Sermons And Gubbins

  This talk was written for our Maundy Thursday service on 28th March 2024. I hope you enjoy reading it. I always used to think today was called Maunday Thursday. I was never particularly sure what that meant – what a Maun Day was. I was fairly content with that; after all, the Church often has obscure names for feast days, high days, and holy days, and ember days. Why not a Maun day? Let’s face it – at this time of year, there’s enough confusion about how on earth anyone could name the events that we remember and commemorate tomorrow ‘Good’ to fill all your time during Lent and Easter to not even think about the name that we give to today. But today is not – as I’m sure you all know – Maunday Thursday. It is Maundy Thursday. And that – believe it or not – actually makes all the difference. The word ‘maundy’ comes from (as many things in the Church do) Latin. It’s from the word mandatum , meaning commandment . And that’s what today is all about – the new commandment. “ I give you ...

This sermon was preached at our Maundy Thursday service on 13th April 2017. The gospel reading was John 13:1-35 .   If there were one season of the year that marked us Christians out as ‘weird’, it would be Lent through to Easter. That difference between us and the rest of the UK was particularly hammered home this year back at the start of March, when SNP Member of Parliament Carol Monaghan attended a Commons select committee meeting after having attended a service to mark Ash Wednesday. She showed up in Westminster, still bearing the ashes on her forehead, and uproar went forth amongst politicians and the media , believing she was making a political statement about the place of faith in society. Perhaps, even more odd, though, than sporting an ashen cross is what we do here in this service this evening; the foot-washing, the stripping of the altar, even the name of this day is odd. What on earth is a Maundy Thursday when it’s at home? What does this whole thing mean ? B...