Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached at our Good Friday service, held on 14th April 2017. Why are we here today? If you were here yesterday evening, you’ll recall that I said that this season of Lent and Easter was one that particularly made us Christians stand out as weird . Today is no exception. When the rest of the country is out, enjoying their bank holiday, playing football, or making the most of the long weekend, here we are; over lunch-time, sat in a bare church, preparing ourselves for a dose of despair and, perhaps, grief. Why are we here, going through this act of death, year after year? Why are we putting ourselves through this again? Why aren’t we out there, enjoying our day off? Why are we here and not out there? Because it is real . We’re not going through a charade here, or acting out the parts. We’re not, even, attending an act of remembrance. We’re here because Christ’s death was real. It was not an act, or a misunderstanding. It was not a ploy. It was not a...

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...