Mark has no doubts that He is the Son of God and while we are not spared any of the pain of his Passion there is a clear message of hope and renewal, that all in the end will be well.

Though Mark was Jewish, his gospel has a clear missionary purpose to spread the good news to the Gentiles. He concentrates on what he considers to be vital for his readers. This was particularly important when the Christians in Rome were suffering the most terrible persecutions under Emperor Nero. Both Peter and Paul died for their faith at this time. Marks account was to encourage and sustain a minority church in a hostile environment and because of this it speaks to and encourages many of us today.

He wanted to explain the true nature of Christianity, that the death of Jesus was not a tragic accident but part of God's plan of salvation for the establishment of his rule on earth. Throughout his gospel, he is clear that Jesus was not merely a good man or a prophet but the Son of God. This became clear to the Roman officer who witnessed his death on the cross; then there is the empty tomb on the resurrection morning.

Not only that, what is particularly distinctive about this Gospel is the way it finishes. There is no ending - we are left with an account of Mary Magdalene and other women running away from an empty tomb. Having been worried as to who was going to move the stone for them to embalm the body, they arrive to find it has been moved already and the tomb is empty. They are confronted with someone dressed in white telling them not to be afraid, that Jesus had gone ahead of them to Galilee.

So why do we have such an abrupt ending? In Mark's day evidence for the resurrection would have been given by word of mouth by the living witnesses - the apostles. By the time the gospels of Matthew and Luke were written, all the apostles were probably dead and it would have been necessary to contain a full account in writing of the resurrection appearances. Mark never makes the mistake of putting Pentecost rather than Calvary at the centre of his faith and he never isolates the Spirit from Jesus. This is a danger which we may face today in our glad rediscovery of the person and gifts of the Spirit. We need to remember that it is the task of the Spirit to bear witness to Christ.

Perhaps it is particularly fortunate that this is the Gospel we shall be concentrating on during this new Millennium, an age of indecision with many unanswered questions because it remains open-ended for us to ponder and to make our own contribution.

Times of year are also associated with particular markers. There is a distinctive smell in autumn, and when the snowdrops appear in the Churchyard I know it is time to wish Margely Orton Happy Birthday. When Lent arrives on Ash Wednesday, 8th March this year, it is time to take stock again. During this Lent we shall be thinking a lot about time. We have called our common celebration at Parish Communion each Sunday in Lent 'A Time for God'. Week by week we shall explore different aspects of finding time for God. Time to give, time to pray, time to learn, time to love and time to endure.

We also hope that you might be able to find time to attend a Lent House group with Christians from other members of Churches Together around Hampton. Please look at the notices in church about dates and times of these meetings. At St. James's we shall be having some different types of services and events during Lent and Passiontide, hoping that you may want to share in some of the church's rich variety of worship for which we don't usually have time. Why not think about coming to a mid-week Communion Service, or to Morning Prayer on the same day each week during Lent. Or again, try ending Sunday with us for Night Prayer, Compline, at 9p.m.

There is time to take time, but it does mean, for all of us, re-arranging our priorities - which is no bad thing for any time of the year, but especially in Lent. Take time for God; after all God has all the time in the world for you.

Seeing may not be the same as believing, as Thomas the Doubter came to realise, but seeing is at least a way in to the Easter mystery. The crowds saw Jesus as king and saviour as they feted his arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The priestly authorities took to seeing Jesus in a very different way as he taught in the temple. The people saw him teaching with authority, but the leaders of the people saw a threat to their position. The disciples saw Jesus with new intimacy at the Last Supper, but on seeing Jesus arrested afterwards, they fled. Pilate had Jesus paraded before the crowds in order that all could see him broken and powerless in the world's eyes, before being exhibited on a cross for all to see his final destruction.

But the destruction was not complete, for the seeing continued with new insight. Mary Magdalene thought, at first, that she saw a gardener, but realised that it was the risen Christ. As the disciples gathered again in an Upper Room they saw the risen Christ among them, and Thomas too. As they went back to the places where they had lived and worked in Gaillee the disciples saw Jesus afresh.

Seeing and believing may not be the same thing, but believing certainly has to do with expecting to see Christ in the world today. Just as the artists at the National's exhibition have seen Jesus across the centuries in quite diverse ways, so we too will see Jesus differently in our lives. Bellini set Jesus against a backdrop of 7th century Italy, Hieronymous Bosch in the dress of his day in the Netherlands, Salvador Dali in his 20th century Spain and Stanley Spencer's Resurrection at Cookham is set just up the Thames from here. But our Jesus can only be seen through our eyes - seen in the world today, as unexpectedly, challengingly, prayerfully and passionately as ever. Jesus Christ is set amidst the world's deepest pains and greatest joys today as he was in his own betrayal, suffering, death and resurrection.

So do come to church and expect to see Jesus Christ alive at St. James's, in Hampton Hill and throughout the world. We believe you will see him here in worship and service, in the lives of all who gather to celebrate his passion, death and resurrection this Easter. 'Seeing Salvation' the exhibition, costs nothing, admission is free - but seeing salvation in the church and the world even though admission is free, costs everything. It did for Jesus of Nazareth, it does for all who try to follow him.

Recognising people, realising just who we are, is crucial to the Easter story. In this period of Eastertide lots of the gospel stories about the risen Christ meeting people have to do with this central theme of recognition. More specifically, God recognises us and our needs, yet we, like the disciples, stumble around blindly, failing to recognise the risen Christ in our midst. Think of Mary Magdalene failing to recognise Jesus and mistaking him for the gardener. Then we hear of the men walking the seven miles or so from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but failing to recognise Jesus until they were at supper with him and he once again broke the bread. Or think of Thomas recognising Jesus only when he could physically see the scars of the nails, or the disciples out fishing not recognising who it was cooking breakfast for them.

In all these stories the risen Lord appears to the disciples as they go about their ordinary tasks. Mary had come to embalm the body, the men were simply walking on a journey, and the fishermen doing what they always had done, gone fishing. The resurrection stories are all about seeing the deathconquering, abundant-life-giving God active in the everyday experiences of life. Resurrection is not confined to the mountain peaks but speaks also to the plains which most of us occupy most of the time. For us, as for the first disciples, our names and faces, our needs and fears, our strengths and weaknesses are recognised by God, but we must ask ourselves if we recognise the risen Christ in our everyday lives, always offering us the possibility to transform them.

So as we go about our lives this month, can we try to recognise Christ in the people we meet at work, on the train or bus, or even as we do our Christian Aid collection from door to door!

The bible describes scenes of such confusion that people made fun of the events saying "these people must be drunk". Pentecost, or, as we used to say 'Whitsun', is a great feast in the church because it underlines God's presence in diversity. The creator God is not constrained by creation but operates in myriad ways across and beyond time or space. Pentecost emphasises our unity in Christ not in uniformity but in diversity. God is bigger than any single human being, greater than any one denomination's pattern of worship might suggest, more embracing than any single faith tradition can ever own. God speaks in more ways than any one language can capture.

Two reminders of this have recently occurred to me and they are both to do with being prepared to look outside our own language and culture in order to see God at work. During the first week of May, I was involved in running a conference within the growing partnership between the Diocese of London and the Protestant Church in Berlin. We worked hard at our subject of "Proclaiming the Gospel in capital cities". Globalisation and secularisation, power and powerlessness, inclusion and exclusion were some of our themes.

One evening we visited Soho at the invitation of the Parish Church, St. Anne, Soho. It is an unusual church to say the least, surrounded by theatres and tourists, sex shops, film businesses, the Chinese quarter, the centre of London's gay community, including the Admiral Duncan Pub blown up last year. Members of the PCC talked to us, guests from Berlin and London, about being Soho residents. They talked about the pressures of pornography all around the parish school, of housing and homelessness, of fear and alienation in the gay community, of being old and disabled in a city centre. These were ordinary people finding their voice to speak out about living as followers of Jesus today. One of the older men spoke, with real emotion, of it being a liberation to welcome German guests into their new church (built in the 1990s), for it was the first time he had spoken to a German since his church of St. Anne Soho had been bombed and destroyed during the Second World War. It had taken fifty five years for him to find the words to say it. It was the Christian community at St. Anne's Soho which had nurtured him through all those years before he could truly live at peace with himself. Now, he said, he could let it go and more fully commit himself to the mission of the church in his parish of today. This from a man in his late eighties.

Our other partnership link, ALMA, which brings together the Diocese of London and the Anglican Church in Mozambique and Angola, has also had guests, partners in the Gospel, in London recently. I was struck by many things - the commitment, the positive values of mission and service, a real desire to share. One guest, who I heard speaking, talked about acknowledging that though the cards are not stacked in their favour, nevertheless living as followers of Jesus is about constancy and struggle. Yes, the struggles are different in our two cultures, but just as real, requiring us to love God and love our neighbours as ourselves. "By the way", our guest said "how can you have a service without a song, don't you have a song within yourself?"

When I heard that I thought of Bishop George Bell's song, which we often sing, not only at Pentecost. It is a song about Christian women and Christian men the whole world over singing again:

Let love's unconquerable might Your scattered companies unite
In service to the Lord of Light
So shall God's will on earth be done New lamps be lit, new tasks begun And the whole church at last be one. Alleluia

May God's living spirit inspire you to live at peace, to live with a song inside yourself and to live for God and your neighbour. Happy Pentecost

The way in which we worship God must reflect, inform and challenge our worship of God in the rest of our lives. To better enable this, new service orders will be introduced throughout the Church of England at Advent 2000. These new services are called Common Worship.

When the Church of England was trying to stamp its own theology and worship in every parish of the realm it did so through the Acts of Parliament which sought to enforce uniformity. The "King James Version" of the Bible was authorised by law and the Book of Common Prayer dictated the only forms of worship which could be used. Some people may think that this should never change. Others think that the I 6th century understanding of God has nothing to say to our 21st century picture of God. Certainly the uniformity, which the Book of Common Prayer envisaged, has completely shattered. If we were to keep to the Book of Common Prayer we would have no hymns in Church, no harvest festival or carol service, no mothering Sunday or Christingle services, no Easter vigil or informal services.

The point surely is that although God never changes our understanding, insights and communication with God do change. Therefore our worship must be adapted to facilitate such changes. Hence, the gradual introduction of a variety of services which we now accept as quite normal. The Alternative Service Book (1980) had from its outset a limited shelf life. It was originally authorised for ten years and General Synod then extended this until 2000. This limited period was because the Church became aware of the pace of change in our society and didn't want words used in worship to become fossilised once again. There were also some very specific reasons why change was deemed necessary and the new Common Worship arrangements reflect these.
• "Common Prayer" needs to move from meaning imposed uniformity to local flexibility within strong recognisable Church of England worship.
• New thinking about the nature of Christian Baptism, the use of the Bible in worship and the rooting of mission and pastoral care in worship.
• New supplementary material needs to be consolidated (eg. The seasonal material used in Lent, Holy Week and Easter).
• Some parts of the ASB (1980) are weak The funeral service is poor. In places ASB language is pedestrian or even 'committee-speak' and its language throughout is not gender inclusive.

Common Worship will not be published as a single book but in several volumes. It will also be available on the Internet and CD ROM. We at St. James's have already had two sessions to look at the process of change and at the material. A working group has been set up to consider material to be used at Parish Communion. On Saturday October 14th, 930am - 1pm we are having an open meeting for all parishioners at which we will present draft orders of worship. For us, who have already introduced locally made service cards, the use of seasonal material and the Revised Common Lectionary the changes will be less marked at Parish Communion. But there will be changes! If you would like to know more, please ask. If you would like to contribute to the process of making changes to our worship, please let me know. Common Worship is what we do together as the Body of Christ in this place, so we need to participate fully in the best worship we can offer. God is worth nothing less. I look forward to your involvement in making the change.

Yes, you guessed, the trains were at least 45 minutes late because of a broken rail outside Waterloo. Quick thinking as ever, I was about to board a Waterloo bound train on the Wimbledon loop when it was announced that due to an incident there were no trains beyond Raynes Park. What now, a bus perhaps? But out of nowhere (and clearly to the great surprise of the sation staff at Twickenharn) a train crept in bound for Richmond. Hurrah! All ten thousand of us (approximately) crammed into a four carriage train, only to be told on arrival at Richmond that there was no Underground service as a tree had fallen onto the track at Turnham Green. Aaagh!!!

But help came in the shape of the much maligned North London Line which arches from Richmond to North Woolwich. One change at West Hampstead onto the Tube and, hey presto, (2 hrs and 40 minutes late) I was at my meeting - just as it finished.

I am sure that I am not alone in my frustration, nor is this the first time and it would be naive to think it may be the last. Why,O why can't we organise our communal life more positively and pleasantly. On the Tube I saw a deeply depressing advert for one of the zones in the Dome
'Average speed of a journey in London in 1900 - 11 mph
Average speed o fa journey in London in 2000 - 11 mph'
And the verse from Exodus came to mind in which is described the forlorn attempt of the Egyptians to catch up with the escaping Israelites 'Their wheels were clogged and they lumbered heavily along'.

At least many of those who have to travel so slowly and uncomfortably into town every day will probably have a chance to take a break from it in this holiday month. I shall certainly pray for them with growing empathy.

The chair of my missed meeting reminded me of a comment by that wise priest, Harry Williams
'It belongs to the Christian 1ife to travel expectantly,
not to arrive prematurely' - But there again, he didn't live in London.

So what or who do we think angels are? The word 'angel' comes from the Greek word for messenger and the Bible contains innumerable references to them as spiritual beings who are a constant presence in the world, mediating between God and humanity.

Belief in angels became strong among the Jewish people during their exile in Babylon around the year 600 BC and so they are mentioned a good deal in the Old Testament. One of the most famous accounts is that of Jacob's ladder when Jacob dreams he is at the foot of a stairway rising from earth to heaven. He awakes and says "Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it". He sees a stairway and the gulf between earth and heaven is bridged by angels. Jacob senses God's presence even though He has no voice, no visible shape, no face.

There is another particularly lovely account in the book of Tobit about the angel Raphael (the name actually means "God heals"). Raphael works in opposition to Asmodeus - an evil spirit who tries to conspire against newlyweds and prevent them making love! Raphael - of course - defeats him. However, he does play more fundamental roles in the account signifying that God is always with His people, in their suffering and their fear, in their homes and on their travels. God sends His angel to defeat evil, to heal, to guard and guide.

Christians have cited the saying of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel as the basis for the belief in a personal angel for each one of us. He is talking about forgiveness while a child is near Him and says "Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven".

The personal ministry of guardian angels is an extension of the deep mystery of our personal relationship with God. The l4th century theologian, Nicholas Cabasilas, said "We pray for a guardian angel, not that one may be given to us, since each of us has one from the moment of birth, but that it may be active and may fulfil its task, that it may protect us, and lead us in the right way and may not, angered by our sins, desert us".

It's all too easy for us to see the traditions of the Christian faith and practice as fixed and to try and find the living Christ only in static images, rather than in each particular moment of life. Perhaps, therefore, we should not look for angels only in texts and pictures, in poetry and Christmas cards but look for them too among the living, recalling the verse in the Letter to the Hebrews: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it".

The service itself was full of appropriate liturgy - runners lighting candles, jaunty music and bible texts galore on the theme of, for example, Psalm 1212, 'The Lord will not suffer your foot to stumble' and from the Letter to the Hebrews 'Run the race that is set before you'

A German minister from our sister church, The Protestant Church in Berlin -Brandenburg, preached a most moving sermon, not least because he was running the Marathon (aged 67) for the 215t time. 'Because of my foot injury' he said' I'm running for the first time in the full knowledge that I shall, most probably, not complete the course - and now I see the whole experience from a different perspective.'

His comment set me thinking about the images we use for our own lifejourney. Some bible texts certainly seem to suggest that it is reaching the goal, or, in marathon terms, crossing the finishing line which is the most important thing. But is it? In our success oriented society very few of us would seem to achieve success in every part. Career, income, physical appearance, sex life, social standing are but some of the many goals which appear to be taken as norms against which to measure ourselves. And yet - can we really subscribe to such expectations and assumptions?

Perhaps, above all, it is our acceptance of our own creatureliness - that we are made in God's image and likeness - whatever our appearance, our success in career or relationships, which is truly liberating. For every step on the race is as important as the final step which transports us across the finishing line. The Psalmist was certainly onto something profound when he asked in Psalm 121, I lift my eyes to the hills, but where does my help come from? Well, I'm quite sure it doesn't come from misplaced pictures or measures of success. After all, just look at the icon of Jesus of Nazareth, on a cross. What sort of success story is that? For me the race is about the next step on the journey, faithfully following in the way of Jesus, whatever befall. That means faithfulness in success and failure, pleasure and pain, delight and distress.

I don't know whether the preacher completed the Marathon, but that hardly seems the point. I do know that I shall not be entering any marathons other than trying to walk with Christ and all the saints. One step at a time is probably enough.

The divorce rate in England and Wales is among the highest in the EU. 30% of all children living in married couple families experience divorce before they are aged 16. Less than 60% of all under 16 year olds live in married couple families, 40% with their biological mother and father. 40% of all marriages in England and Wales involve people marrying for at least a second time. In 1965 5% of couples marrying lived together before marriage. In 1995 over 75% of couples marrying lived together before marriage. Divorce rates are now static and are expected to fall in the next ten years, but only because fewer and fewer people are marrying.

But how do we relate to the reality of relationships, some positive, some negative which come our way among family, friends or colleagues? The Church of England has always taught, in a very Anglican way, through what is said in worship, that "Marriage is a gift of God in creation and a means of His grace, a holy mystery in which man and woman become one flesh", and in the vows that marriage is "for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death us do part". We are saying thereby that marriage is more than a legal contract of cohabitation between two individuals, that in fact marriage points further, that it can reflect the covenant between God and humankind. Covenanted human love points beyond itself to the permanent covenant of love and fidelity God has made to humanity - shown from the stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Delight, through Noah's rainbow, the prophets and given fulfilment in the life of Jesus.

But there are two things I want to add immediately. First, marriage is not the only expression of love which points beyond itself- indeed I would want to add that every expression of love points to the love of God for creation, every expression of love which is genuinely generous, seeking nothing in return, which is forgiving and liberating, points beyond itself. And second, I don't accept that every marriage, because it is a formal marriage, automatically points beyond itself to the generous, forgiving, liberating love of God for creation. We all know, have seen, have perhaps been involved with marriages where there is no generosity, no forgiveness, no liberation, where partners to the marriage are destroying each other and where divorce is the best, or least worst, outcome. And the Church of England, while affirming the permanency of marriage does also indeed recognise that in some cases, where people were once married, they are no longer married. The Church of England accepts divorce as a reality.

10% of all Church marriages involve a partner who has already been married and divorced; in the Methodist and URC over 60% of marriages involve a divorced partner. Are we flying in the face of Jesus' commands? I think not. I know there are some indissolubists around - that is those who see black and white, marriage is right and divorce and, more particularly, remarriage is always wrong. But while respecting that, I disagree.

In every human relationship there is success and failure, there is responsibility and fault to be acknowledged before God. In every human relationship, where there is honesty and openness to the searching work of the Holy Spirit in all conscience, the Church's duty and privilege is surely not to condemn but to assure people of forgiveness and acceptance in Christ - as in Christ's dealing with the woman in adultery.

So too the hard words of Jesus in Mark - "Anyone who divorces and marries again commits adultery" - are not, I believe, law in the sense of rules to be obeyed, but in a theoretical framework are rather shock tactics for the hard of heart. For this encounter begins with Pharisees attempting to test Jesus by tricking him into commenting on the Law of Moses about divorce. But Jesus refuses to be cornered or put into a box. Jesus didn't talk about the law - he lived its fulfilment - he lived, breathed, spoke, acted out, was betrayed for and eventually died for God's rule, God's kingdom, which, as the Resurrection shows, cannot be destroyed. Jesus doesn't give a theoretical answer to the question the Pharisees have asked in order to trap him - rather his answer is his life, a life reflecting God's image, - a life lived with generosity, forgiving, liberating love - which acknowledges reality. Yes, the reality of failure of both repentance and forgiveness.

In that light, I feel strongly that it is the spirit of the law and not its letter, which alone is of true value. My feeling is in the word of the ancient hymn for Maundy Thursday. It says in Latin "Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est" "Wherever there is love and charity, God is present".

We can't assume - as experience proves - that all marriages do grow in real love and charity. Nor can we assume that all relationships outside marriage are, per se, less likely to be suffused with God's love and charity. But as I listen to couples in marriage preparation, listen to those for whom marriage has been wonderful, listen to those for whom marriage has been a disaster, listen to those in relationships other than marriage - it is those words which return to my mind again and again - "Wherever love and charity abound, there God is present", for they echo Christ's life of love for God and neighbour. And that alone is our Christian calling.

What will we be sure to occupy ourselves with in Advent, this time of waiting expectantly for the coming of Jesus? I rather suppose we shall, to varying degrees, be caught in a whirl of preparation - food, drink, cards, presents, parties. But is that really what we are prepared to wait expectantly for? Or is there something else? Something, which, like at the first Christmas was almost totally unnoticed because it was so ordinary.

At the first Christmas it was the very ordinary birth of a very ordinary child to a very ordinary girl. There was nothing world shattering about it. But that is, of course, exactly the point. Christians believe that God chooses the very ordinary to display the extraordinary - then and now.

I wonder, is there a chance that this year in the four weeks before Christmas we can learn to expect the unexpected? For me that's what Christmas is - Christ, the human face of God, being discovered in the very ordinary world of human hope, joy, pain or fear. Such a discovery can indeed turn the world upside down. So why not try reading this poem as a prayer during the next four weeks.

Come humbly, Holy Child, stir in the womb of our complacency;
shepherd our vision of the little we need for abundant living.

Come humbly, Holy Spirit to whisper through the leaves
in the garden of our ignorance,
exposing our blindness to children dying, ,
hungry and in pain.

Come humbly, Holy Light, pierce our lack of generosity and love,
scattering our dark fear of living freely in your way,
poured out in wanton service.

Come humbly, Holy Wisdom
cry through the empty streets of our pretence to care,
that the face of the poor will be lifted up,
for holy is your name.

Come humbly, Holy God be born into our rejoicing,
Come quickly, humble God, and reign.

We wish you a very Happy Christmas and assure you of a very warm welcome here at St. James's.

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