Tagged: cross
Good Friday 3/6 – Light of the world by darkness slain
This year on Good Friday, the priest I live with, Mother Anne-Marie, preached a series of sermons interspersed with prayer and silence on the hymn ‘In Christ Alone’ – here is number three.
Light of the world by darkness slain Continue reading
Good Friday 2/6 – Scorned by the ones he came to save
This year on Good Friday, the priest I live with, Mother Anne-Marie, preached a series of sermons interspersed with prayer and silence on the hymn ‘In Christ Alone’ – here is number two.
Scorned by the ones he came to save Continue reading
Good Friday 1/6 – In Christ alone my hope is found
This year on Good Friday, the priest I live with, Mother Anne-Marie, preached a series of sermons interspersed with prayer and silence on the hymn ‘In Christ Alone’ – here is number one.
In Christ Alone my hope is found
What I said last Sunday – Palm Sunday
Here’s my sermon from Palm Sunday
Luke 19.28-40 and Luke 23.1-49
The Star Wars fans among you will no doubt have been as surprised as I was when we heard the news last October that there are to be three further instalments to the Star Wars movie Franchise. For those of you who don’t get quite as excited at the thought of further films to the most successful series of science-fiction films ever let me explain the story so far… Continue reading
What I said on Sunday – Transfiguration Sunday
Last Sunday was the Sunday Next before Lent, also known as Transfiguration Sunday as the gospel reading is the transfiguration of Jesus. Here’s what I said – apologies for it being a little late this week!
You know what it’s like! Some friends invite you round for a meal. And what do they do? They get out the photo album. Or if they’re technologically savvy they show you the photos on the TV screen. First it’s the holiday photos. And then it’s the photos of the children. And you struggle to pretend that you’re really interested – your eyes start to glaze over and you keep saying, “Yes, that’s really nice …” without meaning it. Well – this morning we’re going to have a look at a photo album. Continue reading
What the priest I live with said this Sunday – Christ the King
A little late posting this week’s sermon – I’m having a few days off and have only just been able to sort this out. I had a week of preaching as Mother Anne-Marie had the privilege. Here’s what she said. The cross in the picture is the cross that she mentions having brought in the sermon.
The Church is which I became a Christian was dominated by a wonderful cross depicting Christ as King. It was only many years later that I came to appreciate how much that image spoke to me and the part it played in my conversion.
I had originally gone to this church very reluctantly on an Easter Sunday, simply because my mother and aunt were staying with me for the holiday weekend and wanted to go to church – we are going back some thirty five years here. They chose this particular church because my auntie Trix had seen a photo of the vicar! A leaflet had come through the door advertising all the local churches and it included a photo of each minister – what a way to advertise. Anyway Auntie Trix had said “let’s go there, that vicar looks sexy!” 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 – 2nd Sunday of Lent
Here’s my sermon from this morning.
Mark 8.31-end
How much are you prepared to suffer for what you believe in? And I mean suffer voluntarily? How much unnecessary suffering would you willingly take on because you thought the end result was worth it?
Would you, for example, be prepared to suffer as much as the Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop has over the past few days?
Well, John Bishop has been raising money for Sport Relief. He was sponsored to travel from Paris to London. And he did it in five days. Why so long? It was how he did it that was the problem. Because he cycled, ran and rowed his way. He has cycled 185 miles, run three marathon distances and rowed across the channel. He has battled exhaustion, severe aches and pains, sickness, sleep derivation and was in severe pain for the final stint. He has had his legs strapped up, and had regular ice treatments and massages, and in the final stages was diagnosed with shin splints – an injury caused by severe stress on the tibia. And he kept going. And on Friday he finally hobbled up the Mall into Trafalgar Square and up the steps of the National Gallery to go through the finish archway, to the strains of the Liverpool anthem “You’ll never walk alone.” Continue reading
View from the Valley 