Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on 25th April. The Gospel was John 14:23-29. I hope you enjoy reading it!   Those of you who have been paying particular attention might have noticed that our Gospel readings for the last three weeks have all been centred around the events of the Last Supper. That seems a bit odd really, given we’re now six weeks post Easter. Didn’t we leave all this behind during Easter Week? Those of you who have been paying attention too, might find an element of repetition in what I say with Fi’s and Huw’s sermons from the last two weeks as well. But, sometimes, the best way to help someone understand something is through repetition. There’s a phrase often used in training and learning – tell ‘em, tell ‘em and tell ‘em again.   So, this morning, we’re getting told again!   But first, the context. As I said, we’re at the Last Supper, and Jesus has just told his disciples that he’s going away. He’s preparing them for...

  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 poem was written for our third poetry group meeting (for which I was on holiday!). The theme that we were given for our poem was 'walking'. I hope you enjoy reading it!   I Would Walk  I Would Walk 500 Miles. I'd Walk Upon The Water. I'd Walk On By crooked coins 'gainst crooked stiles. I'd Walk all the way Back To Georgia. I'll take a Walk On The Wild Side. I'll Walk This Way, all afternoon. I'll Walk Like An Egyptian, with a Pharaoh's pride. I'll go Walking On The Moon. I'll walk The Long And Winding Road. I'll go Walking By The River in the pampas grass. I'll go Walking To a New Orleans zip code. I'll be Walking On, Walking On Broken Glass. I would be ever Walking On Sunshine; I'll go Walking On The Sun. I'd Walk The Wire, I'll Walk The Line.  I'll walk until my Walk Of Life is done. I'd Walk On The Ocean's deepest floor; I will walk all along the midnight zone. I'd even Walk The Dinosaur, If...

This sermon was preached on Remembrance Sunday 2022. The Gospel was  Luke 21:5-19 . I hope you enjoy reading it. Our gospel this morning is a jarring one for Remembrance Sunday. Here we are this morning – joining thousands of people across our country – coming together to contemplate the horrors of war and recommitting ourselves to work for peace in our world, and – instead of a gospel message about the coming Kingdom of God, where there will be no more war, and no more pain, and no more tears, we get this : Wars and insurrections? These things must happen, says Christ. Nations will fight nations, and kingdoms will fight kingdoms. Earthquakes, and famines and plagues. All will be thrown down. I don’t know about you, but I was expecting something else; something about Heaven, and peace, and love. I wanted to hear the passage from Isaiah about beating ploughshares into swords, and spears into pruning hooks and nations not learning war anymore. But instead, Christ tells his disciples ...

This sermon was first preached at our Sunday morning service on 10th July, following a week of political turmoil in the UK, triggered by the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Health Secretary, which eventually led (a few days later) to the resignation of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. The Gospel was a particularly famous passage, known as The Good Samaritan, and can be found in Luke 10:25-37 . I hope you enjoy reading it. It’s a cliché, but it’s very, very true: a week is a long time in politics. I don’t normally preach two weeks running, but I think it’s fair to say that more has changed in the world of politics since I last stood in this pulpit seven days ago than in the whole time since I preached before that, which was as far back as Easter Sunday!   No-one would have ever predicted this time a week ago that our government would have imploded to the extent that it has. I think roughly 40 ministerial positions have changed...