(Daniel 5; John 6:1-15) "I sat upon the shore fishing, with the arid plains behind me Shall I at least set my lands in order? " (Lines from T S Eliot’s The Waste Land) If Eliot’s words are enigmatic, then ambiguous is the designation of Christ as king. Here is one, after all, who was laid in a manger. Who said, he came not to be served, but to serve. Who was hailed only unequivocally as a king when he hung upon a cross. Yet, we say, his is the name that is above all other

(Hebrews 9:24-end; Mark 1:14-22) “After John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” Good news! We could do with a bit more of that. Because there is an awful lot of bad news around at the moment. There always is, but it seems especially bad at the moment. Globally and nationally. I won’t spell it out, because it’s there all the time on the news. But locally, too, services are in decline, shops are closing, and there are building works a

It can be hard to talk about. Because there is an inner hurt we’d rather not reveal. And we don’t want to put other people in an embarrassing situation – even those who are most sympathetic. And of course they don’t really know what to say. And don’t want to upset us in return. Death. Even the word itself can be one we want to avoid. So we find other ways of putting it. ‘He’s passed away.’ ‘She’s passed on.’ And those who have died become “the departed.” Of course wh