Takeley Chapel

Meetings at the Chapel

Posted on Dec 22, 2024 by M Emlyn Humphries

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Welcome

Posted on Apr 10, 2017 by M Emlyn Humphries

Please join us to find a place of prayer and rest in a busy week. From intimacy in prayer God is able to do many things.

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives
May you never give up praying.
When you pray, may you keep alert and be thankful.
Pray that together we may make the message of the mystery of Christ as clear as possible.
Amen
(Based on Colossians 3 and 4)

Readings for Sunday: Vanderbilt Divinity Library

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The gift of light

Posted on Mar 29, 2026 by M Emlyn Humphries

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57147

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Matthew 21:1-11

The LORD is God and he has given us light.

Jesus approaches Jerusalem, the light of the world sets his feet on the Mount of Olives.

He had come to Jerusalem before, but now he approaches , a prophet from Galilee. He had fed multitudes, healed, delivered the oppressed; opened the eyes of the blind, cleansed leapers, straightened the enfeebled and raised the dead to life.

The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

And the people recognise this and lay their cloaks in reverence before Jesus riding on a donkey and lay with Joy branches before him.

The LORD is good and gives light.

He comes on a donkey, humble. In humility we cry for mercy, Hosanna- save us!

The psalm proclaims; I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

The human heart seeks mercy in the way of righteousness. The LORD is good; he is steadfast in love. This is the gate of the LORD.

Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!

We enter the gates with thanks giving!

The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.

Praise the name of Jesus, our bread, our wine,; the water of life and the light.

Praise the name of Jesus; our daily bread, the water given so that we will never thirst.

Praise the name of Jesus, who is our forgiveness. Have mercy on us Lord, deliver us from the evil one. Forgive us our trespasses. We lay our cloaks before you and cut branches, proclaiming your saving power and rejoicing in the salvation we have received.

The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

The whole city was in turmoil.

This is the Lord who comes to us wild like the wind, in bread and wine, through water and the spirit.

The LORD is God and gives each of us light.

He is the light in everyone. The donkey and her colt are untied, freed and brought to the saviour of the world, their saviour, to carry him up to the horns of the alter, the cross, the throne of grace; the revelation of God; to die and to rise again to new life; the divine made present in us.

We may step into this new life and may often fall back, but God has mercy on us as we grow into his nature. We ask for mercy and forgiveness; be with us in the time of our trial and as we grow in grace God is glorified in us.

When we walk back into the old country, he leads us by his light back as we are no longer at ease in our old ways, drawn by the abundance of new life.

Lord have mercy- you are our salvation;

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!

Grace and peace be with us, children of God, bearers of his image.

Image attribution: Moyers, Mike. Hallelujah, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57147 [retrieved March 29, 2026]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.

“An impression of The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. This painting depicts the scene from the book of Revelation referenced in Handel’s masterpiece.”

“It is an honor and a joy to share my work with you. For years, I have illustrated, designed and directed many book covers, ads, logos, commercials and campaigns. However, my deeper side is the life of a fine artist. I love to paint with the palette knife to keep my work loose, textured and bold. You will see that I paint all kinds of subjects. My deepest passion, however, is to use fine art to communicate matters of faith.

I firmly believe that art is a communion with the soul. Through my art, I strive to make known the beauty and wonder of life and faith. The pieces in this exhibit are inspired by things that have touched my life in a meaningful way. They range from plein air and impressionism to abstract and conceptual. My hope is to successfully communicate those inspirations so that you might be touched as well.”

Posted in Homily, meeting | Tagged bible, community, grace, hosanna, Jesus, palm-sunday | Leave a comment

Can these bones live?

Posted on Mar 23, 2026 by M Emlyn Humphries

Ezekiel 37:1-14 Psalm 130 Romans 8:6-11 John 11:1-45

Today, we are invited to reflect on the powerful words of the Lord in Ezekiel 37:1–14.

Yahweh asks Ezekiel in verse 3, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

And Ezekiel replies, “O Lord GOD, you know.”

Then the Lord commands him, “Prophesy to these bones…”

Ezekiel said: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

Yahweh said: “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.”

These words echo the creation story in Genesis 2:7, where God’s breathes into the nostrils of the man, and he becomes a living being. The message is unmistakable: the breath of God is always the very longing of our existence. It is what makes us alive. Even in death—when our bones are dry and lifeless—we still depend on His breath to live again.

Yet this breath, this life from God, is something we often try to satisfy with things that cannot give life at all.

We hear this longing again in Psalm 130:

The psalmist said: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning.”*

The psalmist reveals a truth about our humanity: our bodies and souls naturally long for God because we have wandered far from Him. We are vessels designed to carry His breath, and no matter how much we fill our lives with lifeless things, the longing remains.

Paul deepens this message in Romans 8:6–11:

Paul said:

To set the mind on the flesh is death.

To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Those who live only for the flesh cannot please God.

But those who belong to Christ have His Spirit dwelling within them.

And the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies.

Finally, in our gospel reading from John 11:1–45, Jesus makes a profound declaration to Martha with regards to Lazarus’ death. In verse 25 He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”. Jesus said to Martha, “Do you believe this?”

This is one of the most beautiful truthes Jesus continues to reveal to the world even today. In Him was life—and that life is the light of all mankind

After this declaration, we witness Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Before calling Lazarus out of the tomb, Jesus prays, “Father, I know that you always hear me, but I say this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”

The crowd responded in many different ways. Some believed. Others resisted. And some—even after seeing life restored—plotted against Jesus and Lazarus. But for those who believed, the resurrection of Lazarus became a living testimony of God’s life‑giving power.

From the creation of Adam, to Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, to the raising of Lazarus, to our Lord Jesus Christ resurrection and even into our future to come, one truth will always remains unchanged:

Our entire existence is sustained by the breath of God and Jesus is the only one that brought that life back to us again.

And to see it is true joy. To received it is fullness and freedom. Its true life and peace until eternity.

Posted in Homily, KYMC | Tagged bible, ezekiel, faith, god, Jesus | Leave a comment

Sleeper awake!

Posted on Mar 15, 2026 by M Emlyn Humphries

Audio Version

1 Samuel 16:1-13 Psalm 23 Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41

Scriptures

Sanctify yourself; wash yourself clean; put on your finest clothing, shave your body, separate yourself from material and spiritual trappings; get your body and mind ready for the feast.

Samuel sanctified Jesse and his family and, so he thought, all his sons. Shine!

But David the youngest son of Jesse was not there; the Lord had seen him out in the field tending the flocks and knew him to be a king. “The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

David, the one with beautiful eyes, ruddy from the fields and handsome is anointed and the spirit of the Lord falls on him from that day forward.

David would write in the psalm; He leads me in right paths for his name sake.

This is true of us too. We are sanctified; we shine; washed by the water of the word of God’s love, lead by the spirit. David would fall; he becomes a man with blood on his hands, kills his friend to steal his wife, a lamb who was not his.

Like David we fall; by whatever degree we depart from the right paths and deny the name of God. We miss the target.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long, sings David.

How can this be? God saw David’s heart as he sees ours.

Paul teaches us, we are the light and the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Paul writes; Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord!

We fall but, wake up; it’s the morning! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you! Our God is the saviour from the beginning. In him is forgiveness. The darkness is overcome in Christ. Jesus says, “ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Turn to him and be purified.

Yes, you may be laid low on your journey of growth in the faith.

Yes, you may find yourself on the wrong side of what is good, right and true; blinded by your foolish ways: because of your sin.

But can we humbly join with the blind man and speak to our own hearts and hear Jesus say over us, neither you nor your parents sinned; you were born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in you.

And this was true of the blind man who asked nothing. He just happened to be noticed by Jesus’ followers. The blind man was healed and then came to believe.

It’s not because of our birth or our inheritance that we have fallen, or that we are noticed. Are we brave enough to believe that in our falling and turning to Jesus to be purified, God’s work is revealed in us… a work in progress, a journey of glory into glory, of infancy into adulthood, saved by a compassionate God. Our mistakes form us as we pursue the heart of God but God sees us first.

Jesus forms us and draws us to himself, so that we might become like him, perfected in suffering, not because God intends that we suffer but God acts because we suffer. What is certain is from dust we were formed and to dust we will return. We were born and we die. Jesus takes the dust and spits on it forming what we need for our healing, a mess of mud, and we wash; we are sanctified. In our turning to Jesus from our striving, we can say, I was blind and now I see?

Jesus is Lord; he is the Son of Man, his is the light we become; the uncreated, begotten of the Father, bestows on the created the light that is life to become human as he is human: through our falling we grow into the image we have from the beginning.

Believe and worship him who says, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” Jesus speaks this to the Elders, the Scribes and the High Priests; to the religious authorities, through his healing on the Sabbath. The gatekeepers who claim Moses as their Father, miss the Messiah, the anointed one they claim through their religion to see. Indeed they have the scriptures and claim to see. Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

Pick yourself up, awake, humble yourself, become blind; the proud and the arrogant can’t see God. Humble yourself so that you might see. Do not let it be said you have rejected the light because of the light of your own righteousness.

And so children of light, beloved bearers of the image of God, shine forth your light, become like stars in the sky. Let’s share our ruddy complexion, beautiful eyes and winsome looks so that our Father in heaven might be glorified in us. People of God, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Grace and peace be with you.

Photo by Mitchell Orr on Unsplash

Posted in Homily, meeting | Tagged bible, christianity, church, faith, forgiveness, grace, healing, Jesus, love | Leave a comment

O that today you would listen to his voice

Posted on Mar 8, 2026 by M Emlyn Humphries

Exodus 17:1- 7 Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42

Audio Version

Jesus asks us to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds and strength, to love others as ourselves and to love our enemies. He asks us to not be anxious and to take up our crosses daily, losing ourselves in our calling to follow him. He asks us to take the lower place, to bare the other cheek to the slap of authority and to carry the burden of our oppressors; to give our cloak to the one who demands it, to lend to our enemies and those who would do us harm.

He speaks these words to the elders, chief priests and scribes, and, in the light of the resurrection, to the principalities and powers.

Without him all is the futility of our minds, alienation and darkness. We become ignorant, bitter and hard hearted, losing sensitivity, abandoning our true selves in God to licentiousness, greed and impure practices. This is not the way we have learned Christ Paul writes in Ephesians 4:20.

Jesus embodies truth, without which we become deluded by our lusts: we experience wrath.

And is that what we see in ourselves, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation- our own lusts are our times of trial; the sin from which we need deliverance; the mercy grace speaks to.

O that today you would listen to his voice, beloved bearers of God’s image. Surely God is angry at the evil and wickedness in the world. Could we believe in any other God; but where are we to draw the line; from the least to the greatest trespass, we need to know the God of forgiveness.

In the wilderness, the place of formation, the place of realisation of our need, the place Paul tells us that we learn endurance, character and hope, God’s love is poured into us.

O that today you would listen to his voice. The voice of the Spirit.

Moses hears many voices; quarrelling, complaining. In our lives we hear many voices,

What shall I do?

God’s promise to Moses was that he would go before him and stand on the rock at Horeb. God would stand before him on the rock and provide water for a parched and complaining people.

Moses strikes the stone with his staff, the staff that he had struck the Nile and it flowed like blood bringing death. This water would bring life, at Horeb, the mountain where YHWH revealed his name in the burning bush, LORD, YHWH, I AM, where God gave his word of Command and now Water.

Is the LORD among us or not!

Listen to his voice.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods…
O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

Jesus you are LORD; YHWH; I AM; our Lord, Lord of all who would be lords, King of all who would be kings, who would be gods.; we kneel to no other, we bow down to no earthly power, no government, no authority in church or state; honouring our leaders and doing good to all. For the Lord Jesus, our Lord has mercy on us; for Jesus is mercy; the oil poured out for our healing; our God, faithful to forgive and through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God, as Paul tells us.

Christ has freed us from sin,

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. …while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.

Reconciled to God, Paul gives us hope; we will be saved by the life of Jesus the Christ.

And what is the wrath from which we are saved? Psalm 7:14-16 tells us of those who turn from God,

See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.

Romans 1 tells us that God’s wrath is seen in the giving over by God to sin so that each receives in themselves the due penalty for their error, a choice made in the full knowledge of God’s righteous decree in the things he has made. Creation is held in a loose moral weave, it has been said, not Hindu karma, but a kingdom of mercy, grace and forgiveness that holds us all, which when withdrawn brings calamity and collateral damage.

Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker!

O that today you would listen to his voice

Jesus says,

believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; …But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…”

God is Spirit and God the Father seeks those who worship him in spirit and truth.

Listen to his voice. Receive him gladly, do not let it be said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.” Rest in the gift of Jesus; listen to the call.

Where the water is poured out at Horeb, Elijah heard the still small voice of God. As wrath and the consequences of wrath rage around us, as chance and time ravage us, be still and hear, seek solitude with your God, the privilege of the Samaritan woman, so that others might hear and say, this is truly the Saviour of the world.

He gives the water of life; Jesus says

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

Ever-flowing life! Beloved image bearers, everyone, Grace and Peace.

Photo by Michael Surazhsky on Unsplash

Posted in Homily, meeting | Tagged bible, christianity, church, faith, god, grace, hope, Jesus | Leave a comment

How can these things be?

Posted on Mar 1, 2026 by M Emlyn Humphries

Audio Version

Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17

Bible readings

How can these things be?

Nicodemus reacts to Jesus’ call to be born from above.

Paul knows God as the one who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that do not exist.

Jesus says that as his followers we enter into the company of those who are like the wind; you do not know where it comes from and where it goes. Our certainty is that being born of water and the spirit, we discern flesh as flesh and spirit as Spirit.

Do not be astonished Jesus says!

Nicodemus knows Jesus to be a Rabbi, a teacher, because he has seen the signs Jesus has done, signs he can only believe could be done by one sent by God.

How can these things be?

Very truly I tell you, says Jesus;

we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not believe our testimony.

You? We? Our? Jesus moves from the I of his purpose to the we of his person.

Moses demands the testimony of two or three witnesses. Jesus’ testimony is ratified of the Spirit; both speak; Jesus is the Son of Man, who ascends and descends from heaven; who is lifted up so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life; not by birth in the flesh but by water and Spirit; the waters of birth and the Spirit. This was the testimony of John the baptiser on seeing Jesus; behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world… he who baptises with the Holy Spirit…This is the Son of God.

How can these things be?

Jesus suffers, dies and rises from death, death on a cross; God the Father gives God the Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. We are all saved from slavery through Christ; freed; redeemed, to live a life in all its fullness; to receive of the abundance of God together with all the families of the Earth.

To believe is to love- not to adhere to a law; it is to love. Jesus is the beloved of the Father, in whom we believe; in Jesus, the Father is revealed to us by the Spirit.

Nicodemus believed the signs and he is to believe in the one who saves, the one who is ascended into heaven and seated at the Right Hand of the Father, in whom we are blessed; in whom we do not perish; in whom we receive overflowing life.

Everyone! Everyone, not only the heirs; we are brought into the blessing through our love; belief. We are grafted into the vine of blessing by Christ; not by our works but by his work on the cross; by the word to our hearts that we are Justified.

Paul says of us,

Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

The promise depends on faith.

How can these things be?

Faith: trust. And love: belief.

And who is this God in whom we are to trust and love?

Nicodemus calls Jesus Rabbi or Master; the psalm calls him LORD. But the one we read as LORD has a personal name YHWH: I am: a verb not a metaphor.

LORD, Master, Creator; each a metaphor bringing emotional triggers; LORD speaks of worldly power and rulers; Master of slavery and Creator of a recent controversies that deaden the mind. Translators have an agenda and a context.

There is power in the name.

The psalm praises the name of God; YHWH. YHWH is maker of heaven and earth, one who does not slumber but keeps us; is shade from the harsh sun, who keeps us from evil and keeps us in life. Jesus is LORD.

Jesus will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forever more; the one who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that do not exist.

Grace and peace.