minister said: “OK. But can I ask you to do something for me, before you make your final decision?”  “What’s that?” she asked.  The minister said: “Take a glass of water and walk round the church with it twice, but don’t let any water spill from the glass."  She said: “Yes, I can do that.”  Afterwards, she came back to him and said: “I have done it.”  The minister asked her three questions:  Did you see anyone on their mobile phone? Did you see anybody gossiping? Was anybody living wrong?  She said: “I didn’t see anything, because I was so focussed on this glass, so the water wouldn’t spill.”  The minister told her: “When you come to church, you should be so focussed o...

I sat among the trees once. And a wind was blowing. Quite a strong wind; I could hear it in the trees –   rushing, rushing. A lovely sound, soothing to my ears. I stopped what I was writing and began to listen. I remembered that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was like   the wind. You could hear it; see its effect. But you couldn’t see the wind itself. You couldn’t see   where it was coming from, nor going to. And I wondered, “Are you showing me something about your Spirit, Lord?” So I sat, and I listened, and I watched. They were big, old trees where I sat. Tall they were, in an ancient wood, well-branched,  shapely. Beech, grey bark against the clear blue of the sky. And leaves: they were leaves that knew the wind;   leaves that let the wind know them. They looked, like beach leaves look in a wind: full of life –   and with a certain beauty all their own. I watched the great crowns of those great trees. I watched the branches sway and the ...

If you fall down, we’re told, you shouldn’t get up right away. Lie where you have fallen for a moment; catch your breath, take your time, then carefully, carefully! – start to stand, moving slowly, making sure you’ve got your balance before you carry on your way. We have fallen hard, knocked down by this unseen assailant. It’s ok to lie here a while, listening to the birds, watching the trees come into leaf above our heads, enjoying the peace. How will we get up again? Will we rush to get back to where we think we ought to be? Or take time to collect our thoughts so that, when we start to move, we can be sure to take the right direction? Christine Crabtree 14.04.2020

When I retired from full-time work as an administrator, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague for a year. I expected to help with administration and running the library, but I was also unexpectedly asked to teach English to some of the international students there. I had no previous experience of this, but using the materials provided and brushing up on my English grammar from GCE many years ago (!), I managed to stay one step ahead of the students and help them through the year. Actually, I enjoyed it so much that on my return to the UK I went to college to qualify in English language teaching, praying that God would give me opportunities to use it – and He did! In 2017 I met Caroline Pathak and heard about the English Conversation class she had started at Northcliffe Church. I was only too happy to accept when she asked if I would like to help with this. Being part of this group has been a wonderful and enriching experience. ...

Read John 19.31-42 Near to the place of crucifixion is a garden, where the body of Jesus is taken to be buried. Gardens play a significant role in the telling of scripture. In Genesis, the garden is celebration of God’s creation and a place of harmony between God and humanity. It is also the place of broken relationships, showing human limitations and failure.  In the New Testament, the garden of Gethsemane is a place where burdens are brought, and tears are shed. And the garden of Jesus’ burial is, of course, also the setting for resurrection, where the risen Christ is himself mistaken for a gardener.  At this time of year, many of us will be venturing out into our gardens once more. In the strange circumstances of our current crisis, the garden may be one of the few places where we can enjoy being outside and exercise. The garden in springtime is a place of new life – with buds showing and plants growing. This picture of new life can illustrate for us the truth ...

Read John 18.1 – 19.30 The word ‘Finished’ is double-edged. I grew up in a house at the bottom of a long cul-de-sac - but I hardly ever went to the top of it, because there was no reason to do so; the end of the cul-de-sac was a ‘nothing’ place to me. A finish can be like that, a dead end with no place else to go. Perhaps Jesus death is no more than that, like the full stop at the end of this sentence. But we can also understand a finish in a different way - as an accomplishment or as a fulfilment, with all its sense of being made whole.  So, what is it that, in Jesus’ words, is finished? Is it an end to the suffering on the cross and the extinguishing of life in the body of Jesus? Or is it a reference not just to the passion but to the whole ministry and mission of Christ, now made complete? It is both of these things - but also something more. For surely, in John’s gospel, that cry of ‘It is finished,’ tells of the glorification of Jesus, the lifting up of the Christ, th...

Read John 13.1-17 and 31-35 . Jesus took off his outer robe and tied a towel around himself. We often get dressed up for special occasions. In Jesus’ culture, an outer robe could say something important about you, about your status or authority.  In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), a sign of the son’s restoration into the household was being dressed with a fine robe. Jesus put aside this outer garment in order to reveal a crucial aspect of his life and ministry - as a servant of others. He laid aside his status in order to fulfil his calling to serve others (Philippians 2).  In the present time we too are having to lay aside important markers of our lives as Christians. We are no longer able to make our witness with the ‘cloak’ of church buildings and those activities we are so used to conducting within them. But in doing so, we have the opportunity to reveal some new aspect of our work, and to show how we might live our Christian life in new and different...

This account takes place before the Passover (see John 13:1) but has echoes of the Last Supper as told in the other Gospels.   There is no sharing of bread and wine, no mention of Jesus’ body and blood, but a focus on the betrayal that is about to happen. Read John 13;21-32 Jesus speaks of his imminent betrayal, and Jesus gives the sign of dipping the bread in the dish and handing it to Judas.  A Jewish person would recognise this sign immediately as a mark of special favour, for example a husband would give the piece of bread to his wife at the Passover table.  Is Jesus trying to show Judas that if he turns back even now, he will be forgiven? He chooses to leave, and it is night – the time we often fear, the time of darkness, when the light has gone. Yet Jesus says that it is now that the Son of Man is glorified (v.31). In the darkness the light shines brightly, and will continue to shine, though the shadows will hide it from our sight over these next few da...

In the talent programme ‘The Voice’, the judges sit with their backs to the performers.   If they like what they hear and think they have potential, they turn their chair around to see them. Today, some Greeks have heard of Jesus, and now want to see him for themselves. Read John 12:20-36 The Greeks ask to see Jesus; the crowd tells him that what he says is not in line with what they have heard.   Job said: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (Job 42:5, NRSV) Have you ever come up against a challenge to your faith?  How did you deal with that?  What did you learn from it?  Did it change your faith?  Did it help you to see Jesus more clearly? “Open our eyes, Lord, We want to see Jesus” – from the chorus by Robert Cull. Can you make this your prayer? Can you ask to see more than you have seen up to now, even if it challenges what you think you know?

Yesterday we marked Palm Sunday, with Jesus coming into Jerusalem, surrounded by the crowds waving palm branches and singing Hosanna. Now we turn to the events that lead us up to the Cross and beyond. Read John 12:1-11 If you were using Phil’s Lent reflections, you will have read in Week 4 of how Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to what he was saying. Now she takes it a step further and gifts Jesus with her perfume and her devotion. Imagine the scene and enter into it, perhaps as Mary or as one of the disciples. How do you feel as you watch it unfold? How do you listen to Jesus? Ask him to speak to you and spend some time in silence. Don’t worry if you don’t hear anything, simply enjoy the silence and his presence. Offer him your devotion and ask him to lead you through this Holy Week.