Wednesday Riff: Open Hands
To live a life with open hands, I think must be a wonderful thing, Risky, and vulnerable, of course Yet also free of the compulsion to hold onto things, Free …
Blog Archives
Monday Rewrite: The Fruit Shop of Life
1. Ah good morning. Welcome to the fruit shop of life. 2. Yes, morning, I thought I’d pop in and pick up a few bits of fruit… 1. Oh well …
Film Friday Classic: The Untouchables
When Elliot Ness decides to take on Al Capone he discovers something – there is a shortage of trustworthy cops in Chicago. Corruption has seeped into all walks of life. …
The Book of Revelation: The End of the World As We Know It
John writes… his letter, so hold tight, a rollercoaster, The king’s here, and brave John is sore afraid: Letters to the churches, don’t forget your first love, I know about …
Film Friday: Dream Horse
Jan is bored and weary. Her life lacks spark. Then she notices a copy of Horse and Hounds and an idea is born. She is going to breed a racehorse. …
Wednesday Riff: Fuel
It matters What we put in, What we take on board, What we absorb and hold on to. Or to put it another way, The saying goes: Feed the healthy …
Ps23
Lord, for ourselves, for those we care for, And for those who lead us at all levels, Please would you be our shepherd today. Guiding us, providing what we need, …
A Prayer
Give justice to our leaders, O God, May it top their to-do list. Help them judge and guide your people in the right way, Let the poor always be treated …
Monday Rewrite: Pilgrims
There was a time when this small band of pilgrims included furious, brow-furrowed fishermen, troubled tax demanders, courageous women with embalming fluid in the creases of their palms, boundless party …
Film Friday: Peter Rabbit 2
Bea’s tales of Peter and his friends are taking off, the books are selling like, well – hot cross bunnies. But when a big company comes knocking, wanting to take …
Wednesday Riff: Fretting
Fretting We fret about so many things Surviving, success, stability, Being accepted, being strong, Our looks, our finances, our family. Those we love, those we like, those we fear, Our …
Monday Rewrite: When
When disappointment hangs in the air, When plans and hopes and dreams lie lost along the way. When success must be replaced with faithful holding on, When the options and …
Film Friday: Nomadland
It is sometimes said that life in this modern world (or is it post-modern, or post-post-modern, or post-post-post-modern, I’m unsure) favours the young. So much is angled towards them. Well, …
Wednesday Riff: Psalm 24
Far from random, no accident or evolutionary hiccup. But a plan for meaning, a people known and designed. Flawed yes, so flawed, but offered a rescue plan. A daily beginning …
Monday Rewrite: The Dancer
I met her on my travels, she was going one way, me the other. She was a dancer she said, or had been when younger. Till one evening when she …
Film Friday: The Father
The powerful thing about this film is the way it plunges the viewer into a confusing world of disorientation. Characters from one scene look different in another, conversations you thought …
Wednesday Riff: If
If you are the Way, the winding path, Then surely nobody knows how to get home Without you. If you are the Life, the source, Then perhaps nobody breathes or …
Monday Rewrite: Free Food and Drink
Two friends (1 and 2) are sitting on a crowded hillside, listening to Jesus and reacting to those around. The atmosphere resembles a trip to the cinema. 1. (Sighs) Oh …
Film Friday: Supersize Me/The Founder
We are what we eat. Didn’t somebody once say that? This week I managed to watch a couple of movies, both about that great place of worship – McDonald’s! We …
Monday Rewrite: Hope in a Crowd
Four readers – Narrator, Jesus, Peter and Leah (the woman who has been ill) Narrator: The next day, as they landed in Capernaum, a large crowd gathered around Jesus again. …
Friday Film Reflection: Your Favourite Film
Do you have a favourite movie? It’s a question I sometimes ask when doing talks about film and faith. It’s a question I find hard to answer these days, I’ve …
Wednesday Riffs: Twilight and Calling
Calling Lord we long for you, As dry ground longs for rain, As sports fans long for a win, As weary travellers long for rest. Lord we thirst for you, …
Monday Rewrite: Excuses, Excuses
Cast: Martha – M, Sarah – S, Esther – E, God – G (a voice offstage) The three women are meeting to pray, there is a table near them with …
Film Friday: Dead Poets Society
When I first saw this in 1989 I thought it was interesting and okay. It was only years later, when life was collapsing around us, that I revisited the film …
Wednesday Riff: Salvation
A many layered gift, Moving us from darkness to light, From fear to compassion, From rejection to welcome, From lost to found, (Though we may struggle to find ourselves at …
Monday Rewrite: The King
Long, long time ago, Or was it just today you know, A world got made from breath and dust, And people lived in open trust. And fears we’re calmed, and …
Film Friday: Shrek
Shrek wants to be alone. He has plans to build a wall around his swamp and keep all the other fairy tale creatures away. His life will be much easier …
Wednesday Riff: Three
A welcoming figure, Standing here on the road to life, Waiting each day for us to return, Limping up this potholed path, Our hands and hearts and minds Empty enough …
Monday Musing: Ch… ch… ch… ch… changes
In my twenties I felt bulletproof Wanted to fight for love and troof, Change the world and make it right, Wouldn’t take long… maybe overnight. In my forties it …
Film Friday Reflection: Guardians of the Galaxy
The other night I caught the start of the Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy, my wife and older daughter were watching it. I’m less of a superhero fan but …
Wednesday Riff: Ordinary
Lord, please, tune us in to your ordinary whispers, and the signs of your presence, in the regular and ordinary. Show us the footprints and fingerprints you leave, throughout each …
Monday Rewrite: The House on the Edge
She lived on the edge of town, almost so far out that folk never quite knew where they were when they stumbled into her cottage. When I say stumbled it …
For Pentecost: A Very Special Festival
Pentecost 2021 A Very Special Festival by Rev H James Clarke We had come down from Damascus for the Festival of Weeks…. we went into the city early because we …
Film Friday Reflection: Gladiator
Another moment drawing on the forthcoming Movies & Me book… ‘Today I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect …
Barbed Wire Faith
There’s a figure here in no man’s land, Always present, and forever at hand, Unafraid of the cratered haze, Understands our difficult days. Knows riots and howls and the lives …
Wednesday Riff: The Spiritually Poor
Blessed are the spiritually poor, Those who struggle at times, Those who find the going tough, Those who do not feel very spiritual. Those who find the narrow road a …
Monday Rewrite: Jonah, Balaam & Samson Movie Pitches
Jonah Movie Pitch Imagine a film pitch where a filmmaker (F) is pitching his idea to a producer (P). F. So I’ve got this great film pitch for you. It’s …
Film Friday: The Dark Knight Rises
For all its bangs and crashes, and there are plenty of those in this Batman epic, the most telling and chilling scene occurs after the criminals have taken over the …
For Ascension Day – It Was a Glorious Morning (by James Clarke)
It was a truly glorious morning. We walked up the Mount of Olives, Joanna, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother, and a few others of the women with me, as we had …
Wednesday Riff: Heart Song
The human heart is rather like an old attic. It is a place of storage, a place of memories. We wander through it and discover things long forgotten, things we …
Monday Rewrite: A Splashing Clash
Peter is a natural leader, he’s spent three years sparring with Jesus, trying to show him the better way. Now here he is again, butting up against Jesus’s way. The …
Film Friday: Chariots of Fire
There is a great moment when Liddell is about to run the 400m final. As they line up for the race, one of the American athletes hands him a piece …
Wednesday Riff: Refuge
Not about the right words, Or the right background, Or best behaviour, Not about religion or being earnest, Or the right spiritual credentials. But a place of refuge, A safe …
Knockin’
Father take this cup from me, Yet not my will be done but yours, This sacrifice – it weighs on me, This call to open heaven’s door. They’ll nail me …
Monday Rewrite: Jonah on Tripadvisor
Film Friday: In Bruges
This is one of those movies that reminds me a film does not have to be PG rated and squeaky clean to communicate something really powerful about compassion and sacrifice. …
Wednesday Riff: FHL
Faith, hope and love, How we need them, Yet we so easily lose sight of them. Faith, like a flickering candle, Battered in each day’s breeze. Hope, the compass that …
Monday Rewrite: Talking to the Mirror – Mary
They want to me to be a prostitute. A fallen woman dramatically converted. But that’s ridiculous. I was never that. They are just confusing the stories that they’ve half read. …
Film Friday: Red Joan
When Joan Stanley gets a knock at the door one day she opens it to find a huddle of cops on the doorstep. She is under arrest. For spying. Surely …
Rewrite: Two Views
1. I’d heard plenty about him. 2. I’d heard so much too. 1. But my meeting with him wasn’t what I expected. 2. Me neither. 1. They told me he …
