It’s been quiet on the blog for a while as I’ve been taking my annual holiday. Back now, though, so here’s what I said this week.

Matthew 21.23-32

One of our daughters, when she was young, apparently had no fear of danger, and holidays were often a nightmare spent trying to keep her out of trouble. If there was a wall it was there to climbed on and walked on. If there was a cliff she was the one who would walk right up to the edge to look over. We seemed to spend so much of our time saying “Get down from there”, “Come away from there”.

“Why?” was the inevitable response.

“Because it’s not safe!”

“Yes it is” would come the reply. Continue reading →

Here’s my sermon for this week.

Romans 12.9-end; Matthew 16.21-end

If something goes wrong someone must be to blame. Never us, of course, always someone else. We live in a culture of blame – and as the advertising points out, where there’s blame there’s a claim. Anything goes wrong and we point the finger – and are even encouraged to try and make profit out of it.

An oil tanker runs aground. In the spill hundreds of sea birds die and untold marine life perishes. Inevitably the recriminations come – somebody must be to blame. Was the ship too old? The design outdated? Salvage equipment inadequate? Was profit the motive for operating an unseaworthy vessel? No-one ever says that we are all to blame because of our insatiable desire for fuel. We want fuel to drive our cars. And even if we don’t drive we buy produce from our supermarkets that has been flown from across the world when it could be sourced locally. And because of our insatiable desire for more and more fuel companies spend millions getting the stuff out of the ground – and when things go wrong it’s their fault, not ours. Continue reading →

Last Sunday was the Sunday following the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was on Monday 15th. We kept the Feast on the Sunday at St John’s and Mother Anne-Marie was preaching. Here is what she said.

Carlo Carretto, a monk and member of the order of the Little Brothers of Jesus, pinpoints his change in attitude to Mary, the mother of Jesus, to an incident which happened when he was living amongst the Tuareg in North Africa. Carlo often stayed with the same group of Tuareg nomads and on one of his visits he was told of the betrothal of a young girl in the camp to a young boy, but the chief told Carlo that she had not yet gone to live with the boy because he was too young. And Carlo said he immediately thought of the bit in Matthew’s gospel where it said the Virgin Mary was betrothed to Joseph but they had not yet come together. Two years later, Carlo tells of how he visited the same camp again and searching for a topic of conversation he asked the chief if the marriage had now taken place, but everyone looked embarrassed and there was an awkward silence Continue reading →

Coping with the storms of life. My sermon for this week on Matthew 14.22-33

Being caught in a storm at sea is no laughing matter. I speak from bitter experience. Twice I have been caught in storms at sea. And I’m not talking here about a bit of heavy swell and some wind and rain on the ferry over to France. I’m talking about real storms – the kind where you feel that life as you know it has come to an end. Continue reading →

Mother Anne-Marie preached this week on the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

Matthew 14.13-21.

It’s school holidays and time for outings. I am planning some days out this coming month with my grandchildren and weather permitting we will be packing a picnic or two. I vividly recollect a day I had at Eastbourne with my elder daughter, her partner and their three sons and little daughter. We took with us some of the cousins – two extra boys. Three adults and six children – the size of our family group attracted attention. Three or four times in the day, my daughter was asked if the children were all hers, and we got into the Redoubt museum at cut price Continue reading →

Having had three weeks off preaching for various readings, I was back in the pulpit again last Sunday.

Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52

What does it feel like to be able to buy absolutely anything you want, no matter the cost, and not to have to worry about whether you can afford it? Continue reading →

A bit behind this week with posting my sermon – completely forgot about it until this morning! Never mind, here it is.

Matthew 10.40-end

Jesus said, ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Hospitality means making your guests feel at home, even though you wish they were! I’ve no idea who said that, but we’ve all been there – we all know the feeling!

It’s not always easy to feel hospitable and welcoming to other people. When we were in Peckham we had regular callers at the vicarage. It so happened that we were on a regular route for three people of the road – two men and a woman. They never wanted money, just some lunch, and during the summer months they would turn up every few weeks, ask for some sandwiches, and then have a picnic on the vicarage lawn, before heading off again on their travels. They were always very friendly and appreciative. One day we arrived back from holiday mid-afternoon to find the three of them sitting on the vicarage lawn and we were greeted, as we got out of the car with the children, with, “So where have you been then?” Continue reading →

Trinity Sunday – the day preachers dread because you’re trying to explain the unexplainable. I’ve never understood why in the Western Church we find it so difficult to follow the example of the Eastern church who say “It’s a mystery” and don’t try to rationalise it.

Anyway – this year I decided, as a change from my normal practice of sticking to one of the set readings, to preach on that great hymn Saint Patrick’s Breatsplate.

For those of you who are not familiar with the hymn here it is read in full. I can’t find a version of the hymn sung in full.

Anywhere here’s my sermon: Continue reading →

Here’s my sermon from last Sunday – apologies for it being a little late this week. The reading from Acts is the account of the Ascension. As it was the Sunday after Ascension Day, and as we had a disappointingly small congregation in church for the Ascension Day service, I concentrated on Acts rather than the gospel reading.

Acts 1.6-14; John 17.1-11

It is the dream, surely, of every advertising executive to come up with an advertising slogan that so captures the public imagination that it enters the language. It then gets used in other contexts, but every time it’s used you recall the original product. In my previous church I preached one Christmas Day picking up on the famous slogan of the Canine Defence League: A dog is for life, not just for Christmas, and then going on to talk about how Jesus is for life, not just for Christmas.  After the service a young man came up to me, very excited, and said, “I loved your sermon!” He was so animated that I thought he was about to say something along the lines of, “It’s changed my life – I want to know Jesus better”, but instead he added, looking really pleased with himself, “My advertising company thought up that slogan!” Continue reading →