Isaiah 52.7-10, John 1.1-14 Sermon Christmas Eve 2019 The opening words of tonight’s gospel are from John the evangelist, our John, as I like to call him. They echo the very first words in the bible, ‘In the beginning…’ where a lyrical description of how God created the universe follows. The power of God’s word […]
Today, continuing in our season of Advent, as we prepare for Christ’s birth at Christmas, the spotlight is on two prophets – Isaiah and John the Baptist. It’s over 4 months since I last preached here and I felt a bit rusty as I was preparing for today! Most of you will have gathered that […]
11 August 2019 Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16, Luke 12.32-40 Ensam – the Swedish word for lonely, also meaning single; sometimes seen on noticeboards – Ensam? here is this club, network etc you can join. The picture on our screen today shows a lake a short walk from where our daughter Anna lives in southern Sweden. There […]
Snatches of a conversation overheard between 2 women in a home in 1st century Palestine: A How many did you say need feeding? B 12 definitely, but there seem to be more coming all the time. A Where’s Mary? She’s the quickest at making the flat bread. They’ll all be expecting at least a bit […]
Acts 1.1-11, Luke 24.44-end On Sunday Gary spoke about prayer being like a pause, that moment when everything is suddenly still, as if holding its breath. I want to suggest that the ascension is this sort of pause – a kind of still point between the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at […]
John 20.19-31 ‘The doors were locked for fear of the Jews’. ‘The doors were locked for fear…’ Our gospel narrative today comes from John the evangelist, one of our patron saints, and traditionally identified with the disciple described as the one whom Jesus loved. Two resurrection appearances are described here, and only in John. Firstly, […]
‘In the same night that he was betrayed’. I very often struggle to get out those words when they appear in one of our Eucharistic prayers. I find them deeply moving. In the same night that his partner left him, in the same night that he was made redundant, in the same night that his […]
Gen 15.1-12, 17-18, Luke 13.31-35 The sermon this week is in the series called 21st Century Anglicanism. So, just a reminder that for Anglicans, when we consider issues, whether what happened in New Zealand yesterday, or climate change or Brexit or education we look through three different lenses – scripture, reason and tradition. Other churches […]
Advent 3 – Zephaniah 3.14-20, Luke 3.7-18 This Sunday we have lit a candle for John the Baptist. Last Sunday when we were considering prophets in general we heard the first part of Luke’s description of John. He was a prophet who preached baptism for the forgiveness of sins. He was called to be in […]
40th Anniversary 28 October 2018 Genesis 28.11-18, Matthew 21.12-17 The 1970s were a challenging time for the church. It looked as though religion would play a smaller and smaller part in the lives of people. Church attendance was falling, but the C of E still had large churches to maintain. There had been much building […]