Here’s my sermon from last sunday.

Matthew 22.34-end

A to Z maps are very useful when you are visiting a city you haven’t been to before. As long as the street names are in a big enough font then you can find your destination. Once you know where you’re going, then you can work out the best way to get there. Of course, it is also essential that you know where you are because if you don’t know where you are starting from you still won’t know which way to go. As the old joke goes: a man was lost so asked someone for directions. The reply came: Well, if I were you and wanting to get there I wouldn’t be starting from here. Of course, in these days of satellite navigation systems, we can work out our route somewhat more exactly. SatNavs are pretty good at getting you to your destination no matter where you start from, providing you enter the destination correctly and use your common sense. Unlike the amateur sailor who had to be rescued after his boat ran aground near Continue reading →

Here’s my sermon from last Sunday

Matthew 22.15-22

What is the most boring book you’re ever read?

At this point I asked for responses from the congregation – one person from the choir suggested ‘Silas Marner’ which fitted with what I was about to say! Continue reading →

Apologies for this being late – I completely forgot to post it at the beginning of the week. Never mind, better late than never!

Matthew 22.1-14

Jesus said: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.

A little girl was attending a wedding for the first time. Seeing the bride process in on the arm of her father she whispered to her mother, “Mummy, why is the bride dressed in white?” Her mother replied, “Because white is the colour of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life.” Her daughter thought about this for a moment, and then said, “So why is the groom wearing black!”

Continue reading →

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 →