John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

Jesus' crowd is a Flash Mob

'There are not two categories of people. There are not some who were born to have everything and leave others with nothing and a majority that has nothing and can’t enjoy the happiness that God has created for all. God wants a Christian society, one in which we share the good things that God has given for all of us.' Oscar Romero

I've updated my Palm Sunday talk, Jesus' crowd is a Flash Mob, to honour Oscar Romero whose anniversary fell this week - thirty-five years since his assassination.

On preaching

You will probably have heard the one about the young curate preaching at a service attended by  the bishop. After the service was over, the curate shook hands with the bishop and asked him, "How did you like my sermon, Bishop?” "Young man, it was like the peace and mercy of God," the bishop replied. "It was like his peace, in that it passed all understanding, and like his mercy in that I thought it would endure forever."

- from the start of my talk On preaching, the last in our series on Exploring Worship, which also features reference to the Liverpool influences in my performances, and Rae Morris’s gorgeous One Show rendition of All you need is love, illuminating the timeless virtuosity of The Beatles....

 

On interceding

There are many ways of praying. I was involved for some years in a group of Spiritual Directors who offered a listening ear to people exploring their spirituality, and one of the outcomes of that activity was the production of a book called The God You Already Know,  which lists dozens of examples of different ways people have found to draw close to God - methods you’d expect from the ancient traditions of the church such as silent meditation, lighting candles and praying with the Bible; but others such as dancing as prayer, swimming as prayer, even Sudoku as prayer - of which the person sharing their experience said, ‘I have to trust that there is an answer to the puzzle, which is discoverable, even though I can never see it to begin with.’ Yes, that sounds like a very good description of our experience of prayer.

- from my talk, On interceding, today. Part three of our latest series on Exploring Worship.