St Ninian's Stonehouse

Christmas is a dangerous business!

Joseph is often overlooked, but Matthew's Gospel puts him centre stage in the story of the birth of Jesus.  But why? What's so important about a man who played no part in the birth?

When the night is darkest the questions come. As John the Baptist sits in his cell he begins to wonder... Are you really the one?  It's a question for all of us this Advent.

Judgement is about recognising the parts of ourselves that aren’t right and stripping them out. That's the preparing that John the Baptist asks of us as he tells us to prepare the way.

Welcome to Advent, to the waiting season, where the light prepares and the angels stir and the stars shift and the word begins to put on flesh, waiting to move among us… But that’s not quite what we are presented with in our readings from scripture this morning... or is it?

Wellbeing matters to Jesus.  We explore the story of Jairus and the bleeding woman to discover how Jesus is interested in much more than physical healing, but also our mental and spiritual health, as individuals and as communities.

On Remembrance Sunday we explore James's advice to listen more than to speak and to be doers, not just hearers,

Revelation 21 paints a beautiful vision of a new world.  A world of peace and harmony.  A world as it was meant to be, where God and people live together and all suffering and pain is ended.  But is it all just a fantasy?

Part 2 of our series on Revelation explores more of the letters to the seven churches in Asia. 

Revelation 1/4.  That book we often avoid because it seems so strange and difficult... so, what's it all about?

Jephthah made a promise, a promise that was ill-conceived and cost him and his daughter dearly.  And we still make the same kind of promises for the same kinds of reasons... our own greed, our own ambition, our own insecurities.

When Naaman, the commander of the army of the Amarites, comes to Elisha to find a cure for his leprosy he doesn't get what he was expecting... but he got what he needed!

Taking on the mantle, being the next in line, the new person, the successor is never easy.  Elisha had some big shoes to fill when Elijah was gone.

The parable of the sower in Matthew 13:18-23 is one of the few parables Jesus explains.  But that doesn't mean that it's not worth talking about!

When the people returned from exile they rebuilt... but things were not the same as they had been.  A new community needed new foundations, just like the new Temple would.  Some of the people who remembered how things had been before wept while those who didn't remember shouted for joy.  Such is the way of change.

Jillian helps us discover through that Jesus' new commandment that love is actually all around.

As we gathered around the Lord's Table we heard the words Jesus spoke after the Last Supper in John 14:1-27.  They were words of comfort, words of trust, and words of peace.

At the end of John's Gospel, Jesus' reinstatement and renewal of Peter after he had denied even knowing Jesus 3 times is a painful conversation, but a conversation full of hope for all of us.  Jesus' instructions to Peter; feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep, and the renewal of the invitation to 'follow me', are a manifesto for the church and for each and every one of us.

After a long and unsuccessful night fishing a man on the shore suggests the disciples throw their nets out the other side.  It turns out the man is Jesus, but he's different.  He's changed.  What would our equivalent be?  Where might we try something different?  Where might we cast our nets?  And where do we still meet the Risen Christ in our lives?

It's Resurrection Sunday!!! Easter Day.  The Lord is risen!!!  The tomb is empty... Love has won.  It's a story of faith.  Their faith and ours.  Where will you encounter the risen Christ?

On Palm Sunday at St Ninian's we join the crowd and the religious leaders as they all wonder who on earth this Jesus really is.  We read from John 10:22-39 and John 12:12-16.

Love... Agape.  The kind of love God has for us and wants us to have for each other.  Compassionate, tender and unconditional.  And really hard to live out!

Romans 12 tells us what it look likes to live a life of love.  But it's hard... really hard.  And that's what makes it so important that we try our hardest and perhaps consider just how loveable we are.

Philia, the love between friends.  As we continue our journey through Lent Yvonne Hamilton helps us to reflect on what it means to love our friends by reflecting on how the friends of the paralysed man act in their quest to help their friend see Jesus.

Eros... erotic love... sex... one of the four Greek words for love, and part of the gift of love that God has given to us all.  So why don't we talk positively about it?