Category: Sermons
What I said this Sunday – Easter 7
My sermon for this week.
Going on a journey abroad is a complicated and stressful business. It doesn’t matter how much you want to get to where you are going, sometimes sorting out the journey can seem more trouble than it’s worth. You might be going somewhere near enough to travel by train or ferry, but travel further afield and you need flights. Tickets need to be booked – and that is a task in itself. Nothing so simple as a flat rate for air tickets – prices go up and down from month to month and picking the right time to buy them when they are at their cheapest is an art. And then you have to make sure you’ve booked and paid for the essentials that some airlines now think are extras – like luggage. Continue reading
What I said last Sunday for our Patronal
Last Sunday we kept the feast of Saint John before the Latin Gate, which we keep as our Patronal Festival. It was only while writing this week’s sermon that I realised I had forgotten to post last week’s. Here it is, somewhat belatedly.
Most clergy are only too happy to have a church without a burial ground surrounding it. The problem is that the rules and regulations governing burial grounds are so complex. And the restrictions on what the Church of England will allow in terms of headstones, of what can be written on them, of what they may be made, and of what you may place on a grave, are very rigid. Get it wrong, and the Diocesan Registrar will come down upon you like a ton of bricks. Continue reading
What I said this Sunday – Easter 3
A ghost walked into a pub, went up to the bar and said to the landlord, “Can I have a brandy please?” “I’m sorry,” said the landlord, “we don’t serve spirits!”
I wonder if any of you have ever seen a ghost, or had a ghostly experience. Continue reading
Sermons for Holy Week – Good Friday Liturgy
The final sermon for Good Friday, preached at the Liturgy, was from Mother Anne-Marie. Good to see so many more people there this year!
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This is our God, the Servant King. If you have been with us during the two hours preceding this service you will have been listening to reflections on this hymn written by the contemporary hymn writer, Graham Kendrick. Continue reading
Sermons for Holy Week – Good Friday 5
Sermon number five, based on the chorus from The Servant King, was from me.
Reading – Mark 9.33; 2 Corinthians 14.5-11
Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. Continue reading
Sermons for Holy Week – Good Friday 3
Sermon number three was from me.
Reading – Galatians 6.17b; Colossians 1.15-20
I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. Continue reading
Sermons for Holy Week – Good Friday 1
On Good Friday we preached a series of sermons based on Graham Kendrick’s hymn The Servant King. I preached the first sermon.
In the name of the Living God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Reading – Philippians 2.1-8
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death –
even death on a cross. Continue reading
Sermons for Holy Week – Maundy Thursday
I preached on Maundy Thursday.
John 13.1-17, 31b-35
Jesus began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel. John 13.3-4
Maundy Thursday means one thing – time to look on the internet for feet jokes. And I’m afraid the best I could find was: Did you hear about the man who was born with two left feet? He went out and bought some flip flips. You really don’t want to hear some of the others. So I’ve had to resort to recycling last year’s feet joke which was somewhat better. A little boy put on his shoes himself for the first time. His mother noticed that he had put the right shoe on his left foot and his left shoe on the right foot. So she said to him, “Timmy, your shoes are on the wrong feet.” He looked up at her, rather puzzled, and said Continue reading
Sermons for Holy Week – Palm Sunday
Busy week, of course, being Holy Week, with services every day, so only just catching up with sermon posting. However, for those of you with a bit of stamina I’m about to post all our sermons from Holy Week. The first, from Palm Sunday, was preached by Mother Anne-Marie.
Mark 11.1-11; Mark 15.1-39
Jerusalem was a conquered city, a city under Roman occupation. Not unusual. Throughout the entire history of the known world, people have conquered other people, Kings have sought to rule the world and empires have come and gone. Jesus enters the Roman occupied city of Jerusalem to the triumphal waving of palms and the victorious cries of the crowd “Hosanna, blessed is the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David”. Is Jesus coming to reclaim Jerusalem – coming to conquer it back? The cries of the crowd would indicate that perhaps they thought so. “Hosanna” – the Hebrew “hosha’na” – God save us – that was what the crowd were shouting – hosha’na – God save us. Jesus was interested in conquering territory – in conquering a place as yet unconquered. He wasn’t there to win back Jerusalem but there to win for the first time a far more precious territory. A place as yet unconquered, the unconquered territory of the human heart. He was entering Jerusalem, but more interested in entering the heart of every person lining the road. Continue reading
What I said this Sunday – Passion Sunday
Here’s my sermon for this Sunday.
John 20.12-33
Why Greeks?
Now amongst those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
Why Greeks? Our gospel this morning began with these couple of sentences about some Greeks – it appears pretty unrelated to what follows – we never even find out if they did see Jesus and we certainly don’t know what happened if they did.
Why Greeks?
Well you kind of have to know what has happened before and whereabouts we are in John’s Gospel. In the previous chapter, Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, had died – you remember how the sisters send for Jesus but he apparently comes too late and Lazarus is not only dead, but buried. But Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb and he struggles out still bound in the cloths that wrapped him for burial.
It is a dramatic moment and it divides those who witness it. John’s gospel tells us that Continue reading
View from the Valley 