Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached at Evensong on Sunday 8th January 2017 - when we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany . Today, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem to worship the new-born Jesus. The magi follow the star Our readings this evening have not mentioned it explicitly – no, you’d have needed to be here this morning to hear the story of the arrival of the magi – but, we have heard references to it, in the verses from Isaiah – “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn”, and how the camel-train will “bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord”. You all, I am sure, know the story of the three kings, and don’t need me to retell it. My guess is that you’ve been hearing it for many years. For me, I’ve been a Christian for nearly 25 years now, and in that time, I’ve heard plenty of sermons about those three kings; about how we don’t know that they were kings, and nor ...

This sermon was given at the evening service on 11th December 2016, Advent III. It was born out of contemplation about the meaning of Advent, and personal thoughts about the world we find ourselves living in today. I wonder if you, like me, have not been feeling too festive yet so far this year? Perhaps it is just me. I know the busy-ness of my day-job has not helped – I’m used to things at work starting to wind down for Christmas some time near the end of November, as projects tie up their lose ends for the year, and people start to finally use their holiday hours that they’ve not had chance to take yet. Not so this year – things at work are still in full-swing, and there seems no wind-down in sight!  If I think about it, that’s actually pretty consistent with world-events this year too. The whole year has been a barrage of Very Important News bashing on our doors, hollering for our attention. Normally in the summer, we get a few weeks of respite – known as the Silly ...

There are so many carols I look forward to singing as we approach Christmas. In Advent, I love O Come, O Come Emmanuel , with its sense of longing and expectation, and during the Christmas period itself, I adore the poetry of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear , and the combination of music and lyrics of O Holy Night never fails to lift my mind toward heaven and the wonder of the incarnation. There’s one carol, though, that, if I never sung nor heard again, I would, much like its protagonist, not be shedding any tears. I hate, with a passion unbecoming to this season of goodwill, Away in a Manger . There. I’ve said it. I’m sorry if it’s your favourite carol. If it is, you might want to stop reading here so I don’t spoil it for you permanently. Close the internet window and write me off as a grumpy little man… A nativity scene, to give you a pause so you can close the page without reading the rest of the blog. Still with me? Great! Let me elaborate then! I do actually hav...