Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached on 30th October 2016, at our evening All Souls service; the service in which we think of, and pray for, those who have died. The Gospel reading was John 14:1-6 , 27 .   Have you ever wondered what Heaven will be like? Whether it’s all ‘flowing white robes’, and sitting on clouds playing harps? Does that sound a bit boring to you? It does to me, to be honest. It’s one of the questions we sometimes ask each other; “What’s heaven for you?”. We recognise that what one person enjoys, another might not, and that each of us has their own idea of paradise. Is this home your idea of paradise?  Jesus was asked the question too – just before our Gospel reading this evening, Peter asked him where he was going, and we heard his reply tonight. Christ, the itinerant preacher, with no place to lay his head , replies, “ I’m going to my Father’s house – a mansion, with many rooms. ” For Christ, who had no home on earth, Heaven was a home, large enough to ...

This story was written for an all-age harvest service, and told on Sunday 9th October 2016. I enjoyed writing it, but it was tricky to ensure it appealed to (and had a message for) the adults and the very young children in the service.I hope I managed to get the balance right, and that you get something out of it too!   O NCE Upon A Time... many years ago; before you could order a takeaway from an app on your smartphone, before battery hens or McDonal d’s cows, back when all fruit and vegetables were organic, and all animals were free-range, back before potatoes were made into chips, before tomatoes were made into ketchup, or before meat was made into sausages, before even supermarkets were invented, there lived a small tribe of desert people. They lived – these desert people – in dusty desert tents, unsurprisingly, out in the hot, dry desert, near a great big mountain, as tall as the sky itself. Now, because supermarkets were not invented yet, this tribe of desert peopl...