John Davies: Notes from a small vicar

God loves soil, says the writer Norman Wirzba. "God is the first, best, and essential  gardener  of the world." Humankind has long assumed that what is good for us is also good for the world; but where pride and greed are the primary measures of what is good, this assumption leads to disaster. What happens when we put soil and soul together, and live “by the contrary assumption that what...

Stephen Barton writes that "Spirituality.... has to do with the sense of the divine presence and living in the light of that presence." A meditation on unburdening . A talk for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 9 July 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks at  ⁠bit.ly/johndavies-talks⁠.

According to Leonard Cohen, his song called The Story of Isaac “is about those who would sacrifice one generation on behalf of another”. Is the voice he hears through the story of Abraham and Isaac the one we also hear: "You who build these altars now / to sacrifice these children, / you must not do it anymore." A talk for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2 July 2023. Find the text to th...

Jesus distanced himself from his society’s so-called family values. He would not make an idol of the family, as the rest of his society had. Time and time again in the gospels we hear him make statements like these incendiary remarks: ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up th...

Michael Rosen says that ‘Anxiety, surprise, absurdity and language-play all offer us a rich source for humour’. Anxiety, surprise, absurdity and language-play: we find each of these in the story of Sarah: The anxiety of being told to leave the place where you’ve lived your whole life, to start a journey to some unknown land, however flowing with milk and honey it was promised to be. The surprise -...

God's people have always been missionaries; always been builders. In our area (where today we walk from St Matthew's Church Keasden to Newby Methodist Chapel in celebration of their 150th anniversaries) farmers, labourers, landed families, lords: each in their own way, and often working together, have time and again 'built their altars to the Lord'. A talk for the First Sunday afte...

Life teaches us to wait with patience; though we wait impatiently too. Life teaches us to wait with confidence; but nerves and fears can overcome us in our waiting. Life teaches us to wait in hope; but sometimes we give in to the prevailing spirit of the world which wants us to give up and give in to the lie that the way things are, are the way they always will be: this, I suggest, is waiting  wit...

If we are dreaming of a good future for God’s church, then we needn’t necessarily embrace  Pentecostalism ; but we must embrace the Spirit of  Pentecost . When we call on the name of the Lord we shall be saved. When we pray, ‘Come, Holy Spirit’, God will come. Each morning that we open ourselves afresh to the the Holy Spirit, begins a good day in the journey of faith we share with so many differen...

The followers of Jesus are haunted by a vision of all his earthly promises being fulfilled. The more we devote ourselves to this wonderful vision, the more it comes to life; and this awakening is enabled by One who the Church calls a 'ghost'... a Holy Ghost... A talk for the Sunday after Ascension, 21 May 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks at  bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

Our culture ‘sacrifices’ those who are deemed disposable: the sick, the lost and the lame, the unproductive, the unemployed, the foreigner. We know how these are always the first to be abandoned in a society which prioritises private gain over public well-being. Isn’t it a theme of our times that those who are struggling the most, are repeatedly told that they must sacrifice even more, for the gre...

The story of the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, and all the other stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances show us that our God is a God of surprises: always seeking to surprise us with joy. A talk for The Third Sunday of Easter, 23 April 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks at  bit.ly/johndavies-talks

Nature, scripture and experience teach us that death shall have no dominion . Or in other words the power of death is too weak to overcome us; the effect of death is not enough to defeat us; there are greater and brighter powers at work in the world and in the heavens than death. Death shall not dominate us. This is the meaning of eternal life. A talk for The Second Sunday of Easter, 16 April 2023...

Reflecting on the influence of his elders in his early years, the late Paul O’Grady once said, ‘Comedy, your funny bone, is formed in childhood’. Was the nod of Jesus formed at home, as he soaked in the gallows humour of his working family struggling to afford food? Was the wink of Jesus formed in the temple, where in his youth he sat among the teachers and learned that God had little time for tho...

Mothering Sunday is a day for celebrating the many women who nurture and sustain us, who fight for our right to flourish in life, who save and support us. Scripture sings their praises, role models all; and for celebrating the life-giving, nurturing, protective, compassionate sides of the Divine Trinity. A talk for Mothering Sunday, 19 March 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/j...

A talk for The Third Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2023. Following a conversational reading of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4.5-30,39 . 'He told me everything I have ever done!' - finally, a man who had come to know her fully, to understand her entirely, to love her wholly, to accept her as she was. No wonder she was so transformed that day. No wonder that her st...

Rebirth is something we experience often in life. It's part of the call to joyful renewal which is the charter of the season of Lent. A talk for The Second Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

The tree and the fruit in Genesis 2 and 3 are unremarkable, so the story establishes this foundational truth about human beings - that we are people who desire . It is our nature to want what others want, and to do what others are doing, to know what others know and to be the people that others appear to be; and the envy and the rivalry which these desires create, are at the heart of human society...

Here is the weather forecast for Lent. There will be heavy cloud in high places. The mountains will be shrouded in cumulonimbus. A Weather Advice Notice is in place for Lent. We advise you to take yourself up the mountain ; be surrounded by the cloud. For the cloud up there is the Cloud of God... A talk for The  Sunday Next before Lent, 19 February 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks...

" When despair for the world grows in me..." writes Wendell Berry, "I go and lie down where the wood drake rests ... I come into the peace of wild things... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." It is good to rest, in the grace of the world; for God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation . This raises qu...

“If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,” says God in Isaiah, “then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.” A talk in honour of Traidcraft plc, pioneers of fair trade and the international Fairtrade Mark, who have ceased trading, but who have, over the past forty-plus years, "reimagined the relationship between producers and c...

Now, some will say (with justification) that an institution which has for centuries cosied up to power and wealth, is today incapable of bringing light into darkened corners of our troubled world. But at the grassroots this is disproven by the plentiful activity of those in and around our churches who feed the hungry, work supportively with those in debt, campaign for the renewal of broken public...

Whether of Pele, Pope Benedict, or the inspirational figures of our choice, we are all followers. Following Jesus is a life of joy, but it is a joy which can be tempered by the pain of coexisting with a world which wants us to follow a different set of values. A talk for The Second Sunday of Epiphany, 15 January 2023. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks .

Because we come in hope, bearing our gifts of time and care and prayer; we come trusting that God has a future ; and however foolish this may sound to a cynical watching world, our paying homage today affirms that indeed, God holds the future in his hands . Which is good news for those people who would rather not watch on cynically, but rather journey on hopefully together through this life. A tal...

‘Good news’ for the majority of people looks like ‘bad news’ for the Herods of the world , as it is likely to involve them having to give away some of their power, having to share more fairly their wealth, having to tread more lightly on the earth. And so they will go to extreme lengths to resist any change which challenges their superiority. The power of governments, corporations and institutions...

If you're newly pregnant, taking on your first mortgage, suddenly promoted... the good news may be terrifying at first; but (as the angel said to all the people in the Christmas story), do not be afraid, hold fast, in confidence and faith, embrace it, and look forward in hope. A talk for Christmas, 2022. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks .