Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was given at our morning Zoom service on Sunday 29th November, the first Sunday of Advent 2020. It was given in the wake (watch for that word) of the 2020 US Presidential elections and also news of three vaccines to help fight the spread of Coronavirus, but also whilst the whole country was in its second lockdown of 2020, with the threat of re-strengthed tiers of restrictions for much of the country when lockdown ended, with tier 3 for Greater Manchester being very very similar to full lockdown itself. The gospel for this Sunday was Mark 13:24-37 . I think we’re all sick of it now; the waiting. You can tell when you talk to people; when you queue next to them in those queues outside shops that threaten to go on forever (the queues, not the shops), or when you see parents and children winding each other up in the park, or even when you talk to your own family and loved ones; people are getting fractious and snappy. I know I am. Maybe you’re of better temperament tha...

  This homily was given at our Remembrance Sunday service on 8th November 2020. Apart from being the first ever lock-down Remembrance Day, it was also the day after Joe Biden was eventually named as the President elect of the United States of America. The gospel was John 15:9-17 . I'm not going to preach for long today. Today's service has more than enough in it without a lengthy sermon from me too. And I think that's right, because some things are more important than words. Today is an auspicious day. There has never been a Remembrance Day like this before. In over one hundred years, the day has been about taking part in an act of public remembrance. That cannot happen today, for obvious reasons. Some people have even been unable to buy a poppy this year. No; today cannot be about a public show. Instead then, let us make it a private resolution. And I mean that word not in the sense we use it at New Year; an objective to be tried and given up as a failure within a few ...