Because there was a baptism in the service there were about 100 adults and 25 kids in Gainford. Two reasons for mentioning this. First it explains why, in case you were wondering, in my sermon I linked the parable of the ten virgins to the powerful statement of belief in prevenient Grace that is infant baptism (One in the eye for the baptists - pah!!). If you want to read what I said just click on this link and it will take you there.http://revmartinjacques.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-me-oil-in-my-lamp.html

Second it explains one of the funniest things that happened. Because there were lots of visitors, before various bits of the service I tried to briefly explain what each bit really meant. When we came to the blessing at the end I said that blessing comes from the Latin phrase Benedicere (speak well) and so a blessing means literally that "God speaks well of you" to try and explain what it was. A little girl who misheard then turned immediately to her mum and said "I didn't know that God spoke Welsh" Ha ha, beautiful - you can't make that sort of thing up!

is Remembrance Sunday. Now as I say every year, remembrance Sunday is not a Christian festival, it is a state occasion, to which the CofE in its role as the National church lends its support - quite a different thing! This is why you will look in vain for any specific "remembrance" lectionary readings. Some choose things that they feel are more appropriate while many just stick with the lectionary for the 2nd Sunday before Advent. If you go with the lectionary, the gospel reading is Matthew 25: 14-30, the parable of the talents so just for fun.......

Now let me say straight away that I have an enormous problem with this parable. In fact if this is a picture of the nature of God then I personally want nothing to do with him. What it says (if taken literally) is that the more able you are, the more you will get, the less able and fearful you are God hates you and will destroy you (Way to go God!). God loves successful hedge fund managers and hates the poor feckless labourers!! Even if the "talents" are an allegory for spiritual gifts the outcome is the same. Coming hot on the heels of the parable of the ten bridesmaids/maidens/virgins it could build into an awful picture of salvation by works - that you can only earn your way into God's favour - in fact literally buy your way in. If so, this would be the sort of nonsense (well I think so anyway) that gets Christianity a bad name. Is it just me??? I sometimes feel like the little boy who is the only one to say that the emperor has no clothes.

For an alternative view I am indebted to the great theologian Marcus Borg. He notes that this parable is very puzzling because the wealthy owner or ruler has most often been understood as representing God. But as he says, just look at it. Is this really the way God acts? Rewarding those who use to money to make money in the society Jesus lived in? Condemning the third slave for not at least investing the money to make interest on it - which is a direct violation of the law against usury? (Exodus 22: 25, Deuteronomy 23:19) Taking away from those who have little, even what little they have? Or is the key to understanding this parable the realization that the wealthy owner does NOT represent God, despite how Matthew presents it? (The same parable in Luke 19:11 is much more ambiguous and doesn't start with "The Kingdom of heaven is...")  That instead, the parable is an indictment of the wealthy and the corrupt practices of the rich in 1st century Palestine. After all, the wealthy man had a reputation for being "harsh"(v.24), and a clue is given in verse 26 of the practice of the wealthy of buying up the land of struggling farmers and reducing them to tenants working under harsh conditions. Perhaps this parable is best understood as an indictment of the ills, inequality and corruption of the political and economic system they found themselves in, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer (Sound familiar??). I do hope so because the alternative is too ugly to contemplate.

This may be completely out of date by the time I send it, but at the moment, we are kind of allying ourselves to some of the grievances of the protesters and are no longer using the law to oust them. Meanwhile, Archbishop Rowan Williams has entered the fray by lending his support to a financial transaction tax. To be continued........